Bad Music during Divine Mercy Sunday Celebration

[benedictgal]

“Our God is an Awesome God” is just another example as to why the Protestant Praise and Worship genre simply does not work for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Those who support this kind of genre seem to ignore what Pope Benedict wrote in Sacramentum Caritatis:

Liturgical song

1. In the ars celebrandi, liturgical song has a pre-eminent place. (126) Saint Augustine rightly says in a famous sermon that “the new man sings a new song. Singing is an expression of joy and, if we consider the matter, an expression of love” (127). The People of God assembled for the liturgy sings the praises of God. In the course of her two-thousand-year history, the Church has created, and still creates, music and songs which represent a rich patrimony of faith and love. This heritage must not be lost. Certainly as far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that one song is as good as another. Generic improvisation or the introduction of musical genres which fail to respect the meaning of the liturgy should be avoided. As an element of the liturgy, song should be well integrated into the overall celebration (128). Consequently everything – texts, music, execution – ought to correspond to the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, the structure of the rite and the liturgical seasons (129). Finally, while respecting various styles and different and highly praiseworthy traditions, I desire, in accordance with the request advanced by the Synod Fathers, that Gregorian chant be suitably esteemed and employed (130) as the chant proper to the Roman liturgy (131).

Each week I am subjected to the drek contained in Spirit and Song. While this book may be good for use outside of the Mass, I believe that its contents do not have any place within the Holy Sacrifice, based on SC 42.

Perhaps when the division on Sacred Music finally comes into being at the CDWDS, it will have its hands full looking at what the publishers are passing off as Sacred Music. I do hope that they will examine all of the OCP and GIA materials. There is certainly no quality control coming from the publishing houses.

 

[TBolt1000T]

Lots of hymns are set to existing music. Not everyone who wrote lyrics could also write music and if the lyrics are from scripture, they were simply set to music. And that music was often a tune that people already knew - so another hymn, a folk tune (the pop music of the day), or a drinking song.

But I do agree that there are great praise songs with theologically correct lyrics that still aren’t appropriate for use during Mass.

I definitely agree with you.

I think that the main thing about “Awesome God” that gives people an uneasy feeling, is that it is still sung in many Protestant churches, and therefore, it probably has an association with Protestantism for many people. Knowing about the composer’s conversion helps it for me, but I personally still wouldn’t want to hear it at Mass. If I were a fan of Masses with contemporary music, I might feel differently. For me, it’s just a matter of prefference.

 

[jilly4ski]

This wasn’t at the actual Divine Mersy Sunday celebration, but at the recessional for the EF Mass yesterday, the choir sang a hymn called “Alleluia! Alleluia! Let The Holy Anthem Rise!” From what I’ve heard, it’s very much a traditional Catholic hymn, and I think that the lyrics are excelent, but I personally think that the music has much to be desired. Sorry if this offends anyone on here, but for some reason, the music of that hymn reminds me of an old English drinking song. I’d like to eventually compose a new setting of that hymn to completely different music.
…]

I agree, I don’t remember hearing that song before, except it was the entrance hymn yesterday, I was in the bathroom changing a diaper, so I wasn’t paying very close attention, but from what I heard it was not a very pleasant tune.

 

[KathTromp18]

Until the closing hymn “Our God is an Awesome God”?

HYMN?!?! “Our God is an Awesome God” is most certainly not a hymn! It is a Christian pop tune.

I am taking over my college campus Parish’s contemporary choir in the fall, and have already started looking through the Spirit and Song and Spirit and Song 2 books for things to “black-list”. Basically, if my Evangelical mother, whom I love dearly. listens to it, it’s not appropriate for Church…AT ALL…EVER! Stuff like “I can only Imagine”, “Our God is an Awesome God”, and/or anything from Michael W. Smith shouldn’t even be thought of withing six miles of any Catholic Church! On the other hand, SS and SS2 have some interesting takes on traditional hymns. They do have many schmoozy and sappy …“songs”. I’d much rather use GIA (which my Parishes back home use) than OCP, but the parish, unfortunately can’t afford switching. I’d much rather be doing the wonderful works of Proulx, that the drudge of “composers” that OCP has, even though the building is too small to fit an organ (not that we could afford one anyway).

The worst part, which I hope to change, is that there are few people who can read music in the contemporary choir, including myself (but I can’t sing for the life of me and play trumpet), a high soprano (the current director who’s leaving for Salzburg…could you guess that she wants to be an opera singer?), a friend of mine who plays Euphonium, and the extemely rare flute player. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find another trumpet player and a trombone or another euphonium so we can do some more traditional 4-part music (as opposed to the solo/back-up-singer format SS and SS2 use). I’m even writing a nice setting of the Mass Ordinaries (in Latin…I believe the English translations are all under copyright, and the last thing I want to do is get into a copyright battle with God’s own Church), so we can avoid the OCP settings.

What the Church needs is new composers. Real composers like Bruckner, Richard Proulx, Palestrina, Biber (look up “Missa Salsbergenis” for the best Church music EVER!!!..OK I’m done), et cetera who know how to compose music that’s Church appropriate.

 

[roadsend]

No, the church song that’s from the tavern is Lord of the Dance.

Well…a certain kind of tavern maybe.

If I should have the misfortune of being in church when LOD is performed, I leave immediately. The good nuns of my youth taught me to avoid sacrilege.