Missa de Angelis Memorial Acclamation
  • Hi! Does anyone have a setting of "Save Us Savior of the World.." or one of the other acclamations in English or Latin set to a melody taken from the Missa de Angelis? Thank you!
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    You wouldn't need to... the memorial acclamation, despite common practice, is a dialog, not a typical part of the ordinary (in the same way "and with your spirit" is technically part of the ordinary, but it is typically treated with the same music every time). As such, all that is really required would be to use the missal melody, or "mortem tuam" (the latin original).
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    Richard Clark's adaptation of Missa de Angelis ("Mass of the Angels") probably includes one; we've been using Memorial Acclamation B ("When we eat this bread..."), and the melody is based on portions of the Gloria.
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  • Chonak is correct that Richard Clark's "Mass of the Angels" includes a setting of "Save Us Savior of the World." At my parish, we are in the process of introducing this setting over a period of several weeks, and, like Chonak, are using Memorial Acclamation B.
  • fcbfcb
    Posts: 331
    the memorial acclamation, despite common practice, is a dialog, not a typical part of the ordinary.

    The Ite Missa Est is also a dialogue, but at EF Masses it is common for it to match the melody for the Kyrie.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    The Ite Missa Est is also a dialogue, but at EF Masses it is common for it to match the melody for the Kyrie.


    Not in the new form of the Mass, that was removed in the new books, if I see things correctly.
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  • fcbfcb
    Posts: 331
    Not in the new form of the Mass, that was removed in the new books, if I see things correctly.

    Are you suggesting that the melodies found in the Missal are somehow mandatory? Maybe I'm missing your point.
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  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    I think he's referring to the fact that the 1974 Graduale does not show the "Ite missa est/Deo gratias" melodies in their old places.

    The Ordo Cantus Missae gives two formulas: the very simple one below and also and the Easter season formula with alleluias.
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  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Are you suggesting that the melodies found in the Missal are somehow mandatory? Maybe I'm missing your point.

    I'm referring to the fact that none of the official music books of the ordinary form of the roman rite (including the missal) include alternative melodies for either the memorial acclamation or the ite. They are both treated as dialogs with singular normative melodies that may of course be replaced, but are typically not, in the same way no one would write their own melody for "and with your spirit" (or at least shouldn't, in my opinion, and the opinion of many others).

    Compare this to the kyrie, gloria, credo, sanctus, and angus, which all have various melodies in the official books. Therefore, I would group the ite and memorial acclamation alongside other dialogs, based on everything found in the official books.
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  • fcbfcb
    Posts: 331
    They are both treated as dialogs with singular normative melodies that may of course be replaced, but are typically not.


    Actually, the memorial acclamation is almost always replaced with a melody other than the one in the Missal. To speak of the melody in the Missal as the "singular normative melody" would imply that if one wants to sing the Gloria in English one must use the adaptation of Gloria XV because that is the only one found in the "official books." I'm not trying to be obtuse here, but it seems to me that you are trying to elevate a personal opinion to a norm where no norm in fact exists.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    And the standard chant books don't provide guidance: only one of the three memorial acclamations has been set at all in their Latin text.
  • Insight concerning the acclamations can be found in the document, Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship, published in 2007 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:
    (115) “… The Eucharistic acclamations include the Gospel Acclamation, the Sanctus, the Memorial Acclamation, and the Great Amen.”

    (178) “In order to make clear the ritual unity of the Eucharistic Prayer, it is recommended that there be a stylistic unity to the musical elements of the prayer, especially the Sanctus, the Memorial Acclamation, and the Great Amen. As much as possible, elements such as the preface dialogue and preface should be chanted at a pitch that best relates to the key and modality of the other sung elements of the Eucharistic Prayer.”

  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,499
    Interesting. I wonder what the thoughts are (if any have been written) on this in other parts of the world.
  • Josh
    Posts: 103
    For amusement's sake I set the Memorial Acclamation "Salvator mundi" to melodies of the Dumont Messe Royale, in case our choir sings it at an OF Mass...
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  • fcbfcb
    Posts: 331
    I wonder what the thoughts are (if any have been written) on this in other parts of the world.


    Anecdotally, in my experience it is typically said in Italy (except at the Vatican), and in France and Belgium sung to something other than the Missal tone--and also often to a text other than what is found in the Missal. But of course the plural of "anecdote" is not "data."
  • ...in the same way no one would write their own melody for "and with your spirit"

    No one? What about Paul Jernberg and his exceptional Mass of St. Philip Neri?
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    You could most certainly licitly use the old Ite Missa est melodies. I would if I could get our clergy to go for it. Think of all the banal settings of the Our Father you've sung over the years...or the fact that the wonderful Snow one in no way pays homage to the traditional melody.

    SC, PM me on here with your email and I'll give you the English-ed one we use based on Mass VIII Sanctus.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    and also often to a text other than what is found in the missal


    That doesn't make it right.

    You could most certainly licitly use the old Ite Missa est melodies.


    Of course you could. I'm simply saying that the ordinary form books and rubrics treats it as a dialog.
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,388
    I'm simply saying that the ordinary form books and rubrics treats it as a dialog.

    Ben, sorry, but you've ridden this horse long enough. Time to get off of it and give it a rest.

    There is absolutely nothing in the approved liturgical books that calls this element in the liturgy a "dialogue." Nothing. You may as well claim that the Gloria is a dialogue when the priest intones the first line, or that the preface and the Sanctus together form a dialogue, or that the priest's introduction to the Lord's Prayer together with the Lord's Prayer form a dialogue.

    More is required for a dialogue than the priest saying something, followed by the PIPs saying something. If the third memorial acclamation had this wording, then it would be a dialogue:
    Priest: Save us, Savior of the world,
    All: For by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.

    I do know for a fact that if you compose a setting of the ordinary of the Mass using the ICEL English text, in order to publish commercially that ICEL-copyrighted text, you must receive the OK of the BCDW. And the BCDW requires musical settings of all three approved forms of the memorial acclamation in settings of the ordinary of the Mass.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    And the BCDW requires musical settings of all three approved forms of the memorial acclamation in settings of the ordinary of the Mass.

    Is that true absolutely, or is it only true that if you set one, you must set all three?
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  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,955
    Well, the Amen at the collect is not a dialogue in the strict sense. I suppose the difference there is that only one "Amen" would ever be sung there... Anyways, it doesn't make sense, following the principles set down in Tra Le Sollecitudini (specifically number 12) that something that begins in chant would be followed by something that isn't chanted. Whether it is in English or Latin, it does not matter. The plainchant melodies (minus the fact we only have one of them set...) and the English adaptations work perfectly following the sung Mysterium fidei. Sure, it might not be described as a dialgue, but it's for the people to recite (that's how I understand the GIRM anyways). It's silly to require settings of the acclamations. One really ought to tell a parish, "Use ICEL." I don't think one can counter-argue by saying one should use the ICEL Ordinaries. The Ordinary has customarily been set to music for centuries, and in particular the ICEL Gloria based on Mass XV isn't very good, only very practical in a case where Latin is not able to be used.

    This also lends credence to the idea that this is not really about how to celebrate the Missal of Paul VI but really about the EF vs. the OF. The words Mysterium Fideiwere pulled from the words of institution and placed immediately following them. Now they stand alone, and they seem to invite some kind of response which is logically provided for with the three texts used. If they had been left in the full text for the consecration of the wine, then there'd be no problem, but it seems there is great opposition to the way it is done in the older Missale Romanum.

    I'll throw in a related problem, that of learning the melodies for the Amen after the Doxology. Chanting the Amen works best since this is one of the most frequently sung parts of the Mass, and it's really unnecessary for there to be more than one Amen.
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,388
    Is that true absolutely, or is it only true that if you set one, you must set all three?

    Adam, I don't know. Perhaps I misspoke earlier. I guess I assumed that all three texts of the memorial acclamation had to be included in all new settings of the ordinary of the Mass. Perhaps an alternative is available, namely, to include none of them.

    Does anyone know of an English setting of the ordinary of the Mass, published since 2010 and after receiving the requisite scrutiny of the BCDW, that does not include all three forms of the Memorial Acclamation?
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  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    Does anyone know of an English setting of the ordinary of the Mass, published since 2010 and after receiving the requisite scrutiny of the BCDW, that does not include all three forms of the Memorial Acclamation?


    I feel like there are some. But all of my music is in boxes, and I can't remember any specifically off the top of my head.

    So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't have any idea, and this post is totally useless. (You don't get to almost 5000 posts by having something to say all the time.)
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  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    (You don't get to almost 5000 posts by having something to say all the time.)

    I think "Adam Wood" might be "Alexander Peloquin".
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  • fcbfcb
    Posts: 331
    it doesn't make sense, following the principles set down in Tra Le Sollecitudini (specifically number 12) that something that begins in chant would be followed by something that isn't chanted.


    I'm trying to figure out how this is related to TLS 12. In any case, there are plenty of Glorias and Credos that begin in chant and continue in non-chant. Am I missing something here?
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  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,955
    I was specifically referring to chants proper to the ministers and the responses made to them, just as TLS 12 does. The Gloria and Credo are not proper to the ministers at the altar in either form of the Roman Rite, unlike the Ite, Missa est or in the new form, the acclamation Mysterium fidei. I think it'd be bizarre to respond with a choral response of some kind that is not in plainsong at the Ite (like has been done in the past at Vespers and continues today in the Anglican services) so why do we do precisely that in other parts of the Ordinary Form?

    Moreover, there is a 500+ year old tradition of polyphony in the Roman Rite which has been permitted and indeed encouraged (though not as much as chant) into our own times.