Great! I was just suggesting this in another thread (after Noel posted the above). It would be good to produce a collection of accompaniments that we can offer to music directors who know not the way.

(Tongue in Cheek) How about a version with blues-y "cocktail chords?"

Mark, I did a basic guitar chord and bass version that was truly ugly. But am still thinking....cocktail chords? Will leave that to the experts!

Actually, a cool jazz chord setting would be very useful with these....my experience has been that Mass guitarists fail to play with any creativity even they they in secular music can really wail...some brazilian chords would be nice. And a complete guide on how to play them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0yE6Zz230E

Thanks, Noel. I am printing this out so I can play through it.

Kyrie - SAB - this is the version above but set out for SAB singing.

I Believe in One God - Voice and Organ

Incantu,

You and others who have written me privately, these are purely my own creation, written to assist singers and directors of music and organists that I know in a way that I think will help them make the transition to chant. But, more than that, I hoped that they would inspire others to get to work on doing this as well, based upon their understanding and abilities, to write many versions so that people might be able to find accompaniments that fit their music programs.

To attempt to answer your questions: (my comments in italics.

For one, the notation implies a different rhythm than I would sing. While I can easily adjust my performance using a notation like this, others might find it difficult. I would much prefer open noteheads for sustained notes, and black noteheads for moving notes. This gives the performer the opportunity to decide which moving notes are shorter and which ones are longer, based on context. Also see Columba Kelly's Responsorial Psalms for Advent and Christmas (GIA) for another example of this kind of notation.

There are many who would come to open headed notes, especially in an accompaniment but also in the melody, and freak out. Surely there is a need for authoritative editions for those with the ability to perform these as you would. My work does not intend to do this, but rather help those who have no experience in singing and especially playing chant. I, myself, look forward to accompaniments by people as qualified as Fr. Columba Kelly and others appearing in the Commons.

Second, I find the practice employed by Theodore Marier and others of providing a single gathering tone (usually in the tenor voice) before congregational entrances to be extremely effective in performance. It gives the people chance to breathe, and (with an appropriate change in registration) a strong cue that it's their turn to sing.

Well, (laughing) I'm not Theodore Marier! That is definitely one way to do it. And I am sure that there will be versions that do this.

Speaking of turns, how did you come up with the divisions for antiphonal singing? It seems a little frantic to me, with about twice as many as indicated by the double bars in the GR. I find having a consistent performance practice, regardless of the period or compositional style, helps the choir and congregation alike perform a wide variety of repertoire with greater ease.

If the GR score is to be followed as far as divisions for antiphonal singing, I'll quickly withdraw this. This is nothing but a call and response version that would be appropriate only as a step in adopting the Glory To God - people are often more able to learn in short bits - and then, having their bits in mind and hearing the schola bits for months then it is very, very easy to make the transition to singing through it. I propose that this is better than singing it with a Glory To God response over and over again...but really is nothing but a preparatory way of getting people to sing it as a whole.

There has been concern about tritones and a descending minor seventh in the choral SAB version...it's just a style that I am comfortable writing in at times - much. much better versions are bound to appear that conform to common styles of harmonization. If there is serious concern that these are detrimental and should not be posted, I'll be glad to remove them

Please don't be discouraged from writing to ask questions, but do sit down and get to work on your versions. We need them badly to be able to establish chant as the universal music of the Church.

Well, (laughing) I'm not Theodore Marier! That is definitely one way to do it. And I am sure that there will be versions that do this.

My references to Marier and Kelly were not meant to compare your skill as a composer or your individual compositional style. The three things I mentioned are really matters of performance practice, not composition. If the idea of providing accompaniments is to promote a common repertoire, I think it also follows that the ideal is to have a common performance practice for the chants (whether accompanied or unaccompanied).

If your goal is to provide something that will be useful to your own parish or a group of friends, you have certainly done that. At a visitor parish such as my own, I evaluate success based on how well newcomers are able to participate in what we are doing without instruction and how prepared our choir members and parishioners are to participate when they are at another parish. Attending 8 Masses in one weekend in Paris taught us a lot about what works in practice and what doesn't.

I don't mean to suggest that you have to change your settings to conform to my concept of the ideal common practice. Nor do I intend to compose my own accompaniments any time soon, as I am more likely to improvise accompaniments than to submit a composition for public scrutiny. Hopefully, however, other composers and arrangers will accept your challenge to add to the repertoire of varied accompaniments, and perhaps some of them will find it helpful to consider my suggestions.

Regarding the divisions of the Gloria, the traditional practice is described at number 45 in Psallite Sapienter. The fact that the ICEL version uses the double bar lines suggests that this practice is to be followed. Otherwise, single bar lines (as seen in the Sanctus) would have been employed.

Noel, you replied before I had the chance to edit my last post!

The comment you quote above is more applicable to ornamented or melismatic chants than to this syllabic Gloria. Also, I notice in your accompaniment the not infrequent use of passing notes in the organ while the chant line is sustaining, a feature that I don't believe is common in, say, the Belgian school of accompaniment (Jeff O. will correct me if I'm wrong). Perhaps your use of stemmed notes is more suitable to this compositional device.

In short, when we see three notes low-high-low on one syllable, we know in chant notation it would be a torculus. Even though the ICEL editions don't contain rhythmic signs, we can often tell the difference between the short torculus and the long one, the latter appearing at cadences and in certain stereotyped melodies (eg, when it appears in the second syllable of Do-MI-nus). Now, the Solesmes school, Vollaerts-Murray, and Kelly might have three different interpretations for the long torculus, but they can all be expressed as three notes (square or round -- it doesn't matter) on one syllable. Adding stems, however, and making them three eighths or three quarters suggests a more definite rhythmic reading. As I said, I can adjust for this in performance, but many others couldn't.

One thing is clear, that the absence of rhythmic indications in the ICEL scores does not suggest an absolutely equal value for every black note. Even in the absence of ornament and melisma in this Gloria, I'm pretty sure that I would sing all of the final mi's as longs (we praise YOU), as well as penultimate stressed syllables (O God, almighty FA-ther). You use half notes for some of these longs (an innovation not found in the ICEL source) and quarters for others. To me, the consistent use of black noteheads would allow the composer to step out of the way a little and to hand the issue of performance practice over to the interpreter. If your goal is to provide a serviceable accompaniment for the chant, and not a rhythmic treatise, then the only information you really need to provide is the harmony itself, and not the rhythm.

That's my explanation of my previous statement, which is not to disregard the fact that, yes, some musicians are going to freak out looking at noteheads.

Really, if anyone finds these offensive, tasteless, or otherwise not worthy of being posted, I will be glad to remove them....if I were improvising accompaniments, this is what I would play.

Skirp,

http://chabanelpsalms.org/introductory_material/Gregorian_organ_accomp/

Noel, as a keyboard novice, I find the simple keyboard accomps interesting, and am happy to see them.

Thanks so much for sharing these!

OK... here is a sample of the NOH adaptation for Agnus Dei. I am not satisfied with this because Sib insists on using dotted notes. I will probably attempt this in my Hybrid Notation and use the dragndrop tool I developed with InDesign... (I know, Noel... I am sorry.... still perfecting the system. Will release soon!)

Incantu... please note that I took liberty to assign note length on cadences to try to maintain the authentic harmonization to the NOH as close as possible.

And here it is with the (and this goes against my principles >:C ) guitar chords. If you MUST use guitar, then I guess this is better than MOC.

FNJ:

Actually, since I am a guitarist, (and please be clear.... just because I am a guitarist myself, doesn't mean it is appropriate for liturgy!) I am planning on putting these on Capo III as that would be the easiest way to play in this key... forgot to do that yet.

Acclamations & Doxology

Re: the NOH transcriptions:

Steve, your plan sounds like a good one. Eliminating all of the stems and using mostly open notes in the accompaniment are the two key issues from a visual standpoint. If Finale can produce Schenkerian graphs, it can do what you are asking it to do.

Yea, I tried to eliminate the stems, but then I had dotted whole notes... jeesh! Just goes to show that rhythm can really be a distraction to the truly non rhythmic and freely flowing music of GC.

Francis, I understand.

The more accompanied versions in different forms of chant in English that exist, the wider we open the doors to Latin unaccompanied chant becoming a goal.

English and Accompaniment are the Training Wheels on the Chant Bicycle. Once we overcame the fear of falling riding with training wheels we all got excited about riding without them.

And who hasn't dreamed of riding a unicycle?

Training Wheels to Chant!

I understand the reasons for using the dotted notes...but at the entry level, organists who see this rather than a quarter tied to a half will get confused, since there are no rests (which I also understand) but since they are used to measures being complete, this may not compute for them.

The NOH harmonizations are outstanding. It just concerns me that people who are new to this will not be find this to be...friendly. Let's put it this way, in a pastoral sense, they could serve to hold people away from the glory that is chant.

Possibly beginner's NOH in English and an advanced version?

I think it looks good as is.

On its way.