For those who do not like modern music in Mass

[SenorSalsa]

I see here often enough that people complain of the nature of music at Mass. I realize that many people dislike rock music in Mass, as well as many other forms that arent Sacred Chant. For those in that group, would you consider those types of music appropriate in other settings?

 

[daughterofmary]

To answer question: Yes, I would consider p&w and other contemporary songs fine in other places such as a youth-group get together or around a camp fire or possibly even at a prayer meeting… just not the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

 

[VociMike]

First, let’s make sure we separate “likes” from “is appropriate”. And yes, music that I would not consider appropriate for liturgy is perfectly acceptable (assuming there is nothing immoral or offensive about it, obviously) in other settings, including church-related settings.

Just because a screwdriver makes a bad hammer doesn’t mean it can’t be a good screwdriver.

 

[SenorSalsa]

First, let’s make sure we separate “likes” from “is appropriate”. And yes, music that I would not consider appropriate for liturgy is perfectly acceptable (assuming there is nothing immoral or offensive about it, obviously) in other settings, including church-related settings.

Just because a screwdriver makes a bad hammer doesn’t mean it can’t be a good screwdriver.

yeah this is what i figured, but sometimes people make it sound like rock and rap are never suitable forms for praing God

 

[CarrieH]

What VociMike said.

I have been playing the organ recently for our local TLM, and I stick to the music written by what I refer to as the “dead white guys.” That stuff is my true musical love. But I will also admit that I have a CD of John Michael Talbot singing “Haugen-Haas,” and I often listen to it while I’m doing things around the house. One thing I like about chant and traditional hymns for Mass is that it is truly set apart from the rest of the world; you’re not going to hear anything like that anywhere else unless you happen to turn on the public radio station when they are having an early-music program. But that doesn’t mean that I think the contemporary music is “bad” or “wrong” in and of itself; it’s just not what I want to hear at Holy Mass.

 

[benedictgal]

yeah this is what i figured, but sometimes people make it sound like rock and rap are never suitable forms for praing God

Suitable in another setting, perhaps, but, never for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Then there are two developments in music itself that have their origins primarily in the West but that for a long time have affected the whole of mankind in the world culture that is being formed. Modern so-called “classical” music has maneuvered itself, with some exceptions, into an elitist ghetto, which only specialists may enter – and even they do so with what may sometimes be mixed feelings. The music of the masses has broken loose from this and treads a very different path.

On the one hand, there is pop music, which is certainly no longer supported by the people in the ancient sense (populus). It is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as a cult of the banal. "Rock", on the other hand, is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe. The music of the Holy Spirit’s sober inebriation seems to have little chance when self has become a prison, the mind is a shackle, and breaking out from both appears as a true promise of redemption that can be tasted at least for a few moments.

Pope Benedict makes a very valid point in this quote. Drums, keyboards and electric guitars just aren’t suitable for the Mass, maybe at a religious pep rally, but not for the Holy Sacrifice.

 

[Zarathustra89]

I see here often enough that people complain of the nature of music at Mass. I realize that many people dislike rock music in Mass, as well as many other forms that arent Sacred Chant. For those in that group, would you consider those types of music appropriate in other settings?

Personally I find the whole “Christian Rock” genre to be a joke. Seriously the music is emasculating.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

 

[down_under]

Personally I find the whole “Christian Rock” genre to be a joke. Seriously the music is emasculating.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

that is an interesting statement care to elaborate? not challenging you just want to understand exactly what you mean.

 

[m134e5]

I see here often enough that people complain of the nature of music at Mass. I realize that many people dislike rock music in Mass, as well as many other forms that arent Sacred Chant. For those in that group, would you consider those types of music appropriate in other settings?

Yes, although we must be mindful of the lyrics to the music we listen to, and we should be mindful of what causes the artist (although some I wouldn’t call artists…) supports who we support by buying their music.

 

[Orpheus2112]

Personally I find the whole “Christian Rock” genre to be a joke. Seriously the music is emasculating.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

I find a lot of the music to be just bad rock music. The only group that I really enjoy which, at one point, were lumped in with the “Christian Rock” genre would be King’s X. Sometimes I can deal with some Stryper since, while “hair metal,” it was well done and practiced. It just seems to me like a lot of folks who can’t cut it in music because they’re just not all that great go into “Christian” music: “You have to like this because the lyrics are ‘Christian.’” I personally enjoy chant an traditional sacred music when I’m in church because you know what frame-of-mind you should be in when you hear it. It’s kind of like a musical version of an icon: Focus! Different music has different purposes and evokes different moods. Helloween do a great version of “Laudate Dominum,” and their “Keeper of the Seven Keys” is all about the Book of Revelations and the freeing power of Christ for mankind, but I don’t want to hear it before the Eucharist. I love classical music and Olivier Messiaen is awesome and the music was very Catholic in inspiration, but it’s just too modern to be used as Mass. I likes it Old School!

 

[VociMike]

I find a lot of the music to be just bad rock music. The only group that I really enjoy which, at one point, were lumped in with the “Christian Rock” genre would be King’s X. Sometimes I can deal with some Stryper since, while “hair metal,” it was well done and practiced. It just seems to me like a lot of folks who can’t cut it in music because they’re just not all that great go into “Christian” music: “You have to like this because the lyrics are ‘Christian.’”

I haven’t listened to enough to judge, but I’ve certainly heard this before. Why listen to an imitation when you can have the real thing?

I personally enjoy chant an traditional sacred music when I’m in church because you know what frame-of-mind you should be in when you hear it. It’s kind of like a musical version of an icon: Focus! Different music has different purposes and evokes different moods.

Yep, nothing is more self-evident than this truth - one that the Church has taught again and again.

Good point about music and icons.

 

[down_under]

I have never had a problem with MOST christian music. there are notable exceptions, but all in all not bad stuff. But during the mass. No that is just plain wrong. The mass was not meant to be entertainment. It just never was.

 

[Jimsdun]

Of course. I love rock and roll, but I don’t think it is appropriate for mass.

 

[porthos11]

When I plan liturgy, I choose only liturgically proper hymns and chants. “Praise and worship” is out.

When I plan for a prayer meeting, I tend to select Hosanna/Integrity music selections.

A music style for each type of prayer.

 

[Zarathustra89]

that is an interesting statement care to elaborate? not challenging you just want to understand exactly what you mean.

Elaborate? My point is self-evident.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

 

[ChristB4Church]

Hello,

I did not even know there were Catholic Churches using modern/contemporary/rock music during worship/mass. What songs are being used?

Curtis

By the way,

Not sure if contemporary music it is good or bad. I am still trying to figure that out at the churches I attend. I also happen to lead worship at a bi-lingual church and in that you truly see the challenges with musical styles. At some point, the music is like a language. If you use a song to glorify God that is in another language than what the congregation speaks, they are unable to worship in song with you. Many times the style of the music is just like the language. If the congregation speaks “contemporary” for example, and you lead worship using the language of “chant” or “hymn”, it is another language and you exclude them from worshiping God with you.

I, personally, however, am leaning toward favoring a more traditional, “old-school” approach to music while in mass/service/worship.

 

[KathleenElsie]

Outside of the Mass I like the following music:

Jazz
Country- NEW and OLD
Classical
Soft Rock
Folk
Gospel - Lived in the South and love African American Gospel

Actually the only stuff I don’t like is Acid/Hard Rock and Rap (I believe it is called gangster rap?)

For Mass I prefer something that I can pray in a song. The Psalms work here nicely. Or music that is true to the teaching of the Church. (one I dislike is Mary Did You Know) Chant is nice and soothing to listen toooo also.

When we get together as a family or with friends gospel or some Christian Rock is nice to sing around the camp fire.

 

[benedictgal]

Hello,

I did not even know there were Catholic Churches using modern/contemporary/rock music during worship/mass. What songs are being used?

Curtis

By the way,

Not sure if contemporary music it is good or bad. I am still trying to figure that out at the churches I attend. I also happen to lead worship at a bi-lingual church and in that you truly see the challenges with musical styles. At some point, the music is like a language. If you use a song to glorify God that is in another language than what the congregation speaks, they are unable to worship in song with you. Many times the style of the music is just like the language. If the congregation speaks “contemporary” for example, and you lead worship using the language of “chant” or “hymn”, it is another language and you exclude them from worshiping God with you.

I, personally, however, am leaning toward favoring a more traditional, “old-school” approach to music while in mass/service/worship.

Curtis, as someone who has planned bilingual Masses, I know the challenges of which you speak. What I have done is on days like today, when there is a version in English in Spanish, I’ll combine both for the Processional:

Holy, Holy, Holy (has a Spanish version–the English one starts it and then I would alternate with the Spanish one)

What the Holy Father has strongly recommended is that Latin be used for the Mass parts (well, Kyrie is Greek, but you know that).

I never cared for the bilingual stuff that Bob Hurd writes because he takes liberties with the official texts of the Mass and makes the creative more important than the integrity. Many of his songs lean too much towards the horizontal and ignore the vertical (O Love of God/Amor de Dios and Ven Al Banquete/Come to the Feast).

In fact this stuff shouldn’t even be used at Mass. O Love of God may work at a retreat, but the other one isn’t theologically sound at all.

Senor Salsa, that is where you need to make the distinction. In order for a song to be suitable for Mass, it must be theologically and liturgically sound. Maybe some of this stuff would work at a youth rally, but, never for the Mass. The Mass has its own form of music. As Pope Benedict repeatedly states, one song is not as good as another as far as the Mass is concerned.

 

[Sarabande]

I see here often enough that people complain of the nature of music at Mass. I realize that many people dislike rock music in Mass, as well as many other forms that arent Sacred Chant. For those in that group, would you consider those types of music appropriate in other settings?

Of course. They would be fine in settings other than at mass. I have rather ecclectic taste in music. Even though I’m a classical musician, I also listen to many other genres and forms. I always surprise people who don’t know me very well when they see my 500+ cd collection. haha!

 

[Sarabande]

Personally I find the whole “Christian Rock” genre to be a joke. Seriously the music is emasculating.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

I don’t know if it is emasculating. I don’t care if it is played at concerts or whatever, although I don’t personally care for it.

There was this cartoon I saw once when I was flipping through channels (I don’t watch tv at home, but do once in a while when traveling or visiting family) where they were making fun of the Christian rock genre. Mind you, it isn’t a show I would watch, but it was an interesting social commentary about it. Although, I didn’t watch the whole thing, as I fell asleep. The kids in the cartoon saw how they could make a lot of money by just inserting the word “God” or “Jesus” into these love ballads and they became a huge hit with religious youths. Yeah, I know that it is probably a over the top, but I couldn’t help but laugh over it.