Believe it or not, and I know that this fact is deeply regrettable, but not everyone reads ChantCafe.com or hangs around on the MusicaSacra.com forums, or otherwise keeps up with what is going on in the Catholic music blogosphere.
From among this less-connected sector of life arrives a note about once per day, and today is no exception. We usually don’t blog these but I thought you might enjoy seeing what I regard as a very, very common view among mainstream Catholics.
I may be a lone voice crying in the wind, but is there a big chance that our liturgical music/hymnals will change (be required) with the Liturgical updates that are to come here in the US? Please tell me “Yes,” because I am dying of monotony at Mass.
You know, the Catholic Church could take pointers from Orthodox and some Anglican (I used to be a member) churches when it comes to music/art/architecture/priestly robes. Visually/musically, it is uplifting. I don’t get that in our churches. Has the Vatican noted this??
Don’t misunderstand me when I say the Catholic Church has everything spiritually with the 7 sacraments and it is of prime importance, but everything else is anemic.
I also wish every parish had a Gregorian Chant choir, which I would LOVE to join. We wouldn’t have to sing in Latin, but just capture that beautiful sound.
Can you give me a ray of hope in regard to our music? I’m ready to drop from folk song. Thank you so much!
I of course told her that she should move ahead and START a Gregorian schola now, and that the Catholic Church is a large ship that turns slowing but that we are fortunate enough to be living through times when the direction is starting to change.
While there are many factions regarding Catholic music within the realm of those who are involved, this note sounds about right for the average Catholic out in the pew. Identifying Gregorian Chant by name goes a bit beyond what the average person commenting would say, but there is definitely a feeling "out there" that most of what is going on is not quite right.
And a previous article here also hit it right on the head… the very music promoted by those who claim "assembly participation" as the top priority actually discourages assembly participation. It has become the "elite music" that it originally set out to replace. Of course, this is nothing that Thomas Day didn't already say many years ago. How much more true it has become in the years since.
We have 18,000 parishes in the US. Probably ten times that number in the English-speaking Catholic world.
I have no doubt that among the world's hundreds of millions of Catholics, than a good portion of them find liturgy anemic.
That's not really the case in parishes that have hired good musicians. We program music in which people do participate. It's not a matter or repertoire so much (as there is ample good music out there) as it is leadership, quality, and artistry.
Where music is poor, I'm inclined to place the blame on the pastor. Some pastors don't care as much about liturgy. Some are clueless. Some know their limitations and can find lay people who can achieve a measure of fruitfulness.
I don't dismiss the correspondent's experience, but like mine, it is *one* of several tens of thousands. Gregorian chant is not a magic potion that automatically elevates the liturgy out of an iron-poor situation.
I also don't dismiss Chiro's view above. I'm sure he and others feel the pressure of the "years since," but that is more a factor of changing tides within particular parishes: new pastors and music directors, mainly.
However, the diagnosis that music is poor because it's not chant is way off. It's simply a matter of good musicians playing good music well versus inexperienced musicians playing any sort of music poorly. Nothing more.
Ahh Todd. Many are the conversations about what "good music" is. Why ignore the music that the Church guides us toward? Why ignore the guidance of the Church?
I agree with you that many pastors don't seem to know what to do. Please, bishops lead us!!!
Lumi, if you went to my parish or to my blog, you would see clearly I embrace the Church's guidance.
Where you look to bishops for leadership, I would side with Jeffrey: start your own schola. Attend chant workshops. Sing the hours, even once a month, if they won't let you chant at church.
Where many conservatives test my patience is their passivity in the face of opportunity. Christ is the Messiah. We are his disciples. If we see something wrong, it is up to us to address it. Not to wait for someone in authority to see the light, come to agree with us, and do it for us.
Mr. Tucker and Friends at ChantCafe,
Thanks be to God for your work – I just discovered chantcafe and chanabel psalms… from Jeffrey Tucker's articles in the Wanderer.
Been wandering in the desert for decades from parishes in Northern California, central New Mexico, and now San Antonio, Texas. Liturgical music in most American parishes is a scandal, a severe penance and mortification for many Catholics in the pews, but there have been a few OASES along the way in my experience. Latin Mass at St. Margaret Mary in Oakland is exemplary with choir director David Sundahl… St. Dominic's and Saints Peter and Paul scholas in San Francisco are also notable. St. Thomas Aquinas in Rio Rancho, New Mexico is working to uplift sacred music under Steve Woodbury.
Now that I've relocated to San Antonio, my family has found a real oasis in the parish of Our Lady of Atonement, an Anglican-Use parish. The choirmaster is Ed Murray and the liturgies at Atonement are truly the ideal of what every practicing Catholic in America should be celebrating, what every pastor and choir director should be striving for. My family has been very blessed to find this treasure.
Our pastor, Fr. Chris Phillips, has spent almost 30 years building this parish community and, I believe, it truly exemplifies the fruits of an authentic reformation so desperately needed in most Roman Catholic dioceses in the U.S. I'm speaking of a unified whole, encompassing architecture, art, liturgical praxis, fidelity to the magisterium, pedagogy, and of course, sacred music. When in San Antonio, please come and see for yourselves.
Atonement also has an academy from pre-kinder to 12th grade. I am so thrilled and grateful to God to have found this parish home and for my 8-year old to grow up with a sound Catholic education and appreciation for his rich, Catholic patrimony and heritage. Forgive me for gushing in sharing the "pearl of great price" my family has found in Texas. I hope other "wandering" Catholics find what we have found in our travels around the western and southern areas of the U.S.
At the Atonement Academy, every school grade has a choir that takes turns singing during the *daily* morning school Mass at the parish. I can't even begin to describe what these young angelic voices are capable of singing under the leadership of a masterful choir director.
Let me leave you with an excerpt from our parish website regarding how our children at the academy are taught sacred music from their youngest years. If this is not the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst, I don't know what is!
"Rather than being frozen in time, the ancient treasure of the church is brought alive and cherished at the Atonement Academy. Children are taught music from the early grades all the way through High School. Students who show a liking to music are encouraged to join the Upper School Honors Choir, which has done very well in competitions with other choral ensembles from all over the state of Texas. The study of choral music also fosters lifelong virtues such as friendship, solidarity, and loyalty."
I might add that the serious study of choral music at Catholic institutions of learning starting at kindergarten can and should be fostered all over the U.S. IMHO only then will future generations of Catholics experience a true renaissance in Catholic liturgical music.
Thanks again for the valuable work you are doing, Mr. Tucker and colleagues. We simple Catholics in the pews are urging you on and praying for the success of your work, truly a magnum opus!
God bless,
Phil from San Antonio
philsevilla@gmail.com
"Not to wait for someone in authority to see the light, come to agree with us, and do it for us. "
Todd, What kind of light you see that the faithful have to be included in your 'we, and us' I don';t see any bright light in your ideas that I have seen through your posts. Nothing but your own limited intelligence and pride.
Anonymous, I don't know what you see and perceive. Please spare us the petty insults; they only serve to smudge the reputation of online Catholics, especially conservative ones.
The limits of my intelligence and pride are not the topic of this thread. Nor are comments on them in keeping with this site's comment policy.
While I prefer to see at least a nickname for the internet's most active commenter, I will address your questions.
The "garage chant schola" advocated by many has a great appeal to me. If the priest and people won't let you do something, gather like-minded souls and pray the liturgy however and whenever you can.
Establish yourself as a good soul in your parish, then advocate for the employment of a good music director.
The pope and bishops can legislate, lay out ideals, and urge better music. But skilled leaders of sacred music don't grow on trees. They have to be cultivated, trained, and then probably hired.
You can't order a warm body to produce art. You need skill, formation, education, and a climate that encourages ars celebrandi.
"No more poor music in churches!" That's a motto I could adopt easily. But the doing of it is pretty darned hard to accomplish.
(different anon)
I know from experience that a Protestant parish of 100 can have the same music budget as a Catholic parish of 1,000. It is no wonder that there is a shortage of good sacred musicians for the Catholic church.
It's not at all an issue that these musicians don't exist, but that instead of riding the poverty line in Catholic employment, they're raising a family thanks to the generous Episcopalian gig across the street.
No rocket science here.
"No more poor music in churches!"
Yes, but what kind of music?
I think the advice to start a schola is a bit simplistic. I am a rank amateur, but I love to sing, and have sung in church choirs a lot, but I would be intimidated to try to start a schola on my own, especially in face of indifference or outright animosity from pastors and reigning music directors.
I think that another part of the problem is that we live in a culture formed by Walmart. Temporary and cheap are valued above enduring and beautiful, and unfortunately that has found its way into the Church. I have some non-Catholic musician friends that I would like to invite to Mass, but I don't because I would be embarrassed by the music, and know that they would find it mediocre at best. Beautiful music is part of how the Church evangelizes the world. It is not just decoration.
My family has fought the battle about music at our parish for years without success. Finally, I found a visionary music director at another parish and started going there. I encourage the writer to search for good litury with good music. It is worth the effort, and the drive.
In response to the following:
"My family has fought the battle about music at our parish for years without success. Finally, I found a visionary music director at another parish and started going there. I encourage the writer to search for good litury with good music. It is worth the effort, and the drive."
Yes, this can sometimes be done. However, if you have a few kids in the parish school, which is pretty close, and you don't even know of a parish which has decent music – – you just have to do what you can, and grin and bear it. This is where it comes down to leadership, I believe. How can individual parishioners reinvent the wheel over and over, with their "garage scholas" and all? They don't control the choices in the liturgy. It comes down to the leadership.
And what, Todd, say you to THAT?!
Don't quote GIRM on this, that would be something from an "authority" above. What is your grassroots solution on this one? Surely if the pastors above us were to follow the liturgical instruction of the hierarchy, then posts like Lumi's would not exist?
So what is your solution to people in her position?
Phil from San Antonio:
I'm very happy for you – and believe me, there are pockets of the kind of excellence you speak of in many of the parishes lucky enough to have a talented CMAA member at the helm.
If you haven't already, get over to the MusicaSacra forum and get to know some of them and what they're up to. Of course, they're not the only ones doing good things, but they're on the front lines raising the standards wherever they go.
"What is your grassroots solution on this one?"
Liturgy of the Hours
"Surely if the pastors above us were to follow the liturgical instruction of the hierarchy, then posts like Lumi's would not exist?"
No, they've always existed. The cheap existed before WalMart. Artists protested the availability of plaster reproductions from religious goods companies eighty years ago.
I don't agree that all the problems can be solved by education and obedience. The hierarchy can't conjure genius. Or even competence.
"So what is your solution to people in her position?"
Pray the Hours. It's part of the Church's liturgy. And if you can't do it yourself, visit a monastery frequently.
Entirely different than the Sunday obligation of all Catholics, as well as that which would be the "experience" of any visitors. A beautiful mass can evangelize.
The LoH is only for the very devout (not our Protestant or "wandering" visitors).
If I pray the Hours myself (and there are no monasteries nearby), what do I do if I still find my parish's music lacking in liturgical "worth?"
Anon(s)… or whoever it is that is asking what to do?
While Todd's idea about LOH is a good option, you are right that it really doesn't address the problem of lame music AT MASS, which is where 99.9% of the people are. Those people deserve better. They don't necessarily deserve what they want… but they do deserve high quality liturgical music.
And more importantly, the LITURGY deserves high quality liturgical music, and it is the LITURGY that we serve, not the people in the pews… but that's an issue for a different post so don't go off on me here.
I have found that it isn't the introduction of chant or polyphony in the liturgy that causes problems… it doesn't. Where you will meet resistance is with the suggestion to replace the hymns for the assembly with chants for the choir. I know…that's pretty much what the documents call for, but that's not where we are NOW. We are getting there, but not quite ready for that yet.
You do need a competent music director. It's not necessary that they be a PhD or have an eye-chart of letters after their name.. just that they take the time to learn a little bit about sacred music. There are abundant educational opportunities across the country these days for just that purpose. If you don't regularly follow this blog, do so… there are chant workshops, weekend intensives, week-long Colloquiae(?) all advertised here regularly. Singing chant and leading a schola is not nearly as difficult as assembling a contemporary ensemble for a Teen Mass, and yet we see plenty of those and few scholae.
Many choirs already sing a "Gathering Music" selection before Mass begins. Start there. Replace THAT with the Introit…perhaps in English to begin with. (See above post about the Simple Propers…)Sing it a few minutes before Mass time…and end when the Priest enters the back of the church. Then announce the Processional hymn and start Mass. After a few weeks, people WILL comment to the pastor.. all comments I have received during this past year have been positive. Some have asked why there isn't more music like that during Mass. That's the direction you want to head in.
At communion, I use the time while the EM's and Choir are receiving communion to have a small group sing the Communion Antiphon and a few psalm verses. Then start the communion song when the choir is back in place. I decided on this procedure as a result of my experiences singing in the schola at the EF parish nearby. That is exactly the procedure used… a few men sing the antiphon and psalm verse while the rest of the choir goes up to communion. When they return, the whole group sings the Motet. Works well in both forms of the Mass…. and the people still get their communion song.
There are ways to introduce chant without altering the current liturgical practice… at least not that anyone will notice.
Dear Jeffrey Tucker, I do not know much about church music. But what I know is that you and Shawn are in prophetic roles with respect to Church Music.
Chironomo,
regarding,
"… it really doesn't address the problem of lame music AT MASS, which is where 99.9% of the people are."
Yes, but that's not where 99.9% of the complainers are. One person complains here. A few there. But what can they do about it? The suggestion was made to me not to quote the GIRM, but what about the Serenity Prayer?
"And more importantly, the LITURGY deserves high quality liturgical music, and it is the LITURGY that we serve, not the people in the pews… but that's an issue for a different post so don't go off on me here."
Please don't go there. Please don't make an idol of one idea of liturgical worship. Liturgy is about the worship of God and the sanctification of the faithful. The message of the Bible is repeatedly that God desires no sacrifice if it accompanied by a lack of compassion, charity, or contrition. That's a basic Judeo-Christian principle. If we were truly concerned about the 99.9%, or the people outside the doors, we would focus our energies on what the Bible says and on what Christ preached. Not on some Tridentine ideal of frillery and froo froo.
As for your Communion suggestion, I find that congregational singing has improved greatly with the new procedures, and that people will sing while the Communion ministers and choir go to Communion.
As for the root question of what a non-musician can do to improve music, I reiterate my suggestion of chanting the liturgy of the hours, especially if there is no hope of movement in the parish. If it were that important to your eternal soul, maybe it's time to sell everything you have, and move near or into a monastery.
Thank you all for the comments and suggestions. I found it most helpful to just "vent" and I love reading Chant Cafe and the like. I appreciate all the good work and just hope the wonderful progress could hurry hurry hurry to my part of the Midwest. I will do what I can in my way!
An aside – – it occurs to me that if real sacred music were able to promoted and featured on Catholic radio – – that would help a lot to educate the ranks of Catholics in the pews. Does anyone know of a "way in" to shows like Catholic Answers, Al Kresta, Teresa Tomeu, Women of Grace, etc? I feel like I have learned so much through Catholic radio, but they don't seem to touch the issue of liturgical music reform. Too contentious, I suppose! : )
Todd;
I wasn't claiming that people don't sing the communion song… they certainly do in my parish. But if you wish to introduce the Communion Antiphon…that's the way to do it in my opinion. There is still time for about two more communion songs once the choir gets back in place, so it's not shorting that experience. But I get the feeling that you are hesitant to suggest introducing chant at Mass.
And I asked that you not go there…but since you did anyway. I don't mean that WE (All Catholics) serve the liturgy, I meant that WE (Music Directors) serve the liturgy…it's my job and my calling… I don't prepare the music according to what the people want, I prepare it according to what the liturgy requires. Maybe you do something else…I really don't know.
And I have no idea why you were thinking of Tridentine Froo-Froo… you should have that looked at by a professional though.
Todd, I understand your POV, that we should look at the bigger issues of faith and liturgy, but there is a place for considered discussion about the role of music in liturgical celebration and what type of music is most appropriate for it. Your suggestion seems to say "let things stay as they are, there are more important issues at hand." Your example, btw is no longer valid since Christ's sacrifice wiped out the need for our own sacrificial offerings. Anyway, Jeff's original post was meant to remind us that there are many people in the Church who come to our conclusions about the appropriateness of modern popular and ethnic music for Mass quite independently and then seek out help on the web. We have an opportunity with the new translation to reintroduce a type of music (chant in all its variations) that is much more suitable for sung prayer than what is currently practiced in most parishes and even cathedrals (many seem to be CINOs or Cathedrals In Name Only). The Church has weighed in on the matter and frankly people accept the current situation because it's what they are used to. Many of us believe that, if people are given the opportunity, they would take to the simpler forms of chant (for themselves and the schola) and more dignified music for the choir. These are not idols as you might suggest, but we really believe they are better vehicles for the purpose of praying musically.
And again to Todd;
I had to take a break to get some work done, but I was sure I could come up with the relevant quote from SttL…
Choir members, like all liturgical ministers, should exercise their ministry with evident faith and should participate in the entire liturgical celebration, recognizing that they are servants of the Liturgy and members of the gathered assembly.
The director of music ministries fosters the active participation of the liturgical assembly in singing; coordinates the preparation of music to be sung at various liturgical celebrations; and promotes the ministries of choirs, psalmists, cantors, organists, and all who serve the Liturgy.
That was the context within which I made my comments. It was one of the very welcome changes made to MCW, where musicians were "servants of the gathered assembly".
"Your suggestion seems to say 'let things stay as they are, there are more important issues at hand.'"
That would be incorrect.
"Your example, btw is no longer valid since Christ's sacrifice wiped out the need for our own sacrificial offerings."
I disagree. Christ's sacrifice did not place worship on a higher level than human compassion, contrition, or care. We were not, in his own words, made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath, and by extension, its traditions, were made for people.
Not to mince words, but the music or liturgical leader is in the service of both God and the people. To serve God in the best way is not to neglect those who worship him, or to place these in a sort of hierarchy with conflicting interests.
The challenge of poor music is always a concern. Sometimes, some people can do something about it. Sometimes, even the best of us are powerless in the face of it. The dissatisfied–and I count myself as one of that number–have to realize our power, influence, and control is limited. Rather than grow frustrated, it might help to set parameters on what we can reasonably achieve, then work as best we can within those mortal bounds.
If you feel compelled to label me, I will accept that I'm a realist … with minimal digestive troubles.
re: Todd @ 8:51-
lex orandi, lex credendi
Just a quick note that I don't feel that fisking is a very civil means of discourse among ongoing interlocutors. It's one thing to quote someone once, in order to pinpoint a comment. It's quite another to take apart someone's comment and slam it piece by piece.
While I think there is a time and a place for fisking, it doesn't strike me as community-building, which is what discussion boards can be at their best.
The "communion song" is in my experience the least satisfactory slice of the four-hymn sandwich which I think we all agree is well past its sell-by date. People are either going up for Communion, coming back from Communion or, one hopes, making their thanksgiving after Communion. This is where the choir or schola can come into its own, after which a period of recollected silence is highly desirable.
There is an opportunity in the OF of making the Introit a proper entrance chant for Sunday Mass since the Asperges (if there is one) is part of the penitential rite. So no entrance hymn or "gathering song"(aargh!).
I don't remember an Offertory hymn before 1965 and it always feels awkward as everybody remains seated and the collection is being taken. (Anglicans in contrast always stand for hymns.) Let the organist strut his stuff with some Widor or Vierne. It's the only time he has a captive audience. In Paris everyone stays for the improvisation after Mass, but then organ music is about the only redeeming feature in French liturgy.
This just leaves a recessional hymn. Traditionally Catholics sang hymns not at Mass but at extra-liturgical devotions, most of which were abandoned in the 1960s; it would be a shame to lose all the old favourites (or, dare I say it,one or two of the newer ones?)
The Mass is meant to be sung; Gregorian chant has pride of place and a long and venerable history; ergo, chant should be utilized to sing the Mass (whether in Latin or vernacular), otherwise what was the point of Sacrosanctum Concilium which was trying to articulate this ideal for the Sunday liturgy? Therefore pastors and music directors are really shrugging off this Conciliar document when they don't foster a sung, chant Mass. Hymns or motets can still be used, but not to the exclusion of chant. I've never heard congregations sing better than when they utilize simple chants.
Hi Todd, actually I would place worship on a higher level, since the order of commandments does suggest this. Anyway, I wasn't suggesting that one overruled the other in any case, just that your reference was not probably the best one, leading to a confusing point. I know you are trying to stake out a middle ground in many of your comments and you probably realize that staking out ground between opposing factions is often not a safe place! Peace.