Why parish musicians do what they do

"Our parish musicians ... are not here to put on a show or delight us with their musical talents. They put their talents at the service of those of us in the pews. And the greatest way we can respond ... is by raising our voices in song with those around us."

From http://gottasinggottapray.blogspot.com/2015/12/sparking-musical-fire.html

Bad Catholic Music is not a thing

Some conservative Catholics have an amazing inability to comprehend just how wide their church is, and that their sensibilities are not the same as everyone else's.

This guy has a rant about what he calls "Bad Catholic Music" (BCM allegedly).

He has not problem with saying that he stopping going to Mass for a while because he didn't like the music.

"I don’t recommend it – but it worked, because the only place you encounter those smug, gloopy songs is a modern Catholic church"

I think this gives a pretty good insight into the role that Eucharist played in his spiritual life at the time: he could have easily enough found a music-less Mass, or even just offered-up his sufferings for the greater good: Instead, he stopped going and blamed it on other people's music choices, rather than take responsibility for his own spiritual state. Now he's found places that play the chunes he likes, he's back again - arguably to worship Hayden, Byrd, and whoever else.

Good for him.   I hope God can work effectively in his life, using the means that God has for communicating with him.

But I cannot agree that his "high art" musical tastes represent everyone else's pathway to God too. God is just too big to be limited to one genre, one motif, one groove.

And do not even start me on how a song can "be" Catholic.    

Merton on Gregorian Chant

The Chant Café has some interesting comments from Thomas Merton about Latin and (Gregorian) chants.

He says "they offer us an irreplaceable monastic and Christian experience." Which is great, because it sets his comments strictly in the context of monastic experience, ie people who have devoted their lives to full-time prayer and detachment from the world. Which is not the case for most Christians.

He also notes that

"it is not at all impossible to make such things [meaning Latin and chant] understood and appreciated. Generally I succeed quite well in this, in the novitiate, with some exceptions, naturally, who did not understand well."

So some his novices - highly motivated, aspiring professional-prayers in full time formation with an experienced guide - couldn't manage to understand Latin and chant.

If some of them couldn't manage it, then what hope for the average Christian whose capacity for such formation is intrinsically less, simply because they have to devote the majority of their time to the affairs of the world.

My conclusion:   Chant is great for people who have the gift of praying with chant.   But that isn't all - or even most - of us.

Retreat Venues in Ireland

I can't find a good list anywhere else, so am making my own.   In no particular order:

Lay Retreat Association of St Ignatius


Donegal

• Lough Derg (There are also places called Lough Derg in Clare and Galway, but they're not the retreat centre)

Galway

• Esker
• Jesuit
• Croi Nua

Kilkenny

• Integritas Centre

Mayo

• Ballintubber?

Some interesting books

Catholic Music through the Ages: Balancing the Needs of a Worshipping Church

Edward Schaefer

Sacred Treasure

Joseph P. Swain


Conveys deep understanding of issues without needing technical vocabulary.

A lamentable eurocentrism

Read a great comment from the Church Music blog

There is a lamentable eurocentrism to our music in Church. What we now loosely call sacred music was merely the secular music of another age co-opted by the church and old enough now that no-one remembers that organ music was originally popular entertainment and frowned upon by the Church. Besides the Psalms call for stringed instruments, not organs.

This popular music called Rock comes from Black, Jewish and Scots-Irish sources, and has much to recommend it. Certainly in Australia rock music means more to people than church organ music (unsuited to hot climates where pipe organs suffer in any case).

I've been contemplating researching the history of the pipe organ to try to understand why some people think it is so much more suitable for liturgy than any other instrument. Sure, the church says so - but why???

Personally I find it that the way it is used in church is often distant, pompous, antagonistic, triumphal - anything but able to encourage a personal or communal relationship with a loving God.

Obviously other people don't have the same visceral reaction I do - but mine is no less valid, and I suspect not all that uncommon.

Some phrases about music from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph 1157, lists three principles for selection of music for liturgy:

• Beauty
• Expressive of prayer
• Unanimous participation of the assembly at the designated moments, and the solemn character of the celebration.

You could summarise this as saying that it's got to be something prayerful and solemn that someone having no special musical training can actually sing.

Paragraph 1158 says that songs are

"all the more expressive and fruitful when expressed in the cultural richness of the People of God who celebrate".

So contemporary styles of music, which are a part of our cultural richness, can be used.

Some short and sweet words about liturgy

Some short-and-to-the-point statements about liturgy - adapted from here:

People have repeatedly observed the transformative power of ritual.

Liturgical celebrations are times when people come together to be nourished and transformed, and then sent back into the world on
mission.

The Lamb of God - Twila Paris

A hymn style song from the CCM genre, that I'd like to see us start using.

It's not often that one of these works crosses over and becomes a song for the whole church but this one does it for me.

Some thoughts about a music ministry vision statement

Why do we sing? 

“God has bestowed upon his people the gift of song. God dwells within each human person, in the place where music takes it source. Indeed, God, the giver of song, is present whenever his people sing his praises.”

Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship, November 14, 2007, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

So what is the mission of people who lead music within liturgy?

To enable the full, conscious, and active participation of the assembly, by inspiring those assembled to sing, by performing music that connects with the congregation’s hearts, minds, and spirits thereby fostering and cultivating each member’s relationship with God. This connection is prayer, and it is where true Christianity begins.

An effective music ministry needs to spiritually connect with the people in order for them to fully participate in singing.

Different people connect with different styles of music. So to address the needs of the entire parish, we utilize many different genres of music. Distinguished by song selection and performance style, all the music attempts to draw parishioners into song through its distinctive sound.

A “prayer-first” approach to music ministry is necessary. If we are not able to know our music well enough to pray with it, we will be unable to lead the assembly to do the same. Approach every note and every chord, being disciples of Christ first while striving to give breath to the spiritual life within each song.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to St Catherine of Sienna parish for these statements:  They have put things far more eloquently than I ever could, the above simply edits their text for more universal application.

What can the Christmas and Easter visitors teach the rest of us?

Amen to this!

Some people get very fussed over people who don't go to church often.

I've always thought that it's better to just welcome them when they do come, and trust that God will lead them to be there when they need to be and lead the rest of us to evangelise via our regular relationships.

This article takes it a bit further, and asks what the regular attending holy-joes can learn from the special-event-sallies about what really matters.

Work with what you have, not what you'd like to have.

Food for thought.

Proper texts to Improper tunes are still Improper!

Thanks (or not) to the folks at Chant Café for this great example of how to do things Improperly!

Final Shopping Day for Advent Weekdays in the Hymn Tune Propers Emporium

If you or a Pastor or Music Director you know would like to do something liturgically special for Advent Weekdays here at the last moment, just click here, print out as many copies as you need for your daily Mass crowd, place them on a table where they will be noticed, and sing these versified Entrance Antiphons at the beginning of daily Mass. Any Long Meter tune that is familiar in your parish will work fine.

What you get if you click is a page titled "An Advent Calendar of Hymn Tune Introits - Liturgical Year 2015".

 It has one short scriptural verse in English - which is it the Entrance Antiphon for the day. No copyright acknowledgement to the scriptural translation or versifier. No clarification that it's for the 2014/2015 liturgical year. (Remember the new Mass - introduced in "Advent 2011" - which was December 2010 in New Zealand and December 2011 in lots of other placed. This sheet seems to take the opposite approach to naming liturgical years - highlighting perfectly why the abbreviated approach isn't good enough.)

For weekday masses, I do think that a sung one verse entrance "antiphon" makes sense: it unifies people, introduces elements of rhythm and melody which are spiritually important for some people, and makes the overall tone of the gathering spiritual.  And the Propers make great texts for this - especially because a weekday congregation is usually a lot more familiar with scripture, so will likely make the link between the short snippet and the wider piece which it comes from.

But the same tune, every day, for every single one?  I cannot see how that can work - unless the underlying tune is so blandly lit-muzak that it doesn't highlight any particular phrase at all! Liturgically Proper, yes. But musically not at all the proper thing to be doing.    If you're going to sing propers, then do it properly by puting at least some thought into choosing tunes that support the meaning of the text.

Reading some more:

"The Hymn Tune Propers Project provides an easy first step away from randomly-selected hymnody and towards the use of the proper liturgical texts of the Mass. The proper texts are spiritually beneficial for Catholics ... "

Randomly-selected hymnody? Does anyone really do that any more? Really? All pastoral musicians I know at least choose seasonally appropriate hymns based on the index of their hymnal.  For Sundays, most spend substantial time with the readings and other texts of the day, looking for materials that fit with them and will work with the particular community.

And I wonder if CC would care to explain exactly how the Proper text (remember, snippets of scripture presented out of context) are more spiritually beneficial than a scriptural hymn with several verses to provide "space" for context.   There's a whiff of magic thinking here.