Lyrics of “Amazing Grace” also works with “House of the Rising Sun” and an old Coca-Cola commercial “I’d Like to teach the World to Sing”.The lyrics of “Amazing Grace” work frighteningly well with the Gilligan’s Island theme too. Whenever I can’t resist putting the two together, I wonder if “the weather started getting rough” won’t be true for me before long!
Yesterday, I was greatly disappointed with the hymn selections our music director made for the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper. She had asked me for help and I told her not to use Ven al Banquete/Come to the Feast by Bob Hurd because the focus was too horizontal and the hymn did not have the solemnity needed to begin the Paschal Triduum. I suggested “At that First Eucharist”. For the Washing of the Feet, I suggested “Where Charity and Love Prevail”. For Communion, if she insisted on OCP, then Amen by Fr. Schiavone was okay. I told her that the Pange Lingua should be sung for the Transfer of the Blessed Sacrament.ac23:
gosh… where to begin… almost everyone I know who is now working toward more liturgically appropriate music was just where you are now at some point… OCP has had a strangle-hold (imo) over the parish music for such a long time, most people have a similar history. That is not to say that OCP’s competition in general is much better (I’m not wild about GIA either, although I think their product is way better than OCP in terms of material quality, accompaniments, etc.). If I had to choose a hymnal in modern notation to use at this point in my life, I’d probably ask for the Adoremus Hymnal…
For me, it was a sort of process of getting really just basically tired of the Pan de Vida, I am the Bread of Life, All are Welcome, etc., etc., stuff. I sort of hoped there was something better out there, but had no idea what it might be… I sang in choirs and as a cantor in many different locations around the country (my husband has a job that causes us to move a lot). Some places had contemporary choirs (one place had live mariachi music every weekend!) … I also played the piano… I loved to play many of those praise-music pieces because the piano accompaniments were fun to play. But, over time, I came to think it just wasn’t doing it correctly for the Holy Mass.
I had heard the Chant CD that came out 14 years ago or so… liked it, but initially found it a bit boring (hard to believe my attitude then).
Then, I began singing with a medieval music group that performed various types of early music with authentically medieval instruments… some sacred music, but also dances, etc. in various languages… early French, Portuguese, Latin, etc. In singing with them, I got just a taste of actually singing Gregorian chant and a whole new world opened up for me.
I found the group Church Music Association of America (CMAA) online when searching for Gregorian chant resources. I joined, became one of the founding members of our local schola… I have learned an amazing amount of things from the other members in a short period of time and my conversion to (what I now consider to be) true Sacred Music is well underway.
I guess I would suggest checking out the musicasacra (dot) com website first… there is a wonderful archive of the magazine they publish available… there is a wealth of information going back many years… and the great thing is… all the information about chant and sacred polyphony is all still relevant now… there is also a great list of relevant church documents, instructional books free to download about reading the notation and a list of member parishes so you may be able to find a group where you live…
There is also a forum there… great chance to read what others working in the field think and are talking about… in your own local area, I would be tempted to try and find a church that does at least some chant (whether ordinaries or propers) at Mass… or, if unable to find any chant, then look for a parish where they do some good baroque stuff (and don’t go to the contemporary or Life Teen Mass)… you’ll be at least at the higher quality end of church music. Then, at least you could get some feel for what the alternative is…
My last thought for you would be to tread lightly… not everyone (by a long shot) agrees with me… we have to be charitable toward those who don’t share the same tastes in music. Those working in the world of chant and polyphony are a very small (in some places nonexistent) minority. Just get the information for yourself and learn as much as you can… you’ll meet others with similar thoughts along the way…
I hope this may be helpful to you in some way… Janet.
Like many catholic music directors, I inherited the OCP catalog of pop tunes with questionable theology that seems to dominate current Catholic liturgies. I take my responsibility to provide appropriate music for mass very seriously, and am gradually moving our music in a direction more in keeping with the sacredness of Holy mass. No hidden hand is going to have any control we don’t give it. (this includes the bishops we serve) I think wise stewardship calls me to move in a gradual way, being sensitive to the people I serve. A full church a few years from now with great music is better than an empty one with great music next week. I have seen how divisive a heavy hand can be, and I think a steady hand on the rudder, charting a gradual course toward good music rather than a sudden shift, is the way to go. I am gradually replacing tunes with bad and misleading lyrics with ones with solid, orthodox theology, and adding music from the church’s rich musical heritage. I’m also looking for contemporary music that embraces rather than obscures Catholic doctrine. I think there is a real opportunity now for a publisher of Catholic music to fill the gap between the far extremes of the spectrum, covering the best (in every sense) music for Catholic worship.
Good for you!!!
Maybe once the Holy Father hears the music we are subjected to, something is going to happen. By the way the Pange Lingua is not the Traditional version we heard last night; rather, it is a Paulist’s re-interpretation of it (with a social justice spin to it).
I hope and pray so. I’ve spent the last several hours reading all the liturgical music threads I could find here on the forum and have been growing more and more alarmed by the minute.
OH MY GOSH!! I had forgotten about this thread. I was at Good Friday service this afternoon and they played “Behold the Wood of the Cross” and I thought “that sounds strangely familiar” when I recognized the tune from gilligan’s island! Then I remembered this thread!One small bit of humor… if you are attending a parish where OCP is used (about 75% of American parishes), you will most likely hear Dan Schutte’s Behold the Wood of the Cross this week. On another forum I read that more than one person has noticed a distinct similarity to the Gilligan’s Island theme song.
Listen carefully to the verse… “If a grain of wheat should upon this desert isle…”
See if you notice it when you hear it and report back…
There was also speculation about whether or not Palestrina would have borrowed from TV theme songs in composing Good Friday motets had he lived in an era with television
Hope you have a blessed Holy Week!
Janet.
I think I would die. Our deacon chants “This is the wood of the cross on which hung the Savior of the world” To which we the people respond “Come let us worship!” And we still chant the Reproaches in English. And on Holy Thursday we sing all seven verses of the Pange Linqua in Latin. And the Easter Sequence in Latin - Victimae Paschali Laudes. I don’t believe that everything should be in Latin but I do believe that we should maintain our ancient traditions.
They’re alive and well in our neck of the woods! This week we’ve done Pange Lingua, Adoramus Te, and Panis Angelicus. Inspired by all that Latin, father even broke out in a Kyrie, adding some Greek for good measure! A few choir folks who favor contemporary pop songs were suspicious at first, but after hearing the beauty and tender reverence of those works, their resistance melted away. I think the best way to foster a love for great music is to put it right next to the pop songs, there’s no contest!
Oh stop!! Or I won’t be able to go to Communion on Easter Sunday! (Envy is a sin, you know!! lol!) I cry at the beauty of the Pange Lingua, Adoramus Te, and Panis Angelicus. We have done some of the responses in Latin during Lent, and I thought we’d do more on Good Friday. Instead we did NONE! No Latin responses. No Pange Lingua, etc. On Palm Sunday, Mr. sneakers and I attended a Latin Mass about 60 miles away, and they sang “Adoremus te Christe”. Oh how beautiful!
I heartily agree!
I can be wrong, but I don’t think it Pange lingua is supposed to be sung on Good Friday. It is fitting for Holy Thursday.
I sing in the choir at the cathdral and I would be in trouble if I sang Pange Lingua or Panis Angelicus this weekend.
Adoramus Te is good for this weekend.I noticed something today. The other Pange Lingua - the one by Fortunatus - is sung today in the Extraordinary Form after the Reproaches.
and it should be 100% Catholic Hymns like Latin Hymns and traditionals hymn but I do like “Seek Ye First” though.A point of clarification regarding our use of hymns mentioned above: We used “Pange Lingua” for the transfer of the Holy Eucharist on Holy Thursday, and “Panis Angelicus” for the Eucharistic Hymn at the same liturgy. please don’t call the liturgy police, I’m innocent!I sing in the choir at the cathdral and I would be in trouble if I sang Pange Lingua or Panis Angelicus this weekend.
You’ve got to be kidding me. They couldn’t use a different setting for a papal mass? :banghead:
Spirt of God by Robert LeBlanc OSB is appropriate and contemplative. He is a Benedictine at our local monastery and we have sung this using his own handwritten ms. since the 80s.
that takes me back as a child. I love that one! Of course I don’t have hang ups about my Protestant back ground. I happen to love the old hymns and was thrilled when I converted and found Catholics sing them as well.
