Missing music in mass

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saramichelle6

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I joined the Church in 2009, and have grown much over my journey. One thing I miss about the protestant church is the music. Not the praise band, not the raucous rock/pop “music,” I actually love traditional hymns. I miss the actual printed notes in a hymnal.

I come from a musical background and studied voice in college. Musical ability was a talent given to me by God and I don’t feel like I’m able to use it in mass. I can read music, I love harmonizing to songs, but I can’t sing the song if I don’t have any notes!

I also love very old church music and classical settings of the mass, but my parish has a (very) tiny choir (perhaps 10 people) and they aren’t able to do large choral works.

Have any other converts experienced frustration with this?
 
I’m not a convert, but I have wondered what people are thinking when they only put up words with no music notes.
 
Most Catholic churches have hymnals of some sort. In fact, I’ve never seen one without.

I am highly frustrated and almost feel cheated musically, as the societal portrayal of Catholicism in the realm of music is one of extreme beauty, and I have experienced little of that. But I felt just as cheated when I was a Protestant, so meh. It’s just, I had so many cultural and ritual expectations for Catholicism, and hardly any of it for the most part was actually true, so highly disappointing in that realm, yes.
 
Saramichelle…quality music programs are scarce in our churches but not nonexistent. You could perhaps search around for a parish that suits ou better as far as music goes. I use to do that when i was single. Or…Just a suggestion… maybe you could volunteer to teach how to read music. Maybe that might spark an interest at your parish and the choir would improve.
 
saramichelle6 said:
I joined the Church in 2009, and have grown much over my journey. One thing I miss about the protestant church is the music. Not the praise band, not the raucous rock/pop “music,” I actually love traditional hymns. I miss the actual printed notes in a hymnal.

I come from a musical background and studied voice in college. Musical ability was a talent given to me by God and I don’t feel like I’m able to use it in mass. I can read music, I love harmonizing to songs, but I can’t sing the song if I don’t have any notes!

I also love very old church music and classical settings of the mass, but my parish has a (very) tiny choir (perhaps 10 people) and they aren’t able to do large choral works.

Have any other converts experienced frustration with this?
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Your parish does not have hymnals? Hmm. I have seen one Catholic parish that did not have hymnals, so I know it is possible, but not very common.

I’m sorry for your experience. My parish has an awesome choir, but they don’t sing at the 5 pm Saturday Mass I usually go to. I do love a good choir.
 
anp1215 said:
Your parish does not have hymnals? Hmm. I have seen one Catholic parish that did not have hymnals, so I know it is possible, but not very common.
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I’ve been in parishes where they had “hymnals” – but those hymnals only had the words, not the music in standard notation. I’ve also experienced this at retreats and in mission churches.
 
anp1215 said:
Your parish does not have hymnals? Hmm. I have seen one Catholic parish that did not have hymnals, so I know it is possible, but not very common.

I’m sorry for your experience. My parish has an awesome choir, but they don’t sing at the 5 pm Saturday Mass I usually go to. I do love a good choir.
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We do have hymnals, but for many of the music selections only contain the words, not the musical notation. It’s frustrating :confused:
 
YoungTradCath said:
Most Catholic churches have hymnals of some sort. In fact, I’ve never seen one without.

I am highly frustrated and almost feel cheated musically, as the societal portrayal of Catholicism in the realm of music is one of extreme beauty, and I have experienced little of that. But I felt just as cheated when I was a Protestant, so meh. It’s just, I had so many cultural and ritual expectations for Catholicism, and hardly any of it for the most part was actually true, so highly disappointing in that realm, yes.
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YTC,

I do not experience this in the EF.

Our choir is just around 5 people and it’s ethereal when they sing.

Might just be the acoustics in the church, but I’ve only been disappointed in the OF.

I have a hard time figuring out how to say that without it being misunderstood as what it’s not.
 
saramichelle6 said:
I joined the Church in 2009, and have grown much over my journey. One thing I miss about the protestant church is the music. Not the praise band, not the raucous rock/pop “music,” I actually love traditional hymns. I miss the actual printed notes in a hymnal.

I come from a musical background and studied voice in college. Musical ability was a talent given to me by God and I don’t feel like I’m able to use it in mass. I can read music, I love harmonizing to songs, but I can’t sing the song if I don’t have any notes!

I also love very old church music and classical settings of the mass, but my parish has a (very) tiny choir (perhaps 10 people) and they aren’t able to do large choral works.

Have any other converts experienced frustration with this?
Click to expand...
I’m not a convert, but I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry about your situation. I read music as well, so that would completely frustrate me too. Most parishes I’ve been in do have hymnals with musical notation, so perhaps you can find a parish which do have normal hymnals or maybe even join your parish choir. I would think that they would at least have the musical notation. I know at a parish where I used to sing in the choir, their hymnals included the choral notation while the parish hymnals only had the melody notation.
 
saramichelle6 said:
I joined the Church in 2009, and have grown much over my journey. One thing I miss about the protestant church is the music. Not the praise band, not the raucous rock/pop “music,” I actually love traditional hymns. I miss the actual printed notes in a hymnal.

I come from a musical background and studied voice in college. Musical ability was a talent given to me by God and I don’t feel like I’m able to use it in mass. I can read music, I love harmonizing to songs, but I can’t sing the song if I don’t have any notes!

I also love very old church music and classical settings of the mass, but my parish has a (very) tiny choir (perhaps 10 people) and they aren’t able to do large choral works.

Have any other converts experienced frustration with this?
Click to expand...
My husband and I both identify with this.

Both of us realize that nothing compares with the beauty of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and we do not plan to leave the Catholic Church for the sake of music.

But we do miss good singing and good old-fashioned Gospel hymns (The Solid Rock, And Can It Be? To God Be The Glory, Blessed Assurance, It Is Well With My Soul, I Will Sing of My Redeemer, etc.) with organ and piano accompaniment. I love Fanny Crosby hymns and Phillip Bliss hymns, and if I come across a hymn station on the radion during a drive, I will listen to it and sing along.

He still keeps up with quite a few CCM bands, including a local band called “Silver” that he loves. And I will occasionally sit down at the piano and play Gospel style and sing my heart out and cry, missing the old music.

There is a Latin Mass in our city, but the music doesn’t seem very worshipful to us.
 
Cat,

Just for you: youtube.com/watch?v=j1qO_Vzewjw

The Inspirations, “The Wonder of Wonders”.

Brings a tear doesn’t it? 😉

As a person who grew up on Southern Gospel, I’d invite you to reexamine the music at the Latin Mass.

Find the worship in it, and you’ll realize how worshipful it is.

Peace to you.
 
Does the EF provide hymnals with musical notes for people to participate? That’s not the Tridentine Mass I grew up with. Maybe it’s different now. However… I think Sara is missing that her church does not provide good hymnals with music. I totally understand as a classically trained vocalist. I like to have music in front of me.
 
Anna_Claire said:
Does the EF provide hymnals with musical notes for people to participate? That’s not the Tridentine Mass I grew up with. Maybe it’s different now. However… I think Sara is missing that her church does not provide good hymnals with music. I totally understand as a classically trained vocalist. I like to have music in front of me.
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Generally, as far as I’ve experienced. I’ve mainly seen this one:

amazon.com/Traditional-Roman-Hymnal-Society-Pius/dp/1550567934
 
saramichelle6 said:
I joined the Church in 2009, and have grown much over my journey. One thing I miss about the protestant church is the music. Not the praise band, not the raucous rock/pop “music,” I actually love traditional hymns. I miss the actual printed notes in a hymnal.

I come from a musical background and studied voice in college. Musical ability was a talent given to me by God and I don’t feel like I’m able to use it in mass. I can read music, I love harmonizing to songs, but I can’t sing the song if I don’t have any notes!

I also love very old church music and classical settings of the mass, but my parish has a (very) tiny choir (perhaps 10 people) and they aren’t able to do large choral works.

Have any other converts experienced frustration with this?
Click to expand...
I think it’s just that parish, honestly. I attend a very large parish with a very talented music ministry. Large choir, wonderful trained cantors, really they are operatic quality. The organist is brilliant. And we have hymnals with the notes!

The other parish I attend has suffered over the years…many of our former choir members have defected to the parish I just spoke of. Now the priest has replaced our old pews with wooden ones that have no hymnal holders, so the hymnals went away. We have 2 big screens with the words, but I like to follow along with the notes so I know what’s coming! It’s a total mess if the person putting up the power point is just a tad bit too slow with the words, or if there is a typo! 😦

Please don’t think all Catholic churches are music-challenged!

🙂
 
Anna_Claire said:
Does the EF provide hymnals with musical notes for people to participate? That’s not the Tridentine Mass I grew up with. Maybe it’s different now. However… I think Sara is missing that her church does not provide good hymnals with music. I totally understand as a classically trained vocalist. I like to have music in front of me.
Click to expand...
That’s exactly it. My husband was raised Catholic, and his reply is always “I’ve heard it a million times, so I don’t need the notes.”

I’m wondering if this isn’t a little nudge from God to perhaps join the choir and try to use my talent more than I am. I struggle with “jumping in” and getting involved in this fairly new parish.
 
YoungTradCath said:
Most Catholic churches have hymnals of some sort. In fact, I’ve never seen one without.

I am highly frustrated and almost feel cheated musically, as the societal portrayal of Catholicism in the realm of music is one of extreme beauty, and I have experienced little of that. But I felt just as cheated when I was a Protestant, so meh. It’s just, I had so many cultural and ritual expectations for Catholicism, and hardly any of it for the most part was actually true, so highly disappointing in that realm, yes.
Click to expand...
I grew up in a parish that still doesn’t provide a hymnal.

In Canada, we are usually provided with the pew edition of the CBW III. For many selections, music is only included for the refrain of hymns/songs. If you have a few hymns in a row with the same musical setting, only the first has notation at all. Only the choir edition provides all the music for every hymn and in my parish even the choir doesn’t use those since, for the most part, the members don’t read music.

I’ve been to the local Anglican Church and their hymnal only contains lyrics, no music.
 
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