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

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Just in case they missed this in seminary or college...

Byrd, William

born 1543 , Lincoln, Lincolnshire?, Eng. died July 4, 1623 , Stondon Massey, Essex

One of the greatest of English musical composers... English organist and composer of the Shakespearean age who is best known for his development of the English madrigal. He also wrote virginal and organ music that elevated the English keyboard style.

...Byrd was the composer of three masses, for three, four, and five voices respectively, which seem to have been published with some privacy about 1588. All three have recently appeared in modern editions, and increase Byrd's claim to rank as the greatest English composer of his age.

And certainly in the top of greatest Catholic composers as well.