Thanks, Chris, I really appreciate your reply. I did come across your setting (http://www.canticanova.com/catalog/products/g_angelus.htm) in my search on this forum... it's just that I was looking specifically for one set to the Charpentier version. :-)

Just so this doesn't get lost, since I closed the editor before I managed to save the gabc. =(

Contact Fr. Phillips, pastor at Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio. They sing an English setting of the Angelus.

Cantica NOVA has my English-and-Latin Angelus.

It's a tricky business.

With no prejudice at all to Mme's. accurate observation, Palmer and Burgess (in The Plainchant Gradual) did a fine job of adapting the Gregorian melodies to Anglican English with but few judicious melodic alterations, very few. So has Bruce Ford done with his American Gradual and modern English. The most freedom taken with the historic melodies when adapting them to English has been at the hands of Catholic scholars, some of those who are well known and respected by all of us, whom I shant, out of genuine respect and esteem, name.

Actually (and I've made a few adaptations of my own) it is less difficult to preserve the Gregorian melodies than it is artfully and sensitively to fit the English to them. As Mme. observes, this is not easy because the stresses and vowels of Latin and English are, most of the time, quite different. Still, one has to appreciate the distinctive musicality of the English tongue. When doing this and searching it out, the process of adaptation is made much easier. Indeed, the most regrettable part of this process is that the 'wrong word' often will end up under the 'wrong neumes' of the chant. This calls upon the adapter and the chanters to sing with all their musical artistry the English rather than the Latin underlay. There is no question that, though beautiful and artful, the 'Englished' chant will sound with a different beauty and artistry than that of the Latin.

It may seem strange to some (and sometimes it seems strange to me!) that, whilst I would be the first to get his feathers ruffled to hear Don Giovanni in English, or any other opera, motet, or anthem in other than its native tongue, I yet tolerate and even champion singing Gregorian chant in English. This is an admitted paradox. I do it because, for one thing, it can be done with beauty and effectiveness, for another because it is as beautiful as Latin when as well done as Latin (never mind the tiresome cant of the irksome 'Latin only' crowd), and for another because I prefer (very strongly) that all the ritual parts of the mass (including the lectionary!) be in the same language, whether it be Latin, English, Urdu, Hebrew, Mandarin, or Swahili. Thusly, one has an aesthetic whole, a literary continuum. Ornaments to the ritual, such as anthems and motets, may be in Latin or any other language. I believe strongly that thus is the liturgy through its literary handmaiden celebrated by all with the greatest integrity and force - and, I recognise readily that these are principles that most of my colleagues on this our forum likely do not share.
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At Walsingham last Friday we had the requiem of Fr James Talmadge Moore, Walsingham's original pastor. Archbishop Fiorenza and Cardinal di Nardo were both in choir, and Bishop Lopes celebrated. All the ordinary and the propers (including Dies irae) were in Latin, whilst everything else was in our Anglican English. I, as an instituted and vested lector (all three readings were sung) was sitting right behind His Emminence in choir and was deeply moved that he seemed deeply moved and sang along with the cathedral choir on all the propers, including the sequence, which he seemed to know be heart. I have no doubt that the Latin was chosen according to Fr Moore's wish (we were close friends for decades), but I was, whilst appreciating its beauty, disappointed that it wasn't in 'our' tongue, that the ritual of the mass was made into a linguistic pastiche.

Dear Mme. -

Start with listening to English English renaissance (Tudor and Stuart) polyphony - Byrd, Tallis, Tomkins, Gibbons, Weelkes etc. Look them up on youtube. As you may know there is absolutely nothing that you wish to hear that isn't on youtube. Follow these up with Purcell's numerous verse anthems, and Handel (esp. the Chandos anthems). In modern times Howells (in my opinion) is the most sensitive setter of text to music, though there are very fine examples by Britten and RVW. Further, immerse yourself to a degree in Anglican chant, readily available on youtube - just google King's college, St Paul's Cathedral, English cathedrals, etc. English is an excruciatingly artful and sensitive tongue. You are so right about some of the 'trade' aspects (these are embarrassing not only to English, but Latin and Greek - there is, unfortunately, 'street language' in every language! - as well). But! Don't forget about the English of Shakespeare, Spencer, Chaucer, Pope, Milton, Hopkins, Vaughan, Eliot, and on and on. Certain types seem to take an ignorant and, frankly, childish pleasure in discounting the literary beauty of which English is capable and of the excruciatingly wondrous music to which it has been set.

By the way, Palmer-Burgess' The Plainchant Gradual was the work of two Anglicans, both chant scholars. The orginal publication by the Anglican Benedictine sisters at Wantage, is now available (thanks to them) as a reprint from the CMAA. Avail yourself of a copy and try it out - in 'trying it out' use all your musical instincts artfully and gracefully to sing the English with all its distinctive musicality. English has different vowels than Latin. We all know that. They are different, though, not non existent! Learn how musically to form them make them beautiful.