Posted on 10/09/2009 6:37:58 PM PDT by Salvation
Folk Mass isn't the only bad stuff out there. Unfortunately, we have to search for the good stuff. It is out there, though.
Thank you for that video.
Yes, OCP music is one of the crosses that converts have to bear. Putting the words of a psalm to honky-tonk piano music does NOT make "sacred music". Horrible stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyntHSm_0VE
This was probably all Sussmayr but he must have been good at quartets. The music is not up to the Mozart level.
Arleen Auger who was sick at the time. She passed away not long after this. Very sad.
You Tube had the whole concert bit they pulled it. This remained. Thanks for the suggestions.
Re Mozart — We went to a concert last week. The conductor/ performer had done research in London re the concerts Myra Hess did in London during the blitzkrieg to keep morale up. They talked about the transcendence of music, that the citizens were lifted up out of the dark days and into Transcendent Reality by the wonderful music.
THIS is the difference between the ‘modern,’ atonal, banal, existential music currently being written, whether church ditties or modern composers celebrating their own intellects. NONE of the current music would have been played during a siege to lift the citizens up and encourage them in dark times.
Do you live in the US? If so, why do you keep pushing for Spanish hymns?
My family does music for the Spanish service in our parish. And I’m not “pushing” for Spanish hymns, as a rule: I’m just saying how much I like them, just as other people are expressing their aesthetic preference.
I do sometimes suggest, largely in jest, that Spanish - “el idioma de Dios” - should be the new universal language of the Church, but most people are able to take that as a mild, perhaps not even funny, effort at humor from someone to whom humor doesn’t come easily.
"Wretch" is protestant code for total depravity, a heresy. Man is not a "wretch" because even while in a state of sin God give him grace to respond to His promptings.
There are some very nice and perfectly acceptable protestant hymns, but they really do not belong in catholic liturgy. for 100 years and more, popes have been asking Catholics to sing the mass itself. Most Catholics don't know that there are music settings for every day of the year, and that the mass is intended to be sung. Even if most people don't have the time or talent to master separate chents for every occasion, we can all learn the ordinary parts: Gloria, Credo, etc.
Hymns are really an intrusion on liturgy, and their over-use reflects the widespread rejection of Vatican II's call for Gregorian chant to enjoy pride of place in Catholic worship.
I'm a convert from the Presbyterian church, so that perspective doesn't really resonate with me, although I'm sure you're correct. As with everything that I don't, personally, "get," if the Pope and Bishops say, "This is what you'll do," then that's what we'll do, with as little grumbling as possible.
We had a guest priest yesterday, representing "Food for the Poor," and he mentioned that his parish in Idaho has a Swahili service, in which the African congregation sings the entire Mass.
Believe me, I respect and appreciate your attitude of obedience even when you don’t like the message. the sad thing is, there are excellent reasons for the message, which if observed would reinforce the liturgy and the faith of those celebrating it. As one who teaches RCIA with a heavy emphasis not just on the “what” but also the “why”, I regret that you appear to have been short-changed. I hope you won’t be discouraged from asking for the “why”, from those able to tell you. The Catholic Church is not arbitrary, random, or unreasonable, and those who represent her as such as doing a grave disservice.
I hope I didn't suggest that I thought the Church was any of those things, and I'm sure the approach to liturgy that you're discussing would be positive in many ways.
What is "unreasonable," if not "arbitrary," are a person's individual tastes in music, worship, prayer, and so on. I'm happy to admit that mine are not based on reason, but simply on my own history and feelings. If I like a song because my father liked it, that's not any kind of high theology or liturgy analysis!
I expect that, if the authorities made significant changes to the way we celebrate Mass, along the lines you're discussing, I'd eventually find that it was better, in many ways. And we could always do our Ranchero favorites at the Folk Society ;-).
Me gusta tambien la musica ranchera. 8-)
Agreed, Romulus, and just for the record, while “Amazing Grace” is certainly a nice hymn...it is decidedly NOT Catholic, and I don’t like hearing it at Catholic Masses.
That being said...the reason ALWAYS given to me about the change in the “wretch” line had nothing whatsoever to do with Catholic doctrine, and everything to do with the “we don’t want people to feel bad” sort of stuff.
Regards,
There is a beauty in the Protestant version of complete and sudden, tear-drenched, repentant conversion. “Amazing Grace” expresses that particular form of beauty well.
Not that a Catholic cannot have the same experience. Nevertheless, it is not just the verbiage: the entire song is based on the notion of sudden and complete outpouring of grace in response to faith. This is a Protestant model, out of place in a Church, a place where real encounter with Christ Whole, not solely His Grace, happens whether we are ready for it or not, and mostly, we are not.
Then you wouldn't have enjoyed the first time "Stille Nacht" (Slilent Night) was ever played. The parish organ was broken, so the song was sung to the accompaniment of a lone guitar.
It's not the instrument that's the problem, it's the content of the music. Some folk music is fine, if it's based in Scripture. The "Jesus is my boyfriend" music is just inane. I'm a member of the Adult Choir, and we do the 11am Mass with organ accompaniment, but even there, we get some songs that are just silly. Mostly they're pedantic and often scolding in their content. They're certainly not uplifting, or turning our eyes toward God.
I'm agitating for some Early Music for the Christmas Midnight Mass; Praetorius would be nice, but I'd settle for some William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, or Herbert Howells. I'm gonna e-mail our Organist with a list this week. ;o)
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