‘Alleluia de Angelis’
As our parish embarks upon the new mission of learning the Missa VIII (a.k.a. the Missa de Angelis — the ‘Mass of the Angels’) it occurred to me that that deriving the Gospel Acclamation from another movement of the Mass might be a nice, if subtle, way of learning a portion of one of the other movements before it is formally introduced.
It is our intention to sing the Kyrie (alone) up until Lent, and then introduce each of the remaining movements every few weeks or so after Eastertide. The goal is to then alternate between the Missa de Angelis and the Mass in Honor of Our Lady, Star of the Sea by Michael Olbash—our default setting of the ordinary—every other week throughout the [very] long season of ‘Ordinary Time’.
With these goals in mind, I set myself the task of deriving an Alleluia from either the Sanctus or the Agnus Dei, and settled on the version derived from the Sanctus. As this melody is chant, properly speaking, it is wonderfully imbued with that same spirit, and after introducing it to the choir yesterday, they all agreed that it was a lovely Alleluia and that it ‘felt right’ (so to speak). So, I offer the ‘Alleluia de Angelis’ to all of you, in the hopes that this might also help other parishes, especially those seeking to introduce chanting.
Two versions of the score are provided above: the first has the next 6 weeks (OT2-OT7, 2023) of verses underlaid to the provided tone. The second is a blank version where choirmasters can do their own pointing for these or other weeks throughout the year.
Nota Bene: The verse tone which is included in this arrangement is a combination of the “miserere” formula taken from the Agnus Dei (this stemming from my other adaptation of the Agnus Dei which is not posted here) and the Office Psalm Tone I(d). Those who wish to use this Alleluia but would prefer either to use a simpler (or an official) verse tone, are encouraged to do so, and I would suggest using Office Tone VI or VI alt. A handy chart of office tones is available on the CMAA website.
It is also worth noting that adapting English text to Gregorian psalm tones is, well, an imperfect art. One can either follow strict Latinate rules which make the English text feel awkward to sing, or one can bend the rules as to how formulæ are typically applied, to make the English feel much more natural to sing. Adaptations always require certain compromises, and some may vehemently disagree with how I’ve set the text in the first example above. I take no offense at this, and encourage such persons to do their own adaptations, as previously mentioned, to a tone of their choosing that is sympathetic to the mode and feel of the Alleluia.
Those seeking to use the tone I’ve provided but with different texts for alternate weeks of the year may wish to avail themselves of the small alphanumerics that I’ve added above the formula, as this will help singers who are unsure of themselves where exactly to place the text.
