Catholic Liturgical Music

  • Thread starter Thread starter idrum677
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I

idrum677

Guest
:harp:
Catholics have 2000 years of musical heritage. Some of the greatest works ever composed have been commissioned for the Church for use in the liturgy.

I’ve be able to visit many Catholic churches both locally and around the country and I hear basically the same tired, overplayed songs and mass settings. I know there is other music out there.
:banghead:

I am suggesting that certian music be “retired” or put on the shelf for a bit, to allow us to explore the rich diversity and beauty of Catholic music.

Is this how it is in the majority of parishes? Fortunately my music director actually does his homework and chooses music based on season/scripture reading/feast day.

Here is a start to my list. Feel free to add to it.
  1. Mass of Creation. (A beautiful work, but used too much.)
  2. You Are Mine
  3. One Bread, One Body
  4. Hear I Am, Lord
  5. Gather Us In
 
They’ll Know We Are Christians
Sing a New Song
Bread of Life
Gather Us Together
I Am the Bread of Life
All That I Am
Take My Hands
Hail Mary/Gentle Woman
 
City of God
Let Us Break Bread Together
Eat This Bread, Drink This Cup

Many more that I can’t think of right now…
 
on eagles wings.
celtic alleluia
taste and see.
All are welcome
 
this is why I am for going back to gregorian chant and using hyms from the saint gregory hymnal.
 
Phemie said:
They’ll Know We Are Christians
Sing a New Song
Bread of Life
Gather Us Together
I Am the Bread of Life
All That I Am
Take My Hands
Hail Mary/Gentle Woman
Click to expand...
Amen to that!

Here are some more little gems:

Seek Ye First
Pescador de los Hombres (can’t wait for it to sail away)
We Remember
Song of the Body of Christ
Make Me a Channel of your Peace
Hosea
Sing to the Mountains
Though the Mountains May Fall
Yahweh, I Know You are Near
God Creator, God Most High
Anthem
I Will Choose Christ
O Love of God/O Amor De Dios
Come to the Banquet/Ven, Ven al Banquete
One Bread, One Body
Pan de Vida
For You are My God
Christ, Be our Light
Preparing the Way of the Lord
Just a Closer Walk With Thee
–anything not mentioned that was written by the SLJ
 
benedictgal said:
–anything not mentioned that was written by the SLJ
Click to expand...
Or Carey Landry – which reminds me: I just found out that our choir has dug out the old glory and praise books and for Easter we’re going to be treated to Carey Landry’s Gloria. I haven’t mentioned it to the pastor yet because he avoids me as much as possible but I have to tell him that there are 3 things wrong with this:
  1. Carey Landry=schlock
  2. Totally changes the words of the Gloria
  3. Pasting a photocopy of the page from G&P into our official hymnal (CBW III) is a violation of copyright and thus a violation of the 7th commandment.
 
In looking at this list I am afraid that it would put the music director out of work. You see in the parish where I was confirmed, I have seen the names of every song that has ever been played at Mass.

Of course I recently stopped going to Mass there because of the growing irreverence I have observed. I am now trying to find a new “home” parish. There is one not far that has the EF Mass every Sunday. But it is small and poor.

On the other hand, I think their guideline for music is that they only us music that was written before the discovery of North America. This is on contrast to so many other parish whose criteria seems to be that they will not use anything that was not written by the St. Louis Jesuits.
 
rpp said:
In looking at this list I am afraid that it would put the music director out of work. You see in the parish where I was confirmed, I have seen the names of every song that has ever been played at Mass.

Of course I recently stopped going to Mass there because of the growing irreverence I have observed. I am now trying to find a new “home” parish. There is one not far that has the EF Mass every Sunday. But it is small and poor.

On the other hand, I think their guideline for music is that they only us music that was written before the discovery of North America. This is on contrast to so many other parish whose criteria seems to be that they will not use anything that was not written by the St. Louis Jesuits.
Click to expand...
This is not to say that the contemporaries haven’t produced nice music. Fr. Schiavone’s Amen (in spanglish) is quasi-gregorian in nature. The Taize’s (with a couple of duds) also have some really nice pieces. It’s just not quite, in my opinion, at the same level of depth as Attende Domine (by the way, the OCP translation completly butchers the beauty of this chant), O Sun of Justice, Pangia Lingua and O Come, O Come Emmanuel (OCP has also re-translated this gem and it bears little to no resemblence to the original).

I was raised on the SLJ stuff and, quite frankly, I didn’t like it. But, since I was a member of our school choir, we were practically force-fed the stuff. When I went to UT, I had a field day at my parish (across the street from the campus) because, as liberal as the Paulists are, they actually like good, solid liturgical music.
 
At Mass, I only like hymns, Gregorian Chant (in Latin), and sacred Polyphony (in Latin- and unless it imitates an earlier style period, nothing written in the last 100 years).

I think it is funny that Fr. Michael Joncas (The composer of On Eagles’ Wings, et. al.) is coming to Rockhurst University in Kansas City to talk about the nature of sacred music in the 21st century (obviously not sponsored by the diocese- Bishop Finn wouldn’t ask *him *to come here). These composers get all this good training…and they ignore it. :banghead:
 
BenedictGal,
I like Seek Ye First.

RPP,
The music directors in almost every parish in Las Vegas and the USA would be out of jobs:thumbsup: 😃 :extrahappy:

Everyone,
The Adoremus Hymnal, is full of the best and most beautiful hymns in the English/Latin Languages. I think the pope should have it translated and that should be the required hymnal. No other songs should be allowed unless specifically approved by the Vatican. Every ten years they should update it with all the new approved songs, and then everything would be simple. Then all we have to do is kick all the drums and pianos out of churchs and require organs, then it would be close to impossible to find bad music,:extrahappy: unless the cantor’s voice is bad, but the Vatican can’t do anything about that.😛

That would be WONDER FULL!

Your Through Our Lady,
Margarite
 
Margarite said:
Then all we have to do is kick all the drums and pianos out of churchs and require organs, then it would be close to impossible to find bad music,:extrahappy:
Click to expand...
… and then find organists to play them and ensure that organ tuition and practice instruments is as easy to obtain as piano tuition and pianos, especially in places like the town I grew up in that to this day does not have one organ teacher or really competent organist and you must travel over 300 miles to speak to an electronic church organ salesman, for all it is a major regional service centre. Much as I do not like piano in church, I’ll take a good piano player anyday over the awful distraction of someone who does not have organ keyboard technique or who does not understand registration.

I am “over” most of the hymns listed as well, though where I am we don’t get some of them wall-to-wall as you USians do. The only time Just A Closer is ever asked for where I am is when you land a gig with a particular US-owned funeral director who tries to give all their services the company-brand flavour. Yecch.
 
Posts #1 thru #7 pretty much gutted the 9:30 am guitar Mass at my Church :eek:
 
rpp said:
In looking at this list I am afraid that it would put the music director out of work.
Click to expand...
I fail to see the negative in this statement.

The vast majority of music directors should be put out of work.
 
If I could add: anything by OCP, Vince Ambrosetti, and such are not just bad, they remind me of the type of songs I sang for kindergarten recitals. Also, a good sign that it’s a bad hymn is if it has verses that are in Spanish in a parish that is largely not Spanish, which results in bad tunes and bad pronunciation for all! :eek:

Also, there should be not only a Church ruling, but a Federal law against any hymns that involve drum solos, synthesizers, signing, and yes, guitars. Don’t get me wrong, a guitar is a great instrument for playing songs like “Hotel California,” but “logic” dictates that if you can’t play Hotel California during Mass, then you can’t play the guitar there either! 😃
 
NicPais83 said:
Don’t get me wrong, a guitar is a great instrument for playing songs like “Hotel California,” but “logic” dictates that if you can’t play Hotel California during Mass, then you can’t play the guitar there either! 😃
Click to expand...
Only if Hotel California is the only piece or closely representative of the only genre of music that can be played on “guitar” (more than one type is used in the song). Which it is not.
 
Granted, but that’s why I put the word logic in quotations as I was not quite being serious in my comment about guitars; if I offended you, I appologize. 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top