This is beautiful. I wish this translation/version of the Gloria was available in the Novus Ordo. The music for the Gloria is always so clunky and awkward in the NO when in English. Thankfully our church does the Missa De Angelis Gloria once a month, but it still doesn't feel like much. Unfortunately, I'm usually relieved not to hear the Gloria when Lent comes around because the music we use really doesn’t sound like sacred music at all, and it is even one of the better ones. The only good English ones I've heard have been in the Ordinariate. I assume this is because of how the Anglicans actually translated it to be put to music. Also, it helps that the music was not composed in the 70s lol
My husband and I started singing hymns and chanting the Litugy of the Hours as a family because we wanted our children to be exposed to the good stuff. It has been very fruitful for our family. We were inspired too by your book with Leila Lawler and have recently started incorporating the St Dunstan Psalter after listening to your conversation with Andrew. I'm very excited for the book you have coming out with Word on Fire.
1. Yes, generally, the Ordinariate has arrangements that work. And they know how to offer these in a congregational setting. This latter part is so often lacking, even if the music Catholic parishes choose - and I don't think the generally TLM parishes are much better than Novus Ordo in this regard - comes from the tradition. Even then, there is Anglican music from the 20th century that is horribly dissonant, and I have seen 'cutting edge' choir directors from the Ordinariate offer these on feast days as a supposed treat. I saw this recently, and you should have seen the parishioners turn around and glare at the choir loft. I felt like saying to the pastor that if they do this, they will drive people away. It is staggering how often those trained in the conservatory want to appeal and pander to the secular mainstream in order to feel that they have justified their existence.
2. The reason that I focus on the Domestic Church and the Liturgy of the Hours is precisely for the reason that you say - we have some control over the choice of music in a liturgical context. This is why Andrew Goldstein and I have written Muscia Domestica to offer a canon of noble yet accessible music for a liturgical setting. The hope is that this will establish itself and then gradually pass from the home into the parish, edging out the modernist music graduate choir directors at one extreme, or the boomer choir that has been occupying the choir loft and singing On Eagles Wings since 1967 on the other.
Thank you for introducing me to this music by Andrew Dittman, as well as to Paul Jernberg and Roman Hurko. It is so encouraging and inspiring to know there are still composers creating new but traditional and reverent settings for these ageless liturgical prayers and Masses.
This is beautiful. I wish this translation/version of the Gloria was available in the Novus Ordo. The music for the Gloria is always so clunky and awkward in the NO when in English. Thankfully our church does the Missa De Angelis Gloria once a month, but it still doesn't feel like much. Unfortunately, I'm usually relieved not to hear the Gloria when Lent comes around because the music we use really doesn’t sound like sacred music at all, and it is even one of the better ones. The only good English ones I've heard have been in the Ordinariate. I assume this is because of how the Anglicans actually translated it to be put to music. Also, it helps that the music was not composed in the 70s lol
My husband and I started singing hymns and chanting the Litugy of the Hours as a family because we wanted our children to be exposed to the good stuff. It has been very fruitful for our family. We were inspired too by your book with Leila Lawler and have recently started incorporating the St Dunstan Psalter after listening to your conversation with Andrew. I'm very excited for the book you have coming out with Word on Fire.
There is so much to respond to here Ameila.
1. Yes, generally, the Ordinariate has arrangements that work. And they know how to offer these in a congregational setting. This latter part is so often lacking, even if the music Catholic parishes choose - and I don't think the generally TLM parishes are much better than Novus Ordo in this regard - comes from the tradition. Even then, there is Anglican music from the 20th century that is horribly dissonant, and I have seen 'cutting edge' choir directors from the Ordinariate offer these on feast days as a supposed treat. I saw this recently, and you should have seen the parishioners turn around and glare at the choir loft. I felt like saying to the pastor that if they do this, they will drive people away. It is staggering how often those trained in the conservatory want to appeal and pander to the secular mainstream in order to feel that they have justified their existence.
2. The reason that I focus on the Domestic Church and the Liturgy of the Hours is precisely for the reason that you say - we have some control over the choice of music in a liturgical context. This is why Andrew Goldstein and I have written Muscia Domestica to offer a canon of noble yet accessible music for a liturgical setting. The hope is that this will establish itself and then gradually pass from the home into the parish, edging out the modernist music graduate choir directors at one extreme, or the boomer choir that has been occupying the choir loft and singing On Eagles Wings since 1967 on the other.
Thank you for introducing me to this music by Andrew Dittman, as well as to Paul Jernberg and Roman Hurko. It is so encouraging and inspiring to know there are still composers creating new but traditional and reverent settings for these ageless liturgical prayers and Masses.
It's a pleasure! Spread the word. These composers deserve to be featured.