Does Anyone Here Actually Like the Music at Mass?

[UnumCorpus]

There recently was a great article over at Aleteia on the deplorable music most Catholics are forced to listen to at Mass each week. I reflect a little on it here with Benedict XVI and Vatican Two:

**Why Do We Catholics Settle for Subpar Music at Mass? **

But my question for this forum is really whether anyone (especially anyone under say 60) actually likes the music they hear at Mass each week? We, in the course of half a century, went from having the greatest, most beautiful, most transcendent musical tradition in the history of man (no exaggeration) to having the most banal, painful, third rate music. Aside from older women, does anyone here actually find the music at Mass to lift the soul to God? What have we traded our great Gregorian chant / polyphony tradition for? certainly not for “congregational singing.” I’ve never been to a Mass where more than a handful of people are singing anything other than the propers anyhow.

Speaking as a woman under 60 (which seems to be a rather arbitrary distinction), I absolutely love the music we have at Mass. However, I am fortunate enough to be attending Mass at a cathedral with a great organist and amazing choirs (they are sometimes even featured on BBC radio). We are privileged to have a boys’ choir, girls’ choir, and one with both men and women. When I hear the men chanting in Latin, it sends sends chills down my spine, it’s so good.

The hymns people seem to frequently complain about on here (e.g. On Eagles’ Wings, Gather Us In) are not played at all in my parish. However, I did hear these hymns occasionally in Canada, and they were not done in a sub-par manner at all. Music at Mass varies so much from country to country, and even from parish to parish. It is a bit of an assumption to think that most Catholics are suffering from “deplorable” music.

 

[otjm]

There recently was a great article over at Aleteia on the deplorable music most Catholics are forced to listen to at Mass each week.

So I am assuming they did a wide and carefully constructed survey of most Catholics.

No? They didn’t?

Deplorable music… I hate to say it, but that sounds like effete aficionado snobbery. Considering that my local Trappist abbey uses some hymns on occasion from OCP, it tires me to no end to hear this dragged out once again.

Symphonic music can be some of the most beautifully constructed music ever written. And there isn’t too much that will drive me batty faster than hearing someone sawing away on a violin. It is perhaps not for no reason that symphonies too often seem to be one fund raiser away from non-existence. Too few people really enjoy it enough to support it.

Much the same can be said of Palestrina, or for Gregorian Chant (and lest anyone accuse me of not liking Gregorian Chant, I was part of a schola which recorded an album of chant long before the monks put out their first CD). It is beautiful, and most people simply do not prefer a steady diet of it.

Some years ago we had a parish which had a Saturday evening Mass (OF) in Latin, with a professional schola, and each year I would take our RCIA group there to Mass to experience it. Not all liked it, but some thought it was drop dead gorgeous. I always encouraged them to go back and attend, if not regularly, then from time to time. I have yet to find anyone who did so, even though most of the time the parish was only about 20 minutes away up the freeway.

It is now Advent, and this year our choir is not using O Com O Come Emanuel. I miss it. What we sing (to me) sounds at least as musically “good” as that song; I only miss it because of sentimental attachment to it.

Most of the Masses I attended as a child were Low Masses; on Sunday there was one High Mass (which occasionally we attended) and the rest were Low Masses; and once or twice a year a Solemn High Mass. All gave equal grace. The prayers were all the same. One was said, two were sung, and one had more extensive rubrics. The sacrifice was the same in all Masses. The form, however, may have had a greater or lesser influence on making your socks roll up and down.

Music may be from a different era; it may be more or less complex; but it is all intended to praise God. All the carping does not change that.

 

[ProVobis]

I love the music at Mass! I don’t like how so many Catholics hate beautiful hymns like Table of Plenty, Gather Us In, Here I Am Lord, what’s not to like about such songs with lyrics that glorify God?

So why not use the antiphons (Introit, Offertory, and Communion) which are actually chosen by the Church for that particular feast? It’s true that hymns may be substituted as long as they keep with the spirit of those antiphons but that means at least the antiphons should be read by someone before deciding on the hymn, no?

 

[Bonnie]

Have you heard, “On Eagle’s Wings?” I have. More times than I can count.

I’ve told my children that if that song is used at my funeral, I will come back and haunt them!

 

[Cat]

There recently was a great article over at Aleteia on the deplorable music most Catholics are forced to listen to at Mass each week. I reflect a little on it here with Benedict XVI and Vatican Two:

**Why Do We Catholics Settle for Subpar Music at Mass? **

But my question for this forum is really whether anyone (especially anyone under say 60) actually likes the music they hear at Mass each week? We, in the course of half a century, went from having the greatest, most beautiful, most transcendent musical tradition in the history of man (no exaggeration) to having the most banal, painful, third rate music. Aside from older women, does anyone here actually find the music at Mass to lift the soul to God? What have we traded our great Gregorian chant / polyphony tradition for? certainly not for “congregational singing.” I’ve never been to a Mass where more than a handful of people are singing anything other than the propers anyhow.

Not to just complain, I have to admit there are some great modern resources out there. Our parish recently purchased the St. Isaac Jogues and St. Edmund Campion missals to replace the OCP missalettes we threw away each week. The music in there seems to be serious about bringing the sacred back into our worship (which is the point of music at Mass, after all, isn’t it?)

So what do we think? Does our music need brough back into line with the directives of Sacrosanctum Conciliium?

May I ask what you specifically are doing to “bring the music back into line with the directives of S. C.” ?

May I ask the same question for everyone else who has a complaint about the music at Mass?

Thank you.

 

[Estevao]

I don’t really care for music during communion, I wish they’d phase that out.

 

[johnnyc176]

There’s supposed to be a difference between devotional hymns (like you might sing walking down the street or at a Christian praise concert) and sacred music (that you sing at Mass). There are a lot of pretty songs about God that I’d be perfectly happy to sing in the car, but they’re not helpful when Jesus is right there in His Real Presence and we’re all trying to give Him glory and be with Him.

Yep…when the Mass starts sounding like a protestant service…uh no I don’t like the music at Mass.

 

[HelenRose]

I admit, at first I hesitated to reply because I actually DO like most of the music at Mass. But then my parents raised me with a wide variety of different musical styles from Classical to Rock & Roll with just about everything in between, so I have a VERY eclectic taste in music. For instance, I enjoy Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, but I also enjoy Pink Floyd, The Police, and the Charlie Daniels Band. So, in the Church, I love Gregorian Chant but I also love some of the music of Haas and Haugen, (that terrible twosome that everyone seems to revile these days.)

Anyway, that’s my :twocents:

(Please don’t hate on me for it!?!)

In my small rural mission Church we do the best we can.

 

[turtle18]

No, not really. I go to several different places for Mass and I think the biggest problem by far, at least to me, is that the music seems very, very rushed.

 

[JackieO123]

I’ve told my children that if that song is used at my funeral, I will come back and haunt them!

…And rightfully so!

 

[mfox01]

I very much like the music. I am blessed to have four parishes that I consider my parishes Two back at home where I’m from the church where I went to college and the church close to where I work. All four of them have very different styles of music. I miss some of the older songs I sang when I was little (Sing praise to our creator) I think though it was because we had a priest who was at our parish for 20 years almost and he liked to stay in a routine. I really enjoy it though.

 

[Sunbreak]

I like the music at Mass - I usually go to a Polish Mass and most of it is very much in a range that most of the congregation can sing it. Plus, the Polish choir is excellent. When I have gone to other parishes, the music is mixed. No, I don’t like Gather Us In, Take and Eat, etc.

 

[Weejee]

**Hi Everyone!
I’m one of these people who is passionate about somethings and not others: Nature does not stir me that much. However music and colors do.

I am a 61 year old woman who cannot stand most of the LYRICS from the Gather Hymnal because they seem to be talking always about “US” rather than God. I thought we had pitched that aging hymnal years ago.

I love both tunes and lyrics of Wesley, Watts, Cosby, and other old time hymn writers. I found a special station on 365 that plays them and that is what I listen to during the day. The part of the site where I could copy a link to this great station has gone down. I’ll post it when it comes up again. Not a day passes when I don’t break down and cry over at least one of those hymns

Today I got all the Lyrics to ABIDE WITH ME; it’s a hymn about Christian Death. When My husband died (Aug 2013) I requested they have that at his funeral, and the priest told me that it was not in the hymnal. It must have been that horrid hymnal he was talking about. Good for heat in the winter it is. Period. I asked him again: And that time I got it.

Here’s a sendup on Gather:
youtu.be/uwFJv-kmaCc

**

 

[otjm]

**Hi Everyone!
I’m one of these people who is passionate about somethings and not others: Nature does not stir me that much. However music and colors do.

I am a 61 year old woman who cannot stand most of the LYRICS from the Gather Hymnal because they seem to be talking always about “US” rather than God. I thought we had pitched that aging hymnal years ago.

I love both tunes and lyrics of Wesley, Watts, Cosby, and other old time hymn writers. I found a special station on 365 that plays them and that is what I listen to during the day. The part of the site where I could copy a link to this great station has gone down. I’ll post it when it comes up again. Not a day passes when I don’t break down and cry over at least one of those hymns

Today I got all the Lyrics to ABIDE WITH ME; it’s a hymn about Christian Death. When My husband died (Aug 2013) I requested they have that at his funeral, and the priest told me that it was not in the hymnal. It must have been that horrid hymnal he was talking about. Good for heat in the winter it is. Period. I asked him again: And that time I got it.

Here’s a sendup on Gather:
youtu.be/uwFJv-kmaCc**

I don’t know if I have ever seen a Gather hymnal out here, but then, being from Oregon…

However, I have noted almost every time I have picked up an OCP hymnal how many of the hymns in there are based on either Old Testament (particularly the Psalms) or New Testament scripture.

 

[Cat]

Yep…when the Mass starts sounding like a protestant service…uh no I don’t like the music at Mass.

Which Protestant church/denomination? Would you please name a specific Protestant church (without giving away the address/city, etc.–keep it generic e.g., "the EFree church down the street from me). Also would you mind describing why you are familiar with the worship services at that particular Protestant church? Thanks.

Were you raised Protestant? Which denomination?

 

[casslean]

I love the music, and I don’t know if I am just blessed to attend a very enthusiastic parish, but we have a congregation that loves to sing - you can hear some of our strongest voices standing in the congregation. I’m relatively new, but a lot of our older members know the songs by heart and it is beautiful to hear everyone singing. After the Mass, I find myself humming or softly singing the songs (or even the arrangement for the Gloria) for the whole day.

We have a youth choir who does sing more “modern” songs. They do a wonderful job, and I enjoy hearing them, but I struggle to sing along. I’m not much older than the youth choir members, with some experience in secular choirs. It does tend to be quieter from the congregation on those days.

 

[CountrySteve]

I don’t mind most of the hymns, just when they replace the propers ( the propers deserve pride of place) . I attend an OF Mass that is chanted (mostly in English), sometimes the propers are used, sometimes they are not; the Priest follows what the Cathedral does. If hymns are used, I prefer more traditional hymns,

 

[robwar]

There recently was a great article over at Aleteia on the deplorable music most Catholics are forced to listen to at Mass each week. I reflect a little on it here with Benedict XVI and Vatican Two:

**Why Do We Catholics Settle for Subpar Music at Mass? **

But my question for this forum is really whether anyone (especially anyone under say 60) actually likes the music they hear at Mass each week? We, in the course of half a century, went from having the greatest, most beautiful, most transcendent musical tradition in the history of man (no exaggeration) to having the most banal, painful, third rate music. Aside from older women, does anyone here actually find the music at Mass to lift the soul to God? What have we traded our great Gregorian chant / polyphony tradition for? certainly not for “congregational singing.” I’ve never been to a Mass where more than a handful of people are singing anything other than the propers anyhow.

Not to just complain, I have to admit there are some great modern resources out there. Our parish recently purchased the St. Isaac Jogues and St. Edmund Campion missals to replace the OCP missalettes we threw away each week. The music in there seems to be serious about bringing the sacred back into our worship (which is the point of music at Mass, after all, isn’t it?)

So what do we think? Does our music need brough back into line with the directives of Sacrosanctum Conciliium?

Oh good grief, what an attitude. I’m in my 50’s so I qualify and I can say I have loved all the music I’ve heard at Mass. If you don’t like the music, then become a musician and try to play yourself what you think you want and I would wager that what you want is not really desired by a majority of Catholics in the pews.

 

[robwar]

Yep…when the Mass starts sounding like a protestant service…uh no I don’t like the music at Mass.

And what Protestant serve are you referring too? Can you in your experience really know what goes on in “Protestant” services? It really bothers me when Catholics bring these false generalizations up. I grew up in the Methodist Church which was pretty formal and liturgical based on the fact that John Wesley was an Anglican priest. So those denominations like anglican and Lutheran will have liturgical services that actually are similar to the Catholic Mass. Then you have a looser Baptist and Charismatic. Now when I went to the Charismatic they used music from Word of Faith which was Catholic. The Methodist used formal Wesleyan hymns which I think you would find as traditional. I get so tired of these blanket uninformed silly generalization of what Catholics think goes on in “Protestant” services.

 

[christofirst]

Well since you asked, no, I don’t like music at Mass. I much prefer a spoken Mass where the priest says his part, and the congregation says their part. I mean no offense to our musicians, and I would not prefer chant or older hymns over the music we use now. I just like a spoken Mass. I know well that I am out of step with the Church on this, however, so… start the music! And God bless our music ministers.