Oh, Claire, may I ask you another question? Since you seem to know about music?
Why are some tunes good for Mass and others not? I mean, I can often tell within a few bars if a song is one if the new songs or an old one, but I have no idea why. The words I can see are written more simply, in more modern language, and lack the depth of ideas found in older songs, but I’m asking about the music.
Thank you
And now that I have found all this out, I understand better what happened to the Gloria in those Masses… … Sigh…
(please music directors, musicians, I’m just answering with my opinions as a musician, please don’t jump on me, I’m not trying to start a DEBATE on church music)
Well, there could be several reasons:
First, we have to distinguish a difference between hymns and what we refer to as “church music” or “Mass music”.
Hymns tend to be in 4 part harmony, with 6-8 lines all tied up in a neat little package. Basic intro, proceed to two lines of words, and a couple lines of refrain.
Easily accessible keys for playing (not so much for singing, the public sings lower and lower these days.
)
Modern church music tends to have a long, kind of rambling introduction, and is not always to clear when to jump in. these pieces are composed as melodious songs…with the words composed together with the music, not necessarily to fit the notes. So, sometimes the melody will be slightly altered to accommodate the melody. Often, people in the pew don’t readily adapt to this, and may take a few airings to learn it outright.
Also, some newer music can transpose up for the last verse, sometimes twice! I always laugh…we have a high soprano cantor…bless her heart. By the time she finishes, only the dogs can hear her. LOL
Sadly, SOME new music tends to be more, how shall we say “jingle” composed. This comes form a misguided notion that people can’t sing complicated melodies, or can’t read music. So some, not all, composers have written their Mass parts with sort of a “hook” that is endlessly repeated for the parts. Once as a upbeat thing, repeated many times for the Gloria, more majestically for the Holy, a bit mournfully for the Lamb of God, maybe in a minor key, you get the idea. By the end of the setting, you’re pretty well tired of it, but it has the “advantage” of people knowing the one main melody. Easy to remember as a new thing. Not pretty, or inspiring, but easy to remember.
For myself, the words are more problematic than the music. All of us can argue as to the beauty of Panis Angelicus, vs. the plaintive, Take Lord, Receive, and we can like them both or dislike them both. But the lyrics…the lyrics. I prefer lyrics that are soundly Catholic. I can take an odd melody, a dreary refrain, a flippy verse, or what not. But when I am compelled to sing words that don’t jive with what the church teaches? I lose it. Some of the radio Christian music is GREAT to listen to in the car, but in my opinion, and yes, I’m an old fart, not suitable for the Mass. I like upbeat music. I love joyful songs! But some are just not exactly right for Mass. And I do NOT believe that choirs and congregation can’t learn some of the better, more complex music. When I started in the previous parish as the music director, they were singing only old old music, and the choir was singing meditations that were on a junior high school level. In the 16 years I was there, you would not recognize them. They had an enormous repertoire…enough that if some were absent, (the lead singers) they could still pull off a beautiful musical offering. It took a long time…a couple of years, but we were committed to singing liturgically correct pieces, and teaching everyone to read music. the first piece I handed them, they were like…oh no, we can’t sing this, it’s way too hard! By the time I left, I could hand out something and they were like " ok, what’s the starting note? Let’s do this".
Nice when your pastor says “the Archbishop is coming, I can’t wait till he hears our choir”.
Also, one needs to take care that the KEY you are playing/singing is accessible to most people. With the advent of digital instruments, there’s not excuse to sing anything in a too high key. The timbre of the cantor has a lot to do with the psychological idea of “can I sing along with this”. If your cantor is a high coloratura soprano, people won’t even try. They can sing an octave down, but they won’t. It “sounds” too high for them.
But I digress…
Some music is just not great. Well meaning composers that think they are helping to get full participation, but for as many people that find it easier, just as many are turned off and just sit there staring. Nothing worse. Also, we find that re-working old favorites into new “versions” just upsets people. I see the older folks excited, like “Great! I know this one!” and then the melody takes a u-tune and they put their worship aides down, and give up. Not good if you are seeking congregational singing. It’s a prayer! We all need to enter into the prayer! But music directors can go a long way to make it more accessible for the people in the pews. And when a whole congregation is singing, it’s glorious.
:harp:
:twocents:
I long for beautiful Mass parts. There are some out there…
Back to your regularly scheduled programming…
