A recording of a live use of the new translation

The NLM posts a BBC recording of the Mass with the new translation from Our Lady and the English Martyrs, Cambridge. The language of the New Missal sounds fantastic as expected. It is a big upgrade – and mostly what I experience here is blessed relief. Oh so blessed.

However, there is much progress to be made in the surrounding music.

  • Mass begins not with the introit but with a song based on a text that is not part of the liturgy
  • The celebrant evidently refuses to sing anything in the Kyrie and so the penitential rite goes back and forth between speaking from the altar and singing from the loft
  • Credo is not sung even though there are two excellent settings in the new Missal
  • The Offertory chant is replaced by a hymn with non-liturgical text
  • The preface dialogue before the Sign of Peace should be sung to encourage more decorum
  • Communion chant dropped and replaced by a motet. 

On the plus side

  • The Gloria is fantastic.
  • The celebrant sings the preface and does a great job
  • The Eucharistic Acclamation sung without accompaniment: excellent
  • Our Father sung with outstanding melody, one that should be immediately adopted all through the English-speaking world.
  • Agnus Dei sung properly with cantor only on each “Lamb of God” – not one in one hundred parishes will get this right.