Can we have a frank discussion about music in Mass?

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pnewton said:
You use the word “all,” not I. However, I am not so blind as to see how people elevate their own tastes, like its dogma, and OCP “style,” whatever that means, is an heretical taste. I also think there is a blindness that if all music became chant and organ that all “real” Catholics would flock back, forgetting that priests will use music that they at least think is the best for their parish. A switch of music to a more traditional style is just as likely to have people look elsewhere as abandoning all traditional Catholic music.

There are guidelines, but the principle of music selection is based on subsidiarity. I choose a lot of the music at my parish, and I have to do it based on my parish, not on what people around the world think.
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I don’t envy your duties of selecting the music. It’s truly a thankless job since regardless what music you select, it’s almost a certainty that a good number of parishioners of your parish will not only not like the music selected, but passionately detest it. So many parishioners have completely divergent opinions on what music should be performed at a Mass, that it’s nearly impossible to select songs that everyone would be fine with.
 
See Psalm 92

It is good to praise the LORD,

and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High,

2 to proclaim Your loving devotion in the morning,

and Your faithfulness at night,

3 with the ten-stringed harp

and the melody of the lyre.

4 For You, O LORD, have made me glad by Your deeds;

I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

5 How great are Your works, O LORD,

how deep are Your thoughts!

6 A senseless man does not know,

and a fool does not understand,
 
Some folks prefer traditional hymns. Others like to sing out kind praise to Him.

Silent
Quiet and reverent (slow tempo)
Uplifting! (Medium tempo)
LOUD and singing with PRAISE!! (Fast tempo)

None are wrong.
 
Lifeisbeautiful3 said:
Some folks prefer traditional hymns. Others like to sing out kind praise to Him.

Silent
Quiet and reverent (slow tempo)
Uplifting! (Medium tempo)
LOUD and singing with PRAISE!! (Fast tempo)

None are wrong.
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Yes, but around here the tendency is to like one and dump on all the others…
 
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Totally agree!
When I’m about to receive Jesus, I feel some music cheapens the importance of what’s happening.
 
The heavenly court good enough for the Word Incarnate was not a building
 
The heavenly court on earth? Jesus didn’t even have a bed to lie down on, born and wrapped and put in an animal feed trough. The Upper room was a first century room in a Jerusalem home.

No ornate there, the Romans would have taken it. Jesus said the kingdom of God is not a building.

Destroy this temple and I will build it up in 3 days…
 
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Sorry. As a Catholic I choose not to remove Jesus from the crucifix or put him off to the side and worship in a white box of a building. The purpose for.golds candles and incense and icons are for us as the faithful to feel a foretaste of heaven on earth
 
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Well we don’t know if the Priest brings the crucifix in procession at that church or whether a permanent one is placed somewhere Seles. We should not be so judgemental because we don’t see it.

We should be turning inward to find the kingdom of heaven and looking around us at life, not inanimate objects.
 
I use an 88-string harp that is turned on its side and equipped with soft hammers that strike the strings when I press on keys.

Have you ever seen the Marx Bros. movie where Harpo rips up a piano and takes out the innards, and uses them as a harp for his solo? 😆 (I’m pretty certain he played a real harp in that scene, not a ripped-up piano!)
 
True. But the catechism does state that those external things remind us of heaven and help us to raise our minds and hearts to God.
 
We had some strange music tonight - the choir was teaching us a new song before the start of Mass. I think they used a recording of a saxophone accompaniment along with live piano, violin and electric guitar. Something was definitely off - it sounded off key and the timing was off. During the saxophone solo parts, everyone was looking around trying to figure out where they strange sound was coming from.
 
Found out it was some mystery saxophone that was coming in over the audio system - no one knows where it came from. Someone in the neighborhood must be on the same frequency.
 
If you ever have a problem with a Mass, first ask if you’r the problem
 
That’s hilarious. That’s why churches should be built with good live acoustics – less (or no) need for microphones (at least for music).
 
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