Your speaking above my head sorry… Something that will show proper way to say the old/new to me parts of the Mass such as Sanctus, Agnus Dei.
Similar to when one is learning the proper way to say words in Spanish without totally murdering the words. Example- Venga Aqui (Venga A key), .
Thanks
He’s speaking above my head, too, and I’m a musician!
Honestly, Gregorian Chant and traditional chant proponents have a hard task ahead and I don’t envy them!
They’re going to have to find a way to teach at least one person in every parish in the U.S.all the “stuff” that they know and love, and then that person is going to have to find a way to teach all the people in the parish.
I wish them luck finding even one person in every parish who knows enough about music to even begin to understand what they are talking about, AND who has the personality to bring their knowledge to the priest and convince him and the installed music director to teach all the “stuff” to the congregation.
I don’t have that personality. I’m a follower (an accompanist), and after all my years of immersion in many Protestant conflicts, some leading to church splits and all leading to heartbreak and hurt, I don’t really care to rock the boat in my Catholic parish! Sorry to be a wimp here, but I’d rather just let those in authority plan the Mass music. I’ll just play whatever they give me.
Please keep in mind that most people in the U.S. don’t know the first thing about music other than what they’ve heard on the radio or from Simon and Paula and Randy on American Idol! Like it or not, that show has done a great deal to introduce Americans to the concepts of pitch, notes, intonation, “head voice,” etc. Unfortunately most Americans criticize the judges when they accuse someone of being “pitchy” or having bad intonation, and insist that the judges, especially Simon, are just being elitist!
Perhaps traditional Mass music proponents should start a television show called “American Chanters” and turn this all into a competition to see which parish can most quickly learn and deliver the traditional music that Pope Benedict XVI is advocating.
Catholics might actually pay attention to this approach instead of walking out the door of their church and heading down the road to the megachurch that features top-notch and well-played Praise and Worship music (in English).
There simply aren’t that many “traditionally-trained” musicians around in most cities. I was a music major for a while in my university, and even after I switched majors, I continued to take music classes and be involved with lots of accompanying and choral work. I never learned any of the “stuff” that you are talking about.
My daughter attends a Catholic college, and has earned a minor in music. She is very involved with her college’s music program. But she hasn’t learned any of this “stuff” either. It’s not taught.
So traditional music advocates have to start at the beginning, since not too many people know what they’re talking about.
AND they not only have to convince people to learn the music, but they have to convince people to LOVE the music. Hoo, boy. Big job.
In this day and age, I believe that many parishes are not so concerned with music as they are with retaining the members of their parish (or school). The priests are understandably hesitant to take a gamble and introduce something into the Mass (or into the schools) that people don’t understand and don’t like. They simply can’t afford to take the chance and lose still more people (and more offering or tuition monies).
I was out East this summer and for the first time, I saw Catholic churches that have been closed down due to lack of parishioners. I was shocked. Every Catholic Church in our city is thriving. I have been told by people in the know that yes, we are losing parishioners to the megachurches. We’re also gaining converts from those same megachurches, but the number of those walking out is greater than the number of those walking in.
So I say we have to try to understand where the priests are coming from. They’re scared of more “innovation,” even if the innovation is traditional music. The priests will have to be convinced that the use of traditional music will help retain people rather than drive people away because they can’t afford to loose more people.
And frankly, I think that will be hard to convince the priests who have seen over ther course of their ministry many of their people who dislike traditional music and tell the priest that they dislike it.
This is not going to be an easy job for the traditional music advocate–he/she has a hard sell. They can point to documents from the Lord Jesus Himself, let alone the Pope, that state that Gregorian Chant should be given preference in Mass, and the people they show those documents to will laugh in their faces, just as they laugh when someone shows them the Bible or other Church documents that forbid the use of artificial birth control or divorce or sex outside of marriage.
