A Capella Evening Mass
  • midnkevin
    Posts: 1
    I am music director at a university parish, and we've instituted a 10pm Sunday Mass (for all the procrastinating college students). Last year, that particular Mass had no music other than the priest occasionally chanting part of the Eucharistic Prayer. Because of its popularity, my priest asked me to come up with some music that maintains the quiet, contemplative attitude, but serves the congregation in elevating the Word and focusing the mind and heart. My plan is to have a capella music with a single cantor. I have found excellent and approachable mass parts, but I am in need of some hymn suggestions. What hymns/psalms/antiphons/collections have you found to be useful or particularly effective for a capella singing? Bear in mind that the priest does not want Latin (exclusively) and does want the music to be approachable for the congregation. I'm particularly interested in good entrance/closing hymns. Thanks in advance!
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    I don't know if this is helpful, but you might investigate the "A cappella weekday Mass Responsorial Psalms"

    If you like those, there is "more where that came from"
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    Regarding hymns, I've had good luck with these:

    Let all mortal flesh keep silence
    There's a wideness in God's mercy
    Holy God, we praise thy name
    Hail, holy queen
    Jesus, my Lord, my God, my all
    O radiant light
    Alleluia, sing to Jesus

    Two that don't work as well (little tempo problems occur easily):
    O God, our help in ages past
    Now thank we all our God
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    For a capella singing I prefer to use plainchant hymns. As an idiom or genre, they were conceived for the unaccompanied human voice and are 'tailor made' for unison singing. And, of course, they are very Catholic. There are quite a number of them for most seasons and ocassions in The Hymnal 1940 and The English Hymnal. Some Catholic hymnals have a fair selection, but their translations are often artless and clumsy. Also, you can sing certain hymns of your choice to plainsong tunes if you match the metres. For unaccompanied, unison singing I do not like to use metrical tunes that were conceived of in four parts. Their melodies imply harmony and on the whole sound incomplete and unsatisfying without it. Nor do they, for unaccompanied unison singing, have the natural flow that plainchant tunes do. A valuable book of plainchant hymns in English is Sir Sidney Nicholson's A Plainsong Hymnbook, published under the aegis of Hymns Ancient & Modern in 1932. If you can ever find one you will be fortunate indeed. Unfortunately, it has no contemporary equal of which I am aware.

    And, there is The Parish Book of Chant or the Liber Cantualis, either of which would be nice to have in your pews; but you did say that most of your repertory needed to be in English.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    By the way, not to sound like a broken record, but many of the Chabanel Psalms are a cappella ---- For instance, those of Aristotle Esguerra, Bruce Ford, and Arlene Oost-Zinner come to mind, although these are just a few --- and many of the others can be done a cappella as well
  • David Sullivan
    Posts: 355
    midnkevin,

    Given your Mass time, you might take a look at some Vespers and Compline hymns. I wouldn't rule out the Latin/Roman tradition, but the Episcopal Hymnal of 1940 has a selection of evening hymns. "All praise to Thee, my God, this night" sung to the Tallis canon comes to mind.

    The seasonal Marian antiphons traditionally close Compline, and might be a nice way to close the late Mass. They're in the Parish Book of Chant.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    Tallis' Canon is a marvelous idea for a late evening mass. And, you could teach it to your students in canon - they would love it! (No. 165, The Hymnal 1940.)
  • mjballoumjballou
    Posts: 993
    One solution is to find a hymn tune, such as Jesu dulcis memoria, which is a charming LM tune, and use it all sorts of different words, especially good translations of the office hymns. It's relatively easy to sing and memorable. And darn it, there's comfort in familiarity. Quality familiarity, that is.
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