Weird songs at Mass

[smessner]

We had a youth band sing a selection of contemporary hits of which I only remember Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven”. I was expecting “Stairway to Heaven”

Stairway to Heaven was a popular (instrumental) “Communion meditation” song. Hmm…wonder if I can still play it…

 

[johnnykins]

No one has mentioned: “Kumbaya” How soon we forget, if we’re lucky.

My fav was Crosby Stills Nash and Young’s “Teach Your Children Well” sung at Mass at school. Those Christian Brothers were really hip.

 

[smessner]

No one has mentioned: “Kumbaya” How soon we forget, if we’re lucky.

My fav was Crosby Stills Nash and Young’s “Teach Your Children Well” sung at Mass at school. Those Christian Brothers were really hip.

DUDE!

Did you learn the hand motions that go along with Kumbaya? We learned some that seem to have a vague resemblance to American Sign Language.
What exactly does “Kumbaya” mean? Wasn’t there an updated version that substituted “Come by here”? Any etymologists out there?

One of the earliest Guitar Mass Songs I remember is “God Loves a Cheerful Giver”. It sounded like something you’d sing in a pub. Even as 7th graders, we figured that out. When we started swinging our arms back and forth as if we were holding a pint, the nuns phased out the song. Herewith is the chorus. Yikes. Now I’ll have this song stuck in my head all day.

“God loves a cheerful giver
Give it all you got. (Raise your pint here)
He loves to hear you laughing
When you’re in an awful spot.
When the odds stack up against you
It’s time to stop and sing
Praise God
To praise Him is a joyous thing.”

 

[PatienceAndLove]

“Malo! Malo! Thanks be to God”
“Bwana-Awa-Bureki”

 

[johnnykins]

On a slightly different tack - although great music, I find the adaptations of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from the Chorale and Haydn’s “Austria” out of place. I know I should be glad to hear music written by great composers, but I cannot help thinking how inappropriate. Honestly, whenever the tune for “Austria” is struck up all I can think of is “Deutschland uber alles…” Somehow Nazi anthems just strike me as inappropriate - even if not written for the Nazis.

 

[PatienceAndLove]

“Edelweiss”

 

[smessner]

On a slightly different tack - although great music, I find the adaptations of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” from the Chorale and Haydn’s “Austria” out of place. I know I should be glad to hear music written by great composers, but I cannot help thinking how inappropriate. Honestly, whenever the tune for “Austria” is struck up all I can think of is “Deutschland uber alles…” Somehow Nazi anthems just strike me as inappropriate - even if not written for the Nazis.

Since I don’t know music history as well as I probably should, will you please elaborate on the history of these pieces and why they are inappropriate.

 

[johnnykins]

Since I don’t know music history as well as I probably should, will you please elaborate on the history of these pieces and why they are inappropriate.

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, the Chorale, includes a choral piece that uses Schiller’s Ode to Joy as the text. It is manifestly a secular piece. The music is used for songs sung at Mass. Taking one of the world’s great works and substituting new lyrics simply does not “sanctify” the work - rather it detracts both from the original work and the new use since the piece is so famous that it is, at least in my mind, incapable of separating the profane and the sacred.

“Austria” by Haydn suffers the same fate. Worse, however, is that “Austria” is the tune for the Nazi anthem “Deutschland uber alles” Germany over all. (Whether those were the original words or not, I have not investigated - however, it was certainly adopted by the Nazis.) It would be akin to a Black Baptist Church changing the words to “Dixie” - it’s a great tune, but too identified with the Confederacy and the resistance to the Civil Rights movement to escape its profane antecedents by the simple change of lyrics.

 

[johnnykins]

Don’t get me wrong - the “fine” songs identified in this thread are pure dreck compared to the Ode to Joy, Austria and a number of other works adapted to the Mass. I probably shouldn’t complain.

In any event, I always find those works distracting - and somewhat out of place.

 

[MarthaMartha]

“Austria” is the tune for the Nazi anthem “Deutschland uber alles” Germany over all. (Whether those were the original words or not, I have not investigated - however, it was certainly adopted by the Nazis.)

That is still the German national anthem, but they only sing stanza #3. Stanza #1 is the one that starts “Deutschland uber alles.” Stanza #2 is all about the German women and is too much “wine women and song.” Stanza #3 starts with “Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit” – “Unity and law and freedom.” Read all about it at The German, Austrian, and Swiss National Anthems.

 

[hilde_the_dog]

smessner

sorry my reply lead to a partial highjacking

 

[orrincoolguy]

The priest led us in the Happy Birthday song for St. John the Baptist. It was kind of wierd but when we sang it every small kid at mass that day had big grins on their face. Which made me smile to.

 

[qui_est_ce]

DUDE!

Did you learn the hand motions that go along with Kumbaya? We learned some that seem to have a vague resemblance to American Sign Language.
What exactly does “Kumbaya” mean? Wasn’t there an updated version that substituted “Come by here”? Any etymologists out there?

We sing “Ride on Jesus Ride” every freaking Psalm Sunday. I haven’t figured out yet what Jesus supposedly riding. It sounds a little obscene to me. Maybe it’s the donkey?

How about “He’s got the Whole World in His Hands” WITH the hand gestures!

But those were for the school kids. Never done on Sundays! Now we have “ribbon dancers” prancing barefoot down the aisle on Sundays. (Maybe we ought to sing “Lord of th Dance” for this?

 

[Petergee]

This is my first new thread, so please forgive me if I don’t do it correctly.

A recent thread addressed Liturgical music issues and it started me to think about my own previous Liturgical Violations, or violations that I’ve witnessed.

I was in 7th grade when Guitar Masses came to our parish. Some of the early songs I remember are:

God Loves A Cheerful Giver
The Wind Blows (woo-oo-oo)
Sons of God (can be sung to the accompaniment of “Heart and Soul” on piano)

Oh boy I remember when I first heard “God Loves a Cheerful Giver” etc. as an 11- year old. I loved them, they were the first “groovy” religious songs I’d ever heard really, and so catchy. Another one was “Allelu! Allelu! Ev’rybody sing allelu!”, which lasted a bot longer than the others.

Apparently what killed off these songs was not their musical inappropriateness (hey there are plenty of hymns/songs still played which are even less appropriatate musically and theologically) but the fact that they were too overtly Catholic!
e.g. God Loves a Cheerful Giver tells us that “Christ named him [St Peter] His successor”, and Sons of God has the unforgettable line “Eat His Body, drink His Blood!”. A bit unrefined maybe, but certainly a powerful affirmation of transubstantiation.
There seems to have been an unwritten rule that went out in the 1970s that no-one is allowed to sing anything which a Protestant could not also sing with equal fervour.

And of course there was the unwritten rule that went out in the late 1980s (though some diehards are still resisting this one) that no-one could any longer sing about “men” or “brothers” or “son” or “He”; it’s “all” or “people” or “child” or “God” respectively.

I’ve mentioned this before, but the weirdest “hymn” I’ve ever heard at Mass was at a “Families Mass” on Xmas Eve when we were told to sing “Joy to the World”. No not the traditional Xmas carol, the Three Dog Night hit song with its uplifting lyrics including informing us that “Jeremiah was a bullfrog” and
“You know I love the ladies!
I love to have my fun!
I’m a high night flier and a rainbow rider
And a straight-shooting son of a gun!”

I thought it was an accidental mistake, but the next Xmas they did the same thing. Between that and the families who apparently came to see the “show” bringing enough food and drink to keep consuming it continuously throughout the Mass, I have avoided going to the “Families Mass” since.

 

[smessner]

Remember the pop version of “The Lord’s Prayer”? Some radio stations played it back in the 70’s. Wasn’t it recorded by a nun? We used that a lot at “Youth Masses” back in the day.

A priest friend of mine said a song leader once snuck in Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale”. I’m trying to figure out the liturgical context for that one…

 

[Petergee]

Remember the pop version of “The Lord’s Prayer”? Some radio stations played it back in the 70’s. Wasn’t it recorded by a nun? We used that a lot at “Youth Masses” back in the day.

Yes it was Sr Janet Meade. All the old Aussie rockers still can’t get over the fact that the first Australian to have a worlwide #1 hit song was a nun! It’s still heard occasionally at Youth Masses in Oz. I’m sure part of the attraction is that although the lyrics are otherwise perfectly orthodox, there’s a subtly subversive slight change in the last line : “Oh Lord lead us not into temptation, but save us from evil and the kingdom the power and the glory forever **will be **yours!” It sounds like we’re telling God that we will **let **Him have the kingdom the power and the glory if he behaves himself and saves us from evil like we tell him to.

A priest friend of mine said a song leader once snuck in Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale”. I’m trying to figure out the liturgical context for that one…

If it was just the music, I think it’s pretty closely based on a religious work by Bach. The lyrics are the usual modern pop-rock meaningless nonsense written in order to give the impression that they have some deep hidden meaning.

 

[smessner]

I’m sure part of the attraction is that although the lyrics are otherwise perfectly orthodox, there’s a subtly subversive slight change in the last line : “Oh Lord lead us not into temptation, but save us from evil and the kingdom the power and the glory forever **will be **yours!” It sounds like we’re telling God that we will **let **Him have the kingdom the power and the glory if he behaves himself and saves us from evil like we tell him to.

I never thought of it that way. Now I’ve got that song in my head. I’m going to have to try to dig up my old Guitar Mass accompaniment book and see if I can find that piece. I hope my guitar strings are still good.

 

[Andy_K]

Reading these posts make me realize just how ludicrous my complaints about my parish’s music are. The worse I can think of is the recent decision to sing “All Good Gifts Around Us” and singing what I call the “mockaluia” (It sounds like the macarena only “alleluia” instead of incomprehensible lyrics).

 

[smessner]

Reading these posts make me realize just how ludicrous my complaints about my parish’s music are. The worse I can think of is the recent decision to sing “All Good Gifts Around Us” and singing what I call the “mockaluia” (It sounds like the macarena only “alleluia” instead of incomprehensible lyrics).

I really shouldn’t read these late at night. I start to get punchy and all kinds of bizarre and possible sacreligious images come to mind. Liturgical “dance” has a whole new meaning when you combine the macarena with alleluia…:dancing:

Several of the songs from “Godspell” have been used at Masses I’ve attended. Most noticeably, “Prepare Ye” during Advent, of course, “Day by Day”. Thankfully, I’ve never heard “Turn Back, O Man” a la Mae West, done liturgically.:dts:

What about other Broadway Musical tunes?
Jesus Christ Superstar comes to mind. Fiddler on the Roof’s “Sunrise, Sunset” and “Sabbath Prayer” (mostly at weddings though most of those barely count as liturgies).

And as an example of a good song used in a weird way…
Bob Dufford, SJ, related the story of a cantor announcing the Entrance Hymn in this way:
"Please stand and greet our priest by singing “Hail, Holy Queen”.

 

[PatienceAndLove]

And as an example of a good song used in a weird way…
Bob Dufford, SJ, related the story of a cantor announcing the Entrance Hymn in this way:
"Please stand and greet our priest by singing “Hail, Holy Queen”.

OH MY!!!
gets punchy and falls on the floor laughing