Assistance with Sources for pre-2010 Ordinary Chant Adaptations
  • frlukewetzel
    Posts: 11
    I am trying to compile a list of published sources of adapted medieval plainsong ordinary chant settings of the ecumenical English texts (Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) used in the pre-2010 English Roman Missal and continuing to be used by Episcopalians, Lutherans, and others. The major sources I know of for multiple settings are the Hymnal 1982, Columba Kelly’s St Meinrad Kyriale (2003), J. Michael Thompson’s Simple Kyriale (1999), Paul Ford’s By Flowing Waters (1999), and An English Kyriale (1991) from the UK. Does anyone have other sources of adaptations of historic plainsong settings for those texts that I should know about?

    I am also looking for settings of historic Book of Common Prayer ordinary texts. The two major sources I am aware of are Winfred Douglas’ St Dunstan Kyriale (also published-in-part sometimes adapted slightly in 20th c. Episcopal hymnals) and The Plainsong of the Mass (1896) from the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society. Are there other sources of adaptations I should know about? I haven’t spent as much time looking for them.

    The goal is a comprehensive list of those resources and chart of which-Kyriale-Romanum-and-other-historic-chant adaptations are available where. It will primarily be for Episcopalians, but could be useful to others who use those texts (Lutherans, etc. for the ecumenical texts, and Ordinariate folks, etc. for the BCP ones).

    Settings of the Trisagion to any Western chant melodies (other than the one in the 1982 Hymnal that Bruce Ford did) would be helpful too since that is an option in place of the Kyrie or Gloria in Episcopal Church worship.

    Thanks,

    Luke
  • GambaGamba
    Posts: 641
    Check the Lutheran Church of America’s 1958 Service Book and Hymnal for a few plainchant ordinaries in prayer book language. Also LBW, setting 3, for the old ICEL.
    Thanked by 1frlukewetzel
  • RoborgelmeisterRoborgelmeister
    Posts: 307
    Your bibliography seems to be comprehensive: at one time I owned all of the materials on your list, but a disaster in my storage unit meant I lost all of them.

    Mason Martens did some work in your area of inquiry. He also did some modern language settings of one of the Dumont mass settings. See the following...

    Simple kyriale : the melodies edited from early sources and adapted to modern English texts. Author: Mason Martens. Edition: Vocal edition. Publisher: Music for Liturgy, New York, 1985. World Cat says it is in nine libraries.

    See also,
    Music for the Holy Eucharist and the Daily office : for trial services in contemporary language. This is in 32 libraries, but it only has bits and pieces of what you are looking for. Dumont appears, in part, here, as well as some settings of the Trisagion.
    Author: Mason Martens, Church Army in the U.S.A., Episcopal Church Standing Liturgical Commission. Musical Score, English, 1971
    Publisher: Music for Liturgy : Distributed by the Church Army in the U.S.A., New York, 1971.

    Martens was largely self-published except for his choral music (Sing Joyfully, etc.). This was reported to me by David Strang, and may be of interest.

    Mason had a rent controlled very large apartment at 72nd and Broadway in Manhattan. There was a small kitchen, a medium dining room, a large living room overlooking 72nd Street, and FOUR large bedrooms. He used only one of them for sleeping, and it and the other three bedrooms were all floor to ceiling books. His collection [pretty much all esoteric music and liturgy related texts] was so large, that he was into large scale double shelving, i.e., one row of books in front of another row of books. Despite his photographic memory, he would still loose track of where books were, especially those that were in the back rows.
    This was all pre-computers, and he probably would have been much better able to know where it all was if he had lived into this computer age.
    Supposedly, the Yale School of Music got his library. I hope Yale or some group with some interest in all this church music stuff got it and sorted it all out.
    Mason's conversations in the flesh or via telephone were legendary. This was pre-cellular phones with good phone plans, and my telephone bills were never higher. Sometimes it seemed impossible to get him off the phone if he had touched on a subject of real interest to him.
    Thanked by 2frlukewetzel Joseph Michael
  • frlukewetzel
    Posts: 11
    Thank you both, and apologies to all for posting this in "General Discussion." I meant for it to go in "Vernacular Plainsong."
  • RoborgelmeisterRoborgelmeister
    Posts: 307
    By Flowing Waters also has a selection of plainsong ordinaries using the ICET texts.
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