Monday, July 14, 2008

You can't do this at the Traditional Latin Mass

There is a lot of wonderful Anglican choral repertoire which is quite fitting for the liturgy which, due to the fact that it is in English, cannot be done at a sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form. This is lamentable, but is it really a good idea to change this situation? On the one hand, one is tempted to say that allowing music in English--once the Propers were completed in Latin, of course--would be disastrous because this could not be done while simultaneously effectively mandating the requisite good taste to make this work to an edifying purpose. On the other hand, there is a lot of really awful music in Latin.

I'm torn on this one.

Well, just enjoy C.H. Hubert Parry's I Was Glad:

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