Is guitar music OK at Mass?

[benedictgal]

I play classical guitar and use the guitar for finding pitch. It would be wonderful if our vocalists all had perfect pitch but they don’t. The guitar chorded quietly in the back ground adds greatly to vocal music. I especially love the sound of chants with the guitar.

I like the passages in the Bible referring to ten stringed lutes. I try to emulate the concept of a lute.

I can see how a guitar is often abused. An organ played by someone who loves to fill the church with loud music can override voices and be just as abusive.

My first love is the voice however. For me instruments are the means in which to show forth the voice.

There are instrumentalists that disagree with me on this and I understand that also.

I want to add also. There is a sizable Hispanic presence in our Parish which to me has added much to my approach to music and how I use the guitar.

Actually, chant was never meant to be accompanied by any musical instrument. The instrument that pertains to chant is the voice. Now, if the organ is played softly, that can work, to some degree. However it does not work very well with the guitar. I’ve heard beautiful hymns such as O Come, O Come Emmanuel, O Sun of Justice and the Attende Domine ruined by the guitar. Even the Sanctus (version found in the Roman Missal) should not have accompanyment, nor should the Agnus Dei (again, version found in the Roman Missal).

From what I have read, it is most disheartening to see a disregard for the organ. After all, the organ is the default instrument for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because it holds pride of place. We have forgotten how to appreciate the beautiful treasure that this instrument is.

When I was planning liturgies for the diocese, the wife of the Bishop’s executive assistant and I would get into spirited debates about liturgical music. The woman was pretty much wedded to her guitar and did not like the organ, even when I told her that the organ was the instrument with pride of place. She likes to play music from the seventies and does not have a clear understanding of what sacred music is. In fact, she came up with the brilliant idea of replacing the Gloria with the Christmas carol, Angels We Have Heard on High. I fought that battle and lost. Now, we’ve set a very bad precedent that some parishes still can’t shake, all because someone heard this being done at the Cathedral. Although the Cathedral doesn’t do this anymore, there is still one parish that continues to do this.

The guitar does not have the same solemnity as the organ. It does not have the same sense of majesty. Furthermore, a lot of the Spanish music found in Flor Y Canto (which is 99.9% in Spanish) is written for the guitar. Sadly, some of the pieces do sound more appropriate for Saturday night at the Tejano Club than Sunday morning Mass. There is very little in that hymnal that could work well with the organ. Most of it is meant for the guitar (and keyboards and, in some cases, drums). The older edition of Flor Y Canto wasn’t too good, but, at least it did have some pieces that worked rather well with the organ.

 

[HelenRose]

It is important to recognize the skill of musicians and who is available.

The organ may be the preferred instrument but trust me on this, it would not be the best choice for me to play. I would make a mockery of it. I can’t play the organ. I can play guitar and I can play the piano some. I know what I can and can not achieve and I do what I can to stay within my abilities.

Simple music well and reverantly done is preferable to difficult music poorly done.

 

[Guitar]

One example that made me shudder was the Spanish version of Jesus Christ is Risen Today. I started to belt it out with the Lyrica Davidica melody when the older women and the priest (I was visiting a parish) launched into Michael Rowed His Boat Ashore. It killed an otherwise beautiful song. What was worse was to hear it on the radio broadcast of the Mass from the Cathedral. Jesus Christ is Risen Today was played on the organ, but, with the Michael Rowed His Boat Ashore tune.

You take me back about 15 years when I attended Mass in Spanish in Israel for a month whilst working there. The choir of about 20 was accompanied by two or three strummed classical-style guitars. Their Gospel acclamation was the chorus of Battle Hymn of the Republic (“Glory, glory, alleluia”). The guitars were always in tune but the choir was another matter. One week the choir, to a man, woman and child, started the melody a rock-solid minor third lower than the key given them by the guitars and ploughed on with great determination. The congregation started on key and shouted them down - they deliberately sang louder and louder till they’d forcibly dragged the choir back on course. They obviously knew each other well!

Yet there are so many stunning Spanish singers and guitarists around.

 

[Guitar]

Actually, chant was never meant to be accompanied by any musical instrument. The instrument that pertains to chant is the voice. Now, if the organ is played softly, that can work, to some degree. However it does not work very well with the guitar. I’ve heard beautiful hymns such as O Come, O Come Emmanuel, O Sun of Justice and the Attende Domine ruined by the guitar.

I prefer my chant unaccompanied and detest the cholesterol-laden mensural accompaniments foist on us by the Victorians that bog everything down with a chord per syllable and totally constrain the natural flow.

Accompaniment can work, however.

Those chants can be ruined by a guitarist. They can also be ruined by an organist or in fact by any instrumentalist.

I do Veni Emmanuel very successfully with a carefully-planned gentle fingerstyle acoustic guitar arrangement, with optional violin/cello or oboe/violin/cello. Most organ accompaniments guarantee this chant is rendered as the dirge many people wrongly think it to be.

We’ve had this discussion before and I know you have heard a guitarist make a hash of it. That does not mean it isn’t possible to make it work. I can prove Nessun Dorma can’t be sung by a tenor, on that basis, as I said a few posts back.

 

[HelenRose]

Actually, chant was never meant to be accompanied by any musical instrument. The instrument that pertains to chant is the voice. Now, if the organ is played softly, that can work, to some degree. However it does not work very well with the guitar. I’ve heard beautiful hymns such as O Come, O Come Emmanuel, O Sun of Justice and the Attende Domine ruined by the guitar. Even the Sanctus (version found in the Roman Missal) should not have accompanyment, nor should the Agnus Dei (again, version found in the Roman Missal).

.

On the whole I agree. I prefer chants without instruments. But, this assumes your vocalists, myself included, can stay on pitch. My mission Church does its best.

The more traditional members of my little Church truly appreciate me because I am actually singing in Latin and attempting to teach the congregation to respond in Latin. You must work with what God has given you.

 

[benedictgal]

On the whole I agree. I prefer chants without instruments. But, this assumes your vocalists, myself included, can stay on pitch. My mission Church does its best.

The more traditional members of my little Church truly appreciate me because I am actually singing in Latin and attempting to teach the congregation to respond in Latin. You must work with what God has given you.

That you are teaching the faithful to sing Latin is highly commendable. A priest friend of mine got us into the habit of singing the Eucharistic Accamations (Sanctus, et al) in Latin and the people at daily Mass resonded favorably.

Now, I, too, objected when our organist nearly drowned the chants out with his playing. We gently told him to keep the fingers light, especially during Advent and Lent. But, the guitars were another story. During O Come, O Come Emmanuel, they strummed so loud that it was hard to hear the singing at a youth meeting.

Guitar, I wish I knew where all of the folks you alluded to are in my diocese:

Yet there are so many stunning Spanish singers and guitarists around.

There are some who strum and sing as though they were playing in a conjunto (bar band). Then we have some with Neocatechumenal tendencies who wail and wail and make some undiscernable noise.

Last Sunday, our pastor gave some of the choirs time off. Believe it or not, the faithful sang without accompanyment. In fact, they sang louder. Furthermore, the hymns selected by our PV were traditional (Jesus Christ is Risen Today, At the Lamb’s High Feast) and very singable. The 1PM Contemporary Choir showed up, though, and went through their P & W stuff and no one sang. They had a piano and guitar.

 

[Guitar]

But, the guitars were another story. During O Come, O Come Emmanuel, they strummed so loud that it was hard to hear the singing at a youth meeting.

Come to my parish in Advent and you will hear a very, very different Veni Emmanuel with guitar.

Guitar, I wish I knew where all of the folks you alluded to are in my diocese: There are some who strum and sing as though they were playing in a conjunto (bar band). Then we have some with Neocatechumenal tendencies who wail and wail and make some undiscernable noise.

That does sound a problem! I guess I am blessed in knowing really good singers and players who make their living as professionals and who are friends of one of my regular organists, a Spanish girl with a degree in organ performance. While there is a Spanish community where I am, it is nowhere near on the same scale or as spread out as where you are.

Last Sunday, our pastor gave some of the choirs time off. Believe it or not, the faithful sang without accompanyment. In fact, they sang louder. Furthermore, the hymns selected by our PV were traditional (Jesus Christ is Risen Today, At the Lamb’s High Feast) and very singable. The 1PM Contemporary Choir showed up, though, and went through their P & W stuff and no one sang. They had a piano and guitar.

I believe both responses! Piano and guitar do not, however, have to play P&W and the little P&W I know is better suited to piano than guitar. Instruments and repertoire are two different issues. As I’ve said on other threads, round here you get the same repertoire on all instruments (for better or worse … and sometimes it’s worse ).