The Recovering Choir Director

Sunday, August 21 was the day of the Papal Mass at the Marienfeld. Having experienced the less-than-successful conception and execution (in terms of the accoutrements, not the Eucharist) of Pope John Paul II’s final foreign World Youth Day Mass in Toronto three years earlier, I wondered what could be expected of this Mass, especially in terms of the Mass Ordinary.

Thomas Gabriel, a composer from nearby Essen, penned the Missa Mundi (Mass of the World) using the following Gregorian melodies with instruments from five continents:

Kyrie: Kyrie XVI (Europe)
Gloria*: Gloria XV (Latin America)
Credo*: Credo I (Asia)
Sanctus: Sanctus XVIII (Africa)
Agnus Dei: Agnus Dei XVIII (Australia)

*responsorial

Perhaps the Mass setting would have been more successful if the chants were left unaltered and the instruments were employed to simply accompany them, rather than altering the chants and featuring the instruments in an elaborate (some would say contrived) production. Still, the effect is somewhat more successful than the Missa Lumen Christi penned for WYD 2002—it is decidedly more reverent. Another positive is that it is entirely in Greek and Latin. And finally, with the exception of Credo I, all of these chants are included in the 1974 Jubilate Deo chant booklet that Pope Paul VI offered to the Latin Church. So while this Mass setting will rarely find a parish fully equipped to execute it (at least in terms of instrumentation), the more compact source material is readily available.

Thomas Gabriel
Missa Mundi

Source Material:
- Kyrie XVI [MP3]
- Gloria XV [MP3]
- Credo I [MP3]
- Sanctus XVIII [MP3]
- Agnus Dei XVIII [MP3]