Over at his blog, Fr. Christian got me kinda riled up. Not by anything he said, but just by the subject matter. Few topics will get me up on & hard to pull down from the soapbox like liturgical music. Though only a tiny fraction of my thoughts & feelings on the matter, this is my response to his inquiry:“...please add your comments about your experience with music in the liturgy, both positive and negative,,,”
OK, but remember – you asked.
Modern Catholic liturgical music is – with a few exceptions – terrible. And that is being charitable.
My worst experience of music in liturgy sadly occurred at St. Thomas when the cathedral praise team arrived to accompany Mass with their electric guitars, drums, keyboards, & amps. They "performed" the popular but inane Protestant rock tunes so common in Evangelical circles these days (What are protesting, again? Oh yeah, I remember: the Catholic Church!). It was horrendous. It was distracting. It had little to do with prayer. It detracted (super-)substantially from the solemnity of the liturgy & the Eucharist. And it was SO LOUD. Several people were covering their ears, and by the end of Mass I had a head-splitting migraine. The icing on the cake is that we were invited to show our appreciation by a round of applause. I was really saddened & sickened by the whole affair. Trying to subtly observe how the people around me were reacting to this, I could clearly see that the band had become the center of focus rather than what was going on at the altar. And this coming from our cathedral, with whom Sacrosanctum Concilium specifically charges with preserving & cultivating the treasury of sacred music (SC114).
There will be no true springtime for the Church until a serious examination is made by all, from parish to curia, into what the Council was, what it actually said, & what we should do in response. A great number of intentions of the Council Fathers as expressed in the published documents have either been ignored, implemented poorly, or twisted to implement some other agenda in its name. The current state of liturgical music falls under the latter category. In his autobiography, Abp. Sheen lamented the way the mandates of the Council were implemented (my book review here). This is what our gloriously-reigning Pope Benedict – himself a musician - calls the Hermeneutic of Discontinuity, & what he has written about at length both now & past, & what he is trying to correct in the time that God gives him. The idea is simple: there can be no rupture in Tradition - the handing on & practice of the Faith, especially in the sacred liturgy & its celebration. If there seems to be, there is a problem in need of correction. Since the newer form of Mass is virtually unrocognizable as compared to the ancient form, (at least in the way the new form is typically celbrated), a rupture appears to have happened in the theological understanding of what the Church is, what the Mass is, & how it should be celebrated as a result. Having been present at the Council, Benedict understands better than any what it intended & is trying to repair some of the damage done since by reviving the sense of Catholic identity by proposing more appropriate symbols & practices.
About 2 seconds after the Council closed, Progressivists both lay & clerical descended upon parishes across Catholicism & implemented sweeping changes to All That Came Before with a fury rarely seen since, well, the Protestant Reformation. Even the bishops were (are?) powerless to stop them. In the context of music, Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony, & the pipe organ – all specifically called out in SC 116 & 120 as particularly appropriate to the Roman liturgy – were happily jettisoned in favor of Reformed Folk music strummed on guitars. As a teenager, I remember cringing at the truly lame efforts of the guitar squad trying to be “with it” & turning the liturgy into what sounded to me like a nursery rhyme sing-along. I knew the Church had an ancient & glorious past, but you'd never tell it at my old parish - that stuff all sounded like somebody had just made it up (turns out, that was exactly right!). This same attitude persists today in the "silence police" organists who feel compelled to fill every second with twinkly background noise or the overly loud, over-bearing cantors who throw up their hands like they’re signaling “Touchdown!” every time the congregation is required to make a response (yes, even during the great Amen at the end of the Eucharistic prayer, when instead of falling to their knees in adoration, they jump up & run to the mike).
It is noteworthy that we have been singing the same folksy songs from the same folksy composers since the 70’s. With all the talk about moving into the future, it seems that this stale music is stuck in the past. And not part of the great Catholic liturgical tradition of the past, either. It’s an artifact of the generation that composed it, & few before or since seem to find much in it that bolsters their faith. My grandparents despised it. Youth today find it hokey. It cannot be imagined that one would find any of this stuff resting on a (pipe-)organists' console alongside Mozart & Palestrina a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand years from now. As someone famously quipped, "Why is it better to be nostalgic for 1979 than for 1579?"
OK, but remember – you asked.
Modern Catholic liturgical music is – with a few exceptions – terrible. And that is being charitable.
My worst experience of music in liturgy sadly occurred at St. Thomas when the cathedral praise team arrived to accompany Mass with their electric guitars, drums, keyboards, & amps. They "performed" the popular but inane Protestant rock tunes so common in Evangelical circles these days (What are protesting, again? Oh yeah, I remember: the Catholic Church!). It was horrendous. It was distracting. It had little to do with prayer. It detracted (super-)substantially from the solemnity of the liturgy & the Eucharist. And it was SO LOUD. Several people were covering their ears, and by the end of Mass I had a head-splitting migraine. The icing on the cake is that we were invited to show our appreciation by a round of applause. I was really saddened & sickened by the whole affair. Trying to subtly observe how the people around me were reacting to this, I could clearly see that the band had become the center of focus rather than what was going on at the altar. And this coming from our cathedral, with whom Sacrosanctum Concilium specifically charges with preserving & cultivating the treasury of sacred music (SC114).
There will be no true springtime for the Church until a serious examination is made by all, from parish to curia, into what the Council was, what it actually said, & what we should do in response. A great number of intentions of the Council Fathers as expressed in the published documents have either been ignored, implemented poorly, or twisted to implement some other agenda in its name. The current state of liturgical music falls under the latter category. In his autobiography, Abp. Sheen lamented the way the mandates of the Council were implemented (my book review here). This is what our gloriously-reigning Pope Benedict – himself a musician - calls the Hermeneutic of Discontinuity, & what he has written about at length both now & past, & what he is trying to correct in the time that God gives him. The idea is simple: there can be no rupture in Tradition - the handing on & practice of the Faith, especially in the sacred liturgy & its celebration. If there seems to be, there is a problem in need of correction. Since the newer form of Mass is virtually unrocognizable as compared to the ancient form, (at least in the way the new form is typically celbrated), a rupture appears to have happened in the theological understanding of what the Church is, what the Mass is, & how it should be celebrated as a result. Having been present at the Council, Benedict understands better than any what it intended & is trying to repair some of the damage done since by reviving the sense of Catholic identity by proposing more appropriate symbols & practices.About 2 seconds after the Council closed, Progressivists both lay & clerical descended upon parishes across Catholicism & implemented sweeping changes to All That Came Before with a fury rarely seen since, well, the Protestant Reformation. Even the bishops were (are?) powerless to stop them. In the context of music, Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony, & the pipe organ – all specifically called out in SC 116 & 120 as particularly appropriate to the Roman liturgy – were happily jettisoned in favor of Reformed Folk music strummed on guitars. As a teenager, I remember cringing at the truly lame efforts of the guitar squad trying to be “with it” & turning the liturgy into what sounded to me like a nursery rhyme sing-along. I knew the Church had an ancient & glorious past, but you'd never tell it at my old parish - that stuff all sounded like somebody had just made it up (turns out, that was exactly right!). This same attitude persists today in the "silence police" organists who feel compelled to fill every second with twinkly background noise or the overly loud, over-bearing cantors who throw up their hands like they’re signaling “Touchdown!” every time the congregation is required to make a response (yes, even during the great Amen at the end of the Eucharistic prayer, when instead of falling to their knees in adoration, they jump up & run to the mike).
It is noteworthy that we have been singing the same folksy songs from the same folksy composers since the 70’s. With all the talk about moving into the future, it seems that this stale music is stuck in the past. And not part of the great Catholic liturgical tradition of the past, either. It’s an artifact of the generation that composed it, & few before or since seem to find much in it that bolsters their faith. My grandparents despised it. Youth today find it hokey. It cannot be imagined that one would find any of this stuff resting on a (pipe-)organists' console alongside Mozart & Palestrina a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand years from now. As someone famously quipped, "Why is it better to be nostalgic for 1979 than for 1579?" ...
As Father alluded to in his posting, these songs are full of bad theology - full of I, we, us, & gathering, but seemingly loathe to mention God, Jesus, the Trinity, Mary, the saints, sin, mercy, grace, salvation, etc. Just as bad are the tunes that make the congregation the “voice of God”, something that could not possibly be imagined in ages past. I now refuse to sing, “I am the bread of life… & I will raise you up…” Is this really worship? What kind of theology is this? Why not, “You are the bread of life… You will raise me up”? Yes, I know that wouldn’t be the words of Jesus anymore, but really! You might as well sing, "I am God... You are God... We are God... Everyone is God..."
What is truly amusing is that these folksy songs designed to encourage congregational singing are often difficult to sing! They have huge note ranges beyond many a layman’s ability & are often giant word jumbles, with a slightly different note pattern for each verse. 30+ years now & the choir still can’t sing a clean version of “I am the bread of life.” But when, inexplicably, some old Catholic classic makes it onto the song board, like Holy God We Praise thy Name, all the voices are sharp & strong. Most importantly, everyone is worshiping! This is the mighty Te Deum of the Church. No confusion or diffusion of the Faith here. No question over who is worshipping who. Still, with the actual published intentions of the Church regarding sacred music going unheeded – including the recent USCCB document Sing to the Lord – these composers are raking in millions at the expense of the faithful. And the bishops have done little to stop it - the initiative to reform the reform of litugical music was reduced to the status of a pastoral guide & has been universally ignored. The pastors & music directors I know that have tried to be faithful to the Church's liturgical music tradition have encountered the most bitter & spiteful resistance imaginable.
To answer the other question – the singular most profound liturgical music event for me was participating in the offering of Mozart’s Coronation Mass at the Solemn High Mass on April 20, 2008 at Holy Ghost church. It was glorious (even if I slaughtered the Gregorian Offertory). Still, the week-in, week-out offering of the chants for the Ordinaries & Propers & the traditional hymns of the Church at the Traditional Latin Mass move me to worship & prayer unlike anything contemporary I’ve heard (&, like the Council, I’m not against new compositions; listen to John Rutter’s Requiem or Magnificat).
I strongly believe that until Salve Regina, Ave Verum Corpus, Panis Angelicus, & Adoro Te Devote resound again throughout the sanctuaries of Catholicism – along with an increase in participation in the sacrament of Reconciliation – the Reform & the Spirit of Vatican II will remain just catch phrases that are twisted to fit the ideology of forces that are either damaging the Church by misguided, but basically good, intentions or those openly hostile to her, or both. The Church must take a good, hard look at what the Council Fathers actually intended & what was actually done, & reconcile the two, no matter what “progress” must be undone or how painful it may be for some. This is not a matter of personal preference - mine or yours. It is, however, about doing what the Church proposes for the salvation of souls, & they have spoken their piece, for the most part. The liturgy is the privileged meeting place of the faithful with their God; it is an assembly of the royal court of heaven. It should look & sound like it! Nothing about it should ever be the same as & not different than the ordinary, outside world. Our Lord Christ Jesus established the Church to proclaim his Gospel & to call the world to repentance. It seems that instead, many in the Church have allowed themselves to be sold a bill of goods by the world. Miserere nobis, Domine!
What is truly amusing is that these folksy songs designed to encourage congregational singing are often difficult to sing! They have huge note ranges beyond many a layman’s ability & are often giant word jumbles, with a slightly different note pattern for each verse. 30+ years now & the choir still can’t sing a clean version of “I am the bread of life.” But when, inexplicably, some old Catholic classic makes it onto the song board, like Holy God We Praise thy Name, all the voices are sharp & strong. Most importantly, everyone is worshiping! This is the mighty Te Deum of the Church. No confusion or diffusion of the Faith here. No question over who is worshipping who. Still, with the actual published intentions of the Church regarding sacred music going unheeded – including the recent USCCB document Sing to the Lord – these composers are raking in millions at the expense of the faithful. And the bishops have done little to stop it - the initiative to reform the reform of litugical music was reduced to the status of a pastoral guide & has been universally ignored. The pastors & music directors I know that have tried to be faithful to the Church's liturgical music tradition have encountered the most bitter & spiteful resistance imaginable.
To answer the other question – the singular most profound liturgical music event for me was participating in the offering of Mozart’s Coronation Mass at the Solemn High Mass on April 20, 2008 at Holy Ghost church. It was glorious (even if I slaughtered the Gregorian Offertory). Still, the week-in, week-out offering of the chants for the Ordinaries & Propers & the traditional hymns of the Church at the Traditional Latin Mass move me to worship & prayer unlike anything contemporary I’ve heard (&, like the Council, I’m not against new compositions; listen to John Rutter’s Requiem or Magnificat).
I strongly believe that until Salve Regina, Ave Verum Corpus, Panis Angelicus, & Adoro Te Devote resound again throughout the sanctuaries of Catholicism – along with an increase in participation in the sacrament of Reconciliation – the Reform & the Spirit of Vatican II will remain just catch phrases that are twisted to fit the ideology of forces that are either damaging the Church by misguided, but basically good, intentions or those openly hostile to her, or both. The Church must take a good, hard look at what the Council Fathers actually intended & what was actually done, & reconcile the two, no matter what “progress” must be undone or how painful it may be for some. This is not a matter of personal preference - mine or yours. It is, however, about doing what the Church proposes for the salvation of souls, & they have spoken their piece, for the most part. The liturgy is the privileged meeting place of the faithful with their God; it is an assembly of the royal court of heaven. It should look & sound like it! Nothing about it should ever be the same as & not different than the ordinary, outside world. Our Lord Christ Jesus established the Church to proclaim his Gospel & to call the world to repentance. It seems that instead, many in the Church have allowed themselves to be sold a bill of goods by the world. Miserere nobis, Domine!
1 comment:
I am glad to see someone else shares our opinion of this mess we have with the "music" in the church. They say to sing once is to pray twice. I am sorry, but with the loudness and poor quality of singing and music I have a hard time finding sufficient charity in my heart to keep from hating them. I am overcome by feelings about why the pastor feels the need to inflict this level of penance on the whole congregation.
Then I discovered it is only the inability to confront contentious situations that prevents action.
I have to believe that if they had one or two masses with no singing and a five minute sermon they would find many of the 60% of Catholics that don't attend Mass would start to trickle back.
John S
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