I’m tired of the bad music, but I don’t complain much because, truth be told, I don’t have the time at this stage in my life to join the choir and begin influencing the music for the better. I think many people are like me–we want sacred music but have children and can’t dedicate hours every week to being in the church choir. And in any event, the music directors often have the most say in what gets sung, so we need to get good musical directors in there that understand sacred music.
This blogger speaks for millions. I appreciate his post but also recognize that it represents a kind of desperate cry. The core problem is one familiar to Cafe readers: what’s missing here (on the part of the conventional praxis and the critique) is a coherent model of what music in the Roman Rite is and can be. This is the great challenge, the great task before us.
I’ll say it again: William Mahrt’s book can’t appear too soon.