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Church music has become big business. Ultimate Guitar reports that almost $600 million is spent annually on audio equipment and instruments for performing church music.” Churches have become one of the most common venues for hearing live music. In six years, Bethel Music, the music ministry of Bill Johnson’s megachurch Bethel Redding, generated $80 million in revenue. Bethel Music is one of the four most popular church music ministries in America, according to a recent academic study being published at Worship Leader Research. The researchers identified 38 of the most popular church worship songs from 2010 to 2020. Almost all...

A collection comprised of nearly 50 “queer hymns” has been recently published by an ecumenical non-profit association that seeks to promote congregational singing. Songs for the Holy Other: Hymns Affirming the LGBTQIA2S+ Community was released in July by the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. Anglican Journal, the publication of the Anglican Church of Canada, publicized the songs, which were promptly shared online by the U.S.-based Episcopal Church. Both of the neighboring churches regularly promote LGBT causes throughout the worldwide Anglican Communion, but some of the hymns trample on a number of core Christian teachings, in addition to...

I'm trying to find an old source for the music of hymns and psalms from about 1775 to 1815. Since I want to transcribe from it, I'd be looking for something written down before 1923. Would anyone be able to point me to something of that kind?

Why has church attendance dropped off so dramatically in the last 50 years? There are a whole range of reasons, I am sure, and nearly every article in this blog addresses the issue in one form or another, but if you ask me one of the main contributory factors is the music that is generally heard at Mass. And in my opinion, it is the style of music offered by the most common pew missalettes that is contributing most powerfully to that decline. I am talking about a style of music that seems to have started to develop around...

Bishop Doerfler’s Stunning Church Music Letter   HE PSALMS from the Old Testament give witness to the human expression of faith through Sacred Music that manifests the beauty of God. It is our joy to give God the best, most beautiful musical expression that we can offer him as we sing the Mass. My illustrious predecessor, the Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample, wrote eloquently regarding Sacred Music in his pastoral letter entitled, Rejoice in the Lord Always. The teaching and directives given therein remain in effect, although he acknowledged that the implementation of the directives would take some time...

Something pleasant about Sunday in the springtime

Recovering Our Musical Memory: Ten Mass Settings by R. Jared Staudt on January 8, 2014 ·  We are in urgent need of greater cultural literacy today. Catholics have some of the most profound treasures in human history in its legacy and many of them are not being appreciated. I would like to point to one particular aspect of this legacy, musical settings for the Mass. This follows the great tradition of singing the Mass, which is so prevalent in Catholic history that we could speak of it as normative. Music has a natural power—rooted physically in the power of...

As to "in church" I mean that not so much broadly as to the Church (body of Christ), but as to which styles are Biblically permitted in individual churches. 1.) At what point (scripturally) does a church worship team (for instance) go too far when plucking the bass guitar or electric guitar, or beat the drums too loudly? At what point is the "riff" (or beat) becoming too "wordly." Define "wordly" music as opposed to non-wordly music if/when discussing this. I ask this of those who lean more towards the Michael W. Smith type worship services or to those who...

Mysteriously Moved by Sacred Music by Trent Beattie on December 26, 2013 ·  Music has always been a part of Nicholas Lemme’s life. In his youth, he saw it as an expression of who he was. As his overall perspective on life changed, so did the music he identified with. It seemed only natural that a new outlook would be accompanied by a new art form, somewhat like a change of wardrobe being the outgrowth of a new lease on life.Yet it has only been in the past four years that Lemme has come to see music not only...

The Fathers of the Church can help us refine our liturgical worship after 50 years of subjection to sentimental pop music.At the beginning of this 50th anniversary year of Vatican II, Benedict XVI called for a renewed, authentic reading and implementation of the council documents. After suffering through many decades of vulgar, saccharine Church music, it is encouraging to note a rise of musicians who are serious about authentic reform of sacred worship. The recent Sacred Liturgy Conference in Rome was a great success, and there is a spirit of joyful, liturgical rejuvenation among the youth. Today’s composers are considering...

Sacred Music and Your Parish February 1st, 2010 by Trent Beattie One can walk into nearly any parish today and hear almost any type of music, from Gregorian chant to folk music to heavy metal.  While most parishes offer one type of music within a given Mass, some parishes even provide a musical contrast within the same one.  I actually attended a funeral Mass in which an electric guitar was used alternately with a harp.  Figure that one out if you can.Unusual combinations aside, isn’t it a good thing to have something different for everyone?  The old people can listen...

I'm having some problems with music in Catholic America. Part of it is my problem. I spent fifteen years in the Anglican Church with the New English Hymnal--which is probably the finest hymnbook ever published in the English language. Musically and liturgically it was the best that traditional Anglicanism had to offer. Catholic music in England--well we won't even go there. Apart from a few islands of decent church music the Catholic church in England was a wasteland. I am discovering that in the USA it is not much better. My problem is that I am actually unfamiliar with most...

COMMENTARY--If you’ve been to a church at any time in the past 30 years, you have no doubt been subjected to the “worship wars.” Contemporary vs. Traditional. Modern vs. Postmodern. The worship wars have been fought in virtually every evangelical church at some time during the past generation. Those on the traditional side say the conflict is ultimately a matter of theology. Those on the contemporary side say it is ultimately a matter of relevance. I’ve got my own opinions about this question, and – just for the record – let me say that I’m a traditionalist when it comes...

In recent times the Church has developed uneasy relations with its musicians. Growing up in the 1960s and 70s I was aware of a creeping separation between my serious engagement with the study of music, the application and practice of assiduously honed skills, and what the Church seemed to need and want for its liturgy. I soon discovered that most serious Catholic musicians were being repulsed by an increasingly rigid misinterpretation of the Second Vatican Council’s reforms on music. Clergy and “liturgists” began expressing a scarcely veiled disdain for the very expertise and learning that musicians had sought to acquire....

The Pope has demanded an end to electric guitars and modern music in church and a return to traditional choirs. The Catholic Church has been experimenting with new ways of holding Mass to try to attract more people. The recital of Mass set to guitars has grown in popularity in Italy; in Spain it has been set to flamenco music; and in the United States the Electric Prunes produced a "psychedelic" album called Mass in F Minor. However, the use of guitars and tambourines has irritated the Pope, who loves classical music. "It is possible to modernise holy music," the...

MILWAUKEE — “And we, though many, throughout the earth, we are one body in this one Lord,” goes the popular hymn, One Bread, One Body. It is that line which reflects and helps the Catholic community understand the diversity of cultures within its church. “We have a choice to embrace this growing cultural diversity or resist,” said Sacred Heart Sr. Mary E. McGann at a workshop for musicians at the National Pastoral Musicians Conference in Milwaukee. Sr. McGann is associate professor of liturgy and music at the Franciscan School of Theology and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. “God...

Pastor Rick Warren said in a recent article posted on Pastors.com that: “There’s no such thing as Christian music. There are just Christian lyrics”, implying that any and all music is acceptable for worship as long as the lyrics were “Christian” – whatever that means. I would suggest to Pastor Warren that if ACDC were to provide the worship music at his church next Sunday morning, very few of his worshippers would be able to ascertain whether the lyrics were “Christian” or not due to the sheer decibel level created by the instrumentation alone. My question is: Under these conditions,...

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 Is Still On the Throne Have you started for glory and heaven? Have you left this old world far behind? In your heart is the Comforter dwelling? Can you say, "Praise the Lord, He is mine" Have the ones that once walked on the highway Gone back, and you seem all alone? Keep your eyes on the prize, for the home in the skies; God is still on the throne. Refrain God is still on the throne, And He will remember His own; Tho' trials may press us and burdens distress us, He never will leave us alone; God...

I Sought the LordI sought the Lord, and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me. It was not I that found, O Savior true; No, I was found of Thee. Thou didst reach forth Thy hand and mine enfold; I walked and sank not on the storm vexed sea. 'Twas not so much that I on Thee took hold As Thou, dear Lord, on me. I find, I walk, I love, but oh, the whole Of love is but my answer, Lord, to Thee! For Thou were long beforehand with my soul, Always Thou lovest...