When did the church music change?

[Through_Him]

I remember all the Latin as a child and not understanding with my mind but in my heart it was genuine, but I appreciate the english so much.

We our catholic St. William , we call St. Wills , and our neighbors St. Peter’s Lutheren choirs are going to sing an Easter cantada together after Easter. This is very unusual for us but it was done last year so we are doing it again. It is Wondrous Love by Lloyd Larson. We are practicing at our church one night and then the next night at theirs. Our director is leading us. I am very excited as I wasn’t in it last year but did not go and did not realize how much work it is but oh so nice. A sunday afternoon we will sing it at our church together and then at theirs on a wed night. We don’t have a lot of members of it is a great combo effort by the two of us combined 40 singers. We will be singing in praise to God and did not He say that if we do not praise Him he would get the rocks to. And Jesus said he would go out on the streets and find some one who would. Our church is big but not very many choir members. If I can get it on you-tube I will. We have had several prayer services with our friends and so they are getting an experience with us too. Who knows maybe none would have even stepped in our church before.

 

[rtechie]

Liturgical worship is not about entertainment at all. It is about giving all glory to God in solemn worship.

If it’s about “worship”, why sing at all? Jesus didn’t sing hymns. If you have a lousy singing voice, does that mean God hates you? Even when I was a Christian the hymns never made any sense, though “worship” in general made little sense. Why does God care what anyone says? Why would he need to puff up his ego? You might argue that it’s not Got that needs the worship, but His followers to remind them to love God. My counter to this is that if you somehow need to “reinforce” your faith every week through rote repetition, it must be pretty weak. I understand that that many Catholics believe something supernatural is occurring during Catholic services (I’m not talking about the Eucharist, I’m talking during the service in general) and I guess I can sort of understand that, but I never believed anything like that.

Choice of music is not a matter of taste but a matter of objective quality that can be measured.

You really need some basic study on aesthetics.

 

[J_the_Centrist]

If it’s about “worship”, why sing at all? Jesus didn’t sing hymns. If you have a lousy singing voice, does that mean God hates you? Even when I was a Christian the hymns never made any sense, though “worship” in general made little sense. Why does God care what anyone says? Why would he need to puff up his ego? You might argue that it’s not Got that needs the worship, but His followers to remind them to love God. My counter to this is that if you somehow need to “reinforce” your faith every week through rote repetition, it must be pretty weak. I understand that that many Catholics believe something supernatural is occurring during Catholic services (I’m not talking about the Eucharist, I’m talking during the service in general) and I guess I can sort of understand that, but I never believed anything like that.

You really need some basic study on aesthetics.

Well, just because you don’t understand it that doesn’t that we don’t. I personally don’t care what other denominations do, whatever brings them closer to God is fine with me, in fact I wouldn’t mind visiting one of those churches. I especially would love to visit a black Baptist church they make our services look, well different to say the least, there is one a few blocks away maybe I will go one of these days. Also, by the way I find that there is everything aesthetic about our services and our churches, if Catholic churches are not beautiful I don’t know what could be. Another thing is that some things being consistent in life, where everything is ever changing and lives are changing by the minute is good in my opinion. For example, believe it or not I study history and science and when a new scientific theory comes along it’s easy to discard the old theory and accept the new, my faith being consistent is a strength, not a hindrance. I guess it’s all in the eye of the beholder!

 

[JHow]

…You really need some basic study on aesthetics.

I might suggest that you really need to listen to some music…a lot of music. You will discover that some music really is better than other music - even though you may find it difficult to explain why.

When the facts on the ground start to not match your theory of aesthetics, maybe you should question your theory?

 

[Cat]

First have to say I love praise and worship music, and also traditional gospel music. Definetly has its place.

But when did the hymms get phased out . I am a shy guy and dont even dance at a club. I just dont see myself “getting down” at church in dance… When did all the drums, and techno lighting start going into the churches. I know it didnt begin with luther.

But I am just curious when the High definition projection screens started getting installed. Is this something from the late 1800’s or something of the last 20 or 30 years.

I was visiting a great church over the weekend , I was taken in by the spiral lighting . I dont even think “raves” have as good lighting as some churches.

May I ask if this took place in a Catholic or a non-Catholic church? Thanks.

If it happened in a non-Catholic church, there are plenty of good books that you can read that will explain the history of church music and how it got where it is now. One of the best is Reaching Out without Dumbing Down - A Theology of Worship for This Urgent Time by Marva J. Dawn. This book was recently listed as one of the Top Five books about worship in Christianity Today magazine.

If this happened in a Catholic church, then I would love to know where, because I would love to visit!