I’m working from the old combined guitar version of As One Voice and at this point they have the “Mass for Moderns” by Father Stephen Robinson, the “Mass Shalom” by Brother Colin Smith, the “Mass of Creation” by Marty Haugen and the “Mass of Freedom” by Maggie Russell.
The revised combined guitar version of AOV apparently has updated mass settings, however I haven’t heard that the “Mass for Moderns” had been adapted to the new translation. *
I have blogged the new “Mass of Creation” starting here and it is in high rotation going by the number of searches looking for it that find this site. Paul Mason revised Colin Smith’s Mass with some success and I have blogged the revised version here. I’m afraid I couldn’t get past the new Gloria of the revised “Mass of Freedom”.
Which brings me to the end of “As One Voice” Volume One. It was only published in 1992 and has succeeded wildly in its aim of producing an “affordable and functional hymnal that offers … a varied selection of the best liturgical music now available from overseas, together with familiar and new material from our own liturgical composers here in Australia.”
I’ve been looking at the foreward by Fr Kevin Bates in my people’s edition. It is worth reading in its entirety:
In a busy, bustling world searching for meaning and hope, the Christian Church draws from its treasury, things new and old, so that the world might come to taste something of this meaning and hope.
The Church has a long memory.
The Church also has great imagination and passion for the future.
God’s people are always on the lookout for music which both remembers and imagines, which is true to their memory and which is life giving for their future. God’s people are constantly on the lookout for music which both nourishes and challenges, which heals, which proclaims truth and beauty, which comforts and celebrates joyfully the hope that Jesus’ living and dying and rising means something to us all.
God’s people are also looking for music which speaks to them with immediacy, with language and sounds that find a home in their hearts without need for explanation and translation, just as the stories of Jesus did when he sang his song among us so many years ago.
This collection of music in “As One Voice” takes an initiative, the purpose of which is to be more comprehensive, more earthed, more hospitable and more true to the broader memory and aspirations of the Christian people. It is wth great joy and enthusiasm that we present this outstanding collection to you. And it is with grateful hearts that we move forward, encouraged by the response that this project has already received from so many quarters of the Church.
I recommend “As One Voice” to you for your worshipping communities, for families and for personal prayer and reflection.
As do I.
Looking about the net for background about the songs there is (ahem) a certain amount of hostility to this collection that is somewhat hard to fathom. Going through every song required me to note the number of traditional hymns to which I had paid little attention. The inevitable number of Haugen, Haas, Hurd etc songs is reasonable considering they were looking back at the sixties, seventies and eighties and, while I am now a grumpy old man of fifty, I don’t find them the breath of Satan. For all the folk leanings, there are modern “traditional” hymns by Christopher Walker and Paul Inwood as a contrast. The other delightful thing about AOV is, of course, the Australian liturgical musicians who found a place in this collection. One of the painful things about the lurch to tradition we are currently living through is that it necessarily banishes anything Australian as too recent for consideration.
I suspect the communal will and thought and prayer life of the pew sitters, otherwise known as the Holy Spirit, will not allow the voice to be silenced.
I will get around to AOV 2 soon.
* 22/12/2012
I have heard that the Mass for Moderns has been revised and is in use but I have none of the publication details.
Its sad that Mass for Moderns has not been revised, As it was easy for people to sing and play, I Think it was written in 1973 so I’m not sure that Stephen Robinson is still writing music?
Maybe Mass for moderns is adaptable with a little work, I’ll talk to the other Musicians after mass next week.
Hi D D. Mass for Moderns has been revised and you can buy it for around $10 on the As One Voice website.
I know he is still writing music. Why not ask Stephen Robinson himself? You could google his name, it comes up several times on the 1st page of the search.
Mass for Moderns was revised by the composer in 2010. I did the music typesetting and have the completed work in full accompaniment form as well as lead sheet. However it was, unfortunately, not approved for publication by the NLMB.
I’m aware that some parishes still use MFM with their own adaptations to the revised text, a commentary on the popularity of the setting, but such a shame that the composer’s intentions can’t be honoured.