Introducing settings of new translations

[Nick Baty]

So does anyone have any plans?

We're still not sure exactly when the new translations come into force. Are we still a couple of years away from them actually landing in the pew? And I presume that we should avoid any break in the singing of the most important people's texts. So are people planning a crossover period?

We currently have six sets of acclamations which will have to be replaced. Those settings are beginning to sound tired – we've been singing two of them for more than four years and the rest for two to three years. We really could do with a change. Obviously we can't introduce settings of the new texts yet (or we could, but there's many a slip between cup and lip!) and it would be foolish to introduce new settings of the existing texts.

And, obviously, we're not going to do that on week one. I reckon we'd need at least 18 months to introduce several new settings, during which time we can phase out the existing ones.

As I'm now planning service music for the next liturgical year (I tend to work out Alleluia, acclamations and psalms for a whole year in one go, easier to see the mix and the seasonal shift) I'll be sticking with what we already have. But the year after? Should I then be planning a mix of existing and new texts for 2011? And then new texts only by 2012?

How's everyone else preparing?

[Hare]

So does anyone have any plans?

We're still not sure exactly when the new translations come into force. Are we still a couple of years away from them actually landing in the pew? And I presume that we should avoid any break in the singing of the most important people's texts. So are people planning a crossover period?

We currently have six sets of acclamations which will have to be replaced. Those settings are beginning to sound tired – we've been singing two of them for more than four years and the rest for two to three years. We really could do with a change. Obviously we can't introduce settings of the new texts yet (or we could, but there's many a slip between cup and lip!) and it would be foolish to introduce new settings of the existing texts.

And, obviously, we're not going to do that on week one. I reckon we'd need at least 18 months to introduce several new settings, during which time we can phase out the existing ones.

As I'm now planning service music for the next liturgical year (I tend to work out Alleluia, acclamations and psalms for a whole year in one go, easier to see the mix and the seasonal shift) I'll be sticking with what we already have. But the year after? Should I then be planning a mix of existing and new texts for 2011? And then new texts only by 2012?

How's everyone else preparing?

Potentially, I think, the most interesting and pertinent topic for a long time. Thank you for raising this, Nick.

Yes - how are we supposed to go about it; and when?

Presumably the various hymnbooks - eg Laudate, CFE, which include music for the mass, will need to be revised. How many parishes will decide they can't afford to replace their existing books? What will happen in those places? What will happen in places without the resources to introduce new settings? Will publishers allow for some sort of temporary copyright clearance to allow copying of settings during any "overlap" period?

So many questions............

[Nick Baty]

It's not so much to do with the books, Hare. The two you mention came about almost 20 years after many of the settings were written. Music needs to be truly tried out on the ground, sung in the parishes, before such books are revised. Anyway, a Calamus licence is much cheaper than a new set of books. If you already have one, you'll have no need of temporary copyright clearance.

Spent yesterday planning music for 2010. Have specifically included several new processional songs and communion psalms. The reason is that I expect that by 2011 (although we don't have a date yet) I'll be busy introducing our community to some new acclamations. We currently have six sets – in all honesty, that's going to take a couple of years to sort out.

[Psalm Project]

"We currently have six sets of acclamations which will have to be replaced. Those settings are beginning to sound tired – we've been singing two of them for more than four years and the rest for two to three years. We really could do with a change. Obviously we can't introduce settings of the new texts yet (or we could, but there's many a slip between cup and lip!) and it would be foolish to introduce new settings of the existing texts.

And to the composers of those original six sets of acclamations which 'Have' to be replaced... well, it a bit of a slap in the face!
This entire 'changeover' issue is becoming tedious. I've spoken to many clergy - some of whom are trained musicians and a couple are directors of liturgy in different dioceses - We have a wealth of very good music to hand which is working very well in many instances. The better quality material we currently work with is NOT going to disappear in a puff of wind just because a new 'better' translation is on the agenda.
I can hear the clamor of the academics and erudite translators... give it a rest... We are definitely not throwing out what we currently have - I see duality being the order of the day.
How many people have you spoken to (including composers) have openly embraced the new translations in terms of the musical / lyrical virtues? I hear a LOT of negativity at ground level.
Whatever about the new translations... watch the North American buddies twisting the words to fit the music as they do presently...
Ho Hum... I feel indigestion coming on... and its nothing to do with diet!

[Nick Baty]

We are definitely not throwing out what we currently have - I see duality being the order of the day.

With you there PP. That's why I'm planning a two-year crossover period.

[Psalm Project]

Still on Mc Farrigle!
Where on earth did you root that book from!

[keitha]

As I understand it, the current timetable for the publication of the new Roman Missal envisages that the relevant conferences of bishops will be voting on the 'Grey Book' texts (ie final drafts before submission to Rome for recognitio) by the end of 2009. Cardinal Canizares (who has replaces Cardinal Arinze) has said that he wants the whole process to be speeded up (particularly in relation to the main texts) so that the texts to be sent for recognitio are submitted by 30 November 2009. I suspect that Cardinal Canizares is pressing the accelerator here, so that recognitio could be granted within 12 months (but no-one knows - it could take a couple of years). At that point, it is generally accepted that publishers will have to be given at least a year to publish the new missals.

On that basis, it seems to me that the shortest timescale possible could mean implementation on Advent Sunday 2011, but I would think 2012 would be more likely (we could run a book on this!). I am also assuming that the Eucharistic Prayers for Childrens' Masses are published separately later on (the process for these seems to have ground to a halt at the moment).

I am therefore working on the assumption that there will be no change implemented during liturgical years 2009/10 and 2010/11.

[Gabriel]

keitha's well argued post does not factor in that Rome have been consulted on this translation throughout and that their advisory committee 'Vox Clara' has given general approval. It may all come back sooner than you think...

[keitha]

Thanks Gabriel. My earliest date (Advent Sunday 2011) had taken into account the Vox Clara involvement that you refer to. So if the texts get to Rome by 30 November, we could have recognitio sometime during 2010, texts then get issued and the publishers then get to work; a year later and we are in 2011 and (both traditionally and logically) Advent Sunday is the most likely implementation day. I would, however, still be willing to put a (small) wager on 2012!

This is why I do not think there will be anything to change during the next two liturgical years (particularly after the hoo-hah when South Africa jumped the gun last year).

[FrGareth]

My plans aren't fully thought through yet but go something like this:

(i) Core Latin texts haven't changed in the 2000 revision of the Missal. So we could learn one or two unfamiliar settings of these (Orbis Factor perhaps?) to complement de Angelis and Messe de Sainte Boniface as part of our current repertoire.

(ii) My parish doesn't currently sing settings in Welsh but could learn some.

(iii) When the new texts become official and mandatory, use familiar sung Latin or Welsh chants and introduce the new English ones gradually.

(iv) We have a gifted organist in the parish who wrote settings of the current Mass a few years ago. I've given him the new texts and asked him to compose a set of "echo-and-response" Mass parts (in the style of Philip Gaisford's setting of Eucharistic Prayer II) which - if cantors and myself learn them prior to switchover - should produce a usable set of people's responses immediately.

FrGareth

[Nick Baty]

(ii) My parish doesn't currently sing settings in Welsh but could learn some.

Am I right in thinking the Welsh Missal is translated from the English rather than from the Latin?

[alan29]

(ii) My parish doesn't currently sing settings in Welsh but could learn some.

Am I right in thinking the Welsh Missal is translated from the English rather than from the Latin?

My understanding is that the English language missal is used as the basis for transltion into quite a lot of other languages.
Maybe that is why we are being lumbered with a translation that fails as English on many levels, and in fact is rather insulting to those of us who speak the language as a mother tongue. At least it slavishly follows the Latin.

[Nick Baty]

My understanding is that the English language missal is used as the basis for translation into quite a lot of other languages.

Yes, that is why I thought. Does that mean a new Welsh Missal will follow?

[gwyn]

If anyone is considering singing a Welsh translation of the Ordinary, Abbot Alan Rees's 'Our Lady of Cardigan' Mass setting is worthy of consideration. The copy he gave me is a Kyrie (Arglwydd trugarha wrthym), a Sanctus (Sanctaidd) and an Agnus Dei (Oen Duw).

I don't know whether he ever published the setting.

[Nick Baty]

Still on Mc Farrigle! Where on earth did you root that book from!

Very much OT – sorry Mr Bear – but if you've enjoyed that one, try Michael Carson's The Knight of the Flaming Heart.