New/Revised Mass Settings - Across the Pond

[musicus]

... The chant setting of the gloria is one way of getting around the dreadful rhythm of "...peace on earth to people of good will."

Actually isn't the revised text "and on earth peace to people of good will"???

Yes, it is - this is a slip, but Noel's online score is correct.

[noel jones]

Thanks - actually it was a quote of a reply to my post - but saw no reason to make the correction, after all, any publicity is better than none at all!

(I have made the correction now - musicus, moderator)

[mcb]

Here's an interesting review of new OCP settings. There's a review of GIA offerings on the same site.

[Nick Baty]

The reviewer appears more interested in the production of these settings than in their practical application.

Perhaps a few of this board's contributors would like to add their own reviews (new thread?) on here.
The GIA settings can be found at: http://www.giamusic.com/sacred_music/ne ... ttings.cfm
And those from OCP at: http://www.ocp.org/newmasssettings/newsettings

I usually use the Shower Test: Listen to a Holy, for example, and then see if you can still sing it after a good long luxurious shower! If you can, there's a good chance your community will cope with it.

I used to have a similar technique with a dodgy gas fire: it would only spark up if you held down the ignition key for a complete Hail Holy Queen. But that's another story.

[musicus]

Here's an interesting review of new OCP settings. There's a review of GIA offerings on the same site.

Thanks - I enjoyed reading those. For the most part, I agreed with them too (but I think GIA have now taken down the example PDFs and replaced them with an online order form - unless I am missing something.)

Never mind the quality, feel the width. The sheer number of new settings certainly highlights how far behind we currently are in the UK.

[Nick Baty]

The sheer number of new settings certainly highlights how far behind we currently are in the UK.

Only if there's something that makes the US settings unusable over here!

[musicus]

Well, it would be good to have at least a few native (UK) settings available. I'm not decrying the US contribution, but, as Marty Haugen himself says in the introduction to his Songbook (Decani), you don't have to use only North American music.

[Nick Baty]

'Tis true. But the majority of music we use, even that by UK composers, is actually published in the US.
Is there a UK publisher to compare with GIA, OCP or WLP?
Could there be?

[docmattc]

Never mind the quality, feel the width. The sheer number of new settings certainly highlights how far behind we currently are in the UK.

I wonder if the sheer number of settings is really a good thing. Every parish/deanery/diocese/country having some common repertoire might not be a bad idea. There was a time when this was achieved with XVIII or VIII, both fairly widely known, if only sung by the choir.

Bishop Arthur suggested the missal tone setting might be the one to be held in common, and as a simple setting, sung unaccompanied it would be useful to know, but would one want something more festive for those occasions when the parish/deanery/diocese/country comes together?

[Southern Comfort]

Well, it would be good to have at least a few native (UK) settings available. I'm not decrying the US contribution, but, as Marty Haugen himself says in the introduction to his Songbook (Decani), you don't have to use only North American music.

I'm aware of a setting by Phil Jakob and one by Alan Smith — don't know where they will be published — and Paul Inwood has five new ones in the pipeline according to the Magnificat Music website. There must surely be others too?

Laudate is due to contain revised versions of a number of existing settings (including the Plymouth Mass, I hear tell, and a revised Peter Jones Gloria), and once again the Magnificat Music site mentions revised versions of Gathering Mass, Millennium Mass and Coventry Acclamations, all of which are in the current Laudate and so will presumably appear in their updated versions. Laudate will also, I gather, contain some new UK settings, and surely Stephen Dean himself will have been writing something?...

I'm not aware that any of this material is due to be published in North America. There has been something of an unseemly scramble to get things out across the Atlantic, despite the fact that American parishes won't be able to use any of it until December. The publishers have been trying to ensure that their share of the market doesn't suffer by being late on the scene. They're also trying to recoup the huge financial investment they have made, not to mention all the money down the drain when they had to re-engrave/reprint/re-record settings when the texts changed — twice! That's what happens when you rush things through in an attempt to be first off the mark.

What we are also seeing, it seems to me, is an attempt to provide in a very short space of time indeed the equivalent of the amount of material produced over more than two decades previously. In the UK we are taking things at a more leisurely pace, and it appears that much home-produced material will be available around Easter time — still in plenty of time for a new Order of Mass in September, if the current plan is implemented. I'd have thought, therefore, that it was worth sitting tight and waiting a while to see what appears.

[Nick Baty]

So many existing UK settings first appeared in those wonderful one-man imprints of the 70s and 80s: Chiswick, Clifton, Magnificat etc. They were well and truly tried and tested on the ground, in parishes and in countless workshops before, through a process of natural selection, they found their way into more permanent collections. Perhaps we'll see a revival of this method of sharing music. There may be exciting times ahead!

[presbyter]

I'm aware of a setting by Phil Jakob and one by Alan Smith — don't know where they will be published — and Paul Inwood has five new ones in the pipeline according to the Magnificat Music website. There must surely be others too?

I am also aware of new through-settings of the Gloria by Alan Smith and Peter Jones that will be offered for assessment at the seminar for composers on 19th March and yes, Stephen Dean has indeed been busy.

[mcb]

Looking at the GIA page of revised settings, I see that some hapless web administrator has replaced the word Order on all the buttons with Learn More. The side effect of referring throughout the page to The 2010 Revised Learn More of Mass has a certain ring to it.

[Peter]

I like it, mcb! Did you accept their invitation to "learn more yours today"?

[Hare]

I am also aware of new through-settings of the Gloria by Alan Smith and Peter Jones that will be offered for assessment at the seminar for composers on 19th March and yes, Stephen Dean has indeed been busy.

So the day WOULD have been of use to me after all! And I've cancelled now!