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

[Maximilian]

Nonsense always sounds more profound if Heidegger and Sartre can be enlisted in its defense along with highbrow-sounding German and French jargon.

Your post made a lot of good points. I just want to point out one thing: Pope John Paul II is a phenomelogist in a direct line from Husserl.

[Maximilian]

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

One more vote for this one as quote of the week. I always say, "When the Church tries to be 'hip,' they miss by about 35 years."

Like when the pope had Dylan over to the Vatican a couple years ago. C'mon, Dylan was big back in 1964.

Apparently Pat Boone released a heavy-metal album. This is exactly what the Catholic Church looks like when it tries to keep up with the times.
In a Metal Mood: No More Mr Nice Guy

The worst part is that Pat Boone was doing this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, like "This is Spinal Tap," but the Church is actually serious when they try to foist this stuff on us.

[VermiciousKnid]

I do not think you are being snotty when you say you feel cheated by having to sing what passes for "liturgical" music these days. You do in fact have a gift from God -- and it should be used like all of His gifts -- to the best of your ability.

I myself can't carry a tune at all. Of course, that doesn't stop me from singin' it loud and proud at home (just ask hubby), but it DOES stop me from inflicting my sad excuse of a voice on the unsuspecting parishoners at church. : )

Regards,

[Desdemona]

I myself can't carry a tune at all. Of course, that doesn't stop me from singin' it loud and proud at home (just ask hubby), but it DOES stop me from inflicting my sad excuse of a voice on the unsuspecting parishoners at church.

If you are close to the "music ministers," sing loud and clear.

[ninenot]

Good summary. You are far too kind in referring to the perpetrators as "loonies." They are subversives, and many of them are quite active in other deviant behaviors.

But the deviation offers almost all the explanation you need for "why?"

[ninenot]

He is NOT a priest. He left the Jesuits, returned to Milwaukee (his home area--actually, he is from THE ritzy western suburb: Elm Grove,) flopped HORRIBLY on a couple of "music director" assignments in the Archdiocese, and went out to SFO.

[ninenot]

Truly, it is going out of style. They no longer could economically justify the separate publishing venture which printed/sold their crap---now you see it in Oregon Catholic Press pubs.

Otherwise nobody would buy it.

[ninenot]

The people usually are musically inclined, and they reached their artistic zenith in high school.

Then they went to college and studied "music," and took graduate courses of NotreDame's liturgy school.

The nadir is reached when they get their first "liturgy" job and begin reading Natl Assn of Pastoral Musicians (NAPM--also known as NAPALM) periodicals, and attending Gabe Huck (huckster??) workshops, all paid for by the pew-sitter.

By the time they are 30 they no longer understand music which lasts longer than 4 minutes and view radio jingles as high art.

[ninenot]

Correct--it was Kant & Hegel who started it all, sort of.

But the short version of your post is "non serviam," which is the oldest quotation in the Old Testament.

[AnAmericanMother]

Too bad you're in St. Louis. Our choir has an opening for a staff soprano.

While our choir director does sic modern stuff on us from time to time, it's SERIOUS modern stuff (Rutter, Howells, Stanford, Hovhaness) and we lean heavily on Handel, Mozart, Bach, and the English composers such as Purcell, Greene, etc. Just now rehearsing two perfectly charming short works by Richard Farrant (of whom absolutely nothing is known save that he was a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal and died in 1580, I think), "Hide Thou Not Thy Face O Lord" and "Call to Remembrance". I cannot decide which I like better, they are like those wonderful Elizabethan miniatures that glow with color.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

"Your post made a lot of good points. I just want to point out one thing: Pope John Paul II is a phenomelogist in a direct line from Husserl." 41 posted on 01/17/2003 10:30 AM PST by Maximilian

True. But one would have to wade into a host of distinctions between Catholics who style themselves as phenomenologists while not denying the moral or ontological realism of the Thomistic tradition and those sophist types who kiss reality goodbye while entertaining the gobbledygook jargon of total subjectivism and relativism. It can get a bit esoteric. At any rate, the truth of the Catholic faith is not dependent upon the nouveau theoretical categories being bandied about with some recklessness in certain circles. Your point is valid. Thanks for mentioning it.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Yeah. It seems to vary depending upon the individuals in question. Some may not have though through what they are doing in terms of sacred music, while others clearly have some sort of weird agenda. If the clergy are goofy it usually follows that goofy music ministry camp followers figure in there somewhere.

There's a subtle condescension involved - the notion that their fellow Catholics also do not have good taste in music. It spirals from there. You end up with entire generations of Catholics unfamiliar with good sacred music.

[Desdemona]

Rutter? Serious? Okay. I'll take your word for it.

Around here, there aren't many parishes willing to pay staff musicians. Certainly not singers. If I ever move I'll let you know.

[RobbyS]

Are they REALLY any worst than Father Faber's stuff?

[AnAmericanMother]

Rutter's Requiem Mass is IMHO excellent. He's not a composer of the first rank, certainly, but unlike a lot of wacky moderns his music makes sense musically.

Daniel Pinkham is my current pet peeve - his stuff is just plain weird, no shape to it at all, no melody, cluster chords, and we have one of his anthems scheduled for Sunday after next. Certainly singing one of his "compositions" without crashing and burning gives you the satisfaction you get from performing ANY difficult maneuver correctly, but . . . . if I ever meet him I will have to restrain myself from slapping him.

Fortunately we're also singing part of Handel's Chandos No. 6, so that'll take the taste out of my mouth.

[RobbyS]

I have to comment that much of what passed as Thomism in the 1950s drove Etienne Gilson wild (well , as as wild as he could get.) That's one reason why it was so easily overthrown. Most priests understood it about as deeply as most engineers understand calculus.

[Desdemona]

Are they REALLY any worst than Father Faber's stuff?

Father Faber?

[RobbyS]

Rutter's Requiem Mass is IMHO excellent. Do you know whether it is on CD?

[RobbyS]

Faith of Our Father's etc.

[Desdemona]

I've done "Out of the Depths" from Rutter's Requiem, and it's not bad. The Handel Chandos anthems are good. There are newer arrangements of them and one year at the protestant church where I work we did one. I was the star.

And then I went to Mass.