Why so many complaints about the music

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why so many complaints on here about hymns or lack of hymns at mass?
i have to admit, some songs DO annoy me. but there seems to be many disgruntled people regarding the song choices?
 
Personally, I do not like, appreciate, or find any intellectual or spiritual fruits in sappy, outdated 70’s, “let’s sing about ourselves” music. But to each his own. I’ve always been told, and somewhat believed, that the Roman Catholic Church has been a bulwark of the very best of culture’s art, but I don’t know any more…
 
YoungTradCath said:
Personally, I do not like, appreciate, or find any intellectual or spiritual fruits in sappy, outdated 70’s, “let’s sing about ourselves” music. But to each his own. I’ve always been told, and somewhat believed, that the Roman Catholic Church has been a bulwark of the very best of culture’s art, but I don’t know any more…
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Agreed. Same with “gospel baptist/pentecostal clapping” and modern Christian rock music, which has no place at all in a Mass.

Has more to do with…does the congregation worry about entertaining itself, or showing reverence due to Our Lord.
 
One man’s meat is another man’s poison. So it has always been.

Personally, I don’t like the happy-clappy stuff, either, but I am reminded that many of the hymns we now consider to be classics were once considered controversial. Most of the ones we consider ‘standard church music’ are Protestant in their origin, anyway.

Because the Mass used to be in Latin, English hymnology was never one of the Catholic Church’s strong points. After Vatican II there was a rush to compose new music to go along with the vernacular Mass, not all of it successful. And there is always the unfortunate attempt to be ‘relevant’ that arose from the 1960’s.

I used to loathe some ‘newer’ hymns that I now rather like. ‘Eagles Wings’, which, by the way, is based on the 91st Psalm, used to make me cringe. I actually know someone who detests ‘Silent Night’ because it’s ‘too German’. (My Grandmother used to sing it in German.)

I usually avoid Masses which are designated as ‘band’ or ‘contemporary music’. I hope that with the new Missal, there will be a trend back to more conservative music.

I used to be a Protestant (Episcopalian). I have to say that I miss the music, although little else. I used to go to a church that set aside one Sunday a month as a ‘Youth Sunday’. I invariably went to the 8 o’clock service on those weeks, or to another church. I also went to a parish in Maryland where when i saw the rectors guitar sitting in the sanctuary, I knew I wasn’t going to be happy. (Another ‘Silent Night’ reference: It was originally written for guitar, because the organ was broken, so something good can come from a guitar in church. Just not often.)

One thing I’ve learnt over time is that there is no accounting for taste.
 
One man’s meat is another man’s poison. So it has always been.

Personally, I don’t like the happy-clappy stuff, either, but I am reminded that many of the hymns we now consider to be classics were once considered controversial. Most of the ones we consider ‘standard church music’ are Protestant in their origin, anyway.

Because the Mass used to be in Latin, English hymnology was never one of the Catholic Church’s strong points. After Vatican II there was a rush to compose new music to go along with the vernacular Mass, not all of it successful. And there is always the unfortunate attempt to be ‘relevant’ that arose from the 1960’s.

I used to loathe some ‘newer’ hymns that I now rather like. ‘Eagles Wings’, which, by the way, is based on the 91st Psalm, used to make me cringe. I actually know someone who detests ‘Silent Night’ because it’s ‘too German’. (My Grandmother used to sing it in German.)

I usually avoid Masses which are designated as ‘band’ or ‘contemporary music’. I hope that with the new Missal, there will be a trend back to more conservative music.

I used to be a Protestant (Episcopalian). I have to say that I miss the music, although little else. I used to go to a church that set aside one Sunday a month as a ‘Youth Sunday’. I invariably went to the 8 o’clock service on those weeks, or to another church. I also went to a parish in Maryland where when i saw the rectors guitar sitting in the sanctuary, I knew I wasn’t going to be happy. (Another ‘Silent Night’ reference: It was originally written for guitar, because the organ was broken, so something good can come from a guitar in church. Just not often.)

One thing I’ve learnt over time is that there is no accounting for taste.
 
chuskcrop said:
why so many complaints on here about hymns or lack of hymns at mass?
i have to admit, some songs DO annoy me. but there seems to be many disgruntled people regarding the song choices?
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Have you heard Gregorian Chant? That’s the music we should be using.
 
We had a re-write of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah during our Midnight Mass celebrated by the bishop and the Gloria went on and on to the point it was almost banal!!

Our bishop tried to our Latin Mass society’s Schola to teach Gregorian Chant and polyphony to those in charge of liturgical music, but the director refused “unless they each game to her”:rolleyes:

I get told we can’t have Latin because no one will be able to sing, yet for the first time ever we sung O Come All Ye Faithful in Latin, and the congregation sang more than I’ve ever heard before.
 
chuskcrop said:
why so many complaints on here about hymns or lack of hymns at mass?
i have to admit, some songs DO annoy me. but there seems to be many disgruntled people regarding the song choices?
Click to expand...
Because Catholic music is just plain ear-splitting, mind-rebooting awful. I think that all the people with senses of pitch must have left at the Reformation…LOL…

I’m a convert and decent music is almost the only thing I really miss. You guys sound like the dog pound at high noon.
 
roadsend said:
Yup. The Mass’s very own music. Unfortunately, never heard in many of our churches.
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I’m blessed. I live 35 min. away from a monastery that uses it every single day (Lauds, Mass and Vespers, and hymns for Vigils, minor hours and Compline as well as the antiphon to the BVM at Compline).

Makes me kind of spoiled and reluctant to go to Mass in a local parish, unless it’s our Gregorian schola providing the music 😉
 
iloveangels said:
Because Catholic music is just plain ear-splitting, mind-rebooting awful. I think that all the people with senses of pitch must have left at the Reformation…LOL…

I’m a convert and decent music is almost the only thing I really miss. You guys sound like the dog pound at high noon.
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I so agree! Last night the solo was…well, I don’t have the words to describe it. The reason for bad music in our parish is their insistence in using guitars, including an electric one, & singing those banal and/or impossible to sing ditties. I’m not a trained singer & can’t hit the high notes or manage the abruptly changing notes. Our new mass settings aren’t any better. The triple notes going up put me in mind of a favorite (definitely non-church) fun song, Red Solo Cup. 😃

Admittedly, I get strange associations with a lot of the music. The Our Father is a waltz, the song used at baptisms reminds me of an old beer commercial (it’s the water).

When I have complained about the songs chosen (only when the words are heretical) I’m dismissed as a crank. Maybe I am, but I’m a music loving crank! 😉

When I want to hear good music, I listen to it at home. At Mass, I call the music penance. 😦
 
Bonnie said:
I so agree! Last night the solo was…well, I don’t have the words to describe it. The reason for bad music in our parish is their insistence in using guitars, including an electric one, & singing those banal and/or impossible to sing ditties. I’m not a trained singer & can’t hit the high notes or manage the abruptly changing notes. Our new mass settings aren’t any better. The triple notes going up put me in mind of a favorite (definitely non-church) fun song, Red Solo Cup. 😃

Admittedly, I get strange associations with a lot of the music. The Our Father is a waltz, the song used at baptisms reminds me of an old beer commercial (it’s the water).

When I have complained about the songs chosen (only when the words are heretical) I’m dismissed as a crank. Maybe I am, but I’m a music loving crank! 😉

When I want to hear good music, I listen to it at home. At Mass, I call the music penance. 😦
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Yup. Holy hour at the bowling alley.
 
iloveangels said:
Because Catholic music is just plain ear-splitting, mind-rebooting awful. I think that all the people with senses of pitch must have left at the Reformation…LOL…

I’m a convert and decent music is almost the only thing I really miss. You guys sound like the dog pound at high noon.
Click to expand...
Thanks for a throw-the-head-back, howlingly funny post.

I came the same route, and I miss spirited singing and four-part harmony. So I like it best when we sing old hymns set to tunes for which I still can remember (or can improvise) the bass line. This puts me in the same boat as the pastor of a church that we visited back in our Protestant days. He allowed onloy old, familiar hymns and songs. When we moved on, I told him that I was a songwriter and asked how long I would have to be dead before he would allow one of my songs to be sung. He had no answer.

Back to the basis of the OP’s question, there are so many diverse groups within the average Catholic congregation that it doesn’t matter what kind of music is used; someone is going to find something to complain about.
 
I don’t like the folk music at Mass and the strange instruments.

We had it at Mass this morning, they ruined O come all ye faithful and it appears that the congregation rarely sing along with the folk group.

We have traditional and folk alternating each week.
 
martininthefiel said:
Because the Mass used to be in Latin, English hymnology was never one of the Catholic Church’s strong points. After Vatican II there was a rush to compose new music to go along with the vernacular Mass, not all of it successful. And there is always the unfortunate attempt to be ‘relevant’ that arose from the 1960’s.
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That’s why the Church tried to get every Catholic parish of every vernacular to adopt and use Jubilate Deo, given free of charge, in the 70’s and 80’s.
 
ProVobis said:
That’s why the Church tried to get every Catholic parish of every vernacular to adopt and use Jubilate Deo, given free of charge, in the 70’s and 80’s.
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Wow, hooked by free merchandise. Oldest trick in the book.
I wondered what had happened. (I’m a convert from 1985.)
 
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