I know a high school group of liturgical singers and strummers that might mean well but makes a terrible mess of the music at Mass, week after week. There are thousands of such groups around the country. I’m sure you too know of a few.
The archetypes are common. There’s a drummer, a singer, a backup singer, a pianist, and a guitar player. None of them can play their instruments well. The singer can’t sing without being heavily miked and without musical emoticons strewn throughout. The repertoire is bubble-gum pop ballads with a Jesus theme. People fear going to Masses where they play, and they are the constant brunt of negative mutterings, though the players themselves are not aware of it.
Of course they have no idea what they are doing. No one has ever discussed with them anything about the musical demands of the Roman Rite. They know nothing about the proper orientation for making music at Mass. The liturgical calender is an abstraction. Terms like propers or dialogues are gibberish to them. Most of the players can’t even read music. To them it is an opportunity to see and be seen, a weekly talent gig, and they probably don’t mind it that people give them credit for their service to the parish.
The pastor and celebrant don’t like it any more than anyone else. But the parents of these kids are important people in the parish. The band doesn’t charge any money for their services, such as they are. The director of music has nothing to do with them, and no adults are really involved at any level. At least that teen Mass slot is covered, so, in the balance, it seems to make more sense to tolerate them and endure. Again, it is well known that they mean well, and surely that is enough.
I’m looking at this situation and it seems like an impossible nut to crack.
Some people might look at this and say that the answer is obvious: toss these ill-educated, amateur noise makers out on their ears. Well, that’s an interesting proposal if not exactly pastoral. In fact, I don’t think this approach really works. It does not foster a stable parish environment. It’s not realistic. It doesn’t draw on the existing talents in the parish – and they are thin indeed – and there remains the question concerning who or what would replace them. The Catholic world isn’t exactly crawling with Gregorian choirs waiting in the wings to sing.
So let’s say you had the opportunity to reform them. Keep in mind that this group is not particularly inspired to do more than show up once per week. I’ve thought about this quite a bit and even after all my writing and experience, I’m not entirely sure I would know where to begin. There needs to be a complete reestablishment of musical priorities. They have no idea what they are. And there is a precondition even to that stage: they need to get away from all the microphones, guitars, pianos, and drums, and come to understand that it is not their machinery that makes the music but their voices.
Once we establish the preeminence of the voice in liturgical music, there is another immediate problem. We need sheet music and we can hope that this would not just be yet another collection of junky hymns in a slightly different and stodgier style. We need real liturgical music that is connected intimately to the ritual. Otherwise, they will never come to understand the weightiness of their responsibilities or feel the satisfaction that comes with providing music for Mass.
Now, let’s say that I marched up to this group and handed them the Graduale Romanum and said: sing this! I don’t think I have to explain to readers that this approach is pretty much dead on arrival. In fact, I would suggest that this is true of any music in Latin. This material is absolutely terrifying to this generation. As tragic as this sounds, Latin might as well be German or Russian to these kids. They are nowhere near prepared for it. They barely speak English as it is. What need, then, is music in English, for starters.
Let’s see where we’ve come so far. We’ve led them to see that their voices are more important than their external equipment. We’ve seen that they need to apply their talents to singing not just any Jesus songs that they like but rather music actually connected to the ritual. We realize that this music must be in English.
Now what? If I worked at it I could probably cobble together enough resources to make it possible. I could print out this proper written in 1956 and this choral offertory written in 1992, plus this communion chant someone uploaded last week, and then also this responsorial psalm from a different website. They would all be 8.5X11” printouts from different files online, hard to find and hard to repeat week to week because the resources are so scattered. And let’s face it: a series of random links to scattered material here and there is no substitute for a coherent musical program.
Can you imagine how these kids eyes would glaze over at my explanation? How long would it take these kids to bail out of my great plan here and revert to their fun garage-style music making that everyone else hates and drives people to avoid their Mass time like their plague?
Readers who have been keeping up with the ChantCafe.com know what I’m getting to. I’m getting to the Simple Propers Project of Adam Bartlett and his coworkers. This is music in English in free rhythm, meaning that it does not play to that secular beat approach to music. It is liturgical chant. The editions provide enough music to cover the entire liturgy. They are propers of the Mass so it means that the kids will be contributing to the Mass structure, not behaving as a side show act. This makes their role more important. The music is entirely vocal. It can be sung by one person or twelve. It is a coherent and integrated program.
I’m absolutely beside myself in anticipation of their completion. As I’ve told many people, my dream is to hold that final book in my hands. With this book, at last there will be something to hand to groups like this and say: this is music that is appropriate for you to sing at Mass. It does require a bit of teaching. But how much? I think I could prepare even the kids I describe above to render all this music competently in a single teaching session, and perhaps one followup. This is essential for short-attention spans.
The Simple Propers will acculturate these kids to understand their responsibilities and to come to understand what sacred music feels like and sounds like. This is without long hectoring lectures and treatises and documents on the subject. We teach best by showing and having people do these. This is the best teacher of all. There is another benefit here: the Simple Propers are not an end in themselves. They point to more. They point to the Gregorian tradition because the modality and rhythmic approach is identical. Once having sung propers, choirs will accept no less, so we have here beautifully prepared ground for the re-introduction of the full Gregorian tradition. At some point, the Graduale Romanum will not seem like a book from Mars.
I’ve thought about this whole subject and this book extensively and I’m not exaggerating when I say this: this one book can be bridge for an entire generation to come to embrace the Catholic tradition of music. In this sense, I hardly think there is any more important musical priority for Catholics than this project right now. I’m so excited about it. I’m counting the days until they appear sometime in the summer of 2011.
Thank you again to everyone who has contributed to this marvelous project. We have glorious things to look forward to this Advent.
As a friend of mine once said, "You can't blame people for being lost if no one's ever given them a map." And I think the Simple Propers have great promise to being that map, if and only if they are introduced "properly" (pun intended). Otherwise they will simply gather dust quietly in the choir room.
We're looking at folks who have zero liturgical formation, who believe that worship involves generating emotions, and who honestly believe that history began about the time for their birth.
I think we need to think through the process carefully, considering the different types of singers and directors and pastors we hope to engage – and imagining all the pitfalls that lie ahead. And after that, even to the point of informal "focus groups," then we just do it.
One thing thou lackest–an mp3 rendition (or midi) to make it easy to learn as a "sing along."
We've posted several. And that's just the beginning. We aren't just going for audio. We are doing notation video plus audio for everything in this Gradual.
The greater problem is that MOST people in the contemporary musical "choirs" and many in the pews see NO PROBLEM with what you have described.
It would be most useful if, instead of waiting for the entire collection to be completed, you take a few months' worth to a half dozen parishes precisely as you've described and demonstrate how this works. That can demonstrate to others that it CAN work rather than be another exercise in futility.
The only thing that is missing is the Gradual Psalm, but other than that I love the idea
"The only thing that is missing is the Gradual Psalm, but other than that I love the idea"
I'm thinking of doing a companion volume to this book that would include Responsorial Psalms and Alleluias with Gospel Verses. The idea would be the same–the same psalm tones and so forth. The RP antiphons would be simple and easily learned and sung and the Alleluias would be triple Alleluias as found in the Graduale Simplex, arranged according to the modes used in the Graduale Romanum.
What do you think of this idea?
BUT FIRST…
You have to get the pastor on board. I would imagine that a pastor probably has never given a serious thought to singing propers a day in his life, and least of all in the SEMINARY! At the seminary that I attend, I have been introducing this idea of singing the propers (not actually singing them, merely talking about propers as such). While the initial response is blank expressions, it quickly turns to something like, "I can't believe no one ever told me about this!"
My point is this. Get to the seminarians so that they can (1) help bring this into the parish through the pastor, or;(2)when they become pastors, they know that singing the propers is a reality. Grassroots are great, but a pastor can squealch anything that doesn't sound like Eagle's Wings rather quickly. Priestly formation cannot be forgotten in trying to foward liturgical music in the parish.
Also, Adam, have you thought about working on the Commons?
As regards to the companion volume, perhaps my preference is to have everything printed in a single volume, but I am sure that there is a desire to get the IN, OF, CO propers out ASAP.
"Adam, have you thought about working on the Commons?"
This would be a good idea. The only problem at this point is that we have taken the English translations from the Gregorian Missal for this collection, and the Commons are not included in the GM. Other translations would have to be used for this. I'm open to it, though it will likely be in another edition or something down the road.
"As regards to the companion volume, perhaps my preference is to have everything printed in a single volume, but I am sure that there is a desire to get the IN, OF, CO propers out ASAP."
I agree with this idea completely, but there are a few issues at play:
1. Most people already have some solution for the Responsorial Psalm and Alleluia, since these are currently required in the rubrics. Almost no one sings the IN, OF and CO, so a volume with just these will fill a huge gap.
2. The size of the book will matter. At this point we're looking at around 300 pages or more.
3. The texts we're using can be shared freely without concern of copyright or royalties. Using the ICEL texts will introduce questions of copyright restriction into play.
All this being said, I really think that this book is going to be a beginning, not an end. I'm sure that much, much more will follow.
Thank you, Jeffrey, for the couageous description of the music situation so common today at so-called youth Masses. Thank you, Adam, for your courageous tackling of the enormous job of writing propers in English in chant. Now the job for every truly courageous music director and pastor is to educate the musicians on what is correct musically at Mass. The idea that the music at Mass for young people has to be their style of popular music needs to be challenged. "Liturgitainment" is not the goal. Worship is the goal. Parishes will need good liturgical music at other Masses for the youth to emulate. Not a small task…
In my experience I've found that it is the juvenile delinquents in their 50s and 60s who LOVE Teen Masses. The kids, not so much.
Our youth and children's choirs have taken well to Fr. Kelly's sacramentary propers.
In contrast, my four-year-old son was having a bad Sunday morning, and my wife opted to take him to a Sunday evening Mass at a neighboring parish. It happened to be a Life Teen Mass with drums, electric guitars and a drop-down screen with words and a bouncing ball. My son's behavior didn't improve much; as soon as he entered the church, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Hey, this isn't church. There's a band up there!"
Take it for what it's worth.
Re: Anonymous – as an old cat in my sixties I take some offense in your referring to me and my contemporaries as "juvenile delinquents" who prefer the praise band style to chant. I grew up singing chant. I long for its return to its rightful place in the Mass. Check your facts about us senior citizens before lumping us into a group of musical delinquents.
Prior to my musical conversion, I took my youngest son to a local parish teen mass errantly thinking it would help him "perk up". He hated it and felt insulted.
This kid of mine, who loves ACDC, Def Leopard, Led Zeppelin, to name a few, could not understand how the church felt it could compete with the likes of these musical icons.
He made a brilliant point. Liturgical music is mean to be special and sacred in the same way that Stairway to Heaven is meant to be "special and sacred" to the rock world. When we turn that song into Muzak, people roll their eyes. Why? They have mocked a piece of "art". That's what has happened with church music when it is profaned by boomchik rockers at Mass.
The church has lost her credibility in this arena (e.g. scandal) because she has sold herself out. We have profaned the sacred, replacing it with sappy, cartoonish, irreverent melodies that inspire a lot of self aggrandizing human-worship. It is now the time to "wake from sleep" and implement what you and others have suggested. The Simple Propers Project can do just that. It will require great love and patience to educate laity and shepherds alike.
I'm grateful to you for blogs like this and the herculean efforts being waged by you and others in order to restore the Truth, Goodness and Beauty of our Catholic Culture.
St. Cecilia…pray for us
Our Lady…pray for us
Starting January 8th, it is my intention to use these simple propers weekly at a Mass on the campus of Ohio State. We will see what happens. I have 4 singers at the moment. The tricky part will be the first days.