Over on the Musica Sacra site, I promised to write something about a recent experience that I had while attending Mass at another parish. It was a strange experience but I ended up feeling very optimistic.
I had reason to attend another parish’s mid-morning Sunday Mass a couple of weeks ago. I glanced at the music schedule and noticed that the Contemporary Ensemble would be serving, but my reasons for going outweighed any reticence I might have about the music. I arrived a few minutes early and noticed that this Mass was packed to rafters (I found out that all of them are. It’s a huge parish). I also noticed the drums and amplifiers and a few young singers checking microphones. Nothing new to me. I expected the usual OCP-style fare, but as the musicians set up, the director announced that they were going to teach the Responsorial Psalm. It was an original composition (I think) and very funky, something like you might hear on Bourbon St in New Orleans (I know this style very well, mind you). The director played piano and sang and the choir was mostly used for backup vocals. On the other hand, I will admit that it was played very well. These guys really had their act together and were fine popular-style musicians. The balance was good, the time was on and they were tight. The singers were good, too, but in an American Idol sort of way. I’m afraid that I am quite incapable now of actually praying the Psalm with music like this. It is just too distracting for me. Another aside… I find that most of the assembly at any Mass kind of dreads the Responsorial Psalm. There are many and varied reasons for this.
The preparations over, the Mass commenced with a Contemporary Christian classic that extolled how awesome God was and how we were going to praise him all the time. No real problem there. Many entrance songs and hymns have this sentiment, BUT no one sang. Again, for me the style of music really seemed out of sync with the liturgical action. The Kyrie was spoken and the Gloria was by Matt Maher, I think… I think some folks sang, but I really couldn’t tell. There was one woman behind me that must have been in that “choir” at some point. She knew it well, but the exception proved the rule here. The next musical item was the Responsorial Psalm that, even with the practice, no one sang along. The Alleluia was another great rocker that I did not know (and neither did the congregation from the sound of them). Offertory was another “You’re a great God and I’m gonna praise you all the time” CC song. No one sang along. The other Mass parts were again some contemporary setting I’ve not heard. Communion featured a new-age-style piano solo and then a ballad about, you guessed it, how awesome God is and how much much I’m praise him. The concluding song that the group played and sang was on the very same topic and true to Catholic form, most of the folks were headed for the parking lot, long before it was over (at least they don’t discriminate). By the way, did I mention this was the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. One would never know from the music selected.
By the time Mass was over, I felt like I needed to go to Confession, so I stayed for a bit to pray and calm down. While doing so, it hit me. I recalled that no one was singing. I’ll bet they really liked the musical style and many may have actually made the trip just for it, but by and large they didn’t sing. In fact, I notice that folks will sing more at Masses that use the usual old-school popular style. For those of us who truly believe that there IS a “church music,” the OCP and GIA material is the biggest barrier to reclaiming a higher level of musical worship. The music I heard at this Mass was so much better than most of that stuff, but no one sang along. My friends, I believe that this might provide the necessary opening needed to reintroduce chanted prayer in the Catholic Church. At some point priests are going to notice that this new music is not accomplishing what music is supposed to do. They will be receptive if shown how a congregation can really fill a room with very simple chant (like the Snow Lord’s Prayer setting). This move to “real” contemporary music might just be a blessing in disguise. I have hope.
Amen.
What a picture! What you describe is so incredibly common, very very common. This whole genre of music — adult contemporary to rock — has absolutely killed what little propensity people have for singing. The current ethos in the Catholic world is to stand and endure, almost in protest mode.
I keep hearing these contemporary style composers tell me how their parishes sing and sing. I have to take them at their word. I've personally never seen this, not once, and I've attended Mass in most places in the country many dozens of times. It is always the same predictable nothing from the standpoint of music.
And what you say about the selections having nothing to do with the liturgical year is also so incredibly true.
by the way, I think that Matt Maher needs to come clean on this subject. He knows that his music is not appropriate for Mass. He could play a leadership role here and call for this to stop.
LITURGITAINMENT! The people who regularly attend this type of contemporary music Mass might want to be "entertained" while having to fulfil their Sunday obligation. What they are missing is the prayerful peace of a chanted Mass. But there's no "fun" in that for them… re-education is necessary. Mass is prayer, not a musical performance.
This is similar to the situation at my parish (although our population isn't so large). About 16 months ago there was a notice about starting a schola, which I naturally responded to, but I was told that I should join the regular choir too. When I said that I was a student and could only take time for one choir a week (with music I actually believe in singing), I was told by the director that he would let me know when they started the group (still no word from him about it).
In the meantime, the past two weeks there has been a notice about "folk choir members needed" (separate from the regular choir). They apparently haven't been getting any response. Very few members of the congregation sing at the masses they sing at. The "band" is parked just to the right of the celebrant, at the side of the sanctuary (behind where the communion rail used to be), and their "band leader," being in front of the whole congregation, feels the need to gesture to the congregation when it's their turn to sing, and cut them off at the end. Many people can't even see the celebrant (not that that's the point of mass) from where they sit because of the folk choir (maybe they should be in the choir loft).
At any rate, I am a catechist, and my students learn a few chants each year when they're in my class, I won't be strong-armed by a director who won't try to do what the Holy Father (and council fathers) want(ed). I guess I should add, in the interest of full disclosure, that we do use the Agnus XVIII during Lent and Advent (but I think that's almost ubiquitous, pandering to the liturgical conservatives so that we can't complain about not having any chant). An interesting note to add, when old hymns are used (i.e. pre-1960) more of the congregation "participates" than during any other hymns (big surprise!!!)
Sorry about the rant.
"I keep hearing these contemporary style composers tell me how their parishes sing and sing."
Some do.
My sense is that people might grow accustomed to their composer-in-residence and stretch a bit to sing what doesn't come naturally. Why? They become accustomed to the style. People are also willing to follow a good leader they know and to whom they have grown close over the years.
" … re-education is necessary"
I doubt it's a matter of what one knows. You could easily have the same phenomenon–the captive audience–at a chant Mass. People listen. People pray. People feel edified.
Todd, you are right to a point, I think. My point was that the Church changed so many things in the late 60s, partly to give congregations the opportunity to sing and participate. That's a positive thing, I think. The result in far too many places is simply a change of style in the music. My own experience in multiple parishes has been that people will sing two two things; Their chanted responses ("and also with you") and music that flows predictably and doesn't require a large range (that goes for pop songs or hymns). So, in the latter category you have HGWPTN or O Sanctissima along with the choruses (only) for Eagles Wings and Be Not Afraid. As people who have been given the job of providing musical underpinning for the Mass, we have to take this very basic tendency into consideration. Congregations are not going to sing complicated Gregorian propers (and they shouldn't be asked to) nor will they sing syncopated and unfamiliar pop songs that require Broadway ranges. After all these years, Day's prescriptions still apply.
I have noticed a trend in a couple of blogs to address this issue. I, for one, have written about it on mine:
http://benedictgal-lexorandilexcredendi.blogspot.com/2011/01/what-makes-song-fit-for-mass.html
The problem is that there is no quality control at the publishing houses. OCP uses buzzwords like "engaging", "dynamic" and "uplifting" in marketing its stuff. Nowhere in their publications do I see the words, "solemn", "sacred" and "majestic".
In my parish most of the Sunday masses have contemporary music that either has an electric piano (not even a real one) or some sort of "praise band." the first is the usual OCP/GIA stuff, that latter is a loud and overwhelming Christian contemporary music. From my observations some sing at the first and almost nobody sings at the later.
The exception to this pattern is the 7:30am mass which the music is traditional Christian (Catholic and Lutheran mostly) most of the month, on the first Sunday of the month the schola assists, unaccompanied at a Latin/English mass (Latin Propers and Ordinary with the rest and the readings in English). People at these masses sing the hymns (Chant mass has a Hymn for the recessional).
Last year when Easter fell on the first Sunday of the month, the schola was replaced with a cantor singing contemporary music. The staff felt that the schola wouldn't be welcoming enough for the holiday visitors that attend!
In what country did this Mass take place? In the US?
I think that there are some very different attitudes to singing. The English congregations I got to know in the last years are very enthusiastic singers (be it the Plainchant Ordinary, be it traditional hymns at Mass or at an Anglican Evensong). When I spent a few months in the US I experienced Masses with Plainchant, with hymns and with contemporary music, and I sometimes felt like the only member of the congregation who joined into the singing (well, I didn't join into the contemporary hymns, they just sounded too terrible).
It took me a minute to realize there was a setting of the Pater Noster by a person named Snow. I thought they had sung to the Snow Lord and thought, my, who is that and why are we praying to the Queen of Narnia?
Anon., no my late friend Robert Snow, formerly of the faculty of the University of Texas, and formidable scholar of Catholic liturgy and Renaissance Spanish polyphony, wrote the chant that most people know today.
Following up, we know that Catholics are generally reticent about singing. The loud proclamations of "my parish sings great" do seem to be the exceptions to the rule. Part of it seems to be tradition–we've never had a strong congregational singing tradition–but these days there's more to it. Group singing is a rarity anymore. Yeah, it happens on occasion, but most people seem uncomfortable with it. Many things have contributed to the idea that, if one can't sing, they shouldn't. My wife stares at me in utter embarrassment sometimes when I am singing louder than half the church. I just tell her that I have to since I can't reach the higher notes w/o some support. This is part of it, too. It seems that all the OCP-like stuff is written for sopranos and tenors to sing. You almost never see a bass or alto cantoring, do you? About 70% of men are baritones and I'd say the majority of older women are mezzos and altos. How is congregational singing encouraged, then? Anyway, congregational singing is disappearing in other churches as well. Perhaps our Church will also throw in the towel at some point and not bother to bug people about singing. I'll bet they would appreciate it, to be frank. Perhaps it's a S. Florida thing, but I don't think I've ever heard more than a few brave souls trying to join in during the usual song slots. In fact I don't really hear too many people singing the Ordinary settings that they supposedly love so much that removing them would imperil our jobs.
Todd,
I'd love to hear a recording or see a video of a parish that is actually able to sing along coherently with any of the contemporary praise music.
That aside, do you have nothing to say about the fact that the songs are all basically about the same thing (God is good and I'll praise him while the mountains and trees praise him and the deer and the antelope play) and ignore the proper texts of each week?
Hey Mike,
You know we all can cultivate the mixed-formant or "head-voice" for those pesky notes above your passagio, unless you're singing a version of Thaxted or Jerusalem! Of course, cranky Euphonium players think their passagios are somewhere between F and G in staff, heh heh. And besides, everyone knows your ideal tenor wasn't Caruso, Pavarotti, Lanza or an Irish priest, but that noted Canadian, Geddy Lee.
And besides, if an alto like Kathy Mattea or Bonnie Raitt was chanting the gradual, I'd just listen too when the antiphon came 'round.
Today, I was subjected to the usual Spirit and Song drek. For Holy Communion, they sang "I Will Choose Christ", which puts the focus on what I am doing as opposed to what God is doing. At least they did not drag out the bongos.
However, if I hear "Mass of a Joyful Heart" again, I think I am going to scream.
This post reflects my experience last week. I went to a Lifeteen Mass that had excellent musicians, but no one seems to be singing along. The sense of reverence also seemed to be lacking.