Bad music is destroying the Church

[Sarabande]

barbfromtucson;2017237I:

know this will go ‘against the grain’, but I have to add my 2 cents. And I apologize for getting personal in this, but it’s the only way I can think of to really illustrate the point.

You’re not really going against the grain… I don’t consider “On Eagles Wings” or “Be Not Afraid” as classics. They are babies compared to the centuries of music we had before then. That music growing up made me want to vomit. The texts may be fine, but the compositional makeup of the music is so bad compared to other composers in our past, it doesn’t deserve equal play, IMHO, although, since I’m a paid musician, I sometimes have to play that kind of stuff at funerals and weddings. So, I do the best I can, just focusing on the words. Music is my life and prayer life and it disrupts my prayer when I hear diddies like that. I know some people would disagree.

I come from an abusive childhood, both at home and at school.

I’m very sorry to hear that. I can totally understand why you would associate certain things with your past.
barbfromtucson;2017237I:

I also think the type of music is determined by the community that makes up that specific parish–if you go to a Newman Center or to a church that has a lot of younger people–they’re going to have the more ‘modern’ music. If you go to a Parish where most of the parishioners are senior citizens, you’re going to get more of the ‘traditional’ or ‘classic’ music.

I agree. But we have a fairly young crowd at the Cathedral 18-35 (My husband and I are two of them) and we don’t do “modern” music with drumsets or guitars. But I understand that people who attend mass regularly at the Cathedral wouldn’t be attending the masses in some parishes anyway.
barbfromtucson;2017237I:

Fortunately for most of us, we live in cities that have more than one Catholic church, so if you don’t like/agree with one, there’s another one a few more miles away that you might find more agreeable.

Totally agree.
barbfromtucson;2017237I:

The church I grew up in, on the other hand, were a bunch of older ladies who had lost their voices 10 years (at least prior). Since my mom was one of them, I couldn’t ‘comment’ but I overheard other parishioners refer to them as the 10:30 a.m croakers. Even so, they were volunteers who loved the church and, like other posters have said, you don’t come to church to be entertained. If your church has a ‘bad choir’, realize that one, you’ll never see them on “American Idol”, but two–they are singing with their heart, and YOU should be singing too.

That’s enough to turn anybody off all kinds of sacred music. I agree that you are definitely not at church to be entertained, but I want the music to inspire me spiritually. If that doesn’t happen, it’s just cacaphony to me and disrupts my prayer no matter how hard I try to block it out. So if I’m not working at the Cathedral on Sundays, I attend mass when there is no music or no bad choir.