St. Louis Jesuits : Folk Mass Music [my title]

Ad Orientem ^ | Jan. 15, 2003 | Mark C. N. Sullivan

[Dajjal]

Which obsolete team from the Arch City do you prefer?

The St. Louis Browns?

Or the St. Louis Jesuits?

I have to go with the Brownies. There was an appealing honesty regarding their merits. They were pretty much horrible and nobody made any bones about it.

Not so with the Jesuits who gave us the St. Louis Sound in folk Mass hymnody, and who still are upheld as trendsetters in parish music ministries across the land.

Check out the site of "Sing a New Song" and "Here I Am, Lord" composer Fr. Dan Schutte, SJ, responsible for the Lamb of God you hear at just about every local parish (and probably many of the other hymns, besides).

Give a listen to "Meadows and Mountains." Then sample "Join in the Dance."

It's as if Bernie and friends from Room 222 had cut short a rap session with Mr. Dixon to try their hands at sacred music.

Shades of Love, American Style! Shades of New Zoo Revue!

Why, 30 years after 1972, after Godspell and bell-bottoms have gone out and in and out of style again, is this sort of peppy Aquarianism still the musical standard in as many parishes as it is?
1/15/2003

[Dajjal]

The guilty parties.

[NYer]

Then sample "Join in the Dance."

Pretty nasty stuff .... Which dance are they referring to? Hope it's not the liturgical dance that so many of the liberals have enacted in their parishes. Where do they come up with these ideas?

[Dajjal]

Sing A New Song Ping

[nickcarraway]

St. Louis ping

[traditionalist]

Obsolete? We all wish, but unfortunately most parishes still sing this crap.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

There is certainly a need, in addition to courses in theology, philosophy, and church history, to add some basic and formal instruction on style and taste. One of the unfortunate consequences of the "spirit of Vatican II" has been modelling church forms on modern American counter-culture. The idea that the folksy, New Agey, hand-clapping style in popular music is appropriate for Catholic worship has been part of this post-Vatican II circus. It may sound condescending, but some of these types really don't know any better. They....uh....they think it's good. The Sesame Street approach to Catholic liturgical life is one of the ultimate expressions of neo-modernism in American Catholicism. It achieves the goal of making Catholic worship just as silly and goofy as certain trends in secular culture.

What has happened is that this Sesame Street approach merely transfers one form of communication style from the secular pop arena to the sacramental life of worship where it doesn't belong. It is part of a larger drama of therapeutic touchy-feelyism in clerical culture, an exotic topic in itself which would require multiple levels of psychological and sociological explanation. What really needs to happen is that no one should be allowed in "music ministry" work who has not received formal (and orthodox) Catholic training in the history of Catholic sacred music. The mischief of the music ministry mafia can be curtailed when enough people stand up and protest the silliness of this. Will we have Eminem-inspired "Rap" Masses next? The basic problem is the relativistic idea that the Church needs to follow the forms of contemporary culture in order to be relevant to this or that culturally challenged victim group in our midst. The other problem, of course, is the self-appointed nature of the minority faction (the music ministry mafia) who impose these forms on the rest of us. As with other and more unsavory problems, many bishops turn a blind eye to such matters. It is also a racket. Someone is SELLING the music books for this goofy style. As with so many other banalities and asburdities of the post-Vatican II landscape which have contributed to the current wasteland, the conservative critics can be dismissed as narrow, mean-spirited, and not up to date enough, etc. ...And the beat goes on...

You almost feel sorry for future church historians who will have to wade through this mess trying to make sense out of what exactly happened to the church in the U.S. during this period. In many cases, "the lunatics were running the asylum..."

[Dajjal]

Will we have Eminem-inspired "Rap" Masses next?

They're called "Rave Masses" and they've been around for a long time -- well before anyone knew who M&M was.

(They're usually not advertised in your parish bulletin, though.)

[Dajjal]

The idea that the folksy, ... hand-clapping style in popular music is appropriate for Catholic worship has been part of this post-Vatican II circus.

The creepy thing is that the style of V-2 Catholic liturgical music has not been "pop" for over thirty years! It's another V-2 fly in amber, stuck in the '60s.

Much like the way Catholic philosophy and theology (and all Church pronouncements) are couched in the language of '60s existentialism and phenomenology.

(Let's go down to the coffee house and dig the happening.)

There is an Austin-Powers-like quality to much in the Church, where time is frozen to the era around 1963-69.

[ArrogantBustard]

This stuff is putrid, and these people are artistic wreckers. They are to music what Mahoney's Monstrosity and Weakland's Wierdness are to architecture.

[ArrogantBustard]

Fr. Dan Schutte, SJ. Official photo, taken from his website, on his biography page. Looks like he's really proud to be a priest.

[Palladin]

Every time I hear "Here I Am, Lord"...I want to strangle the choir director.

[Dajjal]

Looks like he's really proud to be a priest.

Well, he is dressed in the Jesuit uniform.

[Dajjal]

I don't know about you, but I couldn't get the "Love, American Style" link to work.

Try this one: http://cowsill.com/cowsills/sound.html

[Scupoli]

There is an Austin-Powers-like quality to much in the Church, where time is frozen to the era around 1963-69.

Yeah, baby! Can I vote this 'Catholic Quote of the Day'?

[Dajjal]

Groovy, man!

[Land of the Irish]

There is an Austin-Powers-like quality to much in the Church, where time is frozen to the era around 1963-69.

Kind of coincides with VC II. "By their fruits you shall know them."

Great post Dajjal.

[AnAmericanMother]

Oh, this sort of abomination of desolation is NOT confined to the Catholics . . .

I'm afraid it's infected even the High-Church Anglicans (you know, we're the ones who CLAIM we're Catholic too. Some call us "Catholic Lite" . . . but that's another story.)

Our choirmaster (thank you St. Gregory AND St. Cecilia!) is a musical and liturgical conservative, and we have managed to quarantine the infection to the 9 a.m. "Family Mass" on ALTERNATE Sundays. The rest of the time, we sing real music.

We avoid those services, except my poor daughter's altar server schedule occasionally coincides with the "Here Am I Lord" crowd. I told her not to roll her eyes where the priest could see her . . . and not to howl along with the music . . .

[ventana]

LOL! Good grief, I just about want to barf when the atonal chime in on "Sing a New Song!" Yechhhh!

[ventana]

I told her not to roll her eyes where the priest could see her

I have to work on that too (for me,not my daughter)V's wife.

[Desdemona]

It's so lovely to see my childhood under attack. I think we had every album. I knew them all by heart. Then I discovered real music.

And "Here I am Lord" and "SIng a New Song" were never half as objectionable as say "All My Days", "Though the Mountain May Fall", "Blest Be the Lord". And every song HAD to have a descant.

Thankfully, the cream really does rise to the top and there aren't all that many still in use. It will fade away in due time.