Music during Communion

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returning:
Lately, my church has begun to play Gregorian chants at a low volume. I have found it to be less distracting than some of the up-tempo music that the musical director was fond of playing.
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I’ll have to find the refference, but recorded music is actually not permitted during Mass. Everything is supposed to be live and real. Even the plants in the church must be real, not fake.
 
Well, the organist could learn to play Gregorian chant, and the choir could learn to sing it. . .
 
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SMHW:
The idea that the Communion song should foster community is promulgated in Music In Catholic Worship.
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    And yes… I know that a lot of folks here don’t think much of Music in Catholic Worship* but it remains the primary teaching on music in many dioceses in the United States. It’s the teaching that many of today’s bishops probably learned in seminary.
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Yes it is sad but true, that it is so used considering it is not even a valid document of instruction according to those who study Canon Law. It’s no wonder that Communion hymns used here as a result are so poor in theology and non-related to the liturgy.

This is one reason why we pray…

Joe B
 
Michael Welter:
I’m with you, MaryAgnes. I love to sing worship to my Lord, especially after receiving Him. When He enters me, my heart sings. I love Him SO MUCH, and can’t NOT sing.
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The same goes for me!
~ Kathy ~
 
D Quintero:
We are a Spanish choir, so we usually sing songs like “El pan de la Vida”.
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The Communion hymn at the Mass I attended this afternoon was the English translation of “El pan de la Vida.” I thought it was lovely.
 
I like a compromise–one short communion hymn followed by silence. As it is now, we cram as much noise into every minute of it. So much so that if we complete all the hymns the piano man plays soft reprises of them. I don’t understand this modern obsession with making sure no space is racket-free.

Scott
 
Communion is one time I **don’t ** want to sing. Our chuch announces a communion hymn, but I don’t sing it. I’m already kneeling, and messing with the hymnal, etc, is just too distracting. That’s the perfect time for some quiet organ music, or some Palestrina from the choir.

DaveBj
 
We only sing about three different songs so after a few months the Ritual Song book does not have to be taken out. I wish everybody would sing or stop it. It no wonder cafeteria catholics have no problem with that when at Mass its do as you please. It really does confuse those new to the Church I must tell you.
 
Michael Welter:
I’ll have to find the refference, but recorded music is actually not permitted during Mass. Everything is supposed to be live and real. Even the plants in the church must be real, not fake.
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I’d love to find the source on this one. Our church occasionally plays recorded contemporary christian music during communion - accompanied by video and lyrics projected on a big screen. And, yes, they even have fake trees.
 
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spanky:
I’d love to find the source on this one. Our church occasionally plays recorded contemporary christian music during communion - accompanied by video and lyrics projected on a big screen. And, yes, they even have fake trees.
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While traveling, my wife and I visited a church in central Pennsylvania that had exposed earth off to one side of the altar with a stream running from outside the church into a small pool (beside the altar) and a live tree growing beside the pool.

We thought it was a bit strange, but I have no idea whether there’s a problem with it.
 
I love to sing. All of the time… In fact, I wish that someone would, occasionally do an entire sung liturgy.

My wife and I thought of doing that for our wedding, but we didn’t want to torture the rather elderly priest who was our pastor at the time.
 
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tmn379:
While traveling, my wife and I visited a church in central Pennsylvania that had exposed earth off to one side of the altar with a stream running from outside the church into a small pool (beside the altar) and a live tree growing beside the pool.

We thought it was a bit strange, but I have no idea whether there’s a problem with it.
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Wow! That sounds beautiful. I don’t see any problem with it. I like the idea.
 
I checked with my former pastor regarding the recorded music at Mass, and documentation. Here is his response:
like all Church Documents there is wiggle room, but the most clear statement is in “Liturgical Music Today” (1982, Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy) paragraphs 60-62:
60 The liturgy is a complexus of signs expressed by living human beings. Music, being preeminent among those signs, ought to be “live”. While recorded music, therefore, might be used to advantage outside the liturgy as an aid in the teaching of new music, it should, as a general norm, never be used within the liturgy to replace the congregation, the choir, the organist or other instruments.
61 Some exceptions to this principle should be noted, however,. Recorded music may be used to accompany the community’s song during a procession out-of-doors and, when used carefully, in Masses with children. Occasionally it might be used as an aid to prayer, for example, during long periods of silence in a communal celebration of reconciliation. It may never become a substitute for the community’s song, however, as in the case of the responsorial psalm after a reading from Scripture or during the optional hymn of praise after communion.
62 A prerecorded soundtrack is sometimes used as a feature of contemporary “electronic music” composition.When combined with live voices and/or instruments, it is an integral part of the performance and, therefore, is a legitimate use of prerecorded music.
(Taken from “The Liturgy Documents - a parish resource” (LTP Chicago, 1985).
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Thank you Michael. Now, what to do with this information? Show it to our parish music coordinator? Our priest? Bishop? Don’t know if I can muster up the courage…
 
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