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To: markomalley
Is there such a lack of authentic Catholic work that a hole exists that must be filled by a non-Catholic?

No, but, leaving the late 20th century crap out of the argument, from time to time there are pieces that fit the Mass of the Day better than anything else that are not Catholic in origin. I.e., ANYTHING by Felix Mendelssohn who wrote a beautiful oratorio called "St. Paul" that has more than one movement that's in the standard repertoire. There's other pieces of his, including Hark, the Herald Angels Sing that work just fine and not many people complain about them. Most of them are done as anthems, or special pieces, not hymn singing. Doing without the spirituals and that sort of thing is probably not going to hurt anything.

If the goal here is pure, Catholic chant, it's going to be a bit of an uphill battle unless the parishes are willing to spend the money on musicians who know what they're doing. It's not as easy as it looks and after singing other genres accompanied, learning to connect the line and maintain pitch a cappella ain't easy. It takes a while to make it sound inspirational and there are choirs that can wreck chant. I heard it earlier this year and it was bad enough that there was banning involved.

Beware of idealizing this. It's a lot of work and it's going to take the bishops' taste to change before it all gets worked out.

55 posted on 07/11/2011 2:11:33 PM PDT by Desdemona ( If trusting the men in the clergy was a requirement for Faith, there would be no one in the pews.)
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To: Desdemona
Frankly, I'd be satisfied if, at the parish level, an interdict was published on playing anything by Haugen and Haas.

As a bonus, include that insipid hymn that re-uses the theme from the 4th Movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony (Joyful, joyful, or some such title). Why somebody would use a melody written to support a poem by Schiller as the basis for a "spiritual" song is beyond me. (And, yes, I dearly love the symphony, but within a Catholic Church? Really?????) -- read up on Schiller a little bit and my objection may not seem so ridiculous.

56 posted on 07/11/2011 2:17:57 PM PDT by markomalley (Nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good-Pope Leo XIII)
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To: Desdemona

Plus there are people like myself, who grew up under the shadow of VC2, and even in the music ministry that I am in, the minister that has just retired and the one coming in, did very mininmal Latin-related chants at best.


68 posted on 07/11/2011 5:08:27 PM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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