Has music disrupted your parish?

[VociMike]

Following up on the thread about least-favorite songs, has music actually disrupted your parish? Have styles of music or styles of performance created unpleasant divisions in your church?

 

[puzzleannie]

the last time we had a paid music minister evidently the style of music he favored riled a lot of people, the existing choirs were disrupted and a lot of hard feeling arose, so he was let go. Now we have on choir that meets and practices regularly, the Spanish-language choir, which sings the same songs year round. the other 3 Masses have loosely organized groups with regular cantors and musicians (none of whom performs with any level of professionalism, to be kind), and whoever shows up and wants to sit there can sing, but they don’t practice, don’t rehearse, don’t know who picks out the songs.

Father has let it be know what he disapproves - Marty Haugen et. al and half the Gather book (which we have because it was donated), but we still get some of that nonsense. Had to bite my tongue thru Faith of our Fathers Sunday - where did that verse about our Opressed Mothers come from? I sure don’t remember it. We are trying to form a youth choir but have trouble with anyone making a commitment as director. When Father has specifically requested they sing for a special liturgy or holy day, the other choirs show up and push them out. This is making them feel unwanted.

 

[cheese_sdc]

VociMike:

Following up on the thread about least-favorite songs, has music actually disrupted your parish? Have styles of music or styles of performance created unpleasant divisions in your church?

Not in our parish. We have a really good part time Music Director who picks songs that apply to the readings each Sunday. We practice for 2.5 hours (at least) on Wednesdays and thirty minutes before Mass. Our cantors are generally good, and are taught the responsibilities of the cantor.

Our musicians (at the Mass I attend) are generally good. Our pianist is wonderful (classically trained, but able to play an accompiment (sp?) that people can follow). The guitarist are good (for the most part, we have four people able to play, and one is still a beginner). The other three are pretty good. The organist has been playing for many decades, and while she can’t play any kind of synchopated rhythem, she does a great job if she is playing solo (she drops beats and will leave out a measure here and there, bless her heart - it’s hard for the other instruments to follow her so we let her follow the piano). We also have a bass player that is pretty good.

The flute player is also the director, and she has a music degree in flute - no problems there.

We play a wide range of songs - from Awesome God (not one of my favorites) to Faith of Our Fathers (also not one of my favorites). We do alot of Celtic style music 'cuz our parish is St. Patrick. We found a celtic arrangement of Amazing Grace that is popular, as well as other songs.

Just to give you a hint about the number of songs we do through a year - I’ve played guitar there for eight years and have three LARGE (4 inches thick) binders full of music, as well as separate binders for Easter music, Triduum Music, and Christmas Music. We rarely repeat songs within a month and we also have music that we only do once a year, for certain feasts.

And we also sing chant - Salve Regina (I introduced that one to the parish - I asked the choir to sing it at my wedding and they loved it), Tatum Ergo (on Holy Thursday) among others.

 

[shannin]

VociMike:

Following up on the thread about least-favorite songs, has music actually disrupted your parish? Have styles of music or styles of performance created unpleasant divisions in your church?

Yes … and that’s the sole reason that I recently joined another more conservative parish in my area :yup:

 

[SMHW]

VociMike:

Have styles of music or styles of performance created unpleasant divisions in your church?

Yes. But in my parish we have had the opposite problem from that listed by many posters here. If parishioners have complained about the music it was because it was too boring and not lively enough.

Our current music director is excellent and our choirs are well trained. We are equally comfortable singing Palestrina, praise and worship, or OCP/GIA. Both the music director and our accompanist are excellent pianists and are also more than competent on the organ.

About the only style of music we could probably stand to practice and sing more often is sacred chant. We tend to sing it only during Advent or during the Triduum.

In my opinion, sacred chant is possibly the HARDEST form of music to sing well because it is in unison. The slightest drop in pitch or loss of energy is far more noticable in unison singing. Done well, sacred chant is phenominal. Average or below is at best boring and at worst an abomination!

 

[Deacon_Ed]

No, but I may be biased. I served as the Music Director for over a year and a half while we searched for a full-time director. The man we hired is outstanding and has done a really good job. He has a long way to go, especially in rebuilding our choir, but he seems to have that well in hand.

Deacon Ed

 

[paramedicgirl]

We have a very dedicated, wonderful choir in our small parish of 100 church-going Catholics. We have a flute, a clarinet, piano, guitar, and some incredibly talented singers.

In the summer, when the choir took a hiatus, the youth who were home from university took over. They sang songs of real praise and worship that I had never heard before. They were incredible. I believe they learned them at John Paul II Bible School.

The only thing that makes me uncomfortable with the music is when the Protestant songs are being sung, all the hand-clapping that accompanies it. I know some of you may quote a biblical verse to refute me here, but I am pretty well grounded in my abhorrence of hand clapping during Mass.

 

[shannin]

My former parish had a particular group that did the folk Masses. They were so bad that I found myself getting “irritated” during Mass. Their music was just too loud and the lead singer was horrible. I never complained about it because others didn’t seem to mind. I did change parishes.

 

[Chris7]

We refer to it as the Peggy (our music director) and friends hour where sometime during the performance a Mass breaks out LOL! I’ve noticed the more liberal churches have become the forum for aspiring rock stars that can’t land a gig on a regular basis. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve heard some very talented people it’s just that I don’t see where coming out of Mass with ringing ears is value added.

 

[Michael_Welter]

I guess my parish is really blessed. We have quite a few Masses, and each has it’s own musical style.

Saturday evening we have a Life Teen Mass, with an outstanding band leading the music. Then on Sunday morning, we have 5 Masses. One with a small, traditional music choir, one with a spanish/mexican music group, one with a traditional choir (with an excellent director), one with a loosely heald together Filipino group, and one with a Folk group.

In the afternoon, we have a TLM. I don’t know what their music is like, as I’ve never been to it. Then on Sunday evening we have a spanish language Mass with a well-lead Mexican band.

There seems to be a lot of musical talent in our parish, Thanks be to God.

 

[THutch04]

I’m usually not one to complain about the music too much, but I will say that I don’t care too much for OCP and the music by Haugen, Haas, Schutte, ect. Everytime I hear the Marty Haugen “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again” I want to cringe. My biggest pet peeve has to be when OCP takes hymns and changes the words to make them politically correct. It’s not much of a problem at the Catholic parish in my town, but it is more common at my college (probably because they’re trying to accomodate college students who might not like the old hymns as much). However, it’s not that bad, they do include some good hymns, I just don’t prefer the more contemporary music.

~Tara

 

[Michael_Welter]

THutch04:

I’m usually not one to complain about the music too much, but I will say that I don’t care too much for OCP and the music by Haugen, Haas, Schutte, ect. Everytime I hear the Marty Haugen “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again” I want to cringe.

THutch04:

My biggest pet peeve has to be when OCP takes hymns and changes the words to make them politically correct.

That’s one of my biggest pet peeves with OCP. There’s nothing more insulting to a composer than to change their lyrics to make the PC. I’ve seen this done with some of the great Christmas hymns, and really drates on my nerves.

“Good Christians, All, Rejoice” used to be “Good Christian Men Rejoice”

 

[Elzee]

Our priest tries to keep our music in check We use music from OCP with an occasional ‘traditional’ hymm thrown in once or twice a year. But, all in all, compared to what I hear about in other parishes, I’m satisifed with our music. Flutes or violins will occasionally accompany our organist or pianist, which is beautiful. Our pastor gets a lot of pressure from some on the staff to use the contemporary christian music you hear on the radio, but he (and our liturgy coordinator) have held the line strongly on this, despite a LOT of objections. I give them a lot of credit.

 

[LarryM]

Style of music doesn’t seem to be a devisive issue here.

The song selections are essentially the same for all Masses, regardless of whether the Mass is served by a single song leader, a 25 voice Chancel Choir, or a 6 voice ensemble.

The selections include chant, songs by composers as diverse as Bach, Haugen, and Haas. Accompaniment may be by organ, piano, or ensemble with ,e.g. piano, flute and double bass.

 

[kaymart]

Never, I love all the Music. Our Choir, Children’s choir even the Folk Mass is done so beautifully in my Parish. Our Pastor also has a beautiful, strong powerful singing voice. I can’t carry a tune even if I had a basket, but when these folks use the talents that God gave them to sing His Praises then God Bless them all.

 

[totustuusmaria]

The music at my parish is georgous. We chose what music to play from Traditional music, contemporary music, and (a lot) of music that members of my Parish write. I have rarely come across music that moves me more.

 

[pm1853]

Church music by me is in a sorry state largely (despite the fact that I teach at one of the larger music schools in this country). I simply don’t understand how that could possibly happen. All of the masses by me a largely the same, piano, OCP drivel (sorry if I offend anyone, but some of it really is terrible music). The local church just hired a new music director and there HAVE been improvements, but its got a long way to go.

By the way…I was doing some research on the much maligned third verse of Faith of Our Fathers… This is the original third verse apparently…

Faith of our fathers, Mary’s prayers
Shall win our country back to Thee;
And through the truth that comes from God,
England shall then indeed be free.

Just change one proper name, and this would be largely appropriate for us in the States. Provocative yes…but we could use a little shaking up.

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

Not exactly, if one knows when which choir is singing which Mass. There’s a cantor and organ on Saturday, Schola at first Sunday Mass, and the “folk” ensemble at the second. The new music teacher for the school is doing a nice job with the children’s choir at school Mass.

 

[twiztedseraph]

VociMike:

Following up on the thread about least-favorite songs, has music actually disrupted your parish? Have styles of music or styles of performance created unpleasant divisions in your church?

Nup, we have the best of all things. Reverent guitar music, great accapella from a tongan choir, chant when the priest feel like it, piano once in awhile, you name it we have it. I guess I take it for granted.

 

[JP_Augustine]

Our parish, too, is blessed with amazing music. We have a full-time minister of music as well as an associate (we have a parish of nearly 4,000 families)…our choir (of which I am a member) numbers about 50 and, as a conservative parish, we do very traditional stuff that borders on amazing at times.

Our cantors are all excellent…we’ve even had a soprano cantor who sang with the Metropolitan Opera for several years.

I have to say, when visiting other parishes, it makes me appreciate how important music is to the Liturgy…

Thankfully blessed,
JPA