At my new job, I have to sing and play one Saturday Vigil Mass in Spanish. For now, the parish is using Misal del Día (OCP), and the Spanish community is small. Besides keeping the four-hymn sandwich and metrical settings of the Ordinary used by my predecessors, I would like to slowly incorporate the following:
- the singing of the entrance, offertory, and communion antiphons every Sunday - at least one hymn that does not sound like Latin American folk music every Sunday - settings of the Ordinary in chant style - metrical settings of the Ordinary but not in folk style
I don't know what KAthy was going to say, but.... Yes. It also has a lot of terrible stuff. But it has some of the things you are looking for.
And the thing we really need is Simple Spanish Propers or a Spanish edition of the Lumen Christi Simple Gradual. But that does not exist because Bartlett does not have the resources of GIA or OCP. That sort of thing is a monumental effort for a single person or small publisher, but either of the major publishers could just decide to do it and it could be in the catalog for the 2021 buying season.
The people behind Ignatius Pew Missal are producing some very simple Spanish propers. I've attached an example.
Also, GIA's Oramos Cantando has a lot of good things which would be an asset to a program like yours, in my opinion, including Spanish Lectionary psalms with verses set to Guimont tones. It's far from a perfect book, but it's worth having at your disposal.
41 - Entrance Antiphon Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.pdf
I’ve dabbled in the past and would be interested in doing so again. Is there an established or at least preferred Spanish translation of the psalms and canticles for the US?
I second the use of the Spanish propers by janetgorbitz. I use currently use them for Advent and Lent. But I will use more of them as the tradition grows.
NONE of the Spanish hymnals are perfect, not even very, very old ones. You should get several and use the best repertoire you can find from them. There are some very common settings of traditional chants with Spanish texts found in Cantos del pueblo de Dios, such as Canta lengua jubilosa, Bendigamos al Señor, Escuchanos, Señor, Ante Tí me postro, and Madre llena de aflicción (the refrain). For other hymns, much of the "folk" sentiment can be subdued with the proper implementation of accompaniment, reverent vocal intonation, and perhaps judicious simplification of certain rhythms, and for goodness' sake, no clapping.
In my case, at the 12pm Spanish Mass, we sing all Gregorian Mass parts during Advent and Lent, though not from a single setting. The rest of the year I try to use the least distracting Mass parts I can. For the Gloria I prefer the setting by Francisco Palazón from Flor y canto, volume one (#601). Yes, it has a refrain, but the verses are basically psalm tones. We sing the refrain once at the beginning, again after verse 2, and once more after verse 4, then Amen. It's not great, but the alternatives are worse. The Kyrie and Agnus Dei are by Tomás Aragüéz, from Flor y canto, vol. two (#101 and 157). Our Sanctus and Memorial Acclamation are by Alejandro Mejía (Fyc, vol. 2, #91 and 92). The Amen is recto tono. Alleluia is chant in Mode VI. The Our Father is the setting in the new Misal Romano based on the traditional Pater noster chant.
And I am looking for a decent Mass setting in Spanish. Everything I am finding is set to a mariachi beat, and it just feels condescending. Does anyone have a better suggestions for me than what is in Music Issue (OCP)?
Try the Misa al Sagrado Corazon de Jesus by Carlos Zapien. He used to sell copies of the setting from his website, but now it says GIA will be publishing them, but they have not yet put them on their site. I'd recommend purchasing some copies when it becomes available. My own choir likes singing it (and we switched over to it from guitar, rhythm-driven stuff).
I have access to another partial Spanish Mass setting (Sanctus, Agnus Dei), too. PM me if you're interested.
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