Yes to your question and Yeah! to your suggestion. My first one would be instead of Hosea, I go for Attende Domine (Draw Near, O Lord). Instead of Pan de Vida, I would use Draw Near and Take the Body of Your Lord.
“Spanish Eyes” is right up there with “Danny Boy” for weddings.One of the mariachi bands played at a wedding I was helping at and one of the songs they chose was “Spanish Eyes” for the preparation and incense of the gifts (and the couple). The priest sent the wedding coordinator up to the choir loft to tell them to stop.
Pastoral does not include using secular music at the Mass. This is something that Church is very much against. Read Pope Benedicts books and documents on the liturgy for clarification. I hope that you were being facetious.“Spanish Eyes” is right up there with “Danny Boy” for weddings.
You’re such a Grinch! Aren’t we supposed to be “pastoral” and “inviting”? Who do you think you are to tell people that their favorite song doesn’t belong at a wedding?
A beloved priest in the next parish won kudos from dozens of people for allowing the mentally ill granddaughter sing something from *Les Miserables *at the grandmother’s funeral.
I used to go to daily Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel shrine in Italian Harlem. There is a large Mexican congregation there. For Advent and OL of Guadalupe, they set up a shrine consisting of three large (all different) images of Our Lady of Guadalpe IN THE SANCTUARY, surrounded by a plastic tinsel garland with colored lights that flashed on and off in sync with Christmas carols beeping like a video game. The songs included those two classics of the Gregorian repertoire, We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and “Jingle Bells.” The backdrop for this was a Mexican flag.
When I asked the pastor whether this might have been used as a “teaching opportunity” for the people who set it up, he just said: “Oh, but they had so much fun doing it!”
If I were Mexican, I would find this attitude patronizing and insulting.
Facetious. That’s what the
was for!Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa!Facetious. That’s what the
Betcha can’t top “Jingle Bells” and synchronized flashing lights!Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa!
And just like Emily Dickenson’s poetry, you can do it to “The Yellow Rose of Texas”, too:
My old Baptist Hymnal indexed all the tunes by rythm patterns. One can flip the words between them to their hearts content. Perhaps I will please everyone and work on a chant version of Amazing Grace.
I don’t know about that one, but we can do this one:Can we try that with the words of the theme song of “Gilligan’s Island”? Just to bring it full circle?
Okay, okay! Put the rocks down! I was just kidding!
I was cantoring a funeral once where the family hired a harpist. He played “Time to Say Goodbye” (that duet that Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman sings) and “Danny Boy” along with regular hymns and other absolute music pieces, which were fine. At least he didn’t do those two during the mass and only during the preludes. But the man looked like either a seminarian or a young priest as he wore his “uniform”, so you’d think he’d know better. I’m just a lowly, hired cantor, so I had no say in the matter. My director would be in trouble if he was doing the Largo from Handel’s “Xerxes” or something from Purcell’s “Fairy Queen” during a prelude or postlude, which is understandable. He knows better not to and it’s not absolute music. Yet, “Danny Boy” and “Time to Say Goodbye” is fine. Go figure.
I don’t recall ever hearing that one. I’ll try to remember to look it up when I go home.
What I would give to hear Attende Domine come Lent! I found it on the Roma Aeterna web site I linked to in my previous post. I’ve not heard “Draw Near, O Lord”, although the Roma Aeterna has a version called “Hear Our Entreaties, Lord”.
The former rector at our Cathedral once said that if brides knew the real meaning of the Wedding MarchI was cantoring a funeral once where the family hired a harpist and he was playing “Time to Say Goodbye” (that duet that Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman sings) and “Danny Boy” along with regular hymns and other absolute music pieces, which were fine. At least he didn’t do those two during the mass and only during the preludes. My director would be in trouble if he was doing the Largo from Handel’s “Xerxes” or something from Purcell’s “Fairy Queen” during a prelude or postlude, which is understandable. He knows better not to and it’s not absolute music. Yet, “Danny Boy” and “Time to Say Goodbye” is fine. Go figure.
There was also a point when Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Pie Jesu” from his Requiem was very popular. Brides kept asking to have that played at their wedding!!! The music director had to keep explaining why you can’t and wouldn’t want to do a “Pie Jesu” at a wedding. And some of those brides can be very vicious when you disagree with them.
Oh… and he’s gotten all of the Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera requests as well. Oh my goodness!!! My generation seems to not have a clue. Although it has gotten a better. They now have in bold that no secular music is allowed, although you still get the stubborn bride who wants it at their nuptial mass.
they wouldn’t want to have it played during their Nuptial Mass.Only a Shadow is one that gets stuck in my head, but I can’t remember most of the words. And I like We Remember, although it does fit into Mass, the Musical.
Pardon the pun, but it’s amazing how well they work to that tune.Well, it’s like I said in Post #205----the theology is murky. Who are we singing to: God, or mountains and seas?
Hmmm…let’s see…
From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me
We fight our country’s battles on the air, land, and the sea
I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see
First to fight for the right of freedom, and to keep our honor clean
Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved
We are proud to claim the title of United States Marines
How precious did that Grace appear, the hour I first believed
That’s the thing… you were giving your absolute best. Our Cathedral gives their absolute best as well. Like your choir, they weren’t Tallis Scholars or the Oxford Camerata, but in many ways, that choir and I’m certain yours as well, put much more emphasis on the sacred and spiritual aspects of it which can be much more moving than a cold, but practically perfect rendition with no real understanding of the sacred. I’ve found that to be the case in church choirs - professional and volunteer. They can’t help if the composition, itself, is garbage, but they do put a lot of spiritual love into their singing of it. And the most inspirational and beautiful of motets have a little something extra. Now, if the "performance of it ends up being a “dog’s breakfast”, that’s one thing. But a good choir director knows how to pull the best from his/her choir members despite levels of ability and they also know not to perform something which would end up being a dog’s breakfast until it is up to par.
I don’t like We Remember because it gives a Protestant view of the Eucharist, by relegating to a symbol. That’s what happens when Protestants like Marty Haugen start writing music for the Mass. Instead of We Remember, I would rather use “At That First Eucharist.” In fact, we had that as the entrance hymn for both Holy Thursday and the Solemnity of Corpus Christi when I used to plan liturgies.
Have you ever seen Enter Laughing? There’s a scene where a novice actor is at his first audition. He bounds onto the stage and says, “Enter Lauging!” which of course is the stage direction. I love that.My Mom once heard a priest say during his homily: “… and that’s what we strive to do here at name of parish.”
The radio station I listen to played an album of Christmas Carols to House of the Rising Sun. O Little Town of Bethlehem was especially good.Try the lyrics from “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “The House of the Rising Sun.”
