Is a no-music Mass on Sunday justifiable?

[Sabda]

I guess it’s me but I disagree with this. I feel there should be no lead singing and no one tries to show up anyone else in the pews on it. Some like me are very reluctant to sing when there is someone close by that loves to show off his/her voice. I think it’s rude, to tell you the truth, and nothing that brings me closer to God.

If you’re going to sing, do it as reverently as you expect the Mass to be. Otherwise, you’re just adding to the noise pollution.

Our parish does not have a choir and we sing a capella. We have the one singer and the entire congregation is the choir. For example every one sings the entrance hymn, the hymn during the presentation of the gifts and recessional hymn. During the psalms we have the cantor who starts us off on the response. Then we sing the response while she sings the Psalm. The Alleluia is the same. She also stands in the very back behind the pews. If you are facing the altar than you can not even see her. These ladies are not trying to be show-offs. They are using the talents that God has given them.
God has gifted both of these ladies with an amazing voice. It would be a shame to not use that gift for the service of the Church.

 

[steboyz]

Its not singing I dislike its the songs we are forced to sing at our Masses.I like traditional Catholic hymns not the Broadway type music that we sing(some of us) at our parish.Even in the good old days(when we had three priests,not two) the earliest Sunday Mass(6a)and the next one(7a) was a music less Mass.People liked them because they were well attended.

Ger:thumbsup:

 

[KingAlfred]

i have no problem with no music at sunday mass, and when we do have music a church organ is all i need, i usually attend protestant churches to see what their services are like and the ruckus they make with their drums, synthesizers, etc cause me to feel disoriented, and partially deaf afterwards. If someone were praising me like that i would shut my ears!
when i ask them why make so much noise… their reply is the bible says ‘make a joyful noise unto the Lord’ lol i feel sorry for these poor people.

Yeah…it’s crazy. Many born-again types hold a one-hour sing-along session before the service. They clap and scream and do all manner of embarrassing stuff. I could never go that route. I could never behave like that.

 

[Sarabande]

I love a very simple and quiet Mass like this from time to time - the Mass is so very beautiful anyway, even in the bare bones state of no music.

I totally agree. Even though music (certain kinds) is a form of prayer which gets me spiritually connected and focused inside and outside of mass, sometimes a simple, quiet and reverent mass is perfect and right for me. Whenever I’ve attended a “no-music” mass, I love it when the Alleluia is chanted a capella. Nobody at the microphone, no organ - just the pure voice.

 

[Sarabande]

Our parish does not have a choir and we sing a capella. We have the one singer and the entire congregation is the choir. For example every one sings the entrance hymn, the hymn during the presentation of the gifts and recessional hymn. During the psalms we have the cantor who starts us off on the response. Then we sing the response while she sings the Psalm. The Alleluia is the same. She also stands in the very back behind the pews. If you are facing the altar than you can not even see her. These ladies are not trying to be show-offs. They are using the talents that God has given them.
God has gifted both of these ladies with an amazing voice. It would be a shame to not use that gift for the service of the Church.

I love it that parishes have now started using cantors in this way. We sometimes attend mass at a small Catholic church (oldest Catholic church in the city - started in the 1730s). They have a professional quartet for motets and a cantor will be used for the psalm, Gospel acclamation. He/She will only use the mic to announce the hymn, then will step far away from the microphone. You won’t hear them, so that all you hear is the entire congregation sing - no voice over top. The only time you hear the cantor is when he/she sings the verse of the psalm or the Gospel Acclamation. The only time you hear the quartet is when they sing a motet, the Kyrie, Gloria, etc. They are incredibly gifted musicians and singers, yet you can see that they are there to provide prayer through music.

When I cantor at my parish, I also do my best to be as far from the mic as possible. It is a little different, though, in how we have to cantor. Because of the size of the place, there is a HUGE delay and even with our incredibly gifted and humble organist (best in the city and a major blessing), the priests and congregation in the front of the cathedral will be really behind the beat and the people in the back will be right on. So the cantor will have to sometimes make sure that everyone stays with the organist’s tempi and we figured out a way to make it work. I prefer singing from the choir loft - as does our organist. It makes it easier for us and keeps us out of view. But unfortunately, for the Sunday masses we have to cantor from the front, although fortunately for weddings and funerals we sing from the back.

At my former parish, the music director tried to adopt this staying away from the mic unless it’s needed, and some of the cantors were practically enraged over it because “no one would hear them”. I was one of the only ones totally in favor of it. It showed me where their true colors were in doing this.

 

[Bruised_Reed]

I have a terrible, terrible confession to make. Please…I…I…I shouldn’t…no, really…I really shouldn’t. Well…okay. If you insist:

At a nearby church that suffers, every Sunday night, during Teen Mass, the horrendous screeching of a female vocalist, accompanied by ‘Old West saloon-type’ piano playing by a middle-aged guy with an equally horrific voice, I have often wanted to bolt across the church, gently tackling both of them, setting fire to the piano (controlled fire, that is) and hollering out to the congregation, "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND HUMANITY, LET US END THIS AUDITORY NIGHTMARE, ONCE AND FOR ALL. NO MORE MUSIC OF THIS KIND, ANYWHERE, ANY TIME, UNDER ANY CONDITIONS. WHO IS WITH ME?"

If you hadn’t indicated that it this happens Sunday night and mentioned above you live in TX I would have thought we went to the same parish.

Oh, and I would be with you!

 

[Sarabande]

I guess it’s me but I disagree with this. I feel there should be no lead singing and no one tries to show up anyone else in the pews on it. Some like me are very reluctant to sing when there is someone close by that loves to show off his/her voice. I think it’s rude, to tell you the truth, and nothing that brings me closer to God.

If you’re going to sing, do it as reverently as you expect the Mass to be. Otherwise, you’re just adding to the noise pollution.

I look at it very differently. I would never want to assume that just because a person is singing out it’s because he/she is trying to show off. But that’s just me. Perhaps it’s because that I, myself, and people I know aren’t showing off which make me feel positively about the motive of other people. But perhaps if I was a showoff, a former showoff, or just had a bad experience with knowing peole who were like that, then I could possibly see how I or another could make assumptions like that.

My family loves to sing… and it’s not to show off or show up anyone else when they’re in the pews. They just like to sing. We grew up always singing. It’s also a cultural thing where almost every get-together we have consists of singing in one way or another. I believe the majority of people who sing out with their hearts are doing just that. They sing because they like to and because some (including myself) do it as a way of prayer. I’ve found that the more a person in the pews with a decent or beautiful voice sings, the more the rest of the congregation will sing - especially if the organ isn’t too supportive. Another reason why some people in the congregation may sing out when hardly anyone is so that the cantor isn’t the only person up there singing. When a few people in the congregation start to join in, then more will sing along and thus it won’t make the cantor be a soloist - whether or not he/she wants it.

When we do the Latin chants in the NO Latin mass at our parish, it’s often very helpful to visitors at the cathedral when the regulars sing out the Latin. They will start to try to chant along.

 

[Bruised_Reed]

I used to go to a Mass (it was like 7:00 or something on Saturday night) there was no music. I loved that Mass.

When the choir I was in ended up singing “in the House of Stone and Light” or maybe it was “Circle of Life” I decided it was time to move on. This no-music Mass was my only guarantee that I wouldn’t have to listen to material heresy. In the music anyway.

 

[pnewton]

I look at it very differently. I would never want to assume that just because a person is singing out it’s because he/she is trying to show off. But that’s just me. Perhaps it’s because that I, myself, and people I know aren’t showing off which make me feel positively about the motive of other people.

Like you, I prefer to think the best of people first. I am one that always sings, when possible, although I never sing louder than if I was in a choir. If others around also, sing, I never stand out. Only when others do the whisper singing or lip-syncing can I be heard above others.

 

[KingAlfred]

If you hadn’t indicated that it this happens Sunday night and mentioned above you live in TX I would have thought we went to the same parish.

Oh, and I would be with you!

Yeah…and the poor pianist and lead screecher probably think they’re doing the congregation a great service.

 

[KestrelRose]

Yeah…and the poor pianist and lead screecher probably think they’re doing the congregation a great service.

Spoken with love a charity I hope.

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

A single cantor can chant the Propers, with the priest and people chanting their parts. I would hope that, given the teaching of the Church that music is a necessary or integral part of the liturgy, that traditionalist Catholics would do whatever was necessary to get that single cantor for Sunday Mass. Does any traditionalist Catholic disagree?

I fully agree that we should be doing our best to have sung Mass, and if all we can do is train a single cantor, then that’s what we ought to do.

I vote for a fourth option - I don’t mind a bit of chant (though it can be poorly done on occasion like anything) but I much prefer classical Masses (Mozart etc) and some of the old standard hymns (by which I don’t mean Eagles Wings or the like) and I think most ‘traditionalist’ Catholics probably would rather those than straight Gregorian.

Remember, though, that while orchestral Masses might seem “fancier” and thus a way of pulling out all the stops in our worship, the Church has held up chant as the ideal, closely followed by polyphony. That means that orchestral Masses come in third place at best. Given that the same Church who sets forth our ideals also uses the “less ideal” styles of polyphonic and orchestral sacred music, there is obviously some sort of balance that she intends us to reach, but I think we can say that a “preferential option for the orchestra” in lieu of chant would not be reaching the bar that has been set.