The Power of Music

  • Thread starter Thread starter EmmaSowl
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
PetraG said:
It is very different than playing piano, because pipe organ is an on/off wind instrument and piano (although it has strings) has the characteristics of a percussion instrument. The finger movements that have to be mastered are quite different. The smooth playing needed to play sacred music on an organ is (I think) much more demanding than the kind of playing that works to play rock music or music at the ballpark on an organ.
Click to expand...
As someone who has only played guitar and piano (both badly at best - now, not a lick), this interests me.

My first church choir director played an organ with a lot of pedals. A lot. But I’d be surprised if it was an actual pipe organ. Then again, I don’t know - it certainly had more than three. Gimme a little run-down on organs, if you’re in the mood. I’m interested.

He worked so hard with those pedals! (Much harder than any Director of Liturgy I’ve known). Lol, maybe that’s why he was so skinny. Perhaps the parish didn’t pay him like a DL because they were providing him with a free gym membership. ;p

After all, it couldn’t be that anyone would value a secular degree over dedicated Christian toil…
 
snarflemike said:
I’m clearly not suggesting that this music constitute 100% of every Mass, but why is the music I have heard in decades of Masses about 5% of the first 1600 years of the life of the Church, and 95% of the past 65 years? This is exactly the “chronological snobbery that CS Lewis so justly condemned.
Click to expand...
1,000,000 likes!!!

How do you make applause emojis?!!
 
snarflemike said:
Our pastor invited my wife, a chant expert, to speak to the music ministers about the teachings of Vatican II regarding sacred music. One woman, in her 80s, burst out, “So they want to take the Church back 5000 years!”

Not making that up.
Click to expand...
Believe it without hesitation.
 
Peeps said:
Some of their writings, especially those in the first three centuries, read just like this thread! Words like “Vulgar” and “Entertainment” keep showing up these writings
Click to expand...
Did anyone in this thread say “vulgar”?
Peeps said:
longings for a return to the way Mass was in some earlier time.
Click to expand...
And in these eras, who was more nearly following Christ - those who wanted to obey the bishops in union with Rome or those who did not?
Peeps said:
“hired musicians” who were responsible for the worship music!
Click to expand...
Did anyone here suggest the laborer was not worth his pay?
Peeps said:
One author that has written a very interesting book on the music history of the Church
Click to expand...
What author and is he greater in authority than the bishops in union with Rome?
 
I listen to chant from YouTube when I need to calm down. I’ve never read the comments before. Thank you. Some teared me up.

Also, please gimme a polyphony for dummies summary. I’ve near looked into it. I don’t think I’ve heard it.
 
EmmaSowl said:
Excuse me, but it’s not up to music ministry to decide the style. It’s up to the bishops
Click to expand...
In my parish, the priest will allow those playing to decide, with occasional guidance. The Church operates on subsidiarity.
 
PetraG said:
This was a Catholic’s idea of sacred music? Words fail…
Click to expand...
Ack, you’re the second person to summon my need to post my own lyrics - this time, to Imagine:

Imagine Schmagine

Imagine there’s no heaven, but remember just one thing -
Imagining stuff in your head does not reality bring.
Imagine all the people stopped imagining - and searched for the truth.

Imag’ne there’s no countries, and then when you are able,
Please tell the rest of us exactly why that’s desirable,
Imagine all the people shunning simplistic thought.

You may say I’m a realist, but I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you’ll join us, and we’ll actually get something done.

Imagine no possessions, but before you do,
Ponder this well-known fact - John Lennon had millions of buckeroos.
Imagine all the people thinking silly ideas through.

You may say I’m no dreamer, and I thank the Lord for that.
If dreaming means preaching without any wisdom, I’ll leave that to college professors and entertainment brats.

(Trust me, I can make the last line work).

Tired. Couldn’t finish reading the thread. Learning a lot. Hope to soon learn more about organs and polyphony.
 
👏
Just put
two : symbols between the word clap like this
: clap :
but without the spaces.
 
EmmaSowl said:
Also, please gimme a polyphony for dummies summary. I’ve near looked into it. I don’t think I’ve heard it.
Click to expand...
It is music in 3 or more parts (at least, I’ve never heard of 2-part polyphony), where each part (sung by one or more singers) tracks with the other parts more or less closely, but not in lockstep.

Here’s one piece. You can see the voices are singing the same text, but not at the same time.


Here is another piece where the parts track more closely than the above, but again not in lockstep.

 
Alchopwn said:
Music is the language of emotion, and as such I don’t like music as I don’t like being emotionally manipulated by people I don’t know.
Click to expand...
But surely one can be manipulated by language and images also. Do you dislike those as well?
 
This an interesting post, isn’t it?
It’s one of the points in favor of Gregorian chant, that it is not emotionally manipulative. It’s one of the reasons that musically educated people do not like the Broadway-style songs at church, because they sound “cheap” and emotionally manipulative.
 
One can only be manipulated if they allow it, or if they don’t recognized it.
 
Loud-living-dogma said:
It’s one of the reasons that musically educated people do not like the Broadway-style songs at church, because they sound “cheap” and emotionally manipulative.
Click to expand...
I am musically educated, and I enjoy all different kinds of music at Mass or in the church setting.
 
Sorry - - I should have said “some” musically educated people, or actually I suppose I mean “some people who are educated in liturgical Catholic music”.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top