Why do we need to “identify with” sacred music? It doesn’t exist to set the mood or serve as entertainment. **The rest of the non-Catholic, movie-watching world hears chant, polyphony, and traditional hymns and thinks “Catholic.” **Why can’t we re-learn what we so carelessly threw out? The Church has made clear through above-mentioned documents and others as to what kind of music should be sung at Mass. Why is this even a question? If people prefer the usual OCP elevator music, they need to be gradually educated beyond it. Most school children would prefer to stay in the comfort of their own grade level, but they’ll never learn anything except laziness if they don’t move on to higher things.
(Boldface mine, above)–I disagree with the generalization that the rest of the non-Catholic, movie-watching world hears chant, polyphony, and traditional hymns and thinks “Catholic.”
Chant–regretfully, much of the “movie-watching” world hears chant and thinks “horror movie” or “Black Mass.” Or they think, “Wasn’t there a group of monks back in the 1990s who recorded a CD of Gregorian chant, became wildly popular with the public, and made a fortune?” In other words, chant, like many other forms of music, has become secularized here in the U.S. We are just as likely to hear chant at New Age retreats as we are in a Catholic church.
Polyphony–many many people think “concert” or “recital” when they hear this style of music. I do. I can’t listen to it without reverting to “musician mindset,” in which I analyze the voices of the singers, their pitch, their tone, their intonation, etc. In the U.S., polyphony is most often heard in a concert setting, not in a church setting. I’m talking about the PRESENT here, not the past. I agree that it used to be heard in churches, and not just Catholic churches–50 years ago perhaps. But not now. Not in recent memory.
Finally traditional hymns–I think the vast majority of people in the U.S. think “Protestant,” not “Catholic” when they hear hymns. Even though many Protestant churches have embraced contemporary Christian music in their worship services, many Protestant churches still hold at least one “traditional” worship service on Sundays, and this service is filled with traditional hymns, including many of the older hymns that Catholics sing.
The OP has to be very careful not to make any generalizations about music in the Mass, and not base her decisions on “popular opinion.” She needs objective, documented information.
It might be good for her to contact a Catholic university, specifically the music department, and see if she can get their professors to give her some resources.
Another possibility for the OP is to contact the largest Lutheran church in her area. In our city, the music ministers, who are also the pipe organists, of the Lutheran churches are very knowledgeable about liturgical music, including Catholic liturgical music. They could probably give her a lot of assistance in planning and implementing music in the Mass at her parish. They might also know how to maintain and repair pipe organs.
