Catholic Sensibility

The Mass Under a Microscope: Gloria IGRM 53: "The Gloria is the ancient and venerable hymn in which the Church, assembled in the Holy Spirit, praises and entreats God the Father and the Lamb. The text of this hymn is not to be replaced by any other." I don't know if the link has ever been verified, but a grad school prof of mine suggested the early Church sang a psalm for the beginning of Mass, adding a doxology at the end to "Christianize" the music. As time went on, the psalm gradually was reduced to the single antiphon, and the doxology expanded with some credal elements into the hymn we know as the Gloria. A friend of mine once wondered why the early Christians never developed their own New Testament corrollary to the Psalter, a collection of 150 inspired hymns and canticles in praise of Christ. I can think of several reasons why that didn't happen, but industrious Scripture scholars could probably comb through the NT and find about 30 to 40 expressions of sung prayer to satisfy themselves, if they wanted. "The Gloria is begun by the priest or, as needs dictate, by a cantor or a choir..." Okay, a clear hierarchy of preference: priest, cantor, then choir, in that order. Another hierarchy: 1. "... but is sung by everyone together," 2. "... or by the people alternately with the choir," 3. "... or by the choir alone." To me, this would abrogate a consistent practice of a choir singing the Gloria alone. I've gotten into a few tussles with folks who consider the "responsorial" Glorias a bad idea. If the quality of the composition is high, that's not too bothersome to me, but I do prefer "through-composed," that is, a straight through setting without repeats. IGRM clearly puts a choral Gloria under the rung of a responsorial Gloria. So there, I guess. "If not sung, it is to be recited either by all or by two parts of the congregation responding to each other. The Gloria is sung or said on Sundays outside Advent and Lent, on solemnities and feasts, and in special, more solemn celebrations." My new pastor favors singing the Gloria every week. At present three separate settings circulate amongst our parish cantors and choirs, these being used only on big feasts. In Iowa, I got used to singing a weekly Gloria. They did it before I hit town and I certainly saw no problem with changing that fine practice. We found the Alstott through-composed setting to be easily learned and very durable. The repertoire also had the Creation setting and Haas' from Mass of Light. I didn't find the twinning of Entrance Song and Gloria to be unduly weighty. We'll likely be making the addition here, once we can agree on some more consistency in the settings and get people used to it.