Not sure how we at the Café missed this at the time, but a couple of years ago, a very large study was undertaken, involving 9,016 Episcopalian congregation members, 2,575 clergy, and 1,139 music directors, representing 3,060 congregations, as well as 55 bishops and 102 seminarians.
The subject? Revising the 1982 hymnal.
As this article explained, those of us involved in parish music at the ground level will not be surprised by one of the elements of the survey. Young people are much less likely to want the hymnal to be revised. This pattern holds even more true for those clergy who are 29 and younger.
A quick glance at the charts throughout the study shows that music directors generally value new music much, much more than their congregations do, including the wide variety of contemporary styles such as worship, multicultural, and praise music.
One of the study’s conclusions:
Perhaps most significantly, there is no pattern in which youth correlates with a particular movement towards new forms of musical expression. To revise the Hymnal must in some way be a project that is a gift to the next generation. Gaining some clearer sense of what the worship music of that generation will look like will require a longer and more careful period of discernment.
The entire report is certainly worth reading!
Thanks to Michelle Klima
well as a young boy I opposed to the de-sacralization of the Mass by the 1960s garbage. At the time, I found to my suprise that the folks in their 50s and 60s were the most vocal in their suport of the 1960s garbage. Some things never change. Pathetic
An interesting comment in the article was that "the Book of Common Prayer exists to protect the laity from the clergy." I think the same thing can be said of the Roman Missal and, to some extent, of the latest iteration of the General Instruction. Most of the crazed innovations of the 1960s and onward came from the clergy or those who held themselves out as experts.
As the Roman Rite is better and more reverently celebrated, the disconnect between the liturgy and the inelegant music surrounding it will become clearer. This will, I hope, lead to greater reform of music, including the use of the propers, for the Mass.
"As the Roman Rite is better and more reverently celebrated, the disconnect between the liturgy and the inelegant music surrounding it will become clearer. This will, I hope, lead to greater reform of music, including the use of the propers, for the Mass."
I agree wholeheartedly!
By the way, I don't want to endorse all of the views or practices suggested in the article, but am very grateful for the commentary on the interest in youth in continuity with more traditional forms of worship music.
My son, a 30 something (going on 17) heavy metal fan, loves the high Mass at the church which he attended as a child. When we go back to that church, I enjoy the youth Mass, but he and his sister, don't care for the new music. She objects to it vehemently. He just prefers the traditional music. A lot. He (who rarely attends Mass) would rather attend the High Mass. Loves the music. I think I'll purchase a few copies of the Benedictines of Mary Queen of Apostles CD's. http://benedictinesofmary.org/ and share them with him. I think they blow Metallica out of the water.