Mass Settings

This little bit of a Mass setting is something that can be used in any season (well it’s got some Alleluias so let’s avoid Lent, eh, but…..) I wrote these so I had something I could cantor as I presided – when used in Lent / Advent without Gloria – when used outside those seasons using a metrical / hymn tune Gloria. I called it a “Mission” Mass because I believe the liturgy is beautiful and draws people closer to God – and that being able to easily participate in a sung liturgy makes that connection more immediate for anyone coming into church who doesn’t have any kind of previous experience with it. We could get into a long conversation about people singing anything in public however easy it is to do so, and cultural change – but not today. Just thinking as I upload that it could do with a “memorial acclamation”.

I wrote this years ago – partly inspired by the fact that you can never fit everyone’s favourite Christmas Carols into one service – and many folk may only come to one service as part of their Christmas celebrations. Also my experience was choristers saying “of course we’ll be at the midnight service Rachel, what do you take us for?” – and then having no-one there to sing the choral music I had set expecting there to be a choir. I needed anyone coming in to be able to enthusiastically join in the whole service – including the mass setting.

This started as a whole setting to IRIS (87 87 47) – which you may know as the tune of “Angel’s from the Realms of Glory”. I don’t mind telling you it only took me one Christmas season to get heartily sick of all the mass parts being to the same tune. In a rather lovely twist of fate – Robb & Ruth Sutherland, who mastermind the Rock Mass with their band Metanoia – have adopted and adapted the original “IRIS” version – and it works really really well in that context. I’ve added the link so you can go along look at all the very cool stuff they do.

But as I said – I got hugely bored very quickly and feared in a context of organ and choral music I would have people tearing their hair out – so this is what I ended up with. It’s been on my old blog for a while – and I understand there’s a couple of folks round the country who have used it – which is great. I’ve just added the Coventry Carol Agnus – which I rather like – super atmospheric at that point in the liturgy. This was because at my current church nobody knew “Born in the night”.

Soon to follow as I keep building. I’ve got one I call the “Missing mass” because I only found it recently and have no recollection of where or when I wrote it. I’ve also just written one I’m going to call the St Bride’s Mass – because I was staying in the St Bride room on retreat at Parceval Hall a couple of weeks ago and they let me use the piano in the chapel – and the St Bride’s is what happened.