M
Mintaka
Guest
Re: percussion instruments at Mass
The primary use of percussion instruments has been as a liturgical tool, to draw attention to the Consecration. Bells, clackers, rattles, and in the Coptic church, sistrums have been used.
Choirs also would thump their books on Good Friday (IIRC) to represent the earthquake after the Crucifixion.
When orchestral Masses came in, then the small orchestras would sometimes have some drum, etc. involved. But that’s a relatively recent development.
Re: doing the wrong thing?
The thing is, sacred music is supposed to go along with Mass, and that’s mostly about worshipping God and mimicking the atmosphere of Heaven. It tries to be the kind of music that would be fitting to play before God’s Throne, in His honor and as a prayer to Him. It’s music that’s deeper than what we normally hear, different in style from secular music as well as in content.
What we normally hear at Mass is devotional music, which is primarily designed to whip up the devotional feelings of the faithful. It’s appropriate for devotional music to mimick the sound of secular music, because it is an outside of Mass thing and is designed to be more for the benefit of the faithful than as a gift to God. It’s like going to a prayer service or saying the Rosary, as opposed to going to Mass.
Sacred music and devotional music should both be part of a Catholic’s music life, but ideally both would be in their proper place. Our ancestors did a lot of other Catholic stuff besides Mass every week with their friends and family. In the old days, the praise band equivalent would probably play uplifting upbeat devotional music for some Confraternity of the Holy Spirit that the young people attended club meetings for each week, and there’d be sung Vespers on some nights, and the choir and church orchestra would do sacred music at Sunday Mass, and people would sing folk song hymns during processions through the street on saints’ days and feasts, and dance holy day folk dances in the churchyard after Mass during the festival’s fair; nowadays it all gets jammed haphazardly into Sunday Mass. It’s very weird.
The primary use of percussion instruments has been as a liturgical tool, to draw attention to the Consecration. Bells, clackers, rattles, and in the Coptic church, sistrums have been used.
Choirs also would thump their books on Good Friday (IIRC) to represent the earthquake after the Crucifixion.
When orchestral Masses came in, then the small orchestras would sometimes have some drum, etc. involved. But that’s a relatively recent development.
Re: doing the wrong thing?
The thing is, sacred music is supposed to go along with Mass, and that’s mostly about worshipping God and mimicking the atmosphere of Heaven. It tries to be the kind of music that would be fitting to play before God’s Throne, in His honor and as a prayer to Him. It’s music that’s deeper than what we normally hear, different in style from secular music as well as in content.
What we normally hear at Mass is devotional music, which is primarily designed to whip up the devotional feelings of the faithful. It’s appropriate for devotional music to mimick the sound of secular music, because it is an outside of Mass thing and is designed to be more for the benefit of the faithful than as a gift to God. It’s like going to a prayer service or saying the Rosary, as opposed to going to Mass.
Sacred music and devotional music should both be part of a Catholic’s music life, but ideally both would be in their proper place. Our ancestors did a lot of other Catholic stuff besides Mass every week with their friends and family. In the old days, the praise band equivalent would probably play uplifting upbeat devotional music for some Confraternity of the Holy Spirit that the young people attended club meetings for each week, and there’d be sung Vespers on some nights, and the choir and church orchestra would do sacred music at Sunday Mass, and people would sing folk song hymns during processions through the street on saints’ days and feasts, and dance holy day folk dances in the churchyard after Mass during the festival’s fair; nowadays it all gets jammed haphazardly into Sunday Mass. It’s very weird.