Acceptance or Anathema: Santa Clara Mass
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Spoiler alert: If you're pre-disposed towards dismissal of all sorts of liturgical gebrauchsmusick and regard the so-called "sacropop" genre as a vast wasteland, READ NO FURTHER, PLEASE.

    Some or perhaps many of us must deal with the maintenance of some measure of the contemporary (please don't digress on that term) ensemble modality of musical leadership in our churches. Some of us may yet and still defend the theoretical premise that this genre ought to have a place at the table in our traditions. To that end...
    We all individually/collectively adjusted to the textual demands of the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal in 2010. The Big Gun publishers assured us their lineups of new Mass settings would all find homes in the hearts of the eager faithful, and reassured us that staples such as the Haugen MoC would be retrofitted elegantly. In my estimation, with few exceptions, they were hoping simply for a monetary win, place or show outcome financially. C'est la vie, tra la.
    I remember a phone conversation with a colleague unable to post here inwhich he surmised that this first round of contestants for the much-needed crown of American Default Mass (in his estimation that was clearly the MoC, and tho' I never programmed it for Sundays/Holydays, I concurred with that over such others as the Proulx Community or Alstott Heritage.) At the time I offered that despite its very "Hillsongs" groove that the strongest contender for us out here was Ed Bolduc's St. Ann Mass (WLP) which enjoyed a pretty good three year exposure and run among our mega parish churches.
    But I am now proposing that a more ubiquitous option to the MoC might just be found in Bob Hurd's SANTA CLARA MASS (OCP). I'm not providing a link to the OCP "preview" recording 'cause I don't roll that way. I'm old school, it has to have a life and potential off the page for me, and then prove itself in rehearsal, with the "people" in the choirs/ensembles and then the congregations. The Santa Clara, like MoC, sallies between modality and tonality with ease, relies considerably more upon triple meters (which is an auto-turnoff for so many before they even flesh it out) and is tight as a drum with the constituent elements for FCAP such as melodic motifs (hooks), tessitura and decent, basic and good keyboard/choral arrangements (SAB) and, for intuitive organists, enough "there" there to use with a more traditional choral approach if needed. It's a peoples' Mass that can be acquired for one time, conglomerate use, or (I believe) sustainable over time in years.
    That's all I have. for a few dollars, should you be in a similar situation of need as I work, I'd check it out.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Charles,

    Is the goal to find an alternative to Haugen's Mass of Creation, or to advertise a newly composed setting which -- if I understand you -- has not yet been sung at a Mass, anywhere?

    I found it disturbing, several years ago, when the USCCB decided to put together a group of musicians and editors to compile a national repertoire. The idea of a national repertoire is revolting only if it is a substitute for a Catholic (i.e., more universal than national) repertoire; however, the people who were assigned the task of renewing the music and organizing the national repertoire were the very people who had presided over the decline and fall in the first place. Many people yawned through it, since (as some around here have already said in other contexts) people like what they like.

    So, I ask you: what chance does something not from one of the "big three" publishers have of becoming a "national" Mass?

    Continuing in the same vein, and for the same purpose, since the Vatican has called for the use of Latin in multi-national gatherings, and since many parishes clearly seem to suffer under the yoke of multi-national status, would you support the promotion of one or several settings in Latin, even if composed in the same style as the Mass settings you mention?
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    It's Chris, right? California?
    My intent was to offer to those who still must traffic in eclectic situations a fresher alternative (IMO) to the rather pedestrian efforts that emerged back in 2010 for the Ordidary only. I'm only commenting upon its efficacy by comparison to the presumed status of MoC prior to MR3 as the clearly stated "American default, go-to setting."
    Your report of an actual USCCB convention of composers is absolute news to me, and I keep up with these sorts of things. As far as know, when the USCCB last glanced at these issues in a plenum, the bishops only were concerned with the dogmatic content and idiom of texts in option fours being orthodox. Abp. Vigneron couldn't even manage to finish a proposal to include a mandate to reconsider the issue of the role of propers. The plenum then relegated the task to the Sees of Portland and Chicago. That's when, I believed, everything died regarding a so-called national white list.
    I never heard of a panel that is comprised by the so-called composer's forum whose members are the Big Three Usual Subjects. I read something about them over at Rory Cooney's website about their annual soiree this year. But these folks aren't really the shot-callers for a national repertoire, they don't even carry the heavy water for the publishers, that would be their editorial boards. And besides, with the former clout of the remaining Snowbird signers, the ascendency of the Bartletts, Rices, Allens and Ostrowski's, no USCCB panel would be convened without proteges of CMAA/Mahrt signed on, I believe.
    To your question, why not? Only time will tell if the distribution modems shift away from Brick and Mortar houses to widespread acknowledgement of a work first debuted on Vimeo from someone in the hinterlands. It's done everyday in the popular and other secular music worlds, why not with Catholic music? Now I'll dovetail that with the notion that I THINK a broad appeal, perhaps a new hybrid form of a Latin Mass setting couched in some yet-to-be-conceived fashion (I use that word on purpose, mindful that it can be a positive goal and not just bending to trending as HHF said last week) by a gifted composer could serve both as a stand alone universal, multi-national default, and also a gateway to its predecessor heritages. Caveat: it cannot be a Taize/Berthier redux. It will have to have the CMAA/1903 criteria recognized by all (NPM/CMAA/Adoremus even!) of "sacred, universal and beautiful" as well as mindful of all aspects of FCAP.
    Such are my thoughts. BTW, Chris, I'm sure the Santa Clara was test driven thoroughly by Hurd at Santa Clara U.,, where he ministers. And we've been using it for about two months. Bob mentioned it to me in an email while discussing his revised Eucharistic Acclamations.
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