Introducing New Mass Settings
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    Adventy--the shopping season that extends from early October until late Christmas Eve which involves panicked shoppers with absolutely no concept of anything relating to the true meaning of Christmas. Also referred to choir directors with difficult choirs that begin Christmas music in late August through ten minutes prior to midnight mass on Christmas Eve.
  • bkenney27bkenney27
    Posts: 444
    I have to whine....trying to get people to learn and sing something just for four Sundays in a row once a year is what causes Catholics not to sing.


    Whine away! That's exactly why I started this thread to begin with. And I think your points about the length of Advent and how music "sounds" are valid, but I also sense this may be another YMMV topic. My parish really has very little sense of the liturgical seasons. (I was once asked if we were required to observe the liturgical seasons. This particular person thought we changed the colors for fun.) So, at this point, I think it IS important to use the music to set them apart. We are a far cry from being able to stick to the Propers and Ordinaries assigned to particular days and seasons.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    I solve the issue by singing the same setting through Advent and Christmastide (and maybe Epiphany as well).
    Thanked by 2Adam Wood bkenney27
  • bkenney27bkenney27
    Posts: 444
    I'm thinking I might actually reintroduce the Chant Mass for Advent since it is assigned to ferias in Advent and Lent. We use ICEL and Mass XVIII on Sundays during Lent currently so if I bring it back for Advent, they'll have heard it more recently when Lent rolls around. Plus, they already know it so I won't feel as badly switching for four weeks and then going back to Heritage.
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    Worship aids can work miracles even for those who don't read music (getting people to look at them is another issue)


    YES!!! I insist on printing liturgy leaflets and always publishing the melody lines of hymns and the ordinary. Even people who cannot read music kind of get the idea that notes go up and down and are long and short. Modern musical notation laid out right is actually very intuitive.

    If it's worth repeating (and it should be) you can always sing it again next year, and the year after that, etc. I think annual repetition is as effective as weekly repetition--it just takes longer to establish the pattern.


    It is most definitely worth establishing a particular pattern for the liturgical year. For example:

    1.) Weekday Masses - I keep things short and stick with the Missal Tone for the ordinary, although I might opt to use either the English or the Latin Sanctus or Agnus Dei (sometimes I make the choice by gauging the congregation), I ALWAYS use the Greek Kyrie.

    2.) During Lent if I have a choir, I tend to use "Mass in Mi" by Dom. Benvenot. It is a simple 2-voice with organ mass. The organ part is basically soft chords forming an accompaniment, although the 2-voices can easily stand without the organ.

    3.) I generally mark Easter and Solemnities of Our Lord by using Gloria VIII (de Angelis)

    Thanked by 1bkenney27
Add a Comment