Can we have a frank discussion about music in Mass?

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This is a very good treatment of the matter: http://www.ccwatershed.org/media/pdfs/14/06/15/16-28-51_0.pdf
It was written while our current Archbishop Sample was still in Michigan; there is good hope that these norms will be introduced more widely in our archdiocese, as well.

After covering the topics of Gregorian chant and polyphony (which are vastly under-used), in this letter he turns to the topic of “secular” music, which is to say music with melodies that could as easily have been used in a popular or folk song rather than in the sacred liturgy:

The Church recognizes an objective difference between sacred music and secular music. Despite the Churchʼs norms, the idea persists among some that the lyrics alone determine whether a song is sacred or secular, while the music is exempt from any liturgical criteria and may be of any style. This erroneous idea, which was alluded to earlier, is not supported by the Churchʼs norms either before or since the Second Vatican Council.

This does not mean that more modern compositions are not to be admitted into the Mass. However, such compositions must meet the essential and objective criteria for what constitutes sacred music. Following are some useful citations illustrating this point.

First, from before the Second Vatican Council:
It cannot be said that modern music and singing should be entirely excluded from Catholic worship. For, if they are not profane nor unbecoming to the sacredness of the place and function, and do not spring from a desire of achieving extraordinary and unusual effects, then our churches must admit them since they can contribute in no small way to the splendor of the sacred ceremonies, can lift the mind to higher things and foster true devotion of soul. (22)

An exhortation from the Council itself:
Let (composers) produce compositions which have the qualities proper to genuine sacred music. (23)

From Blessed John Paul II:
Today, the meaning of the category ʻsacred musicʼ has been broadened to include repertoires that cannot be part of the celebration without violating the spirit and norms of the Liturgy itself. Not all the expressions of music are able to express adequately the mystery grasped in the fullness of the Church’s faith. Consequently, not all forms of music can be considered suitable for liturgical celebrations. (24)

From our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI:
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. 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. 25
 
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Note that Archbishop Sample does not say “Music is inappropriate for Mass whenever some people do not happen to like it.” As far as I found, you will not see personal tastes mentioned anywhere as a selection criteria. Nowhere is the possibility of eliminating music from the Mass entirely ever raised.

Music belongs in the Mass. Monasteries vowed to silence are still full of music, for both the Hours and the Mass are sung there. If you are not finding the music prayerful during the Masses at your parish, the culprit is not music itself as a whole. Rather, it might be (a) the music selection at your parish, including whether the selections match the skill set of those who will be worshiping together and (b) the cooperation of the faithful in extending themselves to pray in song as well as in word.

If one of the persons who is not cooperating to the best of his or her ability is you, that is something to think about. It may be that you are withholding a part of yourself from the act of total worship that is the Mass. We have to be willing to put it all out there, both giving generously in some ways and restraining ourselves humbly in others in order to make a pleasing whole. If the music selections are inappropriate, that has proven a more difficult nut to crack, as fondness for inappropriate music can be very entrenched when appropriate music is not given a chance with whole-hearted cooperation (or even any chance, period).

Every parish is different and mileage will vary, but the Church teaches that music belongs in the Mass.
 
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Mintaka said:
Second, there is a place for the silent Mass. It is not as desirable, but it’s more desirable in many ways than a messed up musical Mass.
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Where did you get this? Not the GIRM. The place for a Mass without singing (which is not silent) is when singing isn’t practically possible. Sunday Mass ought to have singing.

Again, this is what the GIRM says:
Great importance should therefore be attached to the use of singing in the celebration of the Mass, with due consideration for the culture of peoples and abilities of each liturgical assembly. Although it is not always necessary (e.g., in weekday Masses) to sing all the texts that are in principle meant to be sung, every care should be taken that singing by the ministers and the people not be absent in celebrations that occur on Sundays and on Holydays of Obligation.
Mintaka said:
No layperson can be obliged or forced to sing. If anybody tries to shame you into singing, you have every right to tell him off.
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Did I miss something? Who gave anyone the jurisdiction to “shame you” into singing, save your pastor?
The OP asked: : “I’d rather just have the mass without music. When did music in mass become a thing? And why do we have to sing the Gloria instead of just reciting it?”
The answer is that music has always been “a thing” at Mass.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father.” Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Matt. 26:26-30

Mark 14:22-26 records essentially the same thing.

Yes, there has ALWAYS been singing at Mass!!!
Mintaka said:
But since most people work for a living, it has always been the custom of Christians to have a choir sing as the voice of the people and the saints and angels in attendance, just as it was the God-given custom of the Temple to have a Levite choir.
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Where did you get that? I don’t think you can find a pastoral letter from any bishop anywhere that says anything like that. See above–"…every care should be taken that singing by the ministers and the people not be absent in celebrations that occur on Sundays and on Holydays of Obligation."

Yes, I agree that much of what the Church has taught about music at Mass is being ignored. That doesn’t mean the Church has ever taught that the faithful aren’t supposed to be singing at Mass, especially Sunday Mass (which seems to be the topic here). I don’t know where you got that.
 
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Music has been incorporated into the Mass since as long as we have a record of it. However, not all music is oriented to prayer. Typically different cultures offered their own traditions around Sacred Music. These typically have been chants. In the west, we also developed polyphony, something the east hates as they hate any Christian art other than icons.

I would say the Mass is better with no music than with bad music. A big problem with our culture is that we’re so busy that we do not naturally know how to enter into prayer. Thus we lack good traditions for the Church to adopt. We are having to look to our heritage and to other traditions to try to figure out what the core aspects of prayer is so that we can ensure the Mass is a prayerful experience.

I would say, generally, all prayer first requires us to empty our mind of its business. Music should be conducive to this. It needs to slow us down. I have seen even modern Christian music done reverently at the local Newman center. It does seem the key is pacing and beauty. If it’s too fast and ugly, it’ll interfere with prayer and silence is better.
 
Start said:
I meant the Catholic Church you attend.
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We sing the Gloria, Be Not Afraid, Christ Be Our Light, etc. I forget the names of the other songs, but they’re hymns that I recall many being from the 70’s.
Just what I think of as boring Church songs, unlike the vibrant contemporary pop-rock Christian songs sung at many denominational churches.
Some of the song we singI like, only because they remind me of when I was a kid.
 
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Music at our parish is a mish-mosh of everything from modernized chant to old familiar hymns (mostly Protestant) to the modern Haugen-Haas hootenany songs, all accompanied by a pipe organ and sung melody-line only. The best word that I can think of to describe it is dreary. It gives me something to offer up, not that I have any lack of things to offer.

I’m an old Southern Gospel singer, so I improvise a bass line on songs for which that can be done and just lay out on songs that I don’t like. If we had a schola, I’d join in a heartbeat, but it’s as if our MD has to do a little of everything in order not to offend someone, which means that no one is fully satisfied with the status quo.

In the final analysis, it’s something to put up with, but never mind; it’s Jesus that I’m actually there for, not the music.

D
 
I don’t know if I could get up at 6am to go to mass that early
 
edwest211 said:
I love the pipe organ.
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It is difficult to find keyboard players trained in the organ, though.
Wonderful organists are wonderful.
Non-organists trying to play the organ with no idea how to do it: of course, that is a different matter.
There are also (again unfortunately) a lot of organs out there that are not maintained or don’t have the quality necessary to do the organ justice.

Of course, there are also people who just don’t care for the organ. That’s fair. The organ has pride of place among instruments in the Roman Rite, but that doesn’t make those who don’t care for it into bad people. I do think a lot of people who don’t like organ music haven’t heard organ music that would make the grade in a ballpark, let alone in a church.
 
When I have heard this type of music, it always seems like a performance. Even though some groups have an active following with people who sing with them, I can’t. It actually inhibits my participation in the mass.
 
All the music is good! I played my guitar w the Ray Rep masses(?) They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,etc. I’m Charismatic & played for our group. So beautiful. I sung for choirs in 1958 range w Gregorian chant & Latin.
The contemporary Christian music has such meaningful words… It should be nice to keep it all.
Something beautiful! Something good.
All our Confusion, He understood.
All I have to offer Him is brokenness and strife!
But He made something beautiful out of my life.
He just loves the praise, in it all
Blessings
Tweedlealice
 
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