For nearly 1400 years this chant was the voice of the Church gathered in the liturgy. Of course there were other settings and chants (the Scottish and Anglican chant among them for Lutherans) but Gregorian was the chant that taught the Church to sing with one voice, more than any other.... While I do retain a certain fondness for the Deutsche Messe and its hymnic settings of the ordinary, I do not think it healthy that a congregation choose these for exclusive use. As much as I like rhymed and metrical forms, they do impose a certain wooden character to the free flowing character of the ordinary.
Thus saith this Lutheran pastor.
