What Music Should We Have?

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

I would like to do a poll to see what you all think Sacred Music in the Church should be.

 

[VociMike]

Sorry, I couldn’t select any of your categories. None of them is the right answer, IMHO. Now if you had a category that said “Any music that is holy, true art and universal, and which takes as its inspiration the ‘supreme model’ and ‘permanent standard’ of Gregorian chant” well then, I would have picked that one.

 

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

Sorry, I couldn’t select any of your categories. None of them is the right answer, IMHO. Now if you had a category that said “Any music that is holy, true art and universal, and which takes as its inspiration the ‘supreme model’ and ‘permanent standard’ of Gregorian chant” well then, I would have picked that one.

That is, IMHO, included in Sacred Hymnody - part of choice one.

 

[Corki]

Sorry, I couldn’t select any of your categories. None of them is the right answer, IMHO. Now if you had a category that said “Any music that is holy, true art and universal, and which takes as its inspiration the ‘supreme model’ and ‘permanent standard’ of Gregorian chant” well then, I would have picked that one.

I vote for that one too.

 

[VociMike]

Hello,

That is, IMHO, included in Sacred Hymnody - part of choice one.

OK, just a misunderstanding then.

 

[WanderAimlessly]

Only Gregorian Chant, Polyphony, and Sacred Hymnody

Already get it most of the time at my new parish. In fact, they are using some Mozart at next Sunday’s EF Mass.

 

[benedictgal]

I am all for Sacred Hymnody. How many of us have examined the lyrics of the current crop of “liturgical music” that is currently used? It’s pretty sad.

As Pope Benedict XVI writes in Spirit of the Liturgy:

Thus the relation of liturgical music to logos means, first of all, simply its relation to words. That is why singing in the liturgy has priority over instrumental music, though it does not in any way exclude it.

It goes without saying that the biblical and liturgical texts are the normative words from which liturgical music has to take its bearings. This does not rule out the continuing creation of “new songs”, but instead inspires them and assures them of a firm grounding in God’s love for mankind and His work of redemption.

There is, then some sort of standard for liturgical music. Now, I’m not totally against new music, so long as it is consistent with sound Catholic doctrine and liturgical theology (and doesn’t have a “pop” feel to it). There needs to be sobriety and solemnity to our liturgical music. We don’t need bouncy, snappy, nappy tunes that insult our intelligence. The Mass is about our encounter with the Wholly Other, as Fr. Hans Urs Van Balthasaar writes.

Somehow, hymns like Anthem, Gather Us In and Song of the Body of Christ just don’t cut it.

 

[lak611]

I am all for Sacred Hymnody. How many of us have examined the lyrics of the current crop of “liturgical music” that is currently used? It’s pretty sad.

Somehow, hymns like Anthem, Gather Us In and Song of the Body of Christ just don’t cut it.

I agree.

 

[m134e5]

Hello,

I would like to do a poll to see what you all think Sacred Music in the Church should be.

I like anything “classical.” I like the choir to be big, I want an organ, and I prefer as small an orchestra as possible- if it is called for at all. Gregorian chant is very nice, and I like hymns too. A “classical” Mass setting with motets for at least some of the major feast days, Gregorian chant at other times (all Masses having polyphonic motets during communion at least).