Wednesday, June 08, 2011

And With Your Spirit: Guide To Singing the New English Translation of the Mass

And with your spirit


A guide to singing the new English translation of the Mass

It has been both a privilege and a pleasure to record this CD of music contained in the new English translation of the Missale Romanum editio typica tertia. The importance of music in the Mass is clearly emphasised in the new Missal both by its layout and the sheer quantity of music contained in it. It is hoped that this recording will prove to be an invaluable resource for all those wishing to learn to sing the Mass and also help the faithful appreciate the richness of the language of the new translation.

Disc 1 contains all the parts of the Mass including the English ‘default’ setting of the Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus & Agnus Dei), all the People’s Responses, the four main Eucharistic Prayers and a selection of Prefaces.

Disc 2 contains much of the additional chant to be found in the new Missal including Credo III, two alternative settings of the Lord’s Prayer, further Prefaces (some at a lower pitch), music for Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter and other useful chant. The shorter and longer versions of the Easter Proclamation (Exsultet) are also included and sung in two pitches to suit different voices.

There are over ninety Prefaces with full music notation in the new Missal. As is not possible to fit all these on to a CD, The Music Makers is pleased to offer these as a free resource, which may be downloaded in mp3 file format – go to www.themusicmakers.org and select the Prefaces Download page.

The Music Makers has always strongly supported the continued use of Latin in the Ordinary Form of the Mass, in line with Vatican II and subsequent teaching documents. Although the chant has been sensitively set in English, the original Latin chant has greater beauty.

The Latin parts of the Mass are not that difficult to learn and we would particularly recommend two of our earlier CDs, Orate Fratres (for priests) and Plainsong for Parishes to be used as learning tools to help the faithful sing the Mass. The new Missal encourages us to sing the Mass. Why not go a step further and sing in Latin?

There is no necessity for all priests to sing the Mass at the same pitch. However, the pitch we have selected should be within the scope of most priests and celebrants should be careful not to make their chosen tone pitch either too high or too low for their congregations comfortably to reply.

Cantate Domino canticum novum…

Jeremy de Satgé, The Music Makers, May 2011

Here are some sample tracks provided by the Music Makers:

Track 2 - Greeting - Simple Tone
Track 6 - Gloria
Track 9 - Liturgy of the Word - Dialogue
Track 23 - Preface Dialogue
Track 28 - Memorial Acclamation
Track 40 - Doxology
Track 41 - Lord’s Prayer, Embolism, and Doxology
Track 43 - Agnus Dei
Track 47 - Blessing - Simple Tone
Track 51 - Dismissal

2 CDs, £14.94 per copy.

Available from the Catholic Truth Society, St Paul's Bookshops, Redemptorist Publications, Pauline Books & Media and other retailers or by direct mail order from The Music Makers.

For more details: The Music Makers

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