Saturday, November 28, 2009

What "Mass Setting" Should Your Parish Use?

Only a few years ago, it seemed like very few Catholic musicians knew anything of the book called the Kyriale - a portion of the song book of the Roman Rite that collects the chants of the ordinary of the Mass: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus. Today, there is a growing consciousness that this is the book that solves that great dilemma that every parish deals with: what "Mass setting should we use?"

As with most great questions and issues like this, it turns out that the Church had the answer all along. It's been like a treasure buried in the field for all these years. The Roman Rite actually provides 18 full settings of the sung ordinary and many additional pieces to be used throughout the year. The first Kyriale went online about two years ago, and the development in online tools has been speedy and impressive.

So I'm pleased to tell you about St. Antoine Daniel Latin Ordinaries. The site has audios of each chant along with editions with and without accompaniment, and many options to print by the chant or by the entire setting. This entire site is designed to teach and provide, an outstanding service of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Please click through and have a look, and send this to your music director. This is an extraordinarily effective tool for evangelizing.

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