I will hold your people in my heart. (What IS the derivation of that phrase?)
I was shocked to see the 2005 Music Issue from OCP had Adoro Te Devote with both Latin and the Hopkins English translation. I'm still waiting to see it listed when I walk in for Mass. I hesitate to mention it. I mentioned that I was glad to be able to sing Panis Angelicus after one Mass and we haven't had it again for two years.
Yeah, I have to admit that the protestants seem to have the corner on church music although I do like "The Canticle of the Turning."
As a twenty-something Roman Catholic, I have to ask, what is wrong with Eagles Wings, and Here I am Lord, and City of God?
I grew up with the hymnal "Glory and Praise". The Church I considered my home still has blue Glory and Praise hymnals. So for some of us, we don't really know what is the difference. Those are the songs that for me define Catholic, compared to some Protestant songs.
The Church I currently go to has Mass books with the Mass and the songs in the same book.
Please explain whats wrong with the above songs. I'll reply later, but I have to go to work now. So I'll see your response, but not for several hours.
I knew I shouldn't have looked at this post...now that danged "On Eagle's Wings" is running around polluting my head.
Regards,
Fuhgeddabahit. However, you could go and ask for it - but don't hold your breath.
My sister works as a music director in an Episcopal church that hired her because she plays the organ and is also well-versed in Gregorian chant, traditional Catholic music, etc. Catholic churches, on the other hand, have no interest in this, and when she has applied for local Catholic church positions, they tell her they want somebody who likes "contemporary" music - Marty Haugen and the St. Louis Jesuits, for example.
Of course, these guys haven't been "contemporary" for 40 years now, but neither has Father or the aging and reduced parish council, so I guess that's okay with them.
The fundies hate us Catholics because we can go and gamble and drink at the church and have fun....
Some contemporary Catholic music is very good such as John Michael Talbott. It seems the traditional music is out the door- while the middle age to older croud prefers the "gather" (The worst song is taste and see), type music- Most younger Catholics now want the evangelical fundamentalist rock music.
I'm in the choir of my ECUSA parish (bass-baritone). I'm pretty good at sight-reading. I went to my wife's uncle's funeral, as a pall-bearer, at a local Catholic parish. When the first hymn came up, I opened up the hymnal (noting that it was in unison; the 4 parts weren't written in) and started to sing. Just about everyone else there was Catholic.
The first thing I noted was that I was the only one singing. The second thing I noted was that there was a good reason for that; the hymn was just about unsingable unless you, like the church musician, didn't mind sounding like a hotel lounge singer. I tried joining in on the second hymn and gave it up as a bad job.
My wife interrupted me in the car as we left; "I know, the music is terrible." I told her, "Put a baseball bat in my coffin. If the musician starts playing 'Wind Beneath My Wings' as my coffin is wheeled down the aisle, I want you to grab it and whack him with it until he stops."
Say what you will about the ECUSA, but the music is a lot more amenable to a spiritual approach to God than what I heard that day.
The songs I see in the missals suck major you know what. Lots of I, me, and we in the songs. Sadly, looks like half of them are protestant songs anyway.
End the "folk music mass" BUMP!!!!