Best and worst hymns?

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Wendy1989 said:
Much to my personal joy - we did the Pentecost sequence to Ode to Joy!
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Great. I would assume you director put the words of the Sequence to the tune and wrote it out. That’s how it worked for me for the Easter Sequence, but did’t attempt it for Pentecost. The Kendzia one I linked on this thread (May 17) is so requested year after year by the people and the choir. I just opened my missal and sung Ode to Joy to the Pentecost Sequence words and it does fit perfectly.
 
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Just had to post this tonight, second verse of Holy, Holy, Holy. Straight from Revelation - and we are part of this at every Mass!
2 Holy, Holy, Holy! All the saints adore Thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
which wert and art and evermore shalt be.
 
I agree with this. Too much of a good thing becomes wrote and overplayed - just like Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art. Overplaying hymns becomes like the top 40 station play loop!
 
I think one of my favourite hymns of all time would have to be ‘Through the Red Sea’, especially the way the St. Mary’s Cathedral Choir sung it at the final hymn of the Easter Vigil.


I also love Christ is made the sure foundation, and If ye Love Me
 
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“Let the entire man be seized with fear; let the whole world tremble; let heaven exult when Christ, the Son of the Living God, is on the altar in the hands of the priest. O admirable height and stupendous condescension! O humble sublimity! O sublime humility! that the Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself that for our salvation He hides Himself under a morsel of bread.” – St. Francis of Assisi

Let’s hope He likes drumsets!

Sometimes I wonder what the saints would think, if they happened to come upon one of our modern-style Masses, with bongos, or drumsets, or electric guitars, would they realize they are even at church? Would it sound more like a dancehall, or something to them?
 
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Loud-living-dogma said:
Sometimes I wonder what the saints would think, if they happened to come upon one of our modern-style Masses, with bongos, or drumsets, or electric guitars, would they realize they are even at church? Would it sound more like a dancehall, or something to them?
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Ah, I see you miss me! I believe that just like Christ himself is present, so are angels and saints. So, they would not just come down one day and just fall upon a “modern-style” Mass as if on a vacation. However, to take your view on it, just perhaps they might just realize that the Church is finally progressing into the 21st century.

Would you ask St. Cecilia who brought her lute to leave? How about St. Rose of Lima with her guitar? How about St. Teresa of Avila with tambourine in hand? Betcha they would just love to join the instrument section next to the choir during the Mass.
Loud-living-dogma said:
Let’s hope He likes drumsets!
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Uh, I think so: Psalm 150: 4-6:

Praise God with drum and dance!
Praise God with strings and pipe!
Praise God with loud cymbals!
Praise God with clashing cymbals!
Let every living thing praise the Lord!

And all singing and playing, “Go Make a Difference.” LOL!
 
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I usually go to my Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic church here in San Diego, but sometimes accompany my husband to the “Latin Rite” church close to our home. One of the worst hymns I hear when I go “The Supper of the Lord”. Its melody is very similar to the theme of "Beauty and the “Beast”, and I can’t help but break into barely stifled giggles when I hear it because it’s so ridiculous, and the lyrics are not “orthodox” (don’t know the correct word). 😔😳. They sang it today. ☹️ Usually, when I hear a hymn that I like, I look at when it was written/composed, and sure enough 17th-19th centuries.
 
Actually, as bad as the song selections sometimes are, at too many Catholic parishes I have visited the far worse issue is how many of the members of the faithful cannot trouble themselves to even try to sing. This is regardless of what songs are chosen.

Some places, it is truly pathetic, the places where the prayers are mumbled listlessly and every person who actually sings can be heard individually because the rest of the congregation is so given over to musical sloth. There are no musical selections that can rescue that situation.
 
I think back to Mass yesterday evening. We have no instruments on Saturday, any singing is a cappella. The person who usually leads the singing chose “How Great Thou Art” which nobody at that Mass can pull off. We simply can’t reach those notes. And we sing in unison, not in harmony, so as a result she sang most of it alone. I tried my best but it simply wasn’t happening.

The Communion hymn was “Gift of Finest Wheat”. We did much better with that one, particularly on the refrain.

Recessional was “Morning Has Broken” which is a weird choice for an evening Mass but I suppose she was just looking for something the congregation could sing. Meh, not a great response for that one either.
 
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Amazing Grace and Great Thou Art are Protestant anthems. So inappropriate at Mass IMHO.

The Gloria as interpreted by Marty Haugen due to the refrain, changes in tempo, and non-compliance with the GIRM.

Let There Be Peace On Earth due to the internal conflicts involving inclusive language. There have been at least four different renderings since it was first published in the late 1960s. I predict another re-work of the ‘offending’ verse to “With God our Creator, creatures all are we, let us scamper together…”

Rain Down–This has pronoun trouble. Perhaps the most time “God” appears in a tune.
 
Phemie said:
I think back to Mass yesterday evening. We have no instruments on Saturday, any singing is a cappella. The person who usually leads the singing chose “How Great Thou Art” which nobody at that Mass can pull off. We simply can’t reach those notes. And we sing in unison, not in harmony, so as a result she sang most of it alone. I tried my best but it simply wasn’t happening.

The Communion hymn was “Gift of Finest Wheat”. We did much better with that one, particularly on the refrain.

Recessional was “Morning Has Broken” which is a weird choice for an evening Mass but I suppose she was just looking for something the congregation could sing. Meh, not a great response for that one either.
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Having said that, I don’t think Catholic songbooks are by any means the worst offenders in the category of melodies least attainable by congregational singing groups.

By the way, what do you mean “we have no instruments on Saturday”? Are you saying that your parish doesn’t employ any professional whatsoever to be there to play an instrument and lead the singing?

If a parish does not want to spend the money to pay a professional to prepare and lead the music for Sunday Mass, the parish is going to get whatever the volunteers find within their preference and ability. There are parishes with all-volunteer music who rise to great heights, but that is not the way to bet. It usually requires some good-hearted professional to step in and provide professional services without charging for them. Unless the parish is indeed full of impoverished members of the faithful, that just isn’t right.
 
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Our parish does not pay for musicians or a musical director, or any work it can get a volunteer to do and that includes secretary, director of catechesis, bookkeeper, etc.

We have a choir that gets together for Sunday morning Mass under the volunteer choir director. Said choir came together about 15 years ago when our organist moved away and we needed to scramble to have some singing for the Triduum. One member of the group had a very nice voice and could strum a guitar and everyone pretty much deferred to her to decide everything. The situation remains to this day.

They don’t want to practice except for a few minutes before Mass and as a result we have been singing the same setting of the Mass since the new Missal came into effect in 2011. There is no incentive to learn anything new.
 
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Our parish will be singing a new Mass setting next week. We heard each part one time only before we are expected to sing. Usually when a new hymn is sung at Mass, it is the first time the congregation has heard it sung. Yes, we have professional Protestant musicians. How can you expect a congregation to sing anything well?
 
Phemie said:
Our parish does not pay for musicians or a musical director, or any work it can get a volunteer to do and that includes secretary, director of catechesis, bookkeeper, etc.
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OK, but it would seem that on Saturday nights the volunteer effort is clearly insufficient. The single volunteer who has stepped forward is being put into an essentially impossible position. What song book is there that can fix that situation? The Saturday vigil you are describing is the liturgical equivalent of a church building with a leaky roof and a furnace that doesn’t work. If it really is all the parish can manage or a one-week issue that came up because of illness or bad roads, that’s one thing, but is that really the best that can be managed on a regular basis? It is a question the faithful ought to be asking, don’t you think? (What would a freelance musician charge in your area?)
 
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PetraG said:
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Phemie:
Our parish does not pay for musicians or a musical director, or any work it can get a volunteer to do and that includes secretary, director of catechesis, bookkeeper, etc.
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OK, but it would seem that on Saturday nights the volunteer effort is clearly insufficient. The single volunteer who has stepped forward is being put into an essentially impossible position. What song book is there that can fix that situation? The Saturday vigil you are describing is the liturgical equivalent of a church building with a leaky roof and a furnace that doesn’t work. If it really is all the parish can manage or a one-week issue that came up because of illness or bad roads, that’s one thing, but is that really the best that can be managed on a regular basis? It is a question the faithful ought to be asking, don’t you think? (What would a freelance musician charge in your area?)
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To be perfectly honest, most people who attend the Saturday evening Mass would be perfectly happy if there was no singing at all. It’s been a back and forth at this particular Mass depending on the priest we’ve had. Some have been perfectly happy having no singing, some insist on it.

The priest we’ve had for the last 18 months wants singing and if no one steps up to the plate he’ll lead the singing himself. That would be great if he could read music but he can’t and most of the time he’s a mile off the melody. I can sing a bit but I can’t come up with the right tune if I’m hearing someone sing something else. The gal who now volunteers if she’s not working has a lovely voice but her choices are not always the best for the community to sing.
 
Best:
Tantum Ergo
Pange Lingua Gloriosi
Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All
Be Thou My Vision
All Creatures of Our God and King
Faith of Our Fathers
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name

Worst:
All Are Welcome

That’s just my opinion though, there’s nothing wrong if you feel differently!

God bless.
 
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I think because it’s a Protestant hymn. If that were the standard, though, they’d have to rip out a good chunk of the hymn book my parish uses at Mass. I personally have no problem singing Protestant hymns at Mass as long as there’s nothing theologically “off” about the hymn.
 
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