Misa de San Vicente - new Spanish Mass setting
  • btodorovich87
    Posts: 101
    BACKGROUND: I am director of sacred music at a predominantly Hispanic parish - my duties are primarily concerned with Masses in English, but I provide occasional assistance and guidance to 3 volunteer-led Spanish-language coros. My pastor rightfully wants to lead the people toward singing the correct text of the Ordinary each week. Because there are so few published resources of decent quality, he came up with some ideas for a musical setting of the Gloria a Dios, which I adapted into a full setting. Since then I've come up with items for the rest of the Ordinary based on his original ideas.

    I post a "final" draft here for your consideration and critique. Let me be clear - in no way was I attempting to compose pieces of true sacred music, and I understand this is very simplistic music. Our goal in composing was to provide something easily learned by a congregation and perform-able by a typical parish coro without professional leadership. Feel free to offer suggestions! I also have very little experience with publishing and copyright - any tips would be appreciated!
    Misa de San Vicente.pdf
    549K
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Brad,

    Just a few quick thoughts.

    1) In many chant Ordinaries, the last Kyrie is intentionally different, so as to give an auditory cue that the music is coming to an end. In the OF, where there aren't usually 9-fold Kyrie(s?) that idea is disrupted, but might you consider incorporating a 9-fold Kyrie (and thus leaving the 9th iteration to be distinctively different)?

    2) Is it the guitar music, Hispanic culture or something in the nature of the Mass which allows (encourages, requires, demands) so much syncopation in the Gloria? I don't think syncopation is an evil, but the sheer quantity of it here seems neither subtle nor musical.
  • btodorovich87
    Posts: 101
    Thank you for replying, Chris! A 9-fold Kyrie would throw my peeps off... ABA form was my intention. Syncopation isn't really my cup of tea either, but it's the style that they are used to at Spanish Masses, and the choir has actually taken to the Gloria rather quickly. I think excessive syncopations look odd to our trained eyes, but to untrained ears such as theirs they come pretty naturally.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Brad,

    As a "compromise" solution, could you do as Jubilate Deo does, and have the last Kyrie written out separately? The implication of "call and response" Kyries is alarming, even admitting that people are very comfortable with this form now, 50 or so years into the crisis.
    Thanked by 1Casavant Organist
  • btodorovich87
    Posts: 101
    Would anyone else with experience working with Hispanic ministry be willing to look this over for me?
  • TCJ
    Posts: 986
    While I have found that Spanish speakers tend to pick up on heavy syncopation more quickly than English-speakers, I don't believe that it means we are limited to it. Due to the nature of the language, syncopation seems a little more natural, but there are many, many hymns that avoid it, such as Bendito, Bendito and Cantemos al Amor.

    I have composed a partial setting of the Mass in Spanish which uses very little syncopation. The only major difficulty anyone had was with the higher pitch (which I recently lowered). The timing was the easy part.

    Personally, I associate heavy syncopation with Latin dances and find it rather off-putting for sacred music. However, I do understand where you are coming from because that is the current state of Spanish music in the United States.
    Thanked by 1noel jones, aago
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,325
    I have been playing for Spanish Masses for 6+ years, and what you have written seems fine. If your only goal is to write something in the "Flor y Canto" style that utilizes the correct text, then I think you have succeeded.

    I assume you have used the Misa Melodica from Flor y Canto, which is mostly serviceable. There are also some nice settings (largely from Spain, if I remember correctly) in the St. Michael Hymnal.
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