The Pontiical mass in the Sacrada Familia in Barcelona with Pope Leo
  • Simon
    Posts: 170
    What a disappointment `- I had hoped for a magnificent Spanish Rennaaissance mass with full choir of the best singers from Barcelona of music by Morales or one of his other Spanish compatriots . Just a boring plainsong mass.

    Thanked by 1montre_16
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,659
    Well, the acoustic is a vast vertical space - a huge aisled hall church, as it were, with the space above the galleries fully open to the uppermost vault, which is 75 meters high, higher than any medieval cathedral (and volumetrically even more acoustically vertical that the tiered aisle vaults of the cathedrals of Bourges, Le Mans, Toledo, Milan, and Palma de Mallorca). And the surfaces are all stone and glass. Polyphonic masses might not have suited the occasion in that space volume.
  • Benton
    Posts: 28
    Shouldn’t Gregorian chant have pride of place? It’s hardly “boring” according to the Magisterium.
    Thanked by 5WGS Chant_Supremacist davido Charles_Weaver LauraKaz
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,659
    It's also probably the default liturgical music assumption of Gaudi when he designed the space over a century ago.
  • m_r_taylor
    Posts: 379
    Check around around 3:05, after the Mass itself - three boy choristers singing the de Angelis Sanctus in a three part arrangement. It does turn into something else afterwards, but it was a strikingly beautiful musical moment.
    Thanked by 4Liam irishtenor CHGiffen hilluminar
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,413
    I watched the youtube video. It included Gregorian chant Kyrie, Gloria, Alleluia, response to the Universal Prayer petitions, Sanctus, and Amen. I hope that @Simon will find the video that I watched. Full, conscious, active participation of the assembly through their voices, not their ears.
    Thanked by 3probe a_f_hawkins Paul F. Ford
  • probe
    Posts: 188
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puq_4M10iHQ
    Vatican News: Barcelona, Holy Mass, June 10, 2026 - Pope Leo XIV 2:35:20
    Noisy recording at the start - probably automatic gain.
    Unfortunately I can't find a programme of music on the website so I don't know the names of all the pieces sung (I've asked the cathedral for a Mass booklet). I can't tell whether the hymns are in Spanish or Catalan.
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,104
    Full, conscious, active participation of the assembly through their voices, not their ears.

    Well, hopefully it was both! (Probably time to lay this old dichotomy to a peaceful rest . . . )
    Thanked by 3kevinf Charles_Weaver JDBading
  • probe
    Posts: 188

    The Gregorian chant and hymns are familiar but don't miss the last 11 minutes spectacular from 2:19:00 to 2:30:00.

    Vatican News: Barcelona, Holy Mass, June 10, 2026 - Pope Leo XIV 2:35:20
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puq_4M10iHQ
    Organ begins at 0:07:00 while people arrive, 0:10:30 applause for King & Queen
    0:11:50 Opening Hymn for entrance procession
    0:16:25 choir
    0:18:50 Pope Leo enters. Choir Alleluia.
    0:23:52 Kyrie VIII
    0:26:11 Gloria III
    0:32:24 Trumpet, psalm boy treble
    0:36:33 Fanfare, Alleluia VI, Gospel acclamation
    0:41:45 Organ interlude, Pope's address.
    0:58:02 Credo sung vernacular*
    1:01:20 Prayer of the faithful
    1:05:15 Organ, offertory hymn
    1:13:15 Sanctus VIII
    1:17:34 Mysterium Fidei
    1:20:45 Pope Leo sings
    1:21:35 Pater Noster vernacular
    1:25:25 Agnus Dei vernacular
    1:29:50 Communion Hymns, choral (Ave Verum, Winchester Old - a tune like 'While Shepherds watched', and a soloist + youth choir)
    1:51:00 Blessing and exit hymns
    1:58:00 Outside
    2:11:00 Pope blesses the new Tower of Jesus.
    2:15:25 Final chant
    2:19:20 Three children start to sing a modern arrangement of Sanctus & Benedictus VIII
    with a dramatic son et lumiere at the end with all waving torches and orchestra.
    2:35:00 Ends.

    *I don't know whether it's Spanish or Catalan.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Charles
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