Not a problem. Somewhere in the world there might exist a musicologist who knows the words of the chanson well enough that they play back in his head along with the related motifs in the mass. I don't think he attends your parish. So if you have the extra tenors, why not? If you don't, and want something even easier, look at Lassus' Missa Venatorum ("ad imitation moduli Iager'), which was meant to get the Duke out of Mass and out hunting ASAP...which would make it ideal for the OF as well. ;-)

Jeffrey, funnily enough for a singing group, we have too many tenors and not enough of the rest! We only just came together in the current formation a few months ago, having been pretty much a quartet-sextet of men till recently, so we're working on core repertoire for now. We're learning Lotti's Missa Brevis and Casciolini's Missa Brevis, but both with organ continuo, and alternating texture between SSA, TTB and tutti in various sections to give some variety. A few of us are early music specialists, so we might add instruments at some point in the future. Any idea if the Missa Venatorum is online?

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Greg, we have a local schola that sings for the regular twice-monthly EF mass in Singapore, and they're both quite committed and good. We keep schola and cappella quite separate, as we feel it's better for singers to concentrate their efforts. I'm not RC myself, I'm Greek-Catholic, but I help with the EF organizing team as often as I can.

Latin isn't really an issue for this community as most of us are liturgical refugees, and the twice-monthly Sunday EF mass is in a school chapel rather than a parish.

Active participation is great, the youth are delighted. Responses are sung loudly, as are the chants of the Ordinary when the congregation know them. We just had an EF sung mass (Exaltation of the Holy Cross) at a parish this Wed evening, and while our organizing team and group of hardcores are mostly between 16-40, we had a LOT of youth from that parish attending. An elderly lady commented 'my goodness, it's a youth mass, this is the future!', which was rather encouraging. The youth came in droves to venerate the relic of the True Cross. I shall attempt to make a wee video recording of the creed this Sunday, so you chaps can see what the cutting edge of the liturgical scene in Asia is like!

Inculturation is a non-issue here. Singapore, while geographically in Southeast Asia, is all over the place culturally. Our population is mostly diaspora Chinese, with large segments of Indian and Southeast Asian ethnicities, and lots of expats from the US and Europe. We're a former British colony, so that should give some idea of our mix. Masses in various Chinese and Indian languages tend to be for the older folk and expats from those countries - the younger generation prefer Mass either in English or Latin, as we're largely an Anglophone society. English is the language of instruction in all local public and private schools (the French, German, Swiss and Chinese expat international schools being the only exceptions). Some degree of inculturation may be necessary in lands which are less globalised and where the local cultural context is the only one with which people are familiar, but not in a cosmopolitan place like Singapore. The few attempts to 'inculturate' here have largely been considered to be rather patronising, and pushed by Western priests who assume we should have church music in an oriental idiom and churches that look like the temples of various oriental religions. Many of us feel the whole 'inculturation' thing is silly, and reeks of a slightly racist and colonialist attitude. All of us watch British and American tv and films, travel is now relatively inexpensive, so we don't find the whole 'Western' ethos and aesthetic at all foreign. For our context, a church and mass that attempted to look like a Taoist/Buddhist/Hindu temple and service, with a preponderance of 'Asianness', would probably alienate most of the faithful.

In short, we're happy to have a liturgical scene that mirrors that of Europe as closely as possible.

Edward: I took a look and didn't find it online. Maybe I'll have to do something about that. But not today; the library is a zoo and tonight I have to judge the Iron Composer competition (broadcast live at www.wclv.com at 8 EDT)

That's the one! I missed it because of the title. All 3 of the published sources call it "Iager"; the manuscripts incline toward "Venatorum", but 2 of 6 call it "octavi toni"...which strikes me as needlessly prissy, I also don't know why Brodersen jacked it up a step; I suspect the tenor curses would drown out the alto praises (and yes, I know, it was probably done at least a half step above 440). Perhaps I should take up the name of the page with CPDL.