Having thought a great deal about the liturgical music commonly practiced in the United States, it’s always interesting to me to visit someplace new and to see what might be going on in the Catholic churches there.
Having lived in Rome for just a few months, I would say that I’m only beginning to understand the liturgical music here. One of the reasons for this is the sheer number of different parishes in Rome. In the States, it is not atypical for a suburban parish to have 10,000 members, most of whom arrive by car. In Rome, it is not atypical for a Sunday Mass to comprise 25 congregants, most of whom arrive by foot, and who could just have easily have walked to half a dozen other parishes in a 10-minute radius.
If you have 10,000 parishioners, and buildings and a plant built within the last 100 years which require much less repair and maintenance than Renaissance-era buildings, you can afford a staff that includes a top-notch full-time Music Director. And if that musician is concerned with sacred music, rather than keeping up with the latest trends and styles, then true, consistent beauty is within reach of the average American parishioner. If we were to fail at this, and we often do, it seems to me that this failure would be preventable, and fixing it must be a priority, as part of pastoral care.
Fixing Roman parish music, which must be a matter of extreme pastoral urgency, seems much more difficult. Again, I do not pretend to understand the local issues, but I do believe there are universal problems that can be named. I’ve been to a few Masses with music that was simply badly performed. I’ve been to Masses with wonderful music, but with a rather theatrical and operatic style that can be distracting. I’ve been to Masses in which parishioners themselves have begun singing from the pew whatever hymn they chose. The Sunday Mass I attended at 11 am on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord had no music; the Alleluia was not chanted, the Sanctus was not chanted–there was no music at the Mass at all. At one daily Mass, a recording of a song was played during the distribution of Communion.
One wonders why this must be so. Rome is a musician-dense city, like Washington or New York. Furthermore, from what I understand from musician friends, they work for much less money. A cantor-organist combination could easily be hired for less than the cost of either musician alone in the metropolitan US.
One obstacle to sacred music that the two countries have in common is that we have become accustomed to a widely accepted musical idiom that musicians know to be banal. An Italian version of the popular bilingual American song Pescador de Hombres is popular in Rome, for example, and there are local equivalents to our own “pop” composers. The only excuse possible for these lesser types of music, which are in every way unworthy of the Mass, is the likewise widely accepted misreading of Sacrosanctum Concilium and its call for actual participation–a misreading that our previous two pontificates have repeatedly tried to correct.
Fortunately there are also excellent examples of truly sacred music, which after all has the strongest possible heritage in the Eternal City. They include:
- The English College and the North American College. These two seminaries have incorporated vernacular propers, gorgeous polyphony, and often chanted ordinaries into their already robust traditions of hymn singing. Doubtless other seminaries have as well. The interest of rising seminarians and young clerics in truly sacred music suggests that marvelously hopeful things are in store for the future.
- St. Peter’s Basilica. Some English-speaking critics fault the Sistine Chapel choir for not sounding more like German or English choirs. I do not think this is fair. Italian-sung music moves differently from music conceived in countries where language is less multi-syllabic and spoken in a less cadential way. Where speech is different, music will be different. The tango couldn’t arise in New Orleans any more than jazz could arise in Buenos Aires. These regional differences in choir sounds should be accepted as part of the richness of the Church’s music. The choir wisely avoids sounding operatic–according to Magisterial cautions that other accomplished choirs in the city might well heed. The only exaggeration that I hear, and again, this could be simply American ears talking, is a tendency towards an extreme of ritardando and diminuendo at cadences. I believe these could both be moderated for an overall better effect.
- Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini. This FSSP parish’s music program is by far the best I have heard in Rome. The music is concert-quality, full stop. A paying concert audience could not demand better singing on any level. And yet there is nothing in the music, no display, to suggest that the music is being sung at anything but a Mass–and a Mass that is being celebrated with the highest care and beauty, as are the Masses at the seminaries and St. Peter’s. Recollection is easy, prayer is easy, in a Mass such as this, which is probably why Santissima Trinità is so crowded with young adults.
Undoubtedly there are many other excellent examples. I have heard that the choir of at least one of the undergraduate universities in Rome routinely sings Renaissance polyphony–much like in the States, where college-age young people tend to be much more interested in sacred music than the previous generation or two. This gives me much hope that the future is bright, and that many of our problems are due to simple misunderstandings, and that the Holy Spirit is actively working to build us back up again where we had rather lost sight of the heights to which we are called.
Pescador de Hombres seems to be ubiquitous along with Pan de Vida. While some might feel that doing something about liturgical music in the churches of Rome is a matter of urgency, I seriously doubt whether anyone in the pews feels that way. Those who do want good music at Mass know where to find it. My experience from quizzing good Catholics revealed one depressing fact: the rest of Mass-goers, whether in big churches or big cities, small churches, rural or urban, just don't care.
I'm not so sure this is the case. Your polling sample is self-selected: those Catholics who haven't been driven away by sheer banality. This group is either so spiritual and good that nothing shakes them, or they have a tin ear. I tend to think the former group is more common. The Catholic faithful never cease to amaze me with their goodness.
If only there were a way to quiz the people who haven't shown up in a while. I think we might find equal parts of mixed marriages, soccer commitments, "somebody Catholic was rude to me," and "why bother?" And among the "why bother?" crowd, some–perhaps many–could be enticed by beauty.
And for those who don't care, let's give them the good stuff. Why not? It doesn't actually cost more.
"This group is either so spiritual and good that nothing shakes them, or they have a tin ear. "
Another possibility is that many people simply don't know better. They think that that is just the way "church music" is. They don't care and simply accept what they have because they really don't know that it could be better. I have to wonder if their thoughts would change once they are exposed to better options
Yes, I believe this is completely accurate. Thank you!
From my experience the average catholic in the pews really doesn't care much about anything that liturgically educated musicians agonize and argue over. As long as the Mass isn't too long and the priest isn't too wacko, people just go through the motions sitting, standing and kneeling mostly at the correct times. They've become a kind of audience that wants a friendly priest and some nice music and a parish that offers the sacraments, someplace to get your baby baptized, get married, have the kids receive first communion, etc. Musicians in these types of parishes have usually met the people on this level mainly because the musicians themselves are on this level. They pick for songs out of the missalette, get a Mass setting from the back of the missalette, have a youth choir, adult "traditional" choir and a contemporary choir with the early mass either silent or just cantor all while doing the bench swap with piano and organ (usually electronic).
My response is that we desperately need liturgically educated musicians to turn the tide. The problem is that any musician who really cares about music seriously will soon become discouraged by the type of parish described above. Simple fact – it's tough to be the only one in the room who cares about the things we care about.
Hi Kathy,
Excellent article, and more reflective than the reductive brief commentary that you've mentioned before. As a point of fact, "Pescador" is actually from the late Spanish composer, Cesar Gabarain. But as MJB pointedly assessed, it is truly an internationally ubiquitous song (which will likely enjoy thousands of performances world-wide this weekend, from mangled to magnificent most likely.) "Pan de Vida" is its truly American counterpart by my guy Bob Hurd, and enjoys a similar status among Anglo and melded Americans. There is also a version popular tradicional from Mexico that bears no resemblance to Hurd's.
For myself, a natural eclectic, I've used Pescador as a kind of final arbiter in what I call the "Final Song/Hymn" chosen for the mythical national hymnal, the ultimate Snowbird's white list. Here's the fulcrum:
The editors, very cognizant of all the perspectives from CSL, are down to just one more selection for the ideal American hymnal, but have two candidates: "Pescador" and "Festival Canticle: Worthy is Christ" by Lutheran Richard Hillart. Upon what criteria exactly would the editors reach the wisest decision of which is more worthy? After all, "Pescador" has more in common with the German and English chorale and hymn traditions than does the Hillart in that its genesis sprung from the faithful populace rather than a studied art. I hope you get what I'm saying here.
As far as the dismal scenario in Rome, I tend to wonder if the sheer density of neighborhood churches as you describe and which is duplicated throughout Europe only exacerbates a similar state of affairs in the USA, and virtually everywhere, only with differing geographies and demographics.
Thanks, Charles, I didn't realize Gabarain was Spanish, thank you for that. For some reason I had it in my mind that he had been a bishop in Latin America, rather than a monsignor in Spain. I should have double-checked. Thank you.
I don't entirely get what you are saying. Could you please explain how Pescador's melody derives from authentic Spanish folk melodies (like many English and German hymns), if that is what you are saying? If that is not what you are saying, then what do you mean by saying that the song sprang from the faithful populace? Do you mean that it is Catholic and not Lutheran, or that it is untutored rather than learned?
That's the key question: what's more important: the piece's audible attributes (e.g., harmonic tempo, melodic rhythm), or an inaudible, somewhat abstract attribute about its stylistic origin? I favor basing the musical judgment on the audible aspects of the work: to me, that's a way of giving a proper priority to the value of the human body in worship.
And that is why a principal task of the church musician is the education of the congregation (and sometimes the clergy). It is a slow process, but in the long run pays off in really spiritual results, if the music is truly liturgical music.
Thanks, Kathy and Richard,
I'm definitely not asserting that "Pescador" is tantamount to authentic Spanish folk music; that term being impossible in and of itself due to the ethnic diversity among Basques, Catalonians et al. What I believe Gabarain drew upon was an ethos and process not unlike the folk "collectors" of the 19th century romantic/Victorians like Holst, Stanford, Smetena, Dvorak. For an analogy, I wouldn't at all be surprised that "Pescador" has some truly folk antecedant as did KINGSFOLD. We don't ascribe KINGSFOLD or any of the isles' colection all in many volumes compiled by Stanford to RVW only. You can hear its echoes in many trad. Irish folk bands all over the globe.
Does that help?
It helps me to understand better what you were driving at. Thank you.
I guess I would agree with Richard that there comes a time when the origins of music, or any other value it might have, doesn't matter as much as the music itself. I think his point is key to morality in many ways: human beings are united soul-body composites, and so judgments about art shouldn't be sort of disembodied. In your thought experiment, a value judgment about origins has the final say. I agree with Richard that a musical judgment of the piece of music, as music, as we hear it, should be much more ultimate than that.
For me personally, I would go one step further and suggest that a strictly religious judgment should have the final say. Does this music foster recollection? If we had two equally excellent pieces of music, attached to equally excellent (or even identical) texts, one of which was exciting and the other that promoted recollection, I would take the latter.
"I've used Pescador as a kind of final arbiter in what I call the "Final Song/Hymn" chosen for the mythical national hymnal, the ultimate Snowbird's white list. Here's the fulcrum: "
This rang a bell, Charles – have you made this argument before on the dearly departed RPI or GIA blogs?
Used to read them till they were ruined by SPAM, (NOT "spem.")
But the thread I'm remembering used ROCHELLE as the example, for which I was grateful. I didn't know the tune but looked it up and Jesus Lead the Way became a favorite for funeral preludes at my parish.
(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
My two cents –
As a choral buff, I have recordings by a number of great choirs – Westminster Abbey, King's College, the Sixteen, etc. For the life of me I don't understand why we don't have a world-class professional choir attached to St. Peter's Basilica… -paolo
In your thought experiment, a value judgment about origins has the final say.
Oh no, Kathy, I made no such assertion about that judgment having precedence over all others at all. In fact, Richard quoted me regarding discerning what criteria should "editors" or even the local Roman musical leadership have before them when they have to make that call between two valued hymns/songs.
I actually think that this conversation needs to be held among we who are peers in practice, because anecdotally (including yours) the process of discernment is broadly ignored worldwide. All of the criteria regarding repertoire employed to worship God, does contain a didactic component as Professor Mahrt states, but I don't think it's our primary job to literally educate folks, we have to serve them (while educating them) according to their needs and abilities. The example of Andres Gouzes in small village parishes in France comes to mind as an exemplar.
You're also correct, Geri, this discernment topic was exhaustively discussed at RPI thread about the implications of the Snowbird Statement. And it will always remain a very important issue as long as the Church doesn't assert herself more about pruning the plethora of options that are taken advantage of by corporations, egotist composers, liturgists who plan mega Masses. More to come, gotta run.
Here's what I wanted to finish with, Kathy, and I'll sound like a broken record:
I think the first steps toward solution of the musical doldrums in Rome and elsewhere has to be grounded in personal humility, in the leaders' ability to step back from whatever conventional wisdom or methodology they've always relied upon, and give a frank and thorough self-examination of just what is called for by both documentation and by local tradition, and what is the real motivation for their personal involvement and responsibilities. Sometimes less is more, yes?
Charles,
I'm not sure "local tradition" is a very reliable guide to what liturgical music should be. As a thought experiment, if I were dropped into a 1953 parish that always sang 4 extremely maudlin hymns at low Masses, I would not want to respect that local tradition, but elevate it quite thoroughly (always taking the time needed to make changes gently, of course).
I think that everyone providing music should be providing truly beautiful music that is also prayerful. It's not *that* difficult and it is practically free. Just download and make copies, let some local university students sing chant and polyphony, and there you go.. Very easy, really.
No argument here. What I meant by "local tradition" was contextualized by the preceding advice for a leader to honestly examine what musical forms and forces have been pervasive in that locale, and re-evaluate how that can be mitigated towards both humility and beauty. Make sense, hopefully, now?
How true, how very true!
I think we still differ in focus. I'm less concerned with the leader, and more concerned eith the people and what they need.
I think the discussion above raises an important issue: what are the concrete first steps to be taken to move a 4-hymn music program towards an excellent one?
I believe the very first and easiest step could be replacing the Communion hymn with one of the ad libitum Communion Psalms.
Next would be introducing chant on a small scale at Mass, perhaps at the Alleluia and the Agnus Dei, which could well be sung in vernacular chant. During Advent and Lent, which are not only quieter seasons but which also have the advantage of not including the long Gloria, more of the Ordinary might be chanted.
Meanwhile, begin training children to chant, in their catechism classes and the school, and in separate auditioned scholas.
Gradually introduce the parish choir to polyphony, moving them in a logical way from what they already know to what they ought to learn. Build on existing skills, but direct them in a better direction.
Gradually replace 80s-era through-composed songs with higher musical and lyrical hymns.
These are initial, low-confrontation steps that could be easily taken in any setting.
I think we still differ in focus.
That's why our duo has such a funky dynamic! 😉
I rather think we are two sides of the same coin-we share the same values and objectives but it appears that we can't "see" each other's POV because we're flipped apart from each others facade.
This maxim might illustrate the "leader/follower" maxim we're now hashing through: A shepherd needs a flock to be a shepherd; a flock cannot remain a flock without a shepherd.
Interesting you should mention the Venerable English College. The rector there, Msgr Philip Whitmore (who I know well) was the Precentor of Westminster Cathedral and is himself a music scholar having done his PhD in musicology at Oxford before becoming a priest in the early 1990's. He was instrumental in the transition from Card Hume's episcopate to Card Murphy-O'Connor's in ensuring that the latter kept the musical tradition alive (he saw it as a great and unnecessary expense until the wealthy donors who generously support the musical foundation mobilised to alter his view – but he was the total opposite of his predecessor's Benedictine formation which was steeped in the chant of the office and was "Vatic 2" (sic) through and through). I would expect that Msgr Whitmore will insist that every student being ordained from the VEC will have a solid foundation in the proper appreciation of what constitutes sacred music as properly interpreted from the Council!
I will be in Rome from December 18 through December 25. Any suggestions about concerts to attend?