Music Selections for Wedding within Mass

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Yes. You’re absolutely right as far as you’re going. But. We use “hymn” nowadays to refer to music + lyrics. Strictly speaking, it’s actually the lyrics that are the “hymn,” and they are attached to a tune. Many of the tunes in our hymnals are attached to more than one set of lyrics. The tunes in our hymnals are often much older than the lyrics to which they’re attached. And vice versa, really.

On the pages of most hymnals, you’ll see, usually in the small type, a word or small phrase in small capital letters, such as ODE TO JOY. That’s the name of the tune. In this case, the tune ODE TO JOY is from the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (you’ll recognize the tune at 3:00. It starts in the voices with the bass soloist at 7:22). In our hymnals, it is almost always attached to a set of lyrics + tune also titled “Ode to Joy” or “Joyful Joyful,” and that’s usually some sort of translation of the lyrics in the symphony. Those lyrics are a hymn to God. But the tune ODE TO JOY is also attached to unrelated lyrics in our hymals.

I was talking about the tune. I know that the Wagner (tune) is almost never allowed in Catholic churches because it comes from an opera, and specifically it’s part of a scene that includes the groom dragging the unwilling bride back down the aisle by her hair. I think he might kill her after that? Not sure, but not an appropriate association for a sacrament. I was wondering what sort of association is attributed to the ODE TO JOY tune that meant it would be forbidden, since it comes from a perfectly respectable source.
 
MrsAngelala said:
I know that the Wagner (tune) is almost never allowed in Catholic churches because it comes from an opera, and specifically it’s part of a scene that includes the groom dragging the unwilling bride back down the aisle by her hair.
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I’d like to know when this “almost never allowed” started, because I came from a family that had a bunch of Catholic church weddings for my many Catholic cousins, and every single one of them had “Here Comes the Bride”. They also all had Masses too so it wasn’t a case of not including the Mass.

I can only remember one Catholic wedding out of about 10 that I attended during the 1970s where the bride came down the aisle to something else (Purcell’s “Trumpet Voluntary”).

I had “Here Comes the Bride” myself at my own Catholic church Nuptial Mass wedding in the early 90s.
 
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You’re kidding, right?
No secular music in any Mass.
It would be fine for the reception.
 
TheLittleLady said:
We purchased new hymnals a couple years ago, “Joyful Joyful” is in all we reviewed.
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I checked our hymnal, the Catholic Book of Worship III, this morning. We have 4 hymn in it set to Ode to Joy (or Hymn of Joy as it’s called in the CBWII): Sing with All the Saints in Glory; Joyful, Joyful We Adore You; God the Spirit, Guide and Guardian (Carl P. Daw Jr. ©1989); and God Created Earth and Heaven (Sister Katherine McCaffrey, RSCJ)
 
There are good answers to what you’ve said here. Unfortunately, I don’t understand where your hostility came from, and once an online conversation takes that turn, there’s little likelihood of redeeming it. Muting. Best wishes.
 
Since this person has muted, I’m not sure why she read my posts as “hostile”. It seems like any sort of disagreement is taken as “hostile” on here any more, but whatever. I think I’ll mute as well since it seems to me this entire business is parish-specific as to what a particular pastor thinks is okay for his flock.
Therefore, whatever we think means pretty much nothing.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
I’d like to know when this “almost never allowed” started,
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It’s secular music, not sacred music— so, always. Secular music has never been allowed in the liturgy.

That said, in places where pastors are ignorant of the music selections and their secular vs sacred origins, where musicians are not trained in the liturgy, or where a particular priest chooses to ignore rubrics even when aware of them— you get people who, like you, have seen it or other music used.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
it seems to me this entire business is parish-specific as to what a particular pastor thinks is okay for his flock.
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Actually, no there are rubrics that apply to everyone, everywhere. Some are ignorant of them, some choose to violate them. In many cases it is ignorance and not intentional.

But no, secular music in the liturgy is not up to the pastor or a local decision.
 
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