More Mass Setting Reviews - OCP
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    The second in a series that started with reviews of GIA’s new Mass settings.
    Some hits and misses here, but OCP’s line up seems a bit better than GIA’s.

    Reviews of OCP's musical Settings for the New English Missal

    Highlights:


    Belmont Mass - Christopher Walker

    The Gloria (or "Glory to God," as it is labeled) is fine piece of work. Straightforward, chant-inspired, a bit contemporary. The organ seems a bit like overkill, but that could certainly be a matter of taste. The Sanctus ("Holy") is very nice as well. The Agnus Dei ("Lamb of God") is a bit long and boring, even in the context of a mass described as "Style: Chant." I did not care for the Our Father at all- it seemed oddly sentimental, and reminded me a bit of the type of choral music in early Disney films (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty). That might just have been the harp.


    Overall, this seems like a very nice setting for a parish that likes organ music already, and is trying to move towards a chanted mass but is a bit skiddish about unaccompanied music or has some hostility toward "Chant." It would also be worthwhile for a parish or small cathedral that wants to sound "High Church," but simply doesn't have the time/talent to do a full (SATB) choral setting of the Ordinary.


    Excellent work, Mr. Walker.





    Mass of Renewal - Curtis Stephan

    This Mass is well written, but I'm a bit conflicted about the style. It's a big soft-rock ballad, the kind you write when you have a choir of notable celebrities singing about ending the war or believing in yourself. I'm just not sure that's the rigth atmosphere for the Mass. Beyond that, I simply can't imagine how anything like an average church can pull this off. Even if you have a full praiseband (hmmm), the scale of the instrumentation and the productino values on the recording basically dooms you to "this doesn't sound as good as I remember it."


    If you like this sort of thing (and I have to admit that I do), buy the CD and keep it in your car. But don't inflict it on Sunday worshippers.





    Mass of St. Francis Cabrini - Kevin Keil

    I just don't get this Mass setting. It seems designed to be as boring as stodgy as "folkies" think Chant is, but without being anything like Chant. The organ drones away (not literally) on square-metered minor chords while a choir of what sounds like sad Episcopalians uses their "legitimate voices" to screach out the oh-so-predictable SATB harmonization. I'm not sure who this is written for: the chant and polyphony crowd surely won't find it solemn enough, and it pretty much exemplifies why the contemporary-music crowd hates the organ. Maybe you can find an Anglican-Use parish that really hates happiness.





    Summary:

    Seriously some hits and misses here, but overall it seems that OCP has a better handle on getting quality Mass settings published than GIA does. I find the incessant pseudo-High-Church style to be a funny trend (epseically when you listen to several settings in a row), but one that may eventually lead toward bridging the gap between the liturgical music traditionalists and progressives. I will continue to say, though, that I don't think any of these settings are a good choice for the First Sunday of Advent, 2011. The ICEL chants, unaccompanied, are your best bet, regardless of your parish resources, preferences, or demographics.




    Read the rest of the reviews here to learn how I really feel about the Paulist Fathers, which Mass setting sounds the most like Vacation Bible School, and why a Mass with the same name source as Gregorian chant represents the best hope for musical reconciliation.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    Thanks for the good observations, Adam!

    Here are some links to audio samples:

    Walker: Belmont Mass: the MP3s here are too highly compressed and the audio suffers as a result. It's too bad, since this is much better than the deedle-dee-dee stuff Walker is known for. For some of these works, the bad audio can't hurt them.

    Stephan - Renewal Mass Very dated.

    Keil: Mass of St. Francis Cabrini I like this better than Adam did, and I don't mind the idea of combining the English and Latin macaronically as this composer's Agnus Dei does, though after a recent discussion on another thread, I fear it may not be quite lawful. @Adam: AU congregations won't need to use the new English Mass anyway.

    Adam reviewed these other works too in the full version of the piece:

    Schutte - Mass of Christ the Savior Organ and piano? No thanks. And is the Memorial Acclamation so important that it needs to be sung twice, taking up a whole minute? It's longer than the Consecration.

    Soper: Mass of New Life

    Manalo: Mass of Spirit and Grace Cloying.

    Mayernik: Mass of St. Gregory the Great

    Fisher: Mass of St. John: The "Glory to God" and close-harmony "Holy" remind me of light pop songs by the 1970s Christian band The 2nd chapter of Acts.

    Walker - Mass of St. Paul the Apostle The "Glory to God" could be the theme song from a Japanese cartoon show. The OCP blurb says it has energetic melodies, but really only the rhythms are energetic: the melodies not so much.

    De Bruyn: Mass of the Resurrection Adam's got it pegged: this is an overdone attempt to impress.

    López & López: Misa Santa Cecilia Everybody dance! :-) Play this in the parish gift shop, but nowhere else.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Thanks chonak!

    The fact that AU parishes don't need new Mass settings only diminishes my joke a little.
  • The Mass of Renewal sounds like something you'd hear on AirOne--as you pointed out, Adam, great for listening in the car, not so great for Mass.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    Ha! Good thing he didn't read my comments.

    By the way, in the cases where I didn't add any observations, that's just 'cause I agreed with Adam's take (favorable or not so much).
  • Bob Hurd and Ken Canedo really made a mess of their revision of "Mass of Glory" sounds like something out of a jazzy Broadway show.

    http://www.ocp.org/newmasssettings/revisedsettings/massofglory

    There is a lot of finger-snapping. It is not sacred, not in the least.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    Is there a Bob Fosse "liturgical dance" to go with it?
  • Maybe they could merge that setting with the song "Fever." That was the first thing that came to my mind when I heard it.
  • Heath
    Posts: 966
    Anyone else having trouble with the PDF previews? I can't get a single one to download . . .
  • francis
    Posts: 10,822
    (concerning Mass of Glory)

    omhs... (that means O My Heavenly Stars, people!) [But you can apply other substitutions to the HS when you deem it appropriate] wihn... (that means Why in Heavens Name, people!) But you can apply other substitutions to the HN when you deem it appropriate] do we think we need to perpetuate this kind of stuff?! I now no longer blame the composers of this stuff... they are partly lured by fame and fortune... I totally blame the enablers... the bishops and the publishers.

    Here is a chance for a fresh start to coming back to sacred music, and this is what we do with it? Shame, shame, shame.

    Heath: I can't get them to load, but perhaps that's a good thing.
  • SkirpRSkirpR
    Posts: 854
    Bob Hurd and Ken Canedo really made a mess of their revision of "Mass of Glory" sounds like something out of a jazzy Broadway show.

    http://www.ocp.org/newmasssettings/revisedsettings/massofglory

    There is a lot of finger-snapping. It is not sacred, not in the least.


    I'll just point out that you probably don't really mean "they made a mess of their revision" because the current version is very much the same!
  • You're right, Skip. It's just a bad deal old or "new".
  • Erik P
    Posts: 152
    .
  • Bobby Bolin
    Posts: 419
    Mass of Creation, Mass of the Resurrection, Mass of St. Paul, Heritage Mass, Mass of Glory... there might have been more but they were so worthless I didn't even write them down.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Okay... most of the other settings are just the status quo... but this setting is just weird:

    http://www.ocp.org/newmasssettings/newsettings/missamagis

    Missa Magis is unlike any setting I've ever quite heard... it just gives me the creeps.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    I'm going to bed and I'm terrified of what sort of cartoon characters I'll see in my dreams dancing around to the Gloria from Missa Magis.
  • Francesca
    Posts: 51
    Why not just go to Corpus Christi Watershed site and download some really nice settings of the New Missal translation for free? No schlock there...
  • Erik P
    Posts: 152
    .
  • Mike R
    Posts: 106
    Yes, I've gotten the impression from looking at all the new settings from the various publishers that OCP has found its niche in the least common denominator approach: they focus on their own particular style that no one really likes, but is tolerable to the majority.
  • TCJ
    Posts: 986
    I'd like to hear some of the settings with nothing but organ. For instance, what would the Mass of the Resurrection sound like without all the added brass? I think most parishes will just have the organ, so it would be nice to hear some more "simple" clips.
  • BachLover2BachLover2
    Posts: 330
    this ocp stuff = vast wasteland
    Thanked by 1dennis5741
  • francis
    Posts: 10,822
    Similar to the videos of the recent Sunamis. Have you seen them?
  • mlabelle
    Posts: 46
    New (or yet unreviewed, in this thread) settings up on the OCP website: Mass of the New Covenant by Gael Berberick and Barney Walker and Mass of the Sacred Heart by Timothy R. Smith.

    First thoughts: New Covenant sounds like Mass of Creation II.
  • Chris AllenChris Allen
    Posts: 150
    The New Covenant Gloria sounds like a bad Ennio Morricone "spaghetti Western" clone--I half expected a cameo by Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name.
    Sacred Heart: Off-Broadway musical.
    And both settings continue the "tradition" of turning the Great Amen into a production number.
  • mlabelle
    Posts: 46
    "Sacred Heart: Off-Broadway musical."

    Funny you say that. The beginning of the Gloria sounded to me like it was being sung by Tony from West Side Story.
  • mlabelle
    Posts: 46
    For the record, the "Mass of St. Gregory" Sanctus had me at the first four notes. What a beautiful accompaniment.

    Also, that Mass of Life really had a promising Gloria. But by the end of the Sanctus, I got tired of the flat-6-in-a-major-key thing.
  • "López & López: Misa Santa Cecilia Everybody dance! :-) Play this in the parish gift shop, but nowhere else." - Well, after I stopped laughing and rolling on the floor, my thoughts were, "welcome to Cancun or Puerta Villarta - step up and get your free nachos and margaritas." All aboard now for FANTASY ISLAND! The plane, the plane!
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    Concur with mlabelle - the St Gregory Mass has some really nice moments, particular the Sanctus and Agnus, but the Agnus is too complicated. Alternating between triplets and duplets is difficult for my choir, much less for the people in the pews. Still, it has moments of beauty, and I would use it as a second choice after the chant.
  • Bobby Bolin
    Posts: 419
    This was added a couple weeks ago: Mass of Christ the Redeemer by Bernard Kirkpatrick. This is one of my favorite of all the new settings.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Thanks for mentioning this, Bobby, I hadn't noticed it. And, as a sign at my wife's church says, Don't take anything personally! in what I am about to write.


    The Priest is to intone the Gloria. (GRIM?)

    There are to be no repetitions of text. (STTL?)

    Here the cantor sings Gloria in Excelsis Deo, Gloria in Excelsis Deo.

    Choir/congregation sings Gloria in Excelsis Deo, Gloria in Excelsis Deo,

    They then finally embark on a journey through the rest of the text. But no, over this somebody sings: Glory To God in the highest, Glory to God in the highest

    At the end they are done...no....they then sing Gloria in Excelsis Deo, Gloria in Excelsis Deo.


    Do the editors and composers at OCP not read the church documents, or do they do this to flaunt their power and lack of respect for the church.

    I didn't listen to any more of it.

    This Glory To God which drags on buy repetition is exactly what causes pastors to ban singing the Gloria in the summer. Better to drop the entrance hymn, and sing a simple, to the point, Glory to God...but no....the Great Hymn of the Church is read because people have to sing four hymns, many of them protestant.

    This summer if you are at a parish that sings How Great Thou Art or Amazing Grace and not the Glory To God...do something.

    As a friend who called today about some truly wrong things, seriously wrong things going on in a diocese was told by a friend, "Hey, write it all down and send it to Benedict. Someone has to stand up and witness otherwise nothing will get done."
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    The Priest is to intone the Gloria. (GRIM?)


    To the contrary, GIRM 53: "The Gloria is intoned by the priest or, if appropriate, by a cantor or by the choir; but it is sung either by everyone together, or by the people alternately with the choir, or by the choir alone."

    There are to be no repetitions of text. (STTL?)


    To the contrary, STTL 149: "'The addition of refrains to the Glory to God is permitted, provided the refrains encourage congregational participation.' While through-composed settings of the Gloria give clearest expression to the text, the addition of refrains is permitted, provided the refrains encourage congregational participation" (quoting Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy, Policy for the Approval of Sung Settings of Liturgical Texts). Likewise STTL 170 says that when the Creed is sung instead of recited, it "'is sung, however, either by all together or by the people alternating with the choir.' The use of a congregational refrain may be helpful in this regard" (quoting GIRM 68).

    Also, a no-repetition principle would tend to ban a huge chunk of polyphony, wouldn't it.
  • Bobby Bolin
    Posts: 419
    Actually, the Gloria is the one part of the mass that I'm not too fond of. The rest I like.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    I sit corrected. It is totally legal. I feel that it totally misses the mark in its attempts to encourage congregational participation through its use of repetitions.

    Maybe I was consulting a GRIM !
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    If there are various legal options available to the parish, I'd choose the ones that follow the tradition (tradition that we inherited) ; help the priest to intone the Gloria and choose the music that doesn't have unnecessary repetition.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    I suppose that the successful historical model of

    1. Someone or everyone sings chant in unison
    or
    2. Choir sings polyphonic expansion of the music of the texts that people know, having heard them/sung them themselves works really well.

    but now we have works where the Organ plays something, Choir sings something,organ plays something, people get a part, choir sings over the choir, things are repeated not as an exposition of the text and and all affirm by singing Amen....then the opening sentence of the prayer is sung after the prayer is ended.

    I'm sure that composer did this to make it interesting.

    But, it is harder to be inventive within the structure of an established form and easier to just distort the form..

    If they were of the musical status of the Durufle Requiem, I guess I would not have a problem....but he sticks close to the historical model of 2 himself.
  • "Every parish has been asked to learn and use the Mass of the Resurrection by Randall DeBruyn as one of its regular Ordinary settings... This particular setting was chosen because it combines an elevated musical quality with congregational “singability,” can be sung with or without a choir or cantor, and makes no excessive demands on the organist, thus making it usable at any Mass in parishes large or small. The Mass of the Resurrection is a setting which will provide some musical continuity from parish to parish within the diocese..."
    —Archbishop Alexander King Sample

    Wha—? Why?
  • Bobby Bolin
    Posts: 419
    Could be worse...
  • Earl_GreyEarl_Grey
    Posts: 904
    I don't see a problem with this. I only listened to a few seconds of the audio preview and it seems like a better setting than most of the mainstream offerings. And having some sort of continuity amongst parishes within a Diocese asides from the Missal chants isn't a bad idea either. He can't very well insist that every parish learn one of the Gregorian settings at this point. And as much as I would like to incorporate more Gregorian Mass settings, my parish just isn't ready for that yet. I'm actually looking for another mainstream settings that will appease the parish and am leaning towards the St. Francis Cabrini setting myself. Adam's review at the top of this post seem rather harsh. No, I'm not in love with it, but is seems singable enough for the congregation, I don't think minor key=sad, and it seems at least a step above the lounge-lizzard/Muzak or "praise-rock" settings that predominate the major catalogs.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,978
    That mass is much better than the usual sung in many parishes.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    That mass (DeBruyn's "Mass of Resurrection" is much better than the usual sung in many parishes.

    I love Randy DeBruyn. And I listened to every moment of it with acuity in action at Sample's installation as well as auditioning thoroughly back before 2010. Sample used the same rationale that my Byzantine friend uses above, and that remains insufficient.
    I'm sorry, the tension between the demand for FACP and aesthetic beauty is no more or less mitigated by MR3's language reboot. We are still mired in Msgr. Mannion's analysis of the archetypes of compositional genres. And Randy's Mass is clearly "gebrauchsmusick" as was Proulx's "Community Mass" and Alstott's "Heritage."
    Despite my adherence to Royce Nickel's "St. Therese" or JMO's "Sherwin" and appreciation for the Bancks and Mueller bars being raised high, a director has to choose from among those that edify, one way or the other, the local congregations who frequent the choir Mass, or start Mahrt's paradigmatic schema by systematically cultivating the Latin Chant Masses from PBC's 1/2 and staring down all opposition from 360 degrees with absolute certainty until catholicity (hey I got a Jackson in there!) is institutional in a parish's heritage. I'm done with pro forma wannabe Masses, aka the stuff of the C. Walkers of our craft.
  • Despite my adherence to Royce Nickel's "St. Therese" or JMO's "Sherwin"

    Yay!

    :-)
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,978
    I have never used the DeBruyn mass, but have heard recordings of it. I do not work for an OCP parish, and don't really have much access to their materials. Our stuff, other than chant, is from GIA and WLP. However, I would take that mass over Haugen, any day.
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    I am sure this is being done to give an olive leaf to the OCP folks (who, after all, probably work very hard for that archdiocese) whilst encouraging something more "moderate" (vs. hand-clap Glorias) as a model.
  • I heard a audio sample of Bob Hurd's Missa Ubi Caritas, has anyone seen the sheet music? What are you opinions?
  • I would prefer hear the "Glory to God" spoken like this. (about 20 sec in)
  • OlbashOlbash
    Posts: 314
    The DeBruyn Mass is the official Mass at a local parish where I sub occasionally. It is the most forgettable music I've ever heard. I've played it at least 30 times and could still not sing you a note. It's like chewing gum -- pleasant enough while you're chewing it, but after you're done, you're never going to think about that piece of chewing gum again. Is this the level of excellence we wish to promote for the liturgy?

    That being said, DeBruyn has written some nice stuff. My Protestant congregation LOVES his Passion According to St. John, which we did on Good Friday.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Bobby Bolin
    Posts: 419
    "I heard a audio sample of Bob Hurd's Missa Ubi Caritas, has anyone seen the sheet music? What are you opinions?"

    Very repetitive. Not bad though.
    Thanked by 1theloniouslopez
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    I dabbled with Bob's "Ubi Mass" when it first came out, and everyone knows I'm a Hurd guy, whether Bob or David. It just couldn't take root with my very capable choir, maybe ahead of its time. But my real analysis is that the movements don't have a requisite number of melodic "hooks." Tho' even Martians can sing the Angelis Gloria, it's only because it has those hooks in place for centuries, it's now in the DNA. So, it really can't be screwed up unless sung at St Peter's. "Missa Ubi" does not enjoy that luxury of melodic intuition. YMMV
    Thanked by 1theloniouslopez