"I do" "I do" "I do" "I do"
Posted on 06/26/2006 11:48:53 AM PDT by FJ290
Vatican City, 26 June (AKI) - Pope Benedict XVI has called for traditional sacred music to be played during mass, condemning the ongoing custom of contemporary music at religious celebrations. "Updating sacred music is possible, but this cannot happen unless it follows the tradition of Gregorian chants or sacred polyphony," the pontiff said on Sunday on the sidelines of a concert in the Sistine Chapel. A skilled pianist with a predilection for Bach and Mozart, Benedict XVI spoke against a custom reportedly appreciated by his more informal predecessor John Paul II, who worked very hard throughout his papacy to make the Church more appealing to the younger generations.
In an interview published in Turin-daily La Stampa on Monday, the former Archbishop of Ravenna, veteran Cardinal Ersilio Tonini also condemned the practice saying that "Benedict XVI is right, mass is a meeting with God and to meet God sacred music is better than the turmoil of electric guitars, hand clapping and the husstle and bustle of disorderly sounds."
Tonini said that 40 years ago after the Second Vatican Council "making mass more popular and inviting could be understood." However, the cardinal added, "we exaggerated and now I believe it is legitimate to consider as over this season of breaks with tradition."
"I do" "I do" "I do" "I do"
"I told you Father Steve would find the monitoring cameras in the k-3 room. Now look at what you've done."
Anything we can do to get Cousin Brunhilda and her extended family in church!
And children's sermons.
The old hymns are about God and Christ. No wonder they are unpopular.
At least get the real Madonna mentioned!
(I'm howling here . . . somebody needs to lock that guy up!)
No, it's pathetic.
Death of St. Thomas Aquinas, who was, among other things, the author of some of the very best of Catholic hymnody.
THANK YOU!!
The Catholic Church teach much about our intent and what is in our house.
We too sing several things a Capella.
What strikes me about the rest of the music is that the people themselves bring the instruments to the church to play. They are giving of their talents to the church, which is the essence of Stewardship.
A good small hammond organ runs in the $5,0000 or more range, depending what you get. The reason I mention the pipe organ is that the argument is essentially, old music is good, new music is bad.
I find that hyperbole pushes too far in other direction.
I believe it is Stephen Colbert, a Catholic who does a comedy show called "The Colbert Report." Maybe he was clowning around about the liturgical dancing.
That video was hysterical! Looks like a music director who just couldn't take it anymore...
I don't think he necessarily meant that new music is bad. There is some very beautiful stuff being written, including, if they are properly done, the Taize pieces. But the problem is that most of what is being actually used in our churches is simply not appropriate liturgical music.
And as for people playing "their instruments," I think that's fine - at the parish talent night or even at a prayer meeting or other non-liturgical service. There was a man in one church here(until the new pastor managed to get rid of him) who insisted on playing the harmonica at Mass, and in fact, would go up and join the choir whether invited to do so or not. Aside from the fact that he didn't play well, he seemed to believe that the whole function of the Mass was to give him a stage.
People have to realize that the liturgy is not about them, or about their talents, real or imagined, but about God. Gregorian and much other liturgical music was an almost anonymous music, not only in terms of its authors, but in terms of the singers - who were not performers and were not even identified individually.
BTW, in case you think this debate refers only to modern pieces sung or played by members of the congregation, the Mass-as-performance has been a problem again and again, although usually because bishops and others commissioned music that was so lavish and excessive (polyphony gone mad) that it swamped the liturgical aspect of the Mass, which became nothing but a spectacle and a concert. The reaction has usually been towards a more austere and less theatrical style, and I think we will have that again.
St. Thomas Aquinas wanted to "create a buzz" when he composed Tantum Ergo??
This is a hymn of adoration and veneration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Read what the Pope said and think about it.
BTW, everything we play at mass is from the approved hymnal. If we play the songs on guitars instead of organs, what is the difference? One of our guitar players also teaches classical guitar at the University, and performs regularly with symphonies.
What I am objecting to in all this is that our musicans are less holy and less spiritual simply because of the their choice of instruments.
Sounds wonderful, but many parishes do not have the facilities to have the Gregorian-chant type of traditional music. Nor do they have the money to pay professionally trained church musicians. They have one or two piano players and a couple of guitar players, and that's about the only music these people know how to do. It's either that or nothing. Since it's been that way for years now, so many Catholics have become used to it, especially the young people. About the only people you hear complaining are the old-timers.
LOL! I get it as well. I was born in 1980, so I don't remember the release of the album. But I did see the Pop-up Video of it. You can watch it here. The woman with the headphone and in blue is M's wife.
LOL!!!!!
It's actually cheaper to use traditional music, if you can find it. Gregorian chant does not need to be accompanied, and there used to be very simplified versions of music for sung Latin masses back in the 1950's-early 60's. The Missa de Angelis was sung by people all over the country, who learned it usually under the direction of a non-professional musician who functioned as their choir director. And choirs were pretty tiny, too. Later, the people were encouraged to sing the parts sung by the choir.
It can be done, and I think the Pope was trying to encourage the development of this kind of music. Also, in fact there are many churches that do have a professional music staff and are spending a fortune to get rather crummy results. Clearly, you're never going to have the same type of music program in a tiny church with a tiny congregation, although with the consolidation of parishes, there are fewer and fewer such churches. The whole point is that the objective in all churches should be music that is dignified, reverent and truly liturgical, and not pop music that has been added to dress up what people otherwise find to be a dull and boring experience. Now, that's a whole different matter, which I believe the Pope is also working on!
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