Sunday Mass without music / singing

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I would like to clarify the meanings in religious contexts.
We did not “move” the Sabbath as some claim. It is a different thing but a somewhat similar observance.
 
bonifacy said:
the person (like myself) who cringes at the prospect of having to tolerate yet another obnoxiously loud and repetitively hymn-inundated Sunday Mass.
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BartholomewB said:
No, you are wrong. The “hate” is entirely in your imagination.
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Just reacting to the OP’s own words. “Cringes,” “tolerate” and “obnoxiously” say “hate” to me. You want to split hairs and play semantic word games, that’s on you. For the record, I was referring to the OP when I said, “music hater.” Why you got in the middle of that, I don’t know. If you don’t want to get in the line of fire, don’t walk across the range when its hot.
 
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OraLabora said:
That the Church herself allows for differing degrees of solemnity validates what you are saying
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However, there are certain parts of the Mass that are normatively sung/chanted. If one follows the notion of “progressive solemnity”, though, then shouldn’t the Sunday Mass – which has a high degree of import and solemnity in the Church’s liturgical life – normatively include singing and/or chanting? Wouldn’t a “low Mass” (which no longer exists, per se, in the OF) be in contradiction to what should be the norm?
 
So Mass without music is low Mass? I’m newly Catholic. I love the responsorial Psalms, and hymns, not so much the ones about earth. I wish we would use our organ, but we have piano and various other instruments which I don’t care for for the most part. (Flute too close to the mic) I’m old school when it comes to music. W
 
I play the organ and occasionally sing (when we sing something a capella).

Nowadays, I am painfully aware of when our little group of singers is “off.” The one thing we have going for us, however, is that we are obedient to our pastor – our mass includes lots of chant and only the more traditional-sounding hymns.

Our former pastor wondered why the congregation sang loudly at the earlier mass, but didn’t sing much at our mass. I suggested it might be that the people who attended the mass with the more traditional music liked to remain in more silent, prayerful participation of the mass. He agreed. 😄

To be honest, I often cringe at the poor quality of my own playing (I have a music degree in voice, not keyboards), and even when people thank me after mass, I find myself apologizing for my mistakes and thanking them for their generous hearing of my efforts.

To the OP, I would love to be able to attend a Sunday mass without music. When I’m not playing, I find the music at mass so distracting. The silence at daily mass is my favorite thing about it.
 
Generally, in Monastic tradition, only one Sunday Mass, the conventual Mass, was sung. Prior to the Council, each monk-priest said his own low Mass. In today’s context, there is often a spoken Mass as I noted above, for the benefit of monks tied up with necessary tasks during the day.

It doesn’t stretch credibility too much to suppose that a parish with sufficient resources can offer a quicker spoken Mass early on Sunday morning for the benefit of workers who have to start their shift on a Sunday morning such as policemen, health care workers and those unfortunate enough to need to work on Sunday to provide for their families.

The progressive solemnity rule is still met by reciting the Gloria and Creed, which are not recited at ferias and memorials. I’ve been to spoken Masses said with great reverence and solemnity in spite of the lack of music.
 
OraLabora said:
It doesn’t stretch credibility too much to suppose that a parish with sufficient resources can offer a quicker spoken Mass early on Sunday morning for the benefit of workers who have to start their shift on a Sunday morning such as policemen, health care workers and those unfortunate enough to need to work on Sunday to provide for their families.
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I wish our parish had a non-music mass on Sundays for those who desire it.

But there is a certain level of “politics” involved – no one wants to tell the 75-year-old Sister who plays at the early morning mass that she’s no longer needed.

And for some reason, everyone seems to think that the later masses absolutely MUST have music. I don’t think any of us who sing/play at the later morning mass would cry ourselves sick over being told there would no longer be music at that mass. We’d just find somewhere else to volunteer our services.
 
Dlee said:
So Mass without music is low Mass? I’m newly Catholic.
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Most Masses are “ordinary form” (abbreviation OF) which refers to the usual Masses following the post-Vatican II form, said in the language of the country you’re in (English for USA and UK for example) and with the priest facing the congregation. The OF does not have any “high Mass” or “low Mass” distinction. So an OF Mass without music is just a Mass without music, not high or low or anything.

“High Mass” and “Low Mass” refer to the pre-Vatican II Latin form of the Mass that was said by the priest in Latin facing away from the congregation. This form is called the “Extraordinary Form” (abbreviation EF) or is sometimes alternatively called Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). It is said less often than the OF and tends to be favored by Traditional Catholics. There are various types of EF Masses, and without getting into too much detail, the “Low Mass” is basically a Mass where the priest reads the parts of the rubrics assigned to him, and doesn’t chant them. A “High Mass” is a Mass where the priest would sing those parts of the rubrics.
 
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OraLabora said:
It doesn’t stretch credibility too much to suppose that a parish with sufficient resources can offer a quicker spoken Mass early on Sunday morning for the benefit of workers who have to start their shift on a Sunday morning such as policemen, health care workers and those unfortunate enough to need to work on Sunday to provide for their families.
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Prior to the council, since no anticipated Mass was possible, such a Mass was somewhat necessary. Today, however, Mass is offered both the evening prior and on Sunday evening; and these would seem to meet the need you mention here.
 
Gorgias said:
Today, however, Mass is offered both the evening prior and on Sunday evening; and these would seem to meet the need you mention here.
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Many churches do not offer Sunday evening Mass, and quite a few do not offer either the Saturday evening vigil or the Sunday evening Mass. It depends largely on the congregation’s size, needs, preferences, and the availability of the priest. Lately I’ve noticed that the Sunday evening Masses often seem to be the “youth Mass” and have the youth music group and/or Lifeteen or similar activities connected with them.

I’ve seen quite a few very early Sunday morning Masses (like 7 am and 8 am) with no music. I’m not sure if any shift workers attend, but I know a lot of people who just like to wake up early and get their Mass obligation taken care of quickly so they can get on with their day.
 
Not apropos of this discussion, but a funny quip related to this discussion, and this is meant purely in jest.

“If you have a great voice, sing in Church to thank God for that gift. If you have a lousy voice, sing in Church to get revenge!”
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Many churches do not offer Sunday evening Mass, and quite a few do not offer either the Saturday evening vigil or the Sunday evening Mass.
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Right. I’m not saying that every parish offers Sunday evening… but it strains credibility to suggest that there are areas (not parishes!) that have no Mass offerings on Saturday evenings. @OraLabora’s assertions hold in the context of the pre-Vatican II Church, but not today… 🤷‍♂️
 
FWIW, in the 15 or so parishes that I have been a music minister in over the last 40 years, the Saturday Vigils and the Sunday evening Masses are most likely to be “folk ensemble” Masses and/or “Life Teen” Masses, which of course have music. That is not true at every parish, but I have found it to be a trend.
 
The early morning Masses are well liked by overnight shift workers like myself. It means I can get my attendance in and then go home and go to bed, rather than having to either stay up past when I would be going to sleep or get up early for the Saturday Mass (which is generally no later than 5pm around here).
 
Yeah, people hate us musicians.
I don’t care anymore.
I do a good job and I work very hard.
My pastor loves the Music in our parish and is very good to the musicians and singers.
 
Just so you know - music in Mass is a topic of endless arguments among Catholics, and really none of it actually affects anything that important. It’s still Mass no matter what you sing or don’t sing.
 
When I was young I loved attending high mass because of the beautiful music of the choir and organ. Today we are told that the whole congregation must sing. I have a terrible singing voice and feel it would be better if I just keep silent and appreciate others joyful voices.
 
I would like to thank everyone who voiced their opinion and/or commented upon this subject. It is evident to me that liturgical music during Mass can be a rather sensitive matter for some, and well it should be as it has a strong bearing on one’s emotions.

Just to bring the issue back into focus, I would like to point out one fundamental principle that many people seem to be overlooking. That principle is the individual’s right (at least the theoretical right in the free world) to live their life without the imposition of someone else’s environmental preferences upon them. It has taken a long time (too long) for our society to recognize a person’s right to breath clean air without the pollution of someone else’s second-hand smoke. In the same vein, it should be apparent that the introduction of any specific liturgical music into the context of the Mass would only be fair to the congregation with their assent. In view of the fact that a certain portion of that congregation (however large or small it might be) objects to being subjected to it (though OBLIGATED to attend on Saturday evening/Sunday), the obvious answer to the problem is to provide the option to attend a Mass without liturgical music. Like cigarette smoke, music is the foreign element that is being imposed - silence is neutral, and shouldn’t be offensive to anyone!

Once again, I wish to thank you all for commenting on this issue and, of course, please continue to contribute to the discussion if you wish. For my part, I will continue to push for what I see as the fair resolution in our own Parish: namely, for the option of attending the weekend Mass without liturgical music. CK
 
Thank you for the suggestion, but we live in a small town. We have one weekend Mass on Saturday evening and one on Sunday morning. The only reasonable solution in this case would be for our Priest to conduct the Saturday evening Mass without music … which unfortunately, to date, he is unwilling to do. CK
 
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