Music in the Catholic Church

[joeysk8er98]

I sing and play bass guitar at my parish. As a choir member, my ministry is basically to help draw people into the liturgy of the mass. My choir plays traditional music and has been moving away from using praise and worship songs.

Basically, the music being played has to fit the theme of the mass. We cannot just pick a song just because we like it. Many people at our parish however, want us to play more upbeat songs.

My goal in my ministry to help draw people into the spirit of the liturgy. It is very important that people have their attention on the liturgy than the music. Music that is used during mass can be very helpful but it should never be the focal point. Jesus should be at the center of attention at all times of the mass.

 

[O.S.Luke]

Before I was ordained (I am United Methodist), I was an organist and musician in Catholic and Protestant Churches alike. Some observations:

1. Singing in Latin (at least, singing it correctly) takes training - training that most volunteer choirs do not have. And it is becoming a lost art - the teachers/choral directors that can teach singing in Latin are decreasing.
2. Latin as a language taught (again, having it taught WELL) is also dying. It used to be that some kids would take it in school, but with foreign language requirements now, you can’t always take Latin as an elective when you have to have a modern foreign language as a basic educational requirement.
3. Pipe organs are almost cost prohibitive these days. Fortunately, electronics and amplification are catching up. I have noticed in European cathedrals that they are going this way too. To replace some of those organs would cost over $1 million American. Maintenance/tuning isn’t getting any cheaper either.
4. I don’t want this to sound judgmental, but Catholics are notoriously cheap when it comes to paying musicians. If you want good music, you’ve got to pay for the staffing to have it. When I was a musician, most Protestant churches would pay 50% to 100% more for the same positions. Episcopalian churches have a lot of Catholic organists.
5. Organists are a dying breed. There are Protestant churches willing to pay good money for accomplished AGO organists/choir masters, but simply can’t find them. Music conservatories have fewer and fewer organist students. I still occasionally get asked if I will play for weddings, funerals, high masses, etc. (I don’t).

I personally like chant/plainsong, traditional music (which as someone said earlier was once modern music), organ voluntaries, etc. I remember my religious order went to a monastery for a week and joined the monks for the daily offices. Most of us knew all of the chant settings. 20 of us joined about a dozen very old monks. I think the monk sitting next to be about had a heart attack when we first started singing, and then his face began to glow. When we finished morning prayer, he turned to me, grabbed my hand, and in a lapse of his vow of silence, said, “Thank you.”

Augustine said that when we sing we pray twice. I suspect it matters not whether we sing in Latin, Greek, or English. The Psalms were originally sung in Hebrew. I suspect God understands, regardless of language… and smiles, too.

O+

 

[brotherhrolf]

O. S. Luke: Just a few personal observations. I’ve sung in our cathedral choir for 25 years. Our organist/choir director and four section leaders are paid. All the rest of us are volunteers. A significant number of us are over 55 and grew up singing Latin. We, in turn, are teaching our younger members pronunciation, etc.

We were one of the first cathedrals to be renovated immediately after Vatican II. Out went the existing pipe organ and out went the choir loft. We had a state-of-the-art electronic organ which shorted out and caught on fire in the middle of a choir member’s wedding in 1987. For the next five years we used the organist’s wooden portativ organ, a harpsichord, and finally a baby grand.

In 1992 we dedicated our new pipe organ (a Reuter) and our new choir loft. (The more things change, the more they remain the same). Fifteen years later we are still overjoyed with both pipe organ and choir loft.

There are three other parishes in our diocese with choirs similar to ours (we join together for major diocesan events). They’re volunteers too. But your point about $$$ in the Catholic Church is well taken. My choir is fortunate that we have wealthy patrons who gift us - allowing us to buy music, and to pay for musicians for our concerts. We also have LSU’s School of Music and many of their voice majors are Catholic and sing with us the four years they are in school.

But I have to say that I sang plainsong chant in Latin as a child. Could I pick up a Liber Usualis and sing chant in chant notation? No. But I can sing the “warhorses” of the liturgical year (e.g. Pange Lingua; Ave Verum Corpus; Ave Maria) and such chants are easily learned - even by kids.

It can be done but there needs to be a will to do it. Sadly, it is that lack of will that reduces the majority of our parishes to OCP music.

 

[redshock]

I stopped attending protestant churches because first, I wanted to be entertained. The music did that. I attend mass now as a protestant and I’m finally entertaining my Lord.

 

[catherineajt]

I much prefer the music at my Byzantine Catholic Church—no sweeping fancy hymns with a piano or guitar (or, as I was horrified to see at a “youth Mass”, an electric guitar and synthesizer–ugh!). We don’t even have a choir; if we’re lucky, our cantor is there and leads us in the chanted prayers that run throughout the Divine Liturgy. If she isn’t, we do our best to pray to God in pleasing tones.

I’m not at church for a Broadway show or to be entertained by lovely music; I’m there to worship God.

 

[redshock]

We shouldn’t have a mindset that we can’t glorify God with guitars and drums. In fact, people praised God in the bible with several instruments. Sometimes we get the impression that a particular church’s worship service sounds like a concert, but that’s not true in all cases. I was a worship band leader before and we kept the focus on Christ, not the “audience.” We kept it with only acoustic guitars, drums, bongos, kept it organic and easy to sing along with, and a lot of times I felt like people were much more in a prayerful state than what I usually see today with just an organ. Personally, I feel that people don’t want to express emotion or do more than what’s required every Sunday. But, in accordance to each Church’s way of handling worship, may God continue to use those with musical talents so people can come together in worship and in song.

 

[catherineajt]

We shouldn’t have a mindset that we can’t glorify God with guitars and drums. In fact, people praised God in the bible with several instruments. Sometimes we get the impression that a particular church’s worship service sounds like a concert, but that’s not true in all cases. I was a worship band leader before and we kept the focus on Christ, not the “audience.” We kept it with only acoustic guitars, drums, bongos, kept it organic and easy to sing along with, and a lot of times I felt like people were much more in a prayerful state than what I see today with just an organ. May God continue to use those with musical talents so people can come together in worship and in song.

If instruments help people praise God and put them in a prayerful mindset, that’s great. Personally, I find them distracting and prefer to focus on praying in the Ruthenian chant. When there are instruments, it’s easy to get lost in the music and not the words.

 

[redshock]

It’s hard to fit everyone’s taste, yes Personally, I find the organs a tradition which is great, but there’s a tug on me that’s making me wonder, 1) do i want to be entertained, 2) do i want to entertain God with worship. I pick #2, but with the organ I want some of #1 too to fit the big burst of worship that’s trying to come out of me. It’s hard to do that with an organ sometimes.

 

[benedictgal]

We shouldn’t have a mindset that we can’t glorify God with guitars and drums. In fact, people praised God in the bible with several instruments. Sometimes we get the impression that a particular church’s worship service sounds like a concert, but that’s not true in all cases. I was a worship band leader before and we kept the focus on Christ, not the “audience.” We kept it with only acoustic guitars, drums, bongos, kept it organic and easy to sing along with, and a lot of times I felt like people were much more in a prayerful state than what I usually see today with just an organ. Personally, I feel that people don’t want to express emotion or do more than what’s required every Sunday. But, in accordance to each Church’s way of handling worship, may God continue to use those with musical talents so people can come together in worship and in song.

However, the argument you made in your first sentence has been used by those encouraging liturgical dance. They claim, "after all, David was dancing before God (ignoring the fact that he wore little else than a linen apron). I would encourage you to read Pope Benedict’s book, The Spirit of the Liturgy, where he addressed the type of music you seem to be advocating. He writes:

there are two developments in music itself that have their origins primarily in the West but that for a long time have affected the whole of mankind in the world culture that is being formed. Modern so-called “classical” music has maneuvered itself, with some exceptions, into an elitist ghetto, which only specialists may enter – and even they do so with what may sometimes be mixed feelings. The music of the masses has broken loose from this and treads a very different path.

On the one hand, there is pop music, which is certainly no longer supported by the people in the ancient sense (populus). It is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as a cult of the banal. “Rock”, on the other hand, is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe. The music of the Holy Spirit’s sober inebriation seems to have little chance when self has become a prison, the mind is a shackle, and breaking out from both appears as a true promise of redemption that can be tasted at least for a few moments.

He further writes:

On the one hand, there is the music that Plato ascribes, in line with mythology, to Apollo, the god of light and reason. This is the music that draws senses into spirit and so brings man to wholeness. It does not abolish the senses, but inserts them into the unity of this creature that is man. It elevates the spirit precisely by wedding it to the senses, and it elevates the senses by uniting them with the spirit. Thus this kind of music is an expression of man’s special place in the general structure of being. But then there is the music that Plato ascribes to Marsyas, which we might describe, in terms of cultic history, as “Dionysian”. It drags man into the intoxication of the senses, crushes rationality, and subjects the spirit to the senses. The way Plato (and more moderately, Aristotle) allots instruments and keys to one or other of these two kinds of music is now obsolete and may in many respects surprise us. But the Apollonian/Dionysian alternative runs through the whole history of religion and confronts us again today. Not every kind of music can have a place in Christian worship. It has its standards, and that standard is the Logos. If we want to know whom we are dealing with, the Holy Spirit or the unholy spirit, we have to remember that it is the Holy Spirit who moves us to say, “Jesus is Lord” (I Cor 12:3). The Holy Spirit leads us to the Logos, and He leads us to a music that serves the Logos as a sign of the sursum corda, the lifting up of the human heart. Does it integrate man by drawing him to what is above, or does it cause his disintegration into formless intoxication or mere sensuality? That is the criterion for a music in harmony with logos, a form of that logike latreia (reasonable, logos-worthy worship) of which we spoke in the first part of this book.

I would encourage you to read the book. It may prove to be an ear-opener.

 

[Luigi_Organ]

As a Catholic organist and choir director for over 40 years now, I’ve seen and been subjected to it all. I am exhausted from tying to keep everyone “happy”. Congregations are split. Some want contemporary and some want traditional. Priests are exhausted and bored. Congregations don’t sing no matter what type of music you give them. Choir members want to make the least amount of commitment possible. Our parish of three thousand families can’t get more the six or eight choir members. I have to chair several fund raising events to pay for a soprano and bass in the choir. NOT IN MY CONTRACT to raise my own money. We have a Catholic School that drains us dry and meanwhile none of these kids are at mass on the weekends. Being a Peabody grad means nothing in this particular paish. They hate organ preludes and walk out on postludes talking louder than the organ. They choir does not even stay to listen. Our folk group (under a different director) has members all over 50/60 and they look silly up front. There are no high school or college kids involved and nor do they want to be involved. We have only six members in our bell choir and no matter how hard we try, can’t get any more.
Do you think any of this has anything to do with contemporary music vs. traditional music? I think not. What do you do with priests who want hymns to stop when they reach the front step. What do you do with them when they walk out on the first verse of the closing hymn? How about when they speak within miliseconds after you relase a chord? Our pastor has been there for 20 years now. In my eight years at this parish he has never been in the choir loft or come to a choir rehearsal to say thank you. He does not even know all the names of the few choir members we have. I have nothing but respect for anyone who subjects themselves to working in the Catholic Church under these circumstance with a fulltime salary that will never go over forty thousand if you are one of the lucky ones.

 

[peary]

As a Catholic organist and choir director for over 40 years now, I’ve seen and been subjected to it all. I am exhausted from tying to keep everyone “happy”. Congregations are split. Some want contemporary and some want traditional. Priests are exhausted and bored. Congregations don’t sing no matter what type of music you give them. Choir members want to make the least amount of commitment possible. Our parish of three thousand families can’t get more the six or eight choir members. I have to chair several fund raising events to pay for a soprano and bass in the choir. NOT IN MY CONTRACT to raise my own money. We have a Catholic School that drains us dry and meanwhile none of these kids are at mass on the weekends. Being a Peabody grad means nothing in this particular paish. They hate organ preludes and walk out on postludes talking louder than the organ. They choir does not even stay to listen. Our folk group (under a different director) has members all over 50/60 and they look silly up front. There are no high school or college kids involved and nor do they want to be involved. We have only six members in our bell choir and no matter how hard we try, can’t get any more.
Do you think any of this has anything to do with contemporary music vs. traditional music? I think not. What do you do with priests who want hymns to stop when they reach the front step. What do you do with them when they walk out on the first verse of the closing hymn? How about when they speak within miliseconds after you relase a chord? Our pastor has been there for 20 years now. In my eight years at this parish he has never been in the choir loft or come to a choir rehearsal to say thank you. He does not even know all the names of the few choir members we have. I have nothing but respect for anyone who subjects themselves to working in the Catholic Church under these circumstance with a fulltime salary that will never go over forty thousand if you are one of the lucky ones.

Time to find another parish more to your liking?

 

[Lepanto]

The Decline and Fall of Catholic Music
What can we do to stop the downward inertia?

by Jeffrey Tucker

Comics are rather popular among young people and have been for many decades. But let’s imagine a world in which people never really went beyond them. No novels, no poetry, no non-fiction. Just comics. Maybe not even words. Just pictures.

Who would be surprised when the generation turned out to be illiterate? Let this situation run for three or four generations, and you would suddenly wake up to a world in which no one could really read and, more shockingly, no one could teach people to read either.

At this point, you might expect people to suddenly realize what they have done. A major part of the foundation of civilization had been inadvertently smashed. If we could easily do a before/after analysis, we would be shocked more so than if we live in the midst of transition.

While it is happening, each generation knows less than the previous generation and increasingly there are fewer and fewer people around to even notice that there is a problem. People do not even know what they do not know, nor even that the problem needs to be corrected.

This, I fear, is pretty much what has happened in the area of Catholic music — not entirely, but we have approached that fate and perhaps might be saved from it with massive efforts today.

Full article:
adoremus.org/0408CatholicMusic.html

 

[RCCMusicMan]

Hi there, just joined and couldn’t resist commenting on the music forum.

I truly believe that is perfectly ok to have modern music at Mass provided it is a)fitting to the theme of the liturgy being celebrated and b)does not become ‘showy’ i.e takes the empahasis away from Christ.

Once a month, i lead a music group at our Saturday Vigil Mass and the numbers in church for that service have doubled. I believe this is not because the group is particularly more talented than any others but because we take the time to ensure the music is ‘relevant’ to the day’s Mass and when planning, i actually read the relevant Scripture. Many a time i have thought i had the music ready and planned only for the Bible to send me to another more appropriate piece.

There is nothing worse for me than bad music planning. It is just plain laziness and sadly, i think that this is the main malaise of parishes. There is plenty of quality music suitable for Mass, both trad. and modern but the people in charge (in my part of the world anyway) of it seem to just select from a thematic index at the back of a hymnal and think that’s enough.

Sorry for the rant, incidentally in my parish we have a mixture of chants, hymody and even OCP stuff. I have felt closer to God through some of Matt Maher’s music than in some sacred music of the past. Anyway my point is that Catholics across the world are not all the same (however much some Christians would like us to be) and the music should reflect this fact. The important thing is that it is done with proper reverance and care (eg. i would never dream of doing anything other than reflective at Holy Communion).

Essay over now, i promise

 

[RobbyS]

Hi there, just joined and couldn’t resist commenting on the music forum.

I truly believe that is perfectly ok to have modern music at Mass provided it is a)fitting to the theme of the liturgy being celebrated and b)does not become ‘showy’ i.e takes the empahasis away from Christ.

Once a month, i lead a music group at our Saturday Vigil Mass and the numbers in church for that service have doubled. I believe this is not because the group is particularly more talented than any others but because we take the time to ensure the music is ‘relevant’ to the day’s Mass and when planning, i actually read the relevant Scripture. Many a time i have thought i had the music ready and planned only for the Bible to send me to another more appropriate piece.

There is nothing worse for me than bad music planning. It is just plain laziness and sadly, i think that this is the main malaise of parishes. There is plenty of quality music suitable for Mass, both trad. and modern but the people in charge (in my part of the world anyway) of it seem to just select from a thematic index at the back of a hymnal and think that’s enough.

Sorry for the rant, incidentally in my parish we have a mixture of chants, hymody and even OCP stuff. I have felt closer to God through some of Matt Maher’s music than in some sacred music of the past. Anyway my point is that Catholics across the world are not all the same (however much some Christians would like us to be) and the music should reflect this fact. The important thing is that it is done with proper reverance and care (eg. i would never dream of doing anything other than reflective at Holy Communion).

Essay over now, i promise

 

[RobbyS]

RobbyS:
I agree. I do have one suggestion: pick a good opening hymn and before mass, teach the song to the congregation. Keep repeating it for several weeks. On several occasions I have heard men AND women who have attended ACTS retreats and who sit and sing together at the Sunday Mass. They are surprisingly good. Of course it helps to have someone sing on the key and in time right in your ear. But the main thing is to know the song. As you known, any crowd can do a half-way decent job with “American the Beautiful,” or even the Star Spangled Banner (except the impossible parts). Overseas, the play the national anthem before the start of every movie. On more than one occasion where the sound failed during the playing of it, The troops have picked up amd sung right through the glitches. In onbe case, after three false stops. The projector died, and the men sang the song a capela. Quite moving.

 

[RCCMusicMan]

Thanks for the feedback RobbyS.

Its interesting what you said about starting with a good opening hymn and teaching the congegration beforehand as that’s exactly what i do so is good to know others are doing the same.

I think also the fact that we are at the front of the church but away from the altar helps and of course a PA system. After all i can’t lead people if they can’t hear me lol. I completely agree about the accapella thing. I really believe the musician’s greatest tool is silence. We have in the past sung the Kyrie and on the final recanting of it, have deliberately stopped the music so that only voices carry on. If we time it properly, it can be very effective.

I also think its amazing how receptive parishes can be if people persevere. In my case i have been leading the music for about 16months now, it has taken 12 to get to the stage of having a healthy number of group members, and also for the congregation to become receptive to what we are doing. At one point, there was just me with a microphone and piano (which was a little daunting as im not a pianist). Had i given up at that point which i was sorely tempted to do, we would not be enjoying the blessings that the parish is now receiving (a humble down to earth priest always helps too!!)

Maybe this should be for a different message board but i reckon the opposite of good in the Church is not evil, its apathy.

God Bless

P.S. Not sure star spangled banner would go down too well as im in the UK, mind you its more pleasing to the ear than the UK’s!!!

 

[mariyka]

Nice to see this thread come alive again. As a “swing” Catholic, who attends both Masses and Divine Liturgies, and is grateful for the opportunity to see and take part in the beauty and devotion in both musical traditions, please accept my additional suggestions from this experience:

We parents need to get the the children and teens singing in the congregation. Once they acquire the habit, it’s lifelong.

It would be wonderful for the Missal to have some harmony in the score for the musically adept so they bring some additional depth to the sound. I’ve noticed more people join in, since they can find a pitch they can handle.

There are some “ringers” planted throughout the congregation during Mass, so there is someone nearby to help them carry the tune.

I appreciate both participating in, and listening to, the beautiful hymns.