The Recovering Choir Director

The MusicaSacra Forum has an ongoing discussion about an “official” Mass setting for the English language. Mark M. makes the following comment about Gregorian Chant:

Frustratingly, right now they only sing that [Jubilate Deo Mass] during Lent, thereby creating an unfortunate, exclusive association between Latin chant and penitence! Easter comes, and it’s good riddance to all that gloomy stuff…

[If I remember correctly, when I was music director at the Cornell Catholic Community, we would only break out Agnus Dei XVIII during Lent. Other chants in the Latin language were Pange lingua on Holy Thursday (which was changed to English my last year there) and the Taizé setting of Ubi caritas.]

The unintentional yet unescapable irony here is that, for the English-speaking Catholic with a rudimentary knowledge of Latin, it is actually penitential to sing the current ICEL translations of the Mass - and depending on the setting, adaptations thereof - week after week, with all of their imprecision. So, the efforts towards more accurate translations notwithstanding, perhaps a better way to seasonally select a Mass Ordinary would be to sing the ICEL translations during Advent and Lent exclusively, while singing the chanted Latin settings during Christmas, Easter, and the rest of the liturgical year.