The Recovering Choir Director

The question asked by this previous post has been answered. And it is a victory for charitable creativity and online sharing of musical settings of the new Mass Ordinary in English…and potentially more. On NLM, Jeffrey Tucker reports on the financial ramifications of this decision at the parish level (links and emphasis added):

ICEL has agreed to not charge any royalties on free downloads of music, providing the source is acknowledged…

In effect, this puts ICEL’s texts in the category of a creative commons, non-commercial attribution license. This means that the English-speaking Church can look forward to free music in the future, at long last. This will mean so much to financially strapped parishes and cathedrals. It means that when the new texts are promulgated, they won’t have to spend many thousands of dollars more simply to have music to sing…

Michael Lawrence concentrates on the artistic freedom angle of the matter, stating:

This decision effectively emancipates the creativity of composers everywhere who wish to make musical settings of the new translation of the liturgy.  Anyone can now compose and publish; no one need gain the favor of one of the big publishers in order for his work to see the light of day. This ends a monopoly, and I hope it also begins an era of artistic renaissance.

While current posted chant settings of the English Ordinary on MusicaSacra.com will need to be taken down until the bishops’ conference gives the green light for usage of the new texts in the liturgy, this is still a significant development.

Even more significant is that the permission apparently extends beyond the Ordinary to the entire Missal; this means that free (”as in beer“) settings of the ICEL translations of the antiphons will not be charged royalties either.

Previous commentary on this site may be found under “Intellectual Property”. Under that topic, you will find a setting of the Mass Ordinary in Latin free of all encumbrances other than attribution, a recently composed motet released under similar permissions, and the reasoning behind such a release.

A hearty Bravo! to ICEL and the unnamed bishops who worked to effect this decision.