Through-composed Psalms/Alleluias in Mass
  • Schönbergian
    Posts: 1,063
    Here are some recordings of my cantors singing my through-composed English settings of the Psalm and Alleluia according to the Canadian Lectionary. Unfortunately, the equipment malfunctioned and I do not have one for this past week's Alleluia. These were learnable by the cantors on the day of the Mass and are, in my view, a huge improvement over solo psalm tones. I underscored the cantors with an improvised accompaniment, but these settings could easily be performed without.
    Thanked by 9sdtalley3 CHGiffen M. Jackson Osborn Andrew_Malton Richard Mix Chris Garton-Zavesky Salieri roy2 ServiamScores
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,365
    Nice done!
    OH, that such was heard everywhere.
    Thanked by 4Chris Garton-Zavesky Salieri CHGiffen ServiamScores
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,721
    Have to have one heckuva cantor to pull it off though. I love it, and would gladly do these things when it is just me, but I don't have a single cantor that would be comfortable pulling something like this off.
  • Schönbergian
    Posts: 1,063
    My logic is that if one has time to rehearse and practice additions to the Mass such as choir anthems, one surely has time for improving integral parts of the Mass. The Psalm and Alleluia deserve equal, if not greater, attention than we habitually give to the remainder of the Proper.
    Thanked by 3ServiamScores CHGiffen Chris Garton-Zavesky
  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,156
    Interesting, a bit of Hildegard in with the Gregorian! Very nice.

    I addressed the "heckuva cantor" issue, in my books*, by making, for Sundays and Solemnities, two versions with the same Response and in the same mode and seeded by the same Gregorian melody, but one very simple and one rather more ornate. About a third of the more ornate ones could be called "semi through composed", when they have different melodies for verses but not different for every verse.

    *(user/pass : guest/guest)
    Thanked by 1ServiamScores
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