Choral Christmas Mass Ordinary
  • SteveOttomanyi
    Posts: 44
    I'd like to expand my repertoire of choral Ordinaries for Christmas, especially for the Vigil and Midnight Mass. What have you been doing?

    In the past few years at my new parish, I have done several, including Mozart's Mass in G Major, K. 140 "Pastorale" and Charpentier's "Messe de minuit." I'd like to know what others have done. Many thanks in advance.

    EDIT and CLARIFICATION: I'm looking for choral Ordinaries, not congregational Ordinaries.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,210
    For midnight, when I was a candidate at Saint Francis de Sales in Saint Louis, the choir did M. Haydn’s Missa Sancti Gabrielis. I was skeptical, but it worked out very well in the end, from someone sitting at the opposite end in the choir stalls.

    Last year, at my current parish, the choir sang Tallis’s Mass for Four Voices (which is not necessarily a staple of the Christmas repertoire, but it was paired with a Tallis Magnificat at Vespers). They were going to do the Coronation Mass, but it fell through; the idea for Christmas day and Easter will be the Haydn Kleine Orgelmesse (yes, at least once if not twice a year, more or less…we’re just getting started here).
    Thanked by 2Liam SteveOttomanyi
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,464
    I salute those who have choral forces that are relatively intact for Christmas. In my choral years, we put more emphasis on Epiphany for choral splendor because so many singers needed for family reasons to travel away for Christmas itself, and the congregations were happy to sing carols lustily on Christmas anyway.
  • GambaGamba
    Posts: 641
    George Malcom: Missa Ad Praesepe. “That’s what Christmas means to me”.

    https://youtu.be/Fd1G0l6uPYM

    K, G, S/B, and A. SATB with a good deal of divisi and organ (someone may have orchestrated it? Can’t recall.)

    https://baf543e755889c2f5917-53c2f7e6dea48ea5029f1364f509e42d.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/watermarked-pdf/1731423646-missa_ad_praesepe.pdf
    Thanked by 6Jeffrey Quick cmb SteveOttomanyi StimsonInRehab Joseph Michael Casavant Organist
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 803
    St. Mary's in Akron, Ohio for many years sang a Mid-night Mass. From 1977 till 2005 to be exact. This was an NO mass. If you like to hear some of the choral pieces we sang you can vist my website www.motherofmercycatholichymns.com and click on the tab St. Mary's Choir.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,193
    If you have need of something for women only, Gevaert is nice.

    Around 1900, judging from newspaper notices of Christmas music, Bruno Oscar Klein's Christmas Mass was extremely popular. Available SA or SATB

    I haven't done either. I have sung (and will second the recommendation) the Malcolm Missa Ad Praesepe. My group's speed is more Yon Shepherds (not really a Christmas Mass but it sounds like Christmas). Borderline tacky, but if St. John Cantius isn't too proud to do it, neither am I.


  • FSSPmusic
    Posts: 426
    A parish in my diocese did Richard Shepherd's Mass of the Nativity last year. It's a nice setting, but I can't tell whether it's currently in print.
  • opus2080
    Posts: 17
    J Korrman's Christmas Carol Mass was always a favorite in our parish.
    Thanked by 1Don9of11
  • CGM
    Posts: 780
    Victoria's Missa O Magnum Mysterium, which of course pairs wonderfully with his famous motet.

    Manchicourt's Missa Noe Noe, a parody Mass based on Mouton's Christmas motet Noe Noe Psallite.

    LaRue's Missa Puer est natus nobis, available for purchase.

    Or for something totally different, the 18th-c. Polish Jesuit composer Szczurowski's Missa Emmanuelis for Midnight Mass, scored for two horns, two violins, organ, and two-part vocal writing (women in the treble clef and men in the bass clef).
    Thanked by 5Roborgelmeister CHGiffen Jeffrey Quick MatthewRoth rich_enough
  • CGM
    Posts: 780
    There are at least three different Mass settings based on the Advent carol "O come, O come Emmanuel" —

    1. Richard Proulx

    2. Kevin Weed

    3. Paul Hillebrand
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,193
    Manchicourt (highly underrated) wrote a parody mass on my favorite Christmas motet??

    I've never been a fan of the "Christmas Carol Masses" (except for the granddaddy, Charpentier). Korman isn't totally awful (there are far worse), but J. Alfred Schehl's Missa de nativitate DNJC is a lot more subtle.
    Thanked by 1Roborgelmeister
  • Cmanfro
    Posts: 22
    Is anyone familiar with a GLORIA that uses the ‘refrain’ from Angels We Heave Heard on High.
    I know one exists in OCP’s Choral Praise, but my pastor says: ‘“No, there’s a different one where the text sits better’”
    I appreciate any leads
    (not of my choosing - it’s a pastor request)
  • Felicia
    Posts: 143
    Cmanfro,

    You might be thinking "A Gloria for Christmastime" by Richard Proulx, which is published by GIA.
  • SteveOttomanyi
    Posts: 44
    @Cmanfro, I sent you a PM with a link.
  • Cmanfro
    Posts: 22
    Thank you!
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,961
    Technically, it's for Epiphany - but I'd like to find the sheet music for Alfred Pilot's Messe des Rois Mages. Here's a recording by the excellent Holy Childhood Choir in St. Paul. Perhaps St. John's in Collegeville may have a transcript?
    Thanked by 2MatthewRoth VocesCapituli
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 803
    @opus2080

    St. Mary's Choir in Akron, Ohio used to sing Korman's Christmas Carol Mass in both English and Latin for about 30 years.
    Thanked by 1oldhymns
  • montre_16montre_16
    Posts: 8
    Some that I’ve used in the past:

    “Mass in honor of St. Joseph” - Peeters (a favorite).

    “Mass in honor of St. Francis” (based on Puer Natus) - Richard Keys Biggs

    “Missa Princeps Pacis” - William Lloyd Webber

    This year, I’ve programmed “Mass in honor of the Holy Guardian Angels” - Josef Gruber
    Thanked by 1oldhymns
  • Noctcaelador
    Posts: 21
    I've had great luck with Hans Klier's Oberndorfer Stille Nacht Messe.
  • AgnusDei1989
    Posts: 50
    The go-to in my church choir growing up was Pietro Yon's "Mass of the Shepherds" — pretty, if a hint repetitive in spots (which I guess makes sense given that it's based on Alpine folk music). Mass IX otherwise.
    Thanked by 1Roborgelmeister
  • Jonathan_CulbreathJonathan_Culbreath
    Posts: 29
    @SteveOttomanyi
    One that I’d like to do someday, by a living composer whom I believe you know (he goes to your parish frequently) is Missa In Dulci Jubilo, by Professor Byron Adams.

    https://youtu.be/hF1vEEmpCBg?si=QrZpM18rkvfYQPGY
    Thanked by 1SteveOttomanyi
  • SteveOttomanyi
    Posts: 44
    @Jonathan_Culbreath, thanks for reminding me! He is a dear, dear man, a stellar composer, and has been very supportive of my research. He presented me with a lovely autographed copy. I think we shall use it this year--I believe on the Feast of the Holy Family. It's such a lovely Mass setting. I can hardly wait to hear it on the Skinner.

    While I'm writing, @Gamba, thank you for that. Missa Ad Praesepe is indeed a marvelous little work. I can't wait to do it; it will have to wait till next year. Again, another glorious Mass setting that will sound marvelous on our "new" organ!
    Thanked by 2Jeffrey Quick MatthewRoth
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,210
    That’s really nice. We can’t use it for reasons but maybe one day in some years from now… I like the preference for the Gloria IV incipit.
  • Drake
    Posts: 229
    Technically an Epiphany Mass setting, but suitable for Christmas (shameless plug for my own composition).

    Missa in Epiphania Domini
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
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