The Psallite Mass: At the Table of the Lord

Paul F. Ford

The Liturgical Press (not one of the "Big Three") will soon be releasing a sampler, Lift up your Hearts, their pew book of nine mass settings for the new MIssal.

We in the Collegeville Composers Group have prepared the first of these settings, in the style of Psallite project.

I had to split the document into nine parts, in order to upload it to our site.

I invite your evaluations.

Blessings,
Paul

Paul F. Ford

The next three slices.

Paul F. Ford

The last three slices.

(Honestly, I tried to compress the file but the site still would not accept it.)

Jeffrey Tucker

Just from a quick look at this, this project looks enormously promising. It provides a plainsong melody for the congregation and actual parts (!) for the choir along with accompaniment, in English and Spanish. This strikes me as a fantastic resource. I can imagine that music like this would embed itself nicely in any parish environment, permitting people to sing the texts with dignity and solemnity. The performance notes also seem very effective.

Paul, are you behind the thinking of this project? It is robust and elegant.

incantu

This is the first setting that I've seen that is arguably easier than the Sacramentary edition. Normally I have reservations about providing choir parts for the Sanctus, or for the entire Gloria (rather than just the alternatim sections), as they just won't be musically effective in most parishes against the assembly's unison line. However, I can actually imagine in the right parish, particularly one attached to a school, or in religious communities, that this Mass could be sung in parts throughout by the entire congregation with the right kind of preparation.

benedictgal

Although I cannot read music, the fact that we finally have a Gloria in Spanish that is not a responsorial one and that matches the official text word-for-word is incredibly awesome. Of course, I am also thrilled that the English version of the Gloria is also not a responsorial one. When will this be available for publication?

noel jones, aago

Innovative settings! Very, very nice and encouraging.

benedictgal

Will these have some sort of audio tutorial?

Paul F. Ford

Thanks for the comments thus far, especially to you, Jeffrey, for your words on Chant Café.

I am waiting for the assessment of Adam Wood to whom I sent the the simple recordings at the time of the composition of these pieces. I can send these to anyone whose email provide allows rather large attachments. Let me know.

Yes, Michelle, there will be a CD of the music of the entire "At the Table of the Lord" collection, to be recorded next month and to be made available online soon thereafter, and by CD this coming summer.

Jeffrey, I can say I am behind the whole Psallite project in its use of the texts of the antiphons of the Roman Missal, the Roman and Simple Graduals, and the Lectionary in the style of the Simple Gradual. I can explain what I mean in a subsequent post.

The Liturgical Press asked us to create tones in the Psallite style that could be sung to Latin, English, and Spanish, at a minimum. We also have Tagalog, Korean, Vietnamese, and Chinese versions.

Gratefully,
Paul

Adam Wood

I can't believe anyone would wait on me...

Preview of my upcoming post:
I think they are FANTASTIC!

benedictgal

Although I cannot read music, that should not discount me from concurring with Adam. I had supper with a priest friend of mine who can read music and he was quite pleased with the setting, especially the Spanish language translation. We have really been wanting a Spanish language version of the Gloria that is both faithful to the text and not a responsorial. When my friend started to sing it, he was short of ecstatic. How soon will it be until this will be released? The Spanish-language Gloria is a God send. Thank you so very much.

benedictgal

Would it be possible to release it sooner, at least the Spanish language portions? there is a huge dearth of Spanish-language settings that are simple to sing and faithful to the text.

Carl D

One of the resources I've used for large files like this, Paul, is to create a Google Documents account, upload things there, and set the permissions so that everybody in the world can see them. Google Docs then gives you a link that you can put in e-mails or a hyperlink and it works just fine.

The nice thing is that if you update the file, then everyone can grab the new version without making zillions of duplicate copies on the forum here. Saves space.

You can also create a folder, and share the whole folder, as long as you remember to properly set the permissions on BOTH the folder and files.

Just a thought-
Carl

Aristotle Esguerra

In preparation for the new translation, I've been introducing new settings of the Gloria and the Creed to my choirs and gauging their reaction. I ran through the English Nicene Creed with my choir once last night (SATB, a cappella) after having introduced it to them the week before (and sung it twice). After three repetitions the choir, now able to sing it rather robustly, was pleased.

I'll continue to have my choir read other settings, but this one made a good impression on them. In general, having the choir learn the new translation through song has taken the shock out of it for them.

My thoughts (on this particular setting of the Creed):

- I'm not too keen on Bb—G chord progression, but the tenors find it cool.
- Might the strength of the V—I progression (from the end of one couplet to the beginning of the next) get a bit tiresome after a while? (Though I do understand the desire to keep the guitar chords as elementary as possible.)
- As far as congregational singing of the Creed goes, this will be one of the easiest settings they will encounter — which may go a long way towards congregational singing of the entire Ordinary of the Mass.

mjballou

I just got around to looking at this - and I really like both the Gloria and the Creed. Especially the Creed which most people mumble their way through. Thanks, Paul (and all the Psallite crew).

Blaise

A quick question: when there are whole/half notes (with text), does that mean all of the words/syllables under the whole/half note each get equal emphasis? Say, under the CEG chord, "Glory to" get three equal parts of the whole note and "We praise you, we" gets four?

(Sorry, I do know how to read music, except for me, usually each syllable gets it's own note. :) )

DougS

Paul, those notes do not actually indicate a particular rhythm--counterintuitive, I know. Their primary function is to indicate pitch.

The best way to "perform" these, in my opinion, is to think of the notes as creating a heightened, more solemn speech. The rhythm then flows quite naturally, especially if one follows the text's punctuation.

Charles in CenCA

Paul,
Sorry I'm late to the party. You made quite an impression on my pastor, your friend Msgr. RD, at our diocesan convocation. And now I've had a moment to read through the samples, I can hear why! This is so hope-filled.
At the risk of furthering my bad rep for hyperbole, the project seems providential for us locally, in that we've been rotating Rice's SCG/BFW/Bruce's AG/Bartlett's SEP rather steadily over four years in the propers category. These settings almost appear to be cumulative in that the congregation is folded in easily with the ordinary. And that it unifies the two prevalent vernaculars out here with Latin, ah, a unified solution on common ground. Bravo.
Charles

TCJ

I will be taking a closer look at these, especially the Spanish versions shortly as I've been wanting to look for decent music for them, especially the Gloria! The big problem is that my choir really struggles with anything like chant. For some reason they constantly add notes, change pitches, and the like to the chants. Telling them to keep the same note until they see the next word match up with the next note does little to fix the problem. I suspect that it would be much the same thing with these. Still, it's worth a look as most of the settings I have available either sound awful (a waltz-style Gloria?!) at Mass or have major distortions to the text.

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