Are Drum Sets and Electric Guitars Ever Appropriate For Mass?

[brotherhrolf]

It’s not the instrument, it is the application of the instrument. Does anyone realize that just a hundred years ago the saxophone was regarded as the Devil’s Horn? I try to keep these things into perspective.

We have sung an anthem by Herbert Howell’s which was composed during WWII in England. Like as the hart -Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus. A Psalm…of David.

We sang it in June, in south Louisiana. It fits the soundtrack of my life. I can feel the heat and humidity and hear the crickets in the background even though this is an English piece. We were accompanied by the organ and one of choir members who was a grad student at LSU studying tenor saxophone (I think) on saxophone. There were no jazz riffs but you could hear the close resemblance to the music of the times.

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It’s not the instrument, it is how the instrument is applied. Just as the saxophone was considered the Devil’s Horn, I pray that someday, somehow, someone will find a way to make the use of drum sets and electric guitars instruments of liturgical worship.

We had a Ph.D. in trombone who sang bass and played the trombone to accompany the choir. It’s the use of the instrument not the instrument itself.

 

[BradyQ]

I’ve been to churches (not Catholic) in Africa with a dance floor in the front, blaring techno, and 10 guys playing bongos. that was some of the best worship i have ever been to. i was in a church in Lima where the worship was spanish rap (Christian of course). i also have been to worship with no instruments and ones with a punk Irish bagpipe band (Flatfoot56) screaming Amazing Grace :irish2: . and they were all amazing and i felt God. it doesn’t matter what genre of music it is or what instruments are being used, what matters is that you are praising God however you feel most focused and close to Him.

the only kind of music i wouldn’t “worship to” are the really hardcore Chrisian mosh pit kinds (the Chariot, Norma Jean, Demon Hunter [some of their stuff is worship]) because it’s a distraction.

 

[brotherhrolf]

I’ve been to churches (not Catholic) in Africa with a dance floor in the front, blaring techno, and 10 guys playing bongos. that was some of the best worship i have ever been to. i was in a church in Lima where the worship was spanish rap (Christian of course). i also have been to worship with no instruments and ones with a punk Irish bagpipe band (Flatfoot56) screaming Amazing Grace :irish2: . and they were all amazing and i felt God. it doesn’t matter what genre of music it is or what instruments are being used, what matters is that you are praising God however you feel most focused and close to Him.

the only kind of music i wouldn’t “worship to” are the really hardcore Chrisian mosh pit kinds (the Chariot, Norma Jean, Demon Hunter [some of their stuff is worship]) because it’s a distraction.

Brady, no disrespect meant, but that’s not what I meant by the way the instrument is used. I like Corvus corvax but I wouldn’t let them within a hundred yards of a Mass. The key words are worhsip. Worship ought to draw us in. Somehow an Irish punk bagpipe band a la Corvus corax is not exactly my idea of worship. Nor of that of our (presumable) ancestors.

The function of music in the liturgy is to lift our hearts and minds and I can assure you that having a punk bagpipe band screaming Amazing Graces does not fit my ideal of instruments being used in praise.

Do you have any idea of the music our ancestors used? I am a Celt of Irish, Scot and Breton ancestry. Might I suggest you check out the music our ancestors used before you go where no Celt has gone before?

 

[TroisNyxEtienne]

Hello, guys. I came across this thread out of a conflict I’m having — I do the music at Mass; I’m mainly an organist and cantor, but I am very passionate about the drums. If anything, that’s my cross.

Now the reason why I wanted to reply to this thread was to direct you to something I heard at World Youth Day in Madrid, exactly one year ago, that made me weep bitterly. It was during the Way of the Cross… Essentially, this video (youtube.com/watch?v=Hwr4CtzpYdA) would explain everything.

Those drums had a context, and they wouldn’t normally touch people’s hearts: what was played was the execution call, but taken into account Christ’s crucifixion and death… let’s just say, I was numbed when I heard them, I came back, watched that video and revisited that Way of the Cross… and wept bitterly.

Thing is, I am attuned to the sacred rather than the secular, and I get turned off by a lot of music on the radio. I also get turned off when sacred music is played irreverently.

If I cannot play at Mass, it’s fine. I’ll understand that. Truth be told, I’m nowhere near as skilled as those people who played at WYD last year. And besides, I love the musical heritage we have that I wouldn’t ask for anything else. My question, though, is one that makes me cry at the thought: will I ever be able to use that passion of mine in a reverent, Catholic setting like WYD? T_T

Just something I needed to get out. Please, direct me.

 

[andrewstx]

Hello, guys. I came across this thread out of a conflict I’m having — I do the music at Mass; I’m mainly an organist and cantor, but I am very passionate about the drums. If anything, that’s my cross.

Now the reason why I wanted to reply to this thread was to direct you to something I heard at World Youth Day in Madrid, exactly one year ago, that made me weep bitterly. It was during the Way of the Cross… Essentially, this video (youtube.com/watch?v=Hwr4CtzpYdA) would explain everything.

Those drums had a context, and they wouldn’t normally touch people’s hearts: what was played was the execution call, but taken into account Christ’s crucifixion and death… let’s just say, I was numbed when I heard them, I came back, watched that video and revisited that Way of the Cross… and wept bitterly.

Thing is, I am attuned to the sacred rather than the secular, and I get turned off by a lot of music on the radio. I also get turned off when sacred music is played irreverently.

If I cannot play at Mass, it’s fine. I’ll understand that. Truth be told, I’m nowhere near as skilled as those people who played at WYD last year. And besides, I love the musical heritage we have that I wouldn’t ask for anything else. My question, though, is one that makes me cry at the thought: will I ever be able to use that passion of mine in a reverent, Catholic setting like WYD? T_T

Just something I needed to get out. Please, direct me.

The percussion there is very different from the rock band style drumming that is more usual, it was very reverent there.

Besides I don’t think it would be physically possible to schlepp a pipe organ during an outdoor stations of the cross.

 

[TroisNyxEtienne]

The percussion there is very different from the rock band style drumming that is more usual, it was very reverent there.

Besides I don’t think it would be physically possible to schlepp a pipe organ during an outdoor stations of the cross.

I imagine they could, at least an electronic one with all the functions of a traditional organ: to my knowledge the people handling the music were sheltered. At least, they were during the vigil and the closing Mass…

That having been said, being passionate about the drums… I would either want to play reverently, or refrain from playing. Even wanting to play reverently would instigate a hotbed of dissent. sniff

 

[superamazingman]

Besides I don’t think it would be physically possible to schlepp a pipe organ during an outdoor stations of the cross.

In that case, don’t forget that we can always sing without accompiment. That’s far better than playing something like drums.

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

I definitely agree Although, one instance in which these instruments may be beneficial would be at a Youth Mass, where younger children who cannot yet grasp the concept of mass may find the music entertaining, and spike their intrest in attending church. …of course, this shouldn’t be their only basis of attending mass as they get older. but it’s a good starting point.

Nonsense. Children aren’t stupid. They might not get the theological concept of Mass to the same degree adults would (and even here I’m skeptical at how many people understand the concept of the Mass and what it is, why we have it, etc). Children should not be taught that Church is a form of entertainment, and it’s not a very good starting point.

If the Mass was celebrated in the appropriate manner according to the documents of Vatican II (what they really said, and not what people think they said and meant), then children would be able to grasp at minimum that something important was going on.

When I was a kid back in the 90s, the Mass was sung, and not in those lame Glory & Praise Carey Landry written sung song ways either. It was sung in the relatively same chant notation at the TLM, and priests actually did the ablutions, ever so carefully and meticulously, which I used to watch in awe. My dad use to lift me up during the elevations so that I could see. Oh, and the Roman Canon was said at every Mass.

Even at the age of 5 I knew that that was the important part of Mass. Why? Because I had observation skills and there was a clear distinction of where the Mass was and that it was set apart as something very important. That being said, we still had the terrible music. It appealed to my love of music, but even at the age of 5 or 6, I would watch JPII’s Masses on TV which were said in Latin (though, I thought it was French because I only thought two languages existed -English and French), and the music was different. They didn’t sing songs like “One Bread One Body” or “Glory and Praise to Our God”. They sang “different music” and the Masses seemed different. I used to wonder why our Mass wasn’t like the Masses on TV.

As I grew older, and more theological and philosophical, I started questioning this…a lot. I started making observations of how people behaved at Mass. I used to watch people receive communion, and noticed that casual manner behind it. I started to question if the host really did change into Jesus (I was about 9 or 10 at this time.) because no one acted like it did. I became convinced that transubstantiation was just something made up and told to us as kids to make us feel special.

The older I got (we’re talking high school age), the more the abuses started to creep in, and I started to question my observations. Long story short, I left the Church because I was convinced that based on how people acted and treated the Mass, that the Church was a fraud. I couldn’t reconcile with what I was being taught about Catholicism in school and what I was seeing at Mass.

I went off on a bit of a tangent here, but the point I’m making that what is done at Mass can and does affect young children, youth, teenagers, etc. Just because they’re young, doesn’t mean they’re stupid and can’t grasp the concept of Mass and it’s importance. People often forget that in the past people were not well educated much at all, yet they still were able to grasp the importance of Mass and the concept of it. Why? Because they had the externals to go off of. We need to return the sense of sacred and reverence back to the Mass the way the Documents of Vatican II really said.

In case it wasn’t obvious, I don’t think drums and electric guitars have any place at Mass. I don’t even like pianos at Mass.

 

[GwenL]

To return to the original question: No, drum sets and electric guitars are never appropriate at Mass.

Not at a “youth Mass,” not at a “children’s Mass,” and not at any other type of Mass.

As one of our parish’s young adults told me: “I am so tired of being pandered to by middle-aged people who are trying to show us how “cool” they are. If I want to hear rock and roll, I’ll go to the club down the street. Mass needs to be different.”

The Mass should have sacred music. That means holy, of God, set apart, different from what you hear in the world. I challenge anyone to show me drum sets and electric guitars playing the ordinaries of the Mass in a manner that is “sacred.”

We need to realize that young people are actually quite perceptive. They can tell if the music is pedestrian and banal. If it’s what they hear on their iPods or in the car or at a rock concert, they’ll know that Mass is just another everyday event.