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JustaServant
Guest
Interesting article I found on Facebook:
holysoup.com/2014/05/21/why-they-dont-sing-on-sunday-anymore/
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DaveBj
Guest
When people aren’t singing in our Catholic parish, I know why – unfamiliar songs with awkward melodies. If one doesn’t read music, it’s easier to just stand there.
Things are completely different when I visit my cousins’ Baptist, Methodist, and Pentecostal churches. Shaped-note hymnals/convention song books, and most of the people know how to read music. Even when they’re sight-reading a new song, they’re singing their heads off.
Things are completely different when I visit my cousins’ Baptist, Methodist, and Pentecostal churches. Shaped-note hymnals/convention song books, and most of the people know how to read music. Even when they’re sight-reading a new song, they’re singing their heads off.
Outstanding article. As a Lutheran, I am more and more discouraged by the musical direction within the Lutheran Church, primarily with its move away from the solid liturgical music on which the Lutheran mass has long been renowned. There is no greater liturgical music in the western Church at least than in Lutheranism, and yet we are discarding it for no liturgical music at all (spoken), abbreviated music (and liturgy
), or the kind of loud, professional, new music folks don’t know.There is less standing to sing than there once was. The tradition of a processional and recession hymn is all but gone in many Lutheran parishes. The Lutheran service book often gathers dust in the pew racks because “worship and music directors” think they can do better than decades of musicians.
The vast majority of church attendees still is over 35 or 40, and for them (us), the liturgical music and hymnody they grew up with was/is, frankly, just fine.
In short, if people are not singing in church, they are effectively voting against the more contemporary worship, at least in liturgical church settings.
Jon
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cath4alltime
Guest
I found this to be the case at Mass in my Church. I put together the missalette which we have on a big TV screen and we have numerous songs like the Gloria, the Doxology, and three worship songs. We are a very, very small parish and I do notice that a few just stand and that’s it.
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Tommy999
Guest
I can’t relate to this at all. My wife is always telling me during the hymns to “tone it down a notch” or “You’re not supposed to be singing now. This one is just for the choir” and stuff like that.
I’m not the best singer in the world but God says, “Make a joyful noise”. He didn’t say it had to be the most melodious noise. At least it is heartfelt,
I can only guess that others don’t sing because they are self-conscious, shy, or not in the mood to sing.
I’m not the best singer in the world but God says, “Make a joyful noise”. He didn’t say it had to be the most melodious noise. At least it is heartfelt,
I can only guess that others don’t sing because they are self-conscious, shy, or not in the mood to sing.
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Lily_Bernans
Guest
I belong to a very large parish, and everyone sings. I love it.
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Bonnie
Guest
I have a very limited range, so there a a lot of songs that have notes that are beyond my reach. If I like the song, I’ll lip-synch, but if I don’t like it, I just stand there.
I have noticed that most people sing the Latin responses (love that about my parish). At the sister parish they have lots of instruments & loud microphones, so it’s difficult to tell if the “audience” is singing or not, except for the people right next to me.
I have noticed that most people sing the Latin responses (love that about my parish). At the sister parish they have lots of instruments & loud microphones, so it’s difficult to tell if the “audience” is singing or not, except for the people right next to me.
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Mumbles140
Guest
My issue isn’t as much with the lack of singing so much as the lack of praying…I see people standing in silence during the Gloria (when spoken), the Creed, and even the Our Father, as well as other times requiring response. I just don’t understand why a Catholic would not profess their faith with the rest of the community. My non-Catholic wife even says the Creed (except the 4 Marks of the Faith), as well as all of the other responses.
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CarolNoel
Guest
I most generally always sing, and can read music on new songs, but there are some songs I just won’t sing.
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theropod
Guest
Going off topic, but I don’t really know Protestants (assuming she’s a traditional Protestant) who have a problem with those. I affirm them as a non-Catholic. I attended a Catholic Christmas Mass last week, and even there the word “catholic” was spelled with a lower case “c” in the creed.
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Mumbles140
Guest
The family grew up going to whichever local church felt ‘good’ to my mother-in-law. My wife was baptized Lutheran (contemporary services), then they were going to a Methodist church for awhile, don’t know if she was ever Presbyterian but I don’t believe they spent any time in Baptist churches. I guess now her mom would consider herself non-denom, although she only attends on Christmas (we went to the Lutheran service in town), and my wife attends Mass with me.
The truth is that I think my wife was never really taught about Christianity, it was more of an ‘experience’ for her family. So when she hears “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic”, she thinks those things apply specifically to the Catholic Church (even though I’ve informed her that ‘catholic’ means universal). My guess is that, in her mind, the idea of “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic” means that one must believe in the Catholic Church, thus ruling out other sects of Christianity (since they are not part of the ‘one’).
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surritter
Guest
A big part of the problem is the fact that there are people miked up there. This is known as the “big voice” syndrome, and it connotes more of a “hear me sing, people” idea – akin to a performance.
Get and read the book “Why Catholics Can’t Sing” by Thomas Day. That will really answer the question!
Get and read the book “Why Catholics Can’t Sing” by Thomas Day. That will really answer the question!
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Trident_H
Guest
Well a guy doesn’t have to shine too bright a light around my church to figure out why. The sound system lets the guys leading the music sort of out-thunder everyone else. We just sort of feel like our feeble contributions aren’t even needed. Since they obviously can’t be heard.
Add to that some of the boring, drawn-out melodies that have absolutely no energy they seem to just love lately and it’s not a big mystery. I mean I went from being a really strong singer (not a good one mind you, just loud) to hardly even trying anymore. Took only 6 months of ‘training’.
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tawny
Guest
Same here.
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ProVobis
Guest
I noticed that too when I attended a Lutheran service. Perhaps they (like Catholics) are now beginning to think of hymns as just a formality. Play a couple of versus and get it over with seems to be the attitude. Personally I think if one wants to sing he’ll join a choir and we don’t see people lining up in droves for that either. Too much bother.Outstanding article. As a Lutheran, I am more and more discouraged by the musical direction within the Lutheran Church, primarily with its move away from the solid liturgical music on which the Lutheran mass has long been renowned. There is no greater liturgical music in the western Church at least than in Lutheranism, and yet we are discarding it for no liturgical music at all (spoken), abbreviated music (and liturgy
There is less standing to sing than there once was. The tradition of a processional and recession hymn is all but gone in many Lutheran parishes. The Lutheran service book often gathers dust in the pew racks because “worship and music directors” think they can do better than decades of musicians.
The vast majority of church attendees still is over 35 or 40, and for them (us), the liturgical music and hymnody they grew up with was/is, frankly, just fine.
In short, if people are not singing in church, they are effectively voting against the more contemporary worship, at least in liturgical church settings.
Jon
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ProVobis
Guest
Please don’t judge. Perhaps some people like me think that more contemplative prayer is more natural and sincere. Unfortunately this is not taught in schools much anymore, yet it’s in the catechism. Only the reciting of things in unison, which IMO focuses only on trying to keep with certain cadences rather than thinking about what the prayer really says.
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jmcrae
Guest
In my home parish, most people sing. The choir is behind us in the choir loft; not “on stage”. Father is singing enthusiastically, too. We can hear ourselves; the choir isn’t miked, and the instruments don’t overpower the voices. The hymns contain good theology (or at least it’s not blatantly heretical) and they’re easy to sing; we aren’t trying to climb up two ranges or climb down two ranges.
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Trident_H
Guest
K. I’m moving to Calgary. Like whenever I can.
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St_Francis
Guest
That’s the way it is at my church, too
I wonder tho if the professionalization of music in general might not have something to do with this. Most of the music we hear has been digitiized and maximized and reverbed so that no one in real life could ever sound as good! It’s like women looking at models with all their make-up and super hair and then the photoshopping and saying that they themselves don’t look so great!
And along with that is a total lack of general music instruction, so people don’t really know how to sing.
So I think there are a lot of reasons which just all started happening at once.
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pianistclare
Guest
Not using the hymnals.
People like the security f reading and seeing the notes.
But many choirs try to replicate radio music on Christian stations fro the Mass. Completely inappropriate, awkward melodies, and difficult syncopation for the average person.
It’s not that I loathe the songs the choir director selects, it’s just that they are not accessible. Choirs and cantor lead the prayer in song.
They don’t perform. Many congregations now view the music as the “commercial break” of sorts.
It’s a real crisis.
Our parish music ministry sings a piece called “Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone”
and it starts out like the song that everyone and their dog knows, and them morphs into several key changes and different lyrics. I see people just shrug and put down the songsheets.
They just give up.
When I think of all the money we waste on song sheets when we have arguably the best Catholic hymnal on the market, it makes my blood boil.
There are days when I wish I was back at my old parish and the Music Director.
We had an awesome choir. I miss them terribly. Every time I see someone from the old parish they say how the choir has just died. Really sad.
People like the security f reading and seeing the notes.
But many choirs try to replicate radio music on Christian stations fro the Mass. Completely inappropriate, awkward melodies, and difficult syncopation for the average person.
It’s not that I loathe the songs the choir director selects, it’s just that they are not accessible. Choirs and cantor lead the prayer in song.
They don’t perform. Many congregations now view the music as the “commercial break” of sorts.
It’s a real crisis.
Our parish music ministry sings a piece called “Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone”
and it starts out like the song that everyone and their dog knows, and them morphs into several key changes and different lyrics. I see people just shrug and put down the songsheets.
They just give up.
When I think of all the money we waste on song sheets when we have arguably the best Catholic hymnal on the market, it makes my blood boil.
There are days when I wish I was back at my old parish and the Music Director.
We had an awesome choir. I miss them terribly. Every time I see someone from the old parish they say how the choir has just died. Really sad.
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