Chant Café

Andrew Cichy and others speak on liturgical music.

“We are faced with the problem of a secular genre being mapped onto sacred circumstances. So, in a sense, whether the music is classical or contemporary doesn’t matter, it is equally possible in both of those ambits to do something which is liturgically inappropriate.” 

Mr Cichy said some forms of classical music are not suitable for the liturgy, including Cesar Franck’s Panis Angelicus. 

“If you actually look at the form of the work, the style, the gesture, it’s an opera aria in all but text, and really that is no more appropriate liturgically than something that apes a pop ballad,” he said. 

“A Waterford crystal wine glass, in itself, is beautiful and well crafted; however, one would never use a Waterford crystal wine glass as a chalice, because it is a secular drinking item. What we use in Mass is not secular.”

Much more here.

The album of sacred music previously mentioned here has now been released–just in time for Christmas!–on CD.

Really, why not?

Seriously, is there any norm or legislation, regularly enforced, that would keep us from following the musical direction of this Episcopal service?

Is there anything, really, that would keep us from singing The Times They Are A-Changin’ as the Communion hymn next Sunday? Are there any guidelines in place that absolutely forbid the singing of Knock Knock Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door to accompany the Entrance Procession?

Is there anything about these words or music that has been carefully defined as inappropriate?

Perhaps an enterprising liturgical music corporation could take up this idea and publish a series of octavo editions: The Johnny Cash Mass, The U2 Mass, The Bruce Springsteen Mass.

Why not?

Once I attended a Spanish Mass on the Vigil of Pentecost, and the Entrance Hymn was Morning Has Broken. In English. Is that ok? And if not, why not? Where is it written, where is the common understanding that makes it clear that certain things are not only inappropriate but ridiculous?

Those of us who survived the 70s and 80s realize that there has been a general elevation of sensibilities. Yet the standard remains abysmally low. How can it be that two generations have sung, at Mass, “Not in the dark of buildings confining/ not in some heaven light years away/ but here in this place, a new light is shining;/ now is the kingdom; now is the day.” How is it that the latest generation of Roman Catholic Hymnals contain the clearly egregious hymn Sing a New Church into Being?

In a perfect world, of course, none of this would have to be asked in this way. Instead of asking where the bright line is between inappropriate and appropriate, we would be asking how to make the good better and better. But frankly as a Church we are not ready for these higher-order questions.

It would be nice just to see a bright line.

Just wanted to make one final mention of the Hymn Tune Introits available for parish use in this handy Advent Calendar format.

Introducing proper texts into parish life can be a bit of a diplomatic challenge. Congregations that are long accustomed to singing hymns would have to overcome four separate barriers, if liturgical music was suddenly changed to the optimal music, the propers of the Graduale Romanum:

• Unfamiliar tunes
• Modal music
• Latin language
• Proper texts

The Hymn Tune Introits are of way of managing the change to proper texts in the safest possible, most incremental way, by making only one of these four changes necessary at the beginning. Congregations sing tunes they know, in modern music with modern notation, in English. But, they are able to use the vocabulary and sense of the proper texts.

The Advent Calendar is a way to dress up the Advent season easily. Copies may be freely made for parish use and left at a convenient place in the church. At the beginning of daily Mass, when the Entrance Antiphon is normally sung, the priest or music director or designated layperson simply begins singing the antiphon to any familiar hymn tune that would match the words. The tune for All People That on Earth Do Dwell would work, for example, or Creator of the Stars of Night. Everyone can join in, and behold, the first barrier to singing propers has been painlessly overcome. Now the people have in their hands and in their voices the words of the Liturgy that are usually kept from them.

This month’s Adoremus Bulletin has a very fine treatment of the Introits and an alternative design for the Advent Calendar. Either version may be freely used in parishes or schools.

The entire month of November is a time to remember the faithful departed, and (as ever) their ranks continue to grow- a cause of sadness for us, and surely a cause of great joy for them.

Amid all the good, proper sacred music being posted here and on Facebook and elsewhere as tributes, I thought I would post one of my favorite songs about death – a very unliturgical, but intensely haunting English folk hymn. I find the music stirs my soul, and the lyrics resonate with truth.

The Old Churchyard

Come, come with me out to the old churchyard,
I so well know those paths ‘neath the soft green sward.
Friends slumber in there that we want to regard;
We will trace out their names in the old churchyard.

Mourn not for them, their trials are o’er,
And why weep for those who will weep no more?
For sweet is their sleep, though cold and hard
Their pillows may be in the old churchyard.

I know that it’s vain when our friends depart
To breathe kind words to a broken heart;
And I know that the joy of life is marred
When we follow lost friends to the old churchyard.

But were I at rest ‘neath yonder tree,
Oh, why would you weep, my friends, for me?
I’m so weary, so wayworn, why would you retard
The peace I seek in the old churchyard?

Why weep for me, for I’m anxious to go
To that haven of rest where no tears ever flow;
And I fear not to enter that dark lonely tomb
Where our saviour has lain and conquered the gloom.

I rest in the hope that one bright day
Sunshine will burst to these prisons of clay,
And old Gabriel’s trumpet and voice of the Lord
Will wake up the dead in the old churchyard.

Here is a link to the Funeral Mass of Domenico Cardinal Bartolucci. May he rest in peace.