Music Selection Help Needed: Challenging Liturgy Situation
  • StephenMatthew
    Posts: 97
    I was hoping for some advice and assistance with a peculiar situation:

    I am involved in a diocesan committee planning a liturgy for several hundred Catholic youth attending a large interfaith gathering, the majority being boys and young men. The mass will likely be open air, or perhaps in some re-purposed space if it rains. We likely will not have any amplification for the music, we may not even have electricity at all. The most commonly used mass settings in our diocese are not the same as those of neighboring diocese which will likely constitute the majority of those attending. At this point we only have a few amateur musicians available, mostly old male singers from various parish choirs, few of whom can actually read music competently, and we likely will only have a brief warm-up/rehearsal on the day of the mass. Also, we have no idea of the comfort of the particular priest coming with singing/chanting his parts, nor much opportunity to consult him regarding musical matters.

    So, what sort of musical options might you suggest?

    Clearly we are limited to what can be sung a cappela, if needed, things either reasonably simple, or very commonly known. My first thought was to use the ICEL chants for the mass parts, but most of the parishes seem to either use a modern setting most of the year and use the Latin chants for Lent without enthusiasm. Also, we likely need to produce a worship aid/song sheet for distribution, and in the perfect world it would be great to find selections that did not require gaining copyright permissions.

    To further complicate things this will be mass for the rapidly approaching 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

    At the very least I would like to find a way of singing for the entrance, Gloria, Psalm, Alleluia, Sanctus, memorial acclamation, great Amen, communion, and some closing hymn.

    Any help?
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    (I hope a little self-promotion may be forgiven...)

    My own Mass of the Blessed Fire is intentionally unaccompanied and easy to learn and sing. It is based on Early American (specifically, Shaker) music, but is also influenced by Gregorian Chant, and the robust melodies (at least in my opinion) work very well in an outdoor or otherwise acoustically sub-prime environment.

    ALSO: It is released under a Creative Commons license, so there is no cost to reproducing it for your worship aides (I can even provide PNG image files of each of the movements.)

    The PDF attached includes:
    -Kyrie
    -Gloria
    -Alleluia
    -Sanctus
    -Mem Accl. A, B, C
    -Amen
    -Agnus Dei

    There is also an Our Father, but it might be a little much for a one-off event.

    BONUS: Another forum member has been writing SATB harmonizations, which add a lot and are not hard.

    image

    -------------------------------------------
    Mass of the Blessed Fire, based on Shaker Melodies:
    -Website (a bit outdated)
    -PDF (latest version of everything)
    Thanked by 2Salieri StephenMatthew
  • jpal
    Posts: 365
    I believe that the ICEL chants exist just for this sort of situation -- they are simple, need no accompaniment, and the melodies are relatively widely known. Also, you will not need to pay any royalty, provided you follow the ICEL instructions for acknowledging the texts in your program.

    For the responsorial psalm, you could choose from among those listed here.
    Thanked by 4Kathy canadash noel jones, aago StephenMatthew
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    In a situation like this, I would try to get everyone's email and send a link to the setting you're using.

    Another benefit of the ICEL music is that a lot of people will have heard it before in Latin.
    Thanked by 4CHGiffen canadash noel jones, aago StephenMatthew
  • StephenMatthew
    Posts: 97
    Adam,
    thanks for the quick response, and you are welcome to plug your work. I very much appreciate your suggestion, and I find the Shaker connection interesting, it brings back memories of visiting an old Shaker settlement turned museum with my grandparents. If this were more than just a one-off occasion I would love to use it, and who knows if our next meeting shows more musical talent has become available anything could happen. I would be very interested in hearing a recording once one becomes available.

    jpal,
    thanks for that info, good to know about the copyrights, and something like those psalms with an instructional video just might be the thing, I can imagine sending something like that to our group of singers to practice in advance may help.

    Feel free to keep the suggestions coming. We will probably be locking in the selections at the start of next week, so I will be checking back at least through the weekend for more ideas.
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    I would strongly urge using the ICEL Chants from the Missal. In fact, every single parish and chaplaincy should know them and use them.
    Thanked by 4Spriggo noel jones, aago Andrew Motyka StephenMatthew
  • StephenMatthew
    Posts: 97
    Just wanted to give an after action report:

    Here is what was attempted, with some note of the results:
    O Saving Victim, for an opening hymn, some confusion about which melody
    ICEL English Gloria, intoning the opening line was a bit off, mixed up the standard version and the tone for the Missa de Angelis Gloria a bit, not very good congregational participation
    Responsorial Psalm Using the Antiphon from the Chabanel Psalms project, was intending to use the verses too, but ended up using a simple tone I was more familiar with, which did not quite fit so well with the antiphon
    Alleluia as in the missal, with verse to a similar simple tone (had thought of using one from the Garnier Alleluia collection, but was not confident of getting it right)
    ICEL English Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Memorial Acclamation A, all went reasonably well, as did the simple Great Amen
    O Sacrament Most Holy, with 5 verses, worked pretty well for the communion hymn
    Holy God we praise Thy Name was good for a closing hymn, but there was the usual confusion about repeating the last line

    All in all it came off at least OK, and I was glad we at least attempted to sing rather than simply reciting everything. The weather was unhelpful, it was cold, rainy, and windy all day, by mass time the rain had stopped and only a light breeze blew, but it was probably only in the upper 40s and we were in an open air chapel, our attendance was far below earlier expectations due to the weather, our musical resources ended up being myself and the congregation, and I was more than a little nervous, particularly at the start as we had a few last minute mix ups in matters not musical I had to deal with that were slightly unsettling. Also we had to compete with the Protestant service that was going on a few hundred yards away, and they had the benefit of a sound system and a band, which provided occasionally vaguely fitting background music, and at times rather out of place lines from their sermon as filler.

    We gave to God as good as we were able at that moment, and He was most generous in supplying His graces to us in a humble place.
    Thanked by 1bkenney27
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