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Wednesday 5 October 2011

The Mass of Pope Pourri

Himself sent me a link to the tri-fold being distributed at my former (though still "official", I suppose, that's where the "permanent record" resides,) parish in furtherance of getting the new translation ingrained.

The music!
Oh, the music!

A hodgepodge, a bit of Haas, a bit of chant, a bit of Haugen, a bit of someone I can't recall -- what a mish-mosh!

But Himself had not noticed, this is not the parish's doing, but the diocese's (no surprise there.) That diocese! That diocese....

The Gloria is responsorial, a re-do of a bouncy pop-ish, (not "popish",) thing, and NOT one we had ever used in that parish, nor, strangely, one I had ever heard sung in any nearby parishes, or diocesan events.
Why?

And there are two Sanctus settings on offer, (this is the only piece with options.) Weird.

Ironically, the "Amen" is a too-long setting, also a re-do, nearly identical to the one I had whipped up and tried to foster the use of in the parish years ago in my nearly fruitless attempts to wean them off pieces of the ordinary that did not respect the integrity of the text of the Mass.
In other words, the composer has revised his work, not because the new translation demanded it but because he had never set it properly in the first place.

Father had hated it, and really let me have it when I tried to do them he saw no reason, so I had simply stopped programming the errant "Amen." Wonder if he'll object to it now.....

I had a hard time getting him to sing parts of another Mass setting properly, because it DID have the correct words, to the acclamations, for instance, and he simply "knew" them wrong from that drekky setting.

I don't see the music changing for the better in that diocese any time soon.

And it's as if my time in harness at the parish was nothing...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No time at any parish is "as nothing" for any music director who does so out of love!

A single well done proper, motet, hymn, ordinary or any other form of liturgical music can change a heart entirely if the grace of God is present. It does not matter the setting, E.F., O.F...

A simple child singing something can change a heart.

The blueprint has already been given to us by the Church (the documents). All we have to do is our best to implement it. This will take years... decades even. And it will take suffering!

What is important is to do little things with great love for souls.

I am not a big "reform of the reform" guy (I love the TLM and will never look back for myself and my family)

BUT... not everyone is ready for that... and we must proceed with charity, humility, love for souls.

Relationship is key here... even friendship.

Nothing that is done for love of souls (however good or badly done) is ever wasted.

IJM Pascendi.

Scelata said...

Bless you, you are right, of course.
I was unnecessarily discouraged the other day.

Thank you for your words of wisdom.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)