Does your church use traditional hymns often?

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CatholicZ09

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This poll is to see if your church uses traditional hymns or prefers contemporary hymns.
 
There will be a time when “Lord of the Dance” and “Sing a New Church into Being” will be seen as traditional hymns…😃
 
bpbasilphx said:
There will be a time when “Lord of the Dance” and “Sing a New Church into Being” will be seen as traditional hymns…😃
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I sing weddings. Once a bride asked me for the “traditional” Wedding Song. What she meant was that monstrosity by Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul & Mary. :eek:

Betsy
 
I presume by “traditional” you mean real traditional hyms, i.e. Gregorian Chant:D

Yes, my church uses traditional music - in fact, we introduced the congregations to the “Alma Redemptoris” chant during Advent. It went quite well. Of course, the choir has used that chant for many years… We also do traditional hymns in the vernacular: such as “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”, “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name”, “Praise to the Holiest in the Height”, “Praise My Soul”, “Hail Redeemer, King Divine”, “Alleluia, Sing to Jesus”, “Hail Queen of Heaven”… The first two and the last one from that list are ever popular.
 
bpbasilphx said:
There will be a time when “Lord of the Dance” and “Sing a New Church into Being” will be seen as traditional hymns…😃
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I honestly do not see this happening. For a song to make the cut it needs at least two things – a very strong lyric that resonates the “tradition” of the Church and a well structured melody that is easily fixed in the memory.

Simple Gifts may make the cut (but the “tradition” represented is not really strongly “catholic”) but Lord of the Dance is not substantial enough on either count. The second selection I’m not familiar with; but just the title would tell me that is doesn’t come close to resonating the “tradition” of the Church.

MonFrere
 
baltobetsy said:
I sing weddings. Once a bride asked me for the “traditional” Wedding Song. What she meant was that monstrosity by Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul & Mary. :eek:

Betsy
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Hahaha! Oh, yes, that is probably something which should be clarified. What is meant by “traditional”? Some people I know and parishes I’ve freelanced in look at hymns like “On Eagle’s Wings” and “Be Not Afraid” as traditional hymns because they do them so often and are considered “old” now.

With the exception of once in a while using a few decent hymns written after 1965, my parish and the parish I work at mostly use and view “traditional” hymns as things like Latin chants either sung in Latin or English, hymns and hymn melodies which have been in existence and in use for a few centuries, etc.
 
My church is a Benedictine abbey, and yes, we use “traditional” hymns every single day of the week, assuming you mean Gregorian chant.
 
MonFrere said:
Simple Gifts may make the cut (but the “tradition” represented is not really strongly “catholic”) but Lord of the Dance is not substantial enough on either count.
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In the classical singing world, “Simple Gifts” is only considered a traditional folk song melody, even though it is often attributed as a Shaker hymn, which is, in itself a traditional hymn for that. But as traditionally “Catholic”, I think you are right, that it is not really strongly a Catholic traditional hymn. The text setting of “Lord of the Dance” is a totally different being altogether and considerably pales in comparison to the original - at least in my opinion. I haven’t even heard it done in any of the parishes I’ve either worked in or visited for years (although I have become aware on these forums that there are still parishes which do it), so I don’t think it will be considered as a traditional hymn any time soon.
 
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