Jim, I agree that the article is pretty negative. l honestly did not read much beyond this:
"You might almost forget that we are speaking here of the simple, well-worn, and recognizably popular melodies, written in that pseudo-folk style of the period, that have achieved ubiquity in millions of parishes, and can be (and usually is) sung and played by people (usually on guitar) with little or no formal training in music. I am speaking here of such Catholic favorites as “Be Not Afraid,” “Here I Am Lord,” “City of God,” “Sing A New Song,” “Come to the Water,” “For You Are My God,” “Yahweh, I Know You Are Near,” “Though the Mountains May Fall,” “Glory and Praise to Our God,” “Only This I Want,” and “One Bread, One Body.”
There is the answer to the question. Their music is popular with people because it is for people with little or no musical training. It is music for the majority of people, not just for music scholars or concert organists or singers. There is something wrong with people putting down music that most people accept and love, as evidenced by its popularity in “millions of parishes.” Go to a classical music concert if you want to hear choirs singing “non-singalong-able” by the parishioners music. People come to mass to participate, not be entertained by songs they cannot sing.
That is why the St. Louis Jesuit music is still popular, because they are “simple, well worn and recognizably popular melodies.”
