Truly good church music can be one of the most beautiful and spiritually uplifting parts of the liturgy. Here are the observations of a Catholic priest who fills in at an Anglican Use church:
Here, I need to offer an observation about the music. There is nothing more frustrating than attempting to discuss music in Catholic worship. It is maddening. Many Catholics are fierce partisans of the contemporary renewal music of the Eagles Wings variety. They are insensible to how transitory this music actually proves to be, how quickly the new hits become tired (and how most of the congregation doesn't even attempt to sing them!), how much of the music in Glory and Praise, the folk hymnal, has dated terribly after just a few years and is never sung at all. Traditional Catholics, on the other hand, often long for the glory days of Mother Dear, O Pray for Me, the St Gregory hymnal and the old devotional hymns.Rest of his essay here.It was my experience as a choir boy in my parish church which first sparked my interest in Anglican liturgy -- our choirmaster was a convert, which was a blessing, and one soon figured out where all of these wonderful motets and hymns were coming from. In the Anglican Use liturgy, one draws upon a hymnal of six to eight hundred hymns, solidly Scriptural and Liturgical (you come for Mass on the Feast of St Michael and All Angels, you get hymns honoring the Angels; you come on the Annunciation, you get Annunciation hymns!!). The hymns are PART OF THE WORSHIP -- the whole congregation joins prayerfully in the whole hymn, from beginning to end, instead of using it as filler and doing a verse and a half until Father gets to the chair. And the parts of the Mass - Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sursum Corda, Agnus Dei - are all set to beautiful, singable music.
For me, the whole experience of worship is transformed when I have the chance to celebrate in the Anglican Use. I'm a cradle Catholic; I made my First Holy Communion in 1967. I grew up in the age of postconciliar liturgical renewal. I vividly remember making my way to the altar rail in 1968 as the folk group bawled out, Blowing in the Wind. I am used to polyester vestments, incredibly banal liturgical texts, poorly chosen hymns rushed through and cut off as soon as possible, the forty-five minuteSunday Mass (the Catholic Church's answer to fast food restaurants).
Apparently you've never been subjected to an energetic rendering of "lord of the dance"...I offer my suffering up every time I have to listen to that "tune". Give me boring any day.