Is it wrong to not like gregorian chant?

[angell1]

I feel guilty even writing this question.

I know and understand the history and tradition of it, but I just cdon’t particularly like listening to it. and each song all sounds the same but maybe that’s the point.

but the way most catholics I know go on about it, it makes me feel like I’m bad for not liking it since it is considered the truest form of authentic catholic music

am I alone on this one?

 

[Flagstone]

I’m no expert at this but how can you choose what to like? Is its purpose for you to like it or for some other purpose?

 

[MarySB]

Personally, I love Gregorian Chant. I learned to read the music and chanted with a schola for a couple of years. I also learned about the why they were written the way they were written. Unfortunately, I had to drop out.

But, everyone has their own taste and I, for one, would not condemn someone else’s taste.

 

[angell1]

Personally, I love Gregorian Chant. I learned to read the music and chanted with a schola for a couple of years. I also learned about the why they were written the way they were written. Unfortunately, I had to drop out.

But, everyone has their own taste and I, for one, would not condemn someone else’s taste.

appreciated, unfortunately, there are those who make feel as if you’re not a good catholic if you don’t like it

 

[DaveBj]

Personally, I love Gregorian Chant. I learned to read the music and chanted with a schola for a couple of years. I also learned about the why they were written the way they were written. Unfortunately, I had to drop out.

But, everyone has their own taste and I, for one, would not condemn someone else’s taste.

^^^This is me exactly, except that I didn’t chant with a schola. Like what you like and don’t feel guilty about it.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

appreciated, unfortunately, there are those who make feel as if you’re not a good catholic if you don’t like it

Who are these people and why are you paying attention to what they say?

People like or don’t like various kinds of music. Even if you can appreciate that a certain type of music is done well, you may not particularly want to listen to it.

 

[white_sheep]

Of course not. It’s whatever you like. However it is far more appropriate for mass than what we usually have. At the nearby parish all they ever use are instruments that are not supposed to be used during mass.

 

[subject97]

Whatever helps you to raise your heart and mind to God. There’s a reason why Vatican II allowed different kinds of music to be used in Mass. Gregorian chant gets the pride of it though, due to it’s history and how it helps many other people worship, but there’s no need to feel bad if it doesn’t do that for you.

 

[ProVobis]

Gregorian chant would be almost the last thing I would watch on youtube or listen to in my spare time. But in the context of the Mass, there would be no substitute for me.

 

[robwar]

I feel guilty even writing this question.

I know and understand the history and tradition of it, but I just cdon’t particularly like listening to it. and each song all sounds the same but maybe that’s the point.

but the way most catholics I know go on about it, it makes me feel like I’m bad for not liking it since it is considered the truest form of authentic catholic music

am I alone on this one?

dont’ worry about it. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it and there is not right or wrong in it. You are not a bad Catholic if you don’t like this sort of chant and it is none of anyone’s business whether you do or don’t. don’t worry about it or what others like or dislike.

 

[R_C]

I feel guilty even writing this question.

I know and understand the history and tradition of it, but I just cdon’t particularly like listening to it. and each song all sounds the same but maybe that’s the point.

but the way most catholics I know go on about it, it makes me feel like I’m bad for not liking it since it is considered the truest form of authentic catholic music

am I alone on this one?

Well, no

Did you know that Sister Claire asked the Franciscan brothers and sisters to refrain from adopting Gregorian Chant? This is - as far as I have learned - because not all of the brothers and sisters were able to chant, and this in other communities often created true division and even emargination. In fact, it used to be that the lack of ability to chant was seen as a sign that one did not possess a vocation to certain monastic orders…!

I am madly in love with Gregorian Chant. But I can perfectly understand that someone may not like it. It’s fine. You are not “less Catholic” because of it.

When we get to heaven and we hear choirs of angels and saints, we will realize that no voice, no chant, no praise on earth resembles even closely their hymns. So while we are down here, the best we can do is find a reverent way to express our love in chants and hymns, and if no way moves our heart, then let us offer the Lord our silent contemplation Silence is a wonderful melody, too.

Now maybe you’ve never practiced chanting, or are not particularly fond of Latin and its metric? If you get more into it, you may enjoy it. Rather than trying Latin Gregorian chant, try plainchant in vernacular (meaning - the local language)…simple and beautiful There’s a nice tutorial by a Norbertine hermit, Fr. David Jones (see here) and a website of lay missionaries who travel teaching to pray the Liturgy of the Hours in plainchant.

 

[Allegra]

You aren’t supposed to “like” it the way one likes their favorite kind of secular music. It was written very simplisticly, to emphasize the beauty of the actual text of the prayer one is praying. It’s not meant to be enjoyed by kicking back and listening to others perform it. (Though some people do find it soothing) It was meant to be participatory and meditative for the actual singer. That being said, when the text has been translated from one language to another, the result is often awkward. Also, the tonal system and lack of meter used in chant are completely foreign to the modern western ear, so it makes sense that it isn’t most people’s favorite music to kick back to.

 

[ProVobis]

try plainchant in vernacular (meaning - the local language)…

Yes, but the whole idea behind Gregorian chant was in trying to preserve some unity among all the cultures. Pope Paul went further in trying to promote Jubilate Deo.

In April 1974 Pope Paul VI sent to every bishop in the world a booklet of some of the simplest selections of Gregorian Chant, much of it drawn from the Graduale Romanum. This booklet, called Jubilate Deo, was intended as a “minimum repertoire of Gregorian chant”. It is, in other words, an official Latin “core repertoire” for the Roman Rite. It was prepared, the Pope said, in order “to make it easier for Christians to achieve unity and spiritual harmony with their brothers and with the living tradition of the past. Hence it is that those who are trying to improve the quality of congregational singing cannot refuse Gregorian chant the place which is due to it” (Voluntati Obsequens).

Pope Paul VI gave permission for the selections in Jubilate Deo to be freely reprinted. The booklet was accompanied by a letter in which the Holy Father made this request of the bishops:

“Would you therefore, in collaboration with the competent diocesan and national agencies for the liturgy, sacred music and catechetics, decide on the best ways of teaching the faithful the Latin chants of Jubilate Deo and of having them sing them…. You will thus be performing a new service for the Church in the domain of liturgical renewal” (Voluntati Obsequens).

Jubilate Deo contains simple chant settings in Latin of the parts of the Ordinary of the Mass: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Memorial Acclamation, Agnus Dei. It also provides musical settings for the dialogues between priest and people, such as before the Preface, and the Ite Missa est, the response to the Prayer of the Faithful, and others.

An, expanded edition of Jubilate Deo was later issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship in 1987.

Unfortunately, the faithful were not taught these chants, and it is rare to hear any music from this collection sung in parishes today.

adoremus.org/JubilateDeo.html

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

I’m no expert at this but how can you choose what to like? Is its purpose for you to like it or for some other purpose?

One word pleasure, something that Gregorian chant doesn’t always accomplish with me outside of themes for cathedral settings and paladin/cleric job-classes. (And mind you, those are my least favorite fantasy archetypes.)

 

[Tenofovir]

I feel guilty even writing this question.

I know and understand the history and tradition of it, but I just cdon’t particularly like listening to it. and each song all sounds the same but maybe that’s the point.

but the way most catholics I know go on about it, it makes me feel like I’m bad for not liking it since it is considered the truest form of authentic catholic music

am I alone on this one?

No of course it’s not wrong. It’s just a genre of music. Some people won’t like it, in fact some may even hate it.

You don’t have to like “Catholic music”. You can even hate it.

And I’m not sure what the most authentic Catholic music is supposed to be. Did the original worshipers in AD 30s really sing that way…?

 

[styrgwillidar]

Whatever helps you to raise your heart and mind to God. There’s a reason why Vatican II allowed different kinds of music to be used in Mass. Gregorian chant gets the pride of it though, due to it’s history and how it helps many other people worship, but there’s no need to feel bad if it doesn’t do that for you.

I agree. It’s just like folks getting focused on some specific prayer as if it’s a magical incantation, missing the point that it’s about raising your heart and mind to God. Different types of prayer accomplish that for different people.

Personally, I prefer mass with no music at all. I much prefer that over trying to turn the mass into an opera singing everything…but that’s just me.