Time to say "Yes" to the new Missal...

[contrabordun]

NT - My post was disputing whether you have established that there actually is a problem

[musicus]

I suspect that many liturgical musicians have come to expect a more overt, robust expression of joy from settings of the Gloria

Guilty as charged...but it seems to me a reasonable thing to expect, given the words.

and other mass texts

I've not seen any evidence for this though (ie that liturgical musicians' expectations vis a vis the Gloria apply to other mass texts)

Oh, I know quite a few settings of the Lamb of God where a superficial response to the words has led to inappropriate/cuddly/fluffy/wooly sentimentality. There is, I suggest, a wider range of approaches in mainstream 'classical' liturgical music. Listening to last night's Prom on TV, I was reminded of how Beethoven avoids this, in the Agnus Dei of his Missa Solemnis. On a much smaller scale, so did Britten, in his very acidic setting in the Missa Brevis. And for a more restrained approach to the Gloria (and, indeed, to all the texts of the Proper) try Stravinsky's Mass. OTOH, I wouldn't want to be deprived of such settings as the Glorias in Haydn's late Masses.

(Having written this, I suspect that we may be veering off-topic...)

[Peter]

Listening to last night's Prom on TV, I was reminded of how Beethoven avoids this, in the Agnus Dei of his Missa Solemnis.

Beethoven would have fallen foul of the Gang of Five and Liturgiam Authenticam: his Gloria includes an unauthorised interjection in "O! miserere nobis" (which is in the score and was sung on Sunday even if it wasn't included in the text in the programme)! They might not have liked the third "miserere nobis" before the "dona nobis pacem" in the final movement either, and "Sanctus" never seems to be grouped in threes.

There is, I suggest, a wider range of approaches in mainstream 'classical' liturgical music.

Indeed there is: to take one example, Mozart's settings of the Sanctus generally start loud and grandly scored, presumably trying to emulate the choirs of angels in heaven; Haydn's are generally much quieter and more reflective, suggesting humanity in awe-struck contemplation. Bach sides with the former in his B minor Mass; Beethoven with the latter. Which approach (if either) should we aim for in contemporary settings? I can't think of any that depart very far from the mid-point between these two extremes.