Why don't most Catholics sing?

[Bill_Pick]

This is something I always noticed when I was a Catholic; and on the occasions when we attend mass for a family event, I still notice it. My husband, who was raised Protestant, commented that the singing in the Catholic church is “really bad”.

Seriously, why don’t most Catholics sing? And why do so many leave mass early? It seems to indicate a lack of reverence and respect, or perhaps just attending mass out of habit or ritutal rather than any real desire to worship. It sets a very poor example for young children; it certainly had that impact on my son when he was young.

You can leave right after the priest say the mass is end go in peace. and I have found One Church that had good music in my town and that have been at it for 10 years

 

[Lib_Christian]

I usually am not a singer because I admit I’m not a good one. But I enjoy singing the “Our Father”. And I did sing some of the Christmas carols. Not the one verse of “Oh Come All Ye faithful” in Latin because I don’t speak nor understand Latin, so I find anything in Latin totally unfruitful to me. It was actually disappointing to me when it was announced a vs would be sung in a language I do not understand. I pray the Church does not abandon speaking-liturgy.

 

[BernadetteM]

When the Anglicans who are coming into the Catholic Church in Anglican Use parishes you will see everyone singing. If you watch Our Lady of the Atonement during the Mass you will see voices raised to praise our Lord. When Mass is over no one leaves until the last verse is sung. This is part of the Anglican tradition.

Also sometimes every verse in the hymn is sung, if not everyone at least 3 or 4.

Since there are many Latin Rite Catholics at OLA I assume that they have learned to sing along with the rest. Who cares if you have a good voice, I don’t but love to sing the hymns from the 1940 Hymnal. Actually at my Catholic parish we do sing the same songs as when I was an Anglo Catholic. A thought just came to me, that before the OF of the Mass, it was in Latin and very few if any songs were sung by the congregation. When that was changed after VII maybe Catholics who were not use to singing during Mass just continued and it was difficult for them to change, where in protestant churches, not Anglican, that was the main part of the service, except for the sermon. That is only reason I can think of why Catholics don’t sing as much.

Also in my parish if there is no organist we get to sing without any music. All our priests start the hymn, I can say that this is really difficult, especially if you don’t know the tune and the priest doesn’t sing well.

I have a question, do the Orthodox congregations sing or do they just have cantors who sing?

I can’t stand the contempary music that some churches use. It reminds me of when I used to go to prayer meetings. There is a place for those songs, but not at Mass in my opinion. Not trying to offend anyone who does like them.

Of course I realize that many Catholics today have never been in a parish where the old hymns are sung and maybe can’t appreciate their beauty.

Most of the Anglo Catholic priests had very good voices and singing the Mass was lovely. You will find this true in at least some of the Anglican Use parishes.

I feel that our likes and dislikes are usually what we were brought up with, I know of exceptions of course.

Yours in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary

Bernadette

 

[Cat]

People where I work listen to their iPods and singalong** very** loudly. Maybe that’s the key. Have each person hooked to an iPod turned up to max volume and let them sing. They have no idea how loud or bad they are.

I have seriously considered this option. One of the problems at many Catholic churches, including the older buildings that were supposedly designed with good acoustics, is that the sound systems are inadequate, and the people simply can’t HEAR. (Even if you can read music, like me, you have to be able to hear the cantor/instrument so that you can sing in tune and in rhythm with everyone else.)

I’m part of two parishes (because I play piano) with abominable sound systems, yet these dear people have spent tens of thousands of dollars attempting to modernize their sound system. I suspect that unscrupulous sound professionals know that Catholics are very naive when it comes to sound in a large auditorium, and that they are “trained” by their Church not to complain about such things, so these sound companies just stick the Catholic churches with the “Mr. Microphone” system and then charge them a fortune.

At any rate, the sound systems in many Catholic church buildings don’t work.

So I mentioned to my husband that rather than spending still MORE money in a futile attempt to fix the sound systems, Catholic churches should just invest in enough iPods so that everyone in the pews can have one. (People who already own iPods should be encouraged to bring their own–most already carry them everywhere, so that’s not a big hardship.) I think this would be cheaper than updating sound systems, and it would be appealing to many of the young people and 40-somethings who are into personal electronics and technology.

Then transmit the Mass over the iPod, and everyone will be able to hear clearly. I’m in agreement with you, that this iPod technology would possibly result in more singing and participation in general. It’s the way people listen in this age, so why fight it? Go with it, use it! I see nothing irreverent or outside of the rubrics in this plan.

 

[Cat]

When would you like me to call to share my “joyful noise” with you personally. Your words are nice, but that’s easy to say when you’re not the one I’ll be inflicting this voice on.’

Thinking about it, though, those of us with bad voices aren’t the worst. The worst are those who belt it out, thinking that they have great voices and want to be heard. And when they ever start to trill…

I will not tolerate this argument.

People who do not know how to do something should learn how to do it, especially when that “something” is required of them on a daily basis (Mass).

People, including the elderly, learn how to use the computer when they discover that it is to their advantage to be able to email, visit websites, shop, forum, etc.

It is possible for most people to learn how to sing. For many people, this involves learning to use their head voice instead of their chest voice, or singing through their nose.

This enables altos, contraltos, and basses to reach the high notes in the average hymn. Usually the highest note in the average hymn, contemporary or traditional) is the D above C. Not all that high. Contrary to a lot of popular beliefs, the contemporary hymns are not any higher than the traditional hymns. If you don’t believe me, spend an hour with your hymnal or missalette and compare your favorite traditional hymns with the modern hymns–look for the highest note–I think you’ll find that in most hymns, the highest note is that D, and you might find, as I did, that many of the traditional hymns, not the contemporary hymns, are more likely to have notes higher than the D. (“I Will Raise You Up” is an exception.)

And it’s more “comfortable” physically to sing in a head voice.

And it’s prettier.

I realize that not everyone can take private voice lessons. But I see no reason why churches cannot offer “singing classes” to teach people how to sing in a head voice. I’m guessing that there are a few music teachers around who would consider teaching these classes for a reasonable fee.

Or if the church cannot offer these classes, then why not do it this way?–a group of friends can get together, contact a local music teacher, and ask if he/she would conduct a short-term class to teach them how to sing. Doesn’t that sound fun? And if everyone chips in to pay the teacher’s fee, it wouldn’t be any more expensive than going out to eat.

 

[kalt]

I will not tolerate this argument.

People who do not know how to do something should learn how to do it, especially when that “something” is required of them on a daily basis (Mass).

People, including the elderly, learn how to use the computer when they discover that it is to their advantage to be able to email, visit websites, shop, forum, etc.

It is possible for most people to learn how to sing. For many people, this involves learning to use their head voice instead of their chest voice, or singing through their nose.

This enables altos, contraltos, and basses to reach the high notes in the average hymn. Usually the highest note in the average hymn, contemporary or traditional) is the D above C. Not all that high. Contrary to a lot of popular beliefs, the contemporary hymns are not any higher than the traditional hymns. If you don’t believe me, spend an hour with your hymnal or missalette and compare your favorite traditional hymns with the modern hymns–look for the highest note–I think you’ll find that in most hymns, the highest note is that D, and you might find, as I did, that many of the traditional hymns, not the contemporary hymns, are more likely to have notes higher than the D. (“I Will Raise You Up” is an exception.)

And it’s more “comfortable” physically to sing in a head voice.

And it’s prettier.

I realize that not everyone can take private voice lessons. But I see no reason why churches cannot offer “singing classes” to teach people how to sing in a head voice. I’m guessing that there are a few music teachers around who would consider teaching these classes for a reasonable fee.

Or if the church cannot offer these classes, then why not do it this way?–a group of friends can get together, contact a local music teacher, and ask if he/she would conduct a short-term class to teach them how to sing. Doesn’t that sound fun? And if everyone chips in to pay the teacher’s fee, it wouldn’t be any more expensive than going out to eat.

I hope that you won’t be insulted by the fact that I couldn’t care less what you won’t tolerate.

However, if you want to send the money for my voice lessons, I’ll consider it. But I have a better idea. Teach the trillers to sing or tone it down, and the rest of us will keep singing in our less-than-perfect and appropriately humble and quiet voices.

No, it really doesn’t sound like fun. You are very interested in music. I’m not. There are things I’m interested in that I’m sure you wouldn’t think are fun at all. It’s intolerable that you haven’t learned to do what I find interesting.

I do sing, so I’m not shirking my “responsibility”. I do it quietly, and I haven’t had a complaint yet.

 

[mk8080]

I think it is a combination of factors:

1. Weeds & Wheat. Catholicism is much more cultural than most protestant denominations, especially evangelicals. When an evangelical’s beliefs cool, so doe church attendence. Catholics seem to keep going out of habit even if they’ve long ceased to have a genuine prayerful relationship with God. This may also be why southern catholics seem to have better singing than those of us from areas with higher concentrations of catholics and a longer history of catholic presence.
2. Critical mass. Because of #1 above, even the real believers get more self conscious about belting it out and dial it back some.
3. We’re cheap. Many to most protestant congregations pay decent wages to musicians to come and lead worship music. We far too often rely on Aunt Beatrice who took 5 years of organ lessons 50 years ago beause she volunteers and is free… When I grew up kids used to tell rude jokes about Jewish people being cheap. Not so, Jews should tell catholic jokes.
4. Focus of Worship. For evangelicals, the music IS the worship experience. It is the center of focus during that time of the service. In mass, music is a sideshow to our worship of Christ present in the Eucharist. There is no reason we can’t worship in song too, but in practice people get it muddled and sometimes think singing would be a distraction.
5. Lack of “push” from leadership. There is no reason we couldn’t have sort of a ‘pep talk’ from the music director right before mass and a nudge from the priest during announcements at the close of mass. Hey, it was OUR St. Augustine who said “He who sings well prays twice.” You’d think we could get a deserved kick in the shorts once in a while…

Sadly, it’s true. But buck up. As the culture gets more and more hostile to our faith and congregations dwindle, we’ll likely get better singing at mass! In the mean time, be agressive. Belt it out louder than you feel comfortable doing. Maybe the family in front of you will be encouraged and sing a bit too. I consider it being a “choir commando.” Seriously! I bet if you got 15 families in a big parish (say 1,200 seat building) to commit to this and sit broadly spread out in the pews you could DOUBLE the volume of singing.

I think you hit the nail on the head, especially with #1 and #4. Maybe I should ease up a bit on the people who don’t sing (I am not even that great of a singer). However, people cutting out early–whether right after communion or before the last hymn is over–is a real pet peeve of mine. With respect to the latter, I guess the Mass is technically over when the priest says it is over, so I just need to get over it.

 

[Canto]

If we all knew about and followed Sacrosanctum Concilium (and the GIRM) rather than trying to belt out four hymns at Mass, be they older or newer, in my op we’d have much more active/actual participation.

Until such time some won’t sing, some will over sing, some will try and sing and some will do a Britney Spears and mime

I’m enjoying this thread for as we know “…sacred song united to the words, it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy.” S.C.

1. To promote active participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes. And at the proper times all should observe a reverent silence. - S.C.

 

[catholic-rcia]

This needs to be addressed in your bulletin on the first page. The Priest needs to stop people from leaving until the last note is struck, and he needs to explain why. This needs to stop. I attend a Parish in Northern Utah and most sing, no one leaves until the Mass has ended. It’s all in the hands of the priest and who he has help him…how he delegates and so forth. We need to only have a love for Jesus. I have witnesses this in other Parishes, where no one sings. I love evangelization; help with the RCIS…we need to Love Jesus so much that it shows. It would be hard to bring one from the LDS church to a Mass and have people walk out before it is over or not sing. We have a Parish on fire for Jesus. I can go to other Parishes that our deaf to this stuff and still get everything I need from Christ. But its not about me, its about those who have a desire for him and are searching. For him, its all about them.

 

[Lib_Christian]

I have been guilty of leaving after Communion. Ppl do I think to avoid the congestion of getting out of the parking lot. I haven’t done that in a long time however. I don’t see anything wrong however with leaving after the priest pronounces the Mass has ended and he makes his departure. On Christmas Eve it was actually nice to be hearing Joy to the World still being played while departing and outside.

 

[manualman]

I was questioning, on my way home from shopping this afternoon, who says that volume is what it’s all about?

Nobody here is claiming that shouting is better than modest singing. But when 30% of the congregation, and up to 60% of the men in the congregation simply stand in cold silence not even pretending to sing, a message is being sent to God. And not a loving one. Not to mention the message sent to potentially curious visitors…

 

[kalt]

Nobody here is claiming that shouting is better than modest singing. But when 30% of the congregation, and up to 60% of the men in the congregation simply stand in cold silence not even pretending to sing, a message is being sent to God. And not a loving one. Not to mention the message sent to potentially curious visitors…

Actually, some have complained about our very quiet singing. I say myob. I’d rather some be quiet than have more of the show-offs who think they can sing trilling in my year.

 

[KathleenGee]

Thought about this after posting…was driving on the freeway to a case and turned on our Catholic radio, and the people were singing a holy Christmas song at Mass and I thought it was the choir either having a bad reception or the choir singing weak…then I realized it was the congregation attending Mass…yes, they sung weak…

But I think of a Mormon who went to a Catholic Mass and could see and feel the reverence for God…we go to worship Jesus Christ, present at our altars around the world…we come in with the spirit of Adoration…

We had the Lutherans come for a Thanksgiving service…they got up and sang so exuberantly…I looked around at everyone…we were very thankful they were here…we love them…our next door neighbors…but I think we are focusing more on the Divine Presence, burned out from the last week and needing to be recharged on the Word and Eucharist…

I think that is what is happening…we need to renew our understanding and awareness and draw on every Word and gift of the homilies and the Sacrament.

 

[lil_flower_luv]

I noticed this at Mass last night (well, I’ve always sort of noticed this, but it particularly annoyed me last night). When I go to my wife’s Lutheran service, the congregation sings all the hymns…even the closing one. AND, the congregation actually waits until the final hymn is over before leaving.

During Catholic Mass, not only do most parishoners not sing, but many leave before the hymn is even over. I find this completely rude and irreverant. I think people that do this are a just non-believing Pharisees. If you don’t want to be at Mass, DON’T GO! You can say that you are obligated to go to Mass; however, if you don’t participate, it doesn’t really count anyway.

I say that if any of you Catholics are having trouble understanding the Mass (which leads to a desire to leave early,) then you should read, “The Lamb’s Supper” by Scott Hahn. It’s a great read and will give a new and perfect outlook of the Mass!
In regards to Catholics not singing, I believe that is almost like saying “Why don’t Protestants go swimming?” You may have seen a pattern in the Masses you’ve been to, but I can personally testify to being part of a whole family of singers, and a musically inclined parish. Plus the Latin Mass is about 75% song - since singing is praying twice!! Anyway, I am hoping us Catholics do not get a rep of not being singers. It would be utterly sad.