Can we have a frank discussion about music in Mass?

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It isn’t a performance. It’s a service no better or worse than the service of cleaning the church, teaching religious education to children, pouring coffee during the “Coffee and Donuts” after Mass, or giving an offering to help with the church expenses. It’s all service to God and His people.

I have played piano in church all my life, and in the last ten years, have learned to play organ well enough to play in church.

I have never “performed” in church. It’s always been an offering of service to God, for His Glory, and to my fellow Christians, for their edification.

That’s the way my dear piano teacher trained me–“All for the Glory of God!” as Bach wrote on all his music. Even in secular settings, like recitals or concerts, we would pray, thanking God for giving us the talent and the opportunity to play, and asking Him to help us glorify Him in our music.

We had applause in our Protestant church when I was growing up. But our pastors urged us to applaud with our hands raised towards heaven to signify that we were offering praise to GOD, not man. I would like to see Catholics who applaud during or after Mass try this–I think it would be helpful to remind all of us that we are not applauding a performance, but offering the glory to God.

I’m sure that some church musicians, especially those who are full-time musicians outside of church, struggle with the temptation to “perform”" when they serve as musicians during Mass, but I am about 99% certain that most of them despise this tendency in themselves and fight against it by praying before they play/sing that God would use their music to glorify Himself and help others to grow closer to Him.
 
But everyone has to start somewhere.

I started playing piano in church when I was in 6th grade. I wasn’t very good, but I was willing, and thank goodness, the kind people in my Baptist church were willing to put up with my lack of skill to help me LEARN how to play in a church service. They saw it as a “training” ground for a young musician.

And the training paid off. By the time I was a teenager, I was playing in church all the time, and I was The Pianist of Choice when it came to soloists looking for a good accompanist. Once I even played for a professional Gospel singer when I was high school–his accompanist got sick on the morning of his concert, and someone gave him my name, and I was driven over by my parents and played for him–and did very well.

If children are not allowed to play in church when they are young, inexperienced, and not advanced in technique, they will grow up like many adults–too AFRAID to even try to play in church. I know lots of adults in my large parish who play, but they are simply too nervous about playing for Mass. What a shame! (Of course, I also realize that everyone is called to different missions and many of these people are involved in some other ministry in the parish or in the community.)

When I first started learning to play the organ several years ago, I was terrible! But I got up on that big organ bench and played for Mass. I know that I missed pedal passages and accidentally pulled out the wrong stops–ouch to the ears! But the good people of my parish complimented me anyway and told me how much they loved hearing the organ (and we have a beautiful pipe organ!). So I kept trying, and now, I’m fairly competent. Not as skilled as our hired church organist/music director, but I can play the hymns with skill, and I am able to play simple preludes and postludes. I would not want to try out at St. John Cantius, but I am able to play in local parishes and help them out when their organists are on vacation or ill.

So please give less-than-stellar instrumentalist a pass. They may not have the time to practice that a full-time musician has. Or they may be playing the organ because the pastor has asked them to play it, even though they have no formal training and can’t afford to take the training at this stage in their lives. (My lessons were $65/hour.)

😄
 
There are two problems. One is too often the Mass is filled with noise. This noise can often be the music. There needs to be moments of silence in the Mass. In my experience a certain style of modern music is almost always found along with a lack of silence.

The other problem is the style of music. Much of the modern music is cloying seventies drivel best suited for a children’s camp. In fact some of the songs we sing at Mass are precisely the songs we sang at summer camp when I was a kid and a Protestant. You know the music is unsuited for Mass because it is either the ‘My Little Pony’ song, a take on ‘Pure Imagination’ from ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’, or something similar.

Ideally the whole Mass would be sung. But sung in a style fitting for the Mass. Maybe that day will come.
 
I’m not blaming keyboard artists who don’t now how to play an organ. I’m saying not ever hearing a trained organist or a good instrument is a reason people may mistakenly believe they don’t like organ when they’ve really never heard it. (As you know, the finger action is quite different than for a piano.)

I won’t belabor points already made in the pastoral letter I posted, but a considerable amount of lovely music is inappropriate for Mass, regardless of how well it is performed. I don’t mean a guitar doesn’t belong in church. I mean selection of sacred music requires looking at the words, the melody, the arrangement and the people who are available. It isn’t just a matter of finding a piece with words that pass muster.
 
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Can you literally please.post this in every post in every forum and in every church bulletin??? This is the best answer I have read yet.
 
quote=“MiserereMei25, post:114, topic:511814, full:true”]
Can you literally please.post this in every post in every forum and in every church bulletin??? This is the best answer I have read yet.
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There is a lot of good sense and plain church teaching in that–it isn’t right for parishioners to chide other parishioners about whether their singing or lack of it makes the grade–but you are not going to find a pastor who wants to publish a piece that gives anyone the idea they have some reason that excuses their decision to refrain from singing. You just aren’t.

Holy Orders made your priest into a soloist; it is not unfair that baptism puts everyone else in the big choir.
 
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Re: people being shamed into singing, or forced to explain that they have vocal problems? Pretty common. A lot of people are busybodies, and they often think it was authorized by Vatican Ii. (Spoiler: there is no church document instituting busybodies.)

Re: choirs, As soon as you sing something outside the range and pronunciation of newly baptized babies, you have prioritized musical worship over everybody singing.

Audience listening is also a form of offering music to God, and most people are much more interested in that than in practicing musical instruments or learning vocal techniques. (Not to mention things like vocal disabilities and injuries, or the years when one must rest the voice when one’s voice is changing.)
 
MiserereMei25 said:
But it’s driving a lot of the youth away. The youth want raw Apostolic catnolicism.
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Yeah, our Archdiocese just opened an FSSP parish. I went to mass there for the first time this past Sunday, and I was struck by the number of people there who were born AFTER Vatican II.

The vast majority are post Vatican II Catholics. And Catholics from many nationalities, including Asians were there.

BTW - I was also stuck by the fact that the parish has only been having mass for three weeks now, but they were already organized with a large post mass brunch social which apparently will happen after their 11am mass every week.

They had lots of stuff: donuts, coffee, bagels, cookies, assorted cheeses & crackers, salad, tomato pie, etc. It was amazing to see.
 
I don’t much care for some music in my church, but LOVE the louder ‘worship music’ at the teen mass that’s more often heard in non-denominational churches. Given the insanely high attendance at that mass (700-900 people), I’m clearly not alone!
 
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I like some of the actual songs sung during the Mass, but I really don’t care for singing the Gloria, Our Father, or Psalms (and yes, I know Psalms were meant to be sung).

The reason being I can’t focus on the prayers and their meaning when singing: it becomes just reciting the words for me. As for the Psalms, I can’t understand them when sung since the pitch is so high and the words drug out in an unnatural fashion. Like the prayers, it’s hard to reflect on the meaning of the words. I don’t think I have good ears. I usually just read the Psalm before Mass and then just kind of let my mind wonder when they are being sung.

But that’s minor for me. I just deal with it.

My only real pet peeve is when, before Mass starts, the music director wants us to practice the songs. I come to Mass a little early so I can kneel, reflect, and pray quietly. That’s hard to do when everyone is singing around me and the director is encouraging all of us to join in. It’s distracting and sometimes it makes me frustrated. Sometimes I think about bringing ear plugs to Church so I can pray quietly to myself beforehand.

Our Church used to have a quite Mass, but not any more (since they cut the number of Masses). I wish they still had it.
 
Mintaka said:
Re: people being shamed into singing, or forced to explain that they have vocal problems? Pretty common. A lot of people are busybodies, and they often think it was authorized by Vatican Ii. (Spoiler: there is no church document instituting busybodies.)
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I don’t think Vatican II unleashed an unprecedented number of busybodies, LOL!
Mintaka said:
Audience listening is also a form of offering music to God, and most people are much more interested in that than in practicing musical instruments or learning vocal techniques. (Not to mention things like vocal disabilities and injuries, or the years when one must rest the voice when one’s voice is changing.)
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It is fine to have some music provided by the choir alone, but in general a lot of the music selected should be familiar enough and accessible enough to the congregation that a person of normal capacity can and will sing it.

Those who have truly have voices unsuited to group singing (and I have friends who adore singing but have sadly know themselves to have this kind of voice) or who don’t have the physical capacity to carry a tune can still mouth the words. The music at a Mass ought to be planned with music for the rank-and-file faithful to join in with, though.
 
DonnaNoble said:
The reason being I can’t focus on the prayers and their meaning when singing: it becomes just reciting the words for me.
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It helps to sing them as a prayer outside of Mass, when only the Lord can hear you and you don’t have to concern yourself with how your voice sounds to anyone else.
DonnaNoble said:
My only real pet peeve is when, before Mass starts, the music director wants us to practice the songs. I come to Mass a little early so I can kneel, reflect, and pray quietly. That’s hard to do when everyone is singing around me and the director is encouraging all of us to join in. It’s distracting and sometimes it makes me frustrated. Sometimes I think about bringing ear plugs to Church so I can pray quietly to myself beforehand.
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I agree. If a piece is introduced by the choir singing it themselves without the congregation a number of times, the faithful can eventually catch on. Alternatively, introduce things that are in the pews as printed music. There are enough people who can read music that the congregation will catch up if the introductions don’t come too frequently.

I also agree that an excessive desire for novelty is damaging to the ability of the congregation to join in a prayerful manner. When there is a choir singing at a very high level, though, even then we can still “mouth” the propers, and pray along with the singing. The Church has been adamant that music sung during the Mass ought to be intelligible to the congregation even if only the choir sings it, so this is possible.
 
tweedlealice said:
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.
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That is an oldie! Bill Gaither in 1971. Not what I would call contemporary.
 
DonnaNoble said:
My only real pet peeve is when, before Mass starts, the music director wants us to practice the songs. I come to Mass a little early so I can kneel, reflect, and pray quietly. That’s hard to do when everyone is singing around me and the director is encouraging all of us to join in. It’s distracting and sometimes it makes me frustrated. Sometimes I think about bringing ear plugs to Church so I can pray quietly to myself beforehand.
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Our pianist/organist, and sometimes the singer, likes to practice before Mass, although they don’t encourage us to join in. I often get there early to pray my rosary and the music is too distracting.
 
Not many people sing even when the songs are singable so its not that big of a problem if its a more technical piece.
 
Can someone explain how the Church (or you) reconcile the two ideas: on the one hand, the Church encourages Gregorian Chant, and on the other, it encourages everyone to sing. Surely most people aren’t expected to sing Gregorian Chant, so how can these two ideas be encouraged at the same time?
 
LisaB said:
Can someone explain how the Church (or you) reconcile the two ideas: on the one hand, the Church encourages Gregorian Chant, and on the other, it encourages everyone to sing. Surely most people aren’t expected to sing Gregorian Chant, so how can these two ideas be encouraged at the same time?
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If the range isn’t too great and the rhythm isn’t too complicated, people can learn to sing nearly anything.
Have you ever tried plainchant? I don’t know how you make music easier than that.
 
I personally can’t sing a note, but the chant sung by the choir at my parish doesn’t sound easy. Maybe it’s easier than I think though.
 
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