There really is a “Missa Hilarious”:
amazon.com/Portrait-P-D-Q-Bach-Harris-Poor/dp/B000000ELL/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1213444915&sr=1-1
This may be funny but I would never expect to sing it in church - well maybe if we had the medieval Feast of Fools still extant. (I’m posting this to show that all of us “serious types” are not as serious as we seem).
Sorry, Cat. I have to disagree. (But you knew that
). Music is not simply a tool for evangelization. We have 1500 years of musical tradition behind us and there are folks who are composing music that fits in that 1500 year tradition.
My sons are now 26 and 23 and they grew up with Daddy not only singing in the choir but singing along with the CDs at home. Both have an appreciation for chant. My oldest has taken it a step further and has started to learn Latin on his own. If we keep feeding our teens a diet of secular music with religious overtones, will we not reap what we have sown?
PS - Over the last twenty-five years that I have sung in the choir, we always have teenagers from the congregation in our midst.
The idea that all teenagers are enthralled with “Life Teen” Masses is greatly exaggerated.
Boldface mine–I agree with this statement. But at the same time, the idea that all teenagers dislike Life Teen Mass and prefer chant and classical music is also greatly exaggerated.
Teenagers are individuals and they vary in their backgrounds and preferences just as adults do.
When my girls were teenagers in the late 1990s-2004, they preferred country music and Broadway, and my younger daughter loved opera. But they also liked the pop (dance) music on the radio, classical, and most church hymns, traditional and modern.
For them, what was most important about church music is the people singing/playing it. If those people were kind and loving Christians, they liked the music. But if the person singing was nasty and unkind and a poor testimony to Christ, it didn’t matter what the song was–they disliked the music.
I tend to be the same way–to me music does not stand alone. The song and the singer(s) and player(s) are one, just like a married couple is one. This is one reason I usually dislike listening to “stars” of Christian music (including Catholic music)–I don’t know them from Adam, and I have a hard time listening to their music when I don’t know if they really live the song that they are singing. I prefer knowing my musicians personally.
For example, to me, listening to Elvis sing gospel music is something I really can’t do easily. I don’t think he was evil. I believe that he was a Christian man who struggled and failed in many areas, just as I do. I can’t judge him. But I really don’t enjoy listening to music by him.
OTOH, listening to music by some of the people who cantor when I play is a delight because I know what kind of people they are in real life. They are singing about something that is real to them.
And here is a link to one Catholic musician that I know personally and love very much:
paulasentovich.com/
Paula was one of the first people my husband and I met when we started attending a Catholic church before we converted. She is a delightful person, as is her husband, and her children. I would highly recommend this musician and her CDs. Very gentle music, but a great testimony to Christ.
It might surprise many of you who read my posts that I never listen to the radio, except talk radio and EWTN, but only rarely. I will turn the radio on when the weather looks threatening.
And I have only bought two CDs in the last…ten years? (Taylor Hicks and Elliot Yamin–two American Idol contestants that I really liked).
My husband is always amazed that I have never heard of most of the rock musicians that he enjoys listening to, even those who are supposedly “legendary.” I know who Sting is because he was on a “library” poster about reading more. That’s about it.
