We have to do this every now and then just to clear out our eardrums. What is the Catholic hymn you hate the most? (I know, I know there are so many choices!) For me it is hands down Sing a New Song by ex-Jesuit Dan Schutte, a founding member of the Saint Louis Jesuits, the group responsible for writing more truly wretched music than any other organization in the history of Man. A miserable piece of doggerel that has been played to death at Masses since it fell from Schutte’s pen in 1972. Ah the seventies! One more crime for that kidney stone of a decade!
Why is Catholic music at Mass so bad when we have such a magnificent musical heritage?
The short answer is that the Church in this country and much of the West has undergone a musical “Babylonian Captivity” by some Catholics who came of age in the Sixties and the Seventies and are intent on their banal gibberish being almost the only music heard at Mass. This is all part of a let’s pretend movement by the same Catholics that the Church came into being at the end of Vatican II and everything else is to be discarded and rammed down the memory hole.
Time will take care of this problem, if not good taste. (Since I came of age in the Sixties and the Seventies I may not live to see it, but I assume if, by the grace of God, I reach Purgatory there will be magnificent hymns, not to mention the beatific sounds of Heaven. In Hell I suspect the musical taste will reflect…best not to go there in both senses of that phrase!
Well here is your chance. Name the hymn you hate the most, the one that sets your teeth grinding when you see it on the hymn list for Mass.
In our parish, every Christmas, the musical director tries to cram the Gloria into the Christmas hymn “Gloria in Excelsis Deo.” I get the obvious connection, but it does not fit. And, since my travels to other parishes have not occurred during the Christmas season, I do not know how unique this (hopefully) is.
In any event, the attempt comes off as something that a child would improvise while she swings in her backyard, free-versing her way through something she’s remembering and applying it to a familiar tune. Run-on lines, stretched and abused syllables, repeated melodic phrases not in the original and other ‘adaptations’ detract from the meditation that’s suposed to be taking place as we quiet our noisy brains and contemplate the Meal we have come to partake in, and Who is serving it.
Perhaps I should rise above it, and perhaps it is that peculiar genetic strain that drops a good portion of the males in my family tree someplace on the ASD spectrum, but the musical mismatch is often much like unto the screech of tires at an outdoor tea. By the time my sense of proportion has returned to a correct balance, I’m sure I have missed something.
PS – I, too, joyfully await the final demise of the “Kumbayah” genre of liturgical music. Let HYFRYDOL & DIADEMATA reign supreme!
For me it’s got to be – Morning has Broken – which is sometimes sung as an entrance hymn in our parish. everytime they “break” into that ditty, images of a bearded hippie Cat Stevens come rushing into my mind…..not a good way to start a mass.
My wife & I both enjoy the traditional hymns, whereas half our parish enjoys songs like Sing a New Song, All Are Welcome (a friend of ours swears that the Devil sings this song as new folks enter his gates), City of God, and so on.
Our music minister tried a new Alleluia that our pastor (a Franciscan) said was a “Margaritaville Alleluia”. We have yet to repeat that horrendous rendition.
Oh No! Another article complaining about music in the Mass! Really?? Do you compose music? Is it possible that Dan Schutte, or any of the other currently despised composers, are actually inspired by God to compose their songs? Even if you can not believe they are inspired to compose such music, who are you to criticise their efforts? Yes, we have a rich history of beautiful music in the Catholic Church. Does everyone have to like it? It’s ok for you to despise the 70’s music, but we can not despise the traditional music? Can we like both venues? If you are taking time to dislike the 70’s music in Mass, where is your focus? Aren’t you (and I ) supposed to focus on praying to God? Don’t tell me you can not focus with such music going on, that is YOUR failing. We are not liturgical police!!! Go to Mass, connect with, and receive God, go home renewed and strengthened to carry out the Gospel as best you can. Please leave everyone to do the same!
I clicked on Pie Jesu expecting to hear Faure and instead got Andrew Lloyd-Webber, hardly part of the heritage of Catholic music and moreover the text is mangled – it should be “Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem”. Yes, I know Berlioz played ducks and drakes with the text of the Requiem Mass as well. Least favourite music? Anything by Haugen, Haas, Schutte, Inwood, Farrell … The good news is that while I acknowledge it is out there, I don’t have to listen to it, being equidistant from the London, Birmingham and Oxford Oratories, and when I sing from the choir loft it is with a Gregorian chant schola.
My (now) 22 year old son once remarked that he hated the “Disney” music at Mass. When I asked him if he would like to attend the weekly “hootenanny” Mass he was appalled, as he felt that was disrespectful. He believed he would like to hear Gregorian Chant as that is “real Catholic music”!
Now I was told (by nuns no less) in 1967 that changing to “modern” music would have the kids flocking in the doors. We all know how that worked out. SO, the current question is, if we’re not playing this crap to attract the young, who is it we’re playing to?
I don’t like the fact that schutte and other anti-catholic Catholics make so much money selling their Protestant heretical crap to the church. Excuse my language, I don’ t usually to like that. Those guys have their own agenda.
. Their own theory and theology packaged and designed like the pied piper to lead unsuspecting people from a real apprehension of Truth. Very upsetting. Just had the misfortune of being in Appleton for Sunday mass. Unbelievably horizontal. Then a nun gave the homily. So we thought since the other catholic church was in walking distance and an hour later we would quietly ip out the back and go to the other church. But they are in collusion …on the same page the same schutte (if you pronounce that name just so , it sounds like what it means) music, the Consecration hurriedly done, the words of the Canon made more conversational. Then the next day we were blessed by the beautifully prayed novus ordo at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion . And we sang acapella beautiful old songs. What a difference !
I guess I sound pretty angry and I am. Those gay guys who live in defiance of the church along with some new age so-called Catholics. But the Worst Song for me is a feminazi song. “A Place At The Table”. Not as common – you have to go to Really Far Out mass to hear it. One of those masses dominated by left wing nuns.
“Oh No! Another article complaining about music in the Mass! Really??”
Yep, anything as terrible as the usual run of Mass music deserves far more criticism than we give it here at TAC, but we do the best we can.
“Do you compose music?”
Nope. I don’t cook either but I can tell a good meal from a bad one.
“Is it possible that Dan Schutte, or any of the other currently despised composers, are actually inspired by God to compose their songs?”
Only if God is tone deaf and really, really likes banal lyrics.
“Even if you can not believe they are inspired to compose such music, who are you to criticize their efforts?”
Anyone who has to endure their wretched offerings week after week has not only a right to criticize but a duty, or this situation will not improve.
“Yes, we have a rich history of beautiful music in the Catholic Church. Does everyone have to like it?”
It would be hard in 2000 years not to find music that everyone would like.
“It’s ok for you to despise the 70′s music, but we can not despise the traditional music?”
You can despise whatever you like. Some people have a preference for ditchwater to fine wine. That preference does not alter either the ditchwater or the wine.
“Can we like both venues?”
Doubtful, but I admit the possibility. I would say that we are due for several decades free of the droppings from the sixties and the seventies to balance the scales.
“Aren’t you (and I ) supposed to focus on praying to God? Don’t tell me you can not focus with such music going on, that is YOUR failing.”
Complete rubbish. That is why we have churches and the sounds, sights and ceremony surrounding the Mass, to aid us in our devotions not to throw up roadblocks.
“We are not liturgical police!!!”
Tell that to all the good faithful Catholics who saw their beloved Mass treated like a lab experiment for bad ideas over the past half century.
“Go to Mass, connect with, and receive God, go home renewed and strengthened to carry out the Gospel as best you can. Please leave everyone to do the same!”
Oh, I am sure that there will in the future be a marketplace for the Mass as done over the past half century where people can get their weekly doses of bad music and liturgical make it up as you go along. However, I do not think it will be a large market.
Kyle, your comment made me think about the song All Are Welcome. I was wondering if you could do me a favor and punch yourself in the face until I stop thinking about said song? Thanks, I appreciate it.
“We are not liturgical police!!!”
If we become the liturgical community watch, do Stand Your Ground laws apply?
Adrienne You don’t have to be liturgy police to listen to the lyrics and have even a small understanding of the Catechism. Maybe you think a person should t be too fussy about church teaching. I think people trend to believe what they sing in church is worthy of. Belief
Before the procession begins, I try to prepare the little paperback missalette marking pages with my envelopes. Part of my habit involves looking at the hymn/song page numbers to see what ups and downs there will be, for which to prepare. If I see 1970 or beyond at the bottom of the page, then I consider that time available for other spiritual pursuit and refrain from singing, as many others do.
Traditional hymns are prayers, great vehicles to enhance worship because these are spoken to whom we are there to speak – in an uplifting, serious, life giving manner. Pipe organs!!!
The ‘new’ music is written putting words into His mouth, or demanding something, or glorifying the self(ves). Gather us in. Since the music coincided with the advent of big speakers, microphones, electronic instruments and ‘liturgical’ performance artists, as well as the Broadway (Superstar – although I never saw that) or movies focusing on the worldly aspects of men and women in costumes and relationships, vetoing The Lord’s Prayer in public school, and so on in cultural rejection of reverence; I am dismayed by the atmosphere.
I’ve been a church musician. I’m from a musical family. But…
…I’d bet I’m not the only one who would vote for a music-less mass. Solemn is good.
This is the best Sunday morning music: http://bluegrasscountry.org/programs/stained-glass-bluegrass/
Give a listen.
I’ve been hooked on the show for about 30 years.
I actually kind of like Sing a New Song, All Are Welcome, On Eagles Wings, etc. But overall, though, I can’t handle the Novus Ordo. Even if Chanticleer were singing Ave Maria, Ave Maris Stella, or Salve Regina (especially Salve Regina!) at the local Novus Ordo Mass, I would have a hard time taking it. I much prefer our Byzantine Church.
exNOAAman-
Please, PLEASE…silence for the moments just post reception of Jesus in the Eucharist.
I’m struggling with the MusicGuru who has to slam our sacred time with “get up and party like its 1999.” Whats up with that?
I whole heartedly agree with your comment.
LESS is most definitely MORE when it comes to Holy Mass and participation thereof.
Let us also mention our favourites.
I cannot believe anyone could listen unmoved to Haydn’s “Nelson” mass in D minor.
From the Kyrie (which makes great demands on the soprano) with its dark and dramatic fanfares that justifies the title Missa in Angustiis (mass for times of distress) to the Agnus Dei, beginning in G major and concluding in the triumphant “dona nobis pacem” in D major, it is one of the masterpieces of liturgical music.
Though the mountains may fall and the hills turn to dust, also by Dan Schutte. I can’t stand it…. it’s worse than nails on a chalkboard. And I also can’t stand that other song, something about “We are the body of Christ.” I can’t find it on the internet right now, so that’s not the name of the song, but the words, “broken & shared” are in it. I don’t like any song that says that I’m even close to being akin to the consecration. It also stuns me that there are, what seems like, a million Catholics who hate all the same songs & have the same complaint about too much music and not enough silence, yet our churches continue to spew the garbage.
Personally, I am not real picky about what type of music is played at Mass — as an attendee, that is; if I were a music director or in a position to actually determine what music was played, I would be more of a perfectionist — and I actually like some of the newer music as well as the classic tunes. Having grown up on the Novus Ordo Mass many of the songs that “traddies” decry, I’ve gotten attached to and can’t help but like them.
That said, there are some songs that I draw the line at: “Ashes”, because of that line about “we create OURSELVES anew”; “City of God”, because I have come to associate it with whacked-out liberal parishes and womynpriest groups and the like; “Gift of Finest Wheat,” because I just don’t like the tune; and “Those Who See Light,” a flat, boring tune that was played heavily in my home parish back in the early 70s but which I have, thankfully, not heard since.
(Don’s wife Cathy here:) I’m a volunteer cantor at our parish 2 Sundays a month, with a skill level of “enthusiastic amateur” and no accompanist (organ, keyboard or otherwise), so I have to stick to hymns I know well enough to lead a capella. Fortunately for Don’s ears, as a convert I learned a lot of more traditional hymns growing up (and I am still amazed at how many traditional Protestant hymns show up in the back of the missallette!). When I’m choosing which hymns to use at Sunday Mass, I look in the index for which ones are recommended for that particular Sunday, see which ones I know the tunes for, and make an effort not to inflict more than 1 modern hymn per Mass upon Don.
Bring a New Church into Being. what’s up with that? Anything Haugen hass or schutte leaves me silent. Bad theology and bad tunes. Also the Mass setting that has been written since the new “wording” was abrogated. Especially the Gloria that seems to need a chorus line to carry it off. Just imagine the fishnet legs kicking in the air.
As a musician myself, I ONLY go to the early Mass. The only music is, sometimes, the Sanctus – in Latin, chanted. I spent many a year in church, silently spewing about a music team that could not consistently count to 4 in every measure, reeling from banal lyrics and worse tunes. I recently found out that quite a few musicians ONLY attend the non-music Masses.
There is a CD by Beth Nielson Chapman called Hymns. She sings Tantum Ergo and Veni Veni Emmanuel. It can be sampled on Amazon where I posted the following review:
“‘Joni Mitchell sang “Don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.’ That is what occurred to me when I listened to this disc. Sometime after Vatican II these classic melodies were shelved in favor of music that was considered more… accessible. The beauty of these hymns is timeless and sung by the bell-like voice of Beth Nielsen Chapman evokes a time when the Catholic Church and its rituals held a sense of mystery and awe.
Additionally, Chapman contributes a new song of her own, ‘Hymn to Mary’ that is so beautiful and reverent that one might conclude she was born a few centuries too late.”
I love that CD George!
I didn’t grow up with a lot of Latin hymns (I’m 48). The ones I remember from my youth are hymns like “Alleluia, Sing to Jesus”, “Come Holy Ghost, Creator Blest”, “Jesus Christ is Risen Today”. Probably a lot of them have Protestant roots, but are solid lyrically. Musically, they’re – I don’t know the right word for it – very structured. More Baroque than Romantic. It’s impossible to stray from the metronome when playing a song like “Now Thank We All Our God”. Something like “On Eagles’ Wings” is built to rise and fall in tempo and volume; it’s impossible for the organist to play it right without effusing.
Having just listened to the piece in question, it occurred to me that there might be a way for pastors and church musicians to ban it and cite authority. I seem to remember that sometime in the last few years, the Congregation for Divine Worship issued a ruling that the vocalization of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) was not to be used in the liturgy. As the first word of the first verse of this ditty is “Yahweh,” the hymn falls under the ban. Of course, I suppose the lyrics may have been modified, but it’s worth a try! 😉
I have a cd that is called “Monk Rock” that I occasionally listen to at home, but some of the songs at Mass are almost disrespectful. I also do not want to sing after Communion, that is the time for Thanksgiving to Him for coming to me. Also, sometimes there is music before Mass, so we are never given any time to contemplate what we are going there for. Saying the Rosary or Divine Mercy chaplet is also verboten, it seems. Contemplating the Mysteries of the Rosary which are after all, the life of Christ seems entirely appropriate. What is going on? This seems really a problem with this diocese, my old one in another state never had this problem.
Sylvia-
I’ve been offering my grievance up to Jesus when I was made aware that the music and song will continue while the faithful receive the Eucharist. In all humility I will admit that my disappoint has turned into an efficacious form of mercy. I hope its efficacious.
I know that I’m not anxious about the decision to sing at this time, as I once was at the start of this practice-( 2 yrs. ago).
Sometimes we can make lemonade in the most surprising places.
“Also, sometimes there is music before Mass…”
In some French churches, they sing one or more of the Little Hours, immediately before the capitular or conventual mass. It is an ancient Gallican custom.
Sorry about the typo… (disappointment)
Totally agree about most of those “modern” songs. I also give thanks after Communion, instead of singing. When can we give proper thanks if not after we have received Jesus? Definitely too much not-very-good music, to say the least.
Too numerous to cite but one on the list is “The Supper of the Lord”. “Precious Body, Precious Blood, here IN bread and wine”. STOP! Heresy! He is not IN bread and wine. What IS the bread? The body of Christ. What is in the Cup? The blood of Christ. The melody is juvenile.
I sympathize with Cathy (above), but the function of a cantor is not to lead the congregation in metrical hymns, sung unaccompanied. It’s far better if the cantor sings the verses of the appropriate psalm (Introit, Communio etc) and the congregation have a simple sung response. I have heard this done in France, and the melodies, while not Gregorian are simple and tuneful without being pop-style. There are also newly-composed Mass-settings in chant style by Aristotle Esguerra and others – modal, in free rhythm, and easy to sing unaccompanied.
Websites linked to the CMAA have lots of material for free download. Even a small parish should be able to put together a small schola and do, for example, the Simple English Propers of Adam Bartlett. Yes, better “Onward Christian Soldiers” than the sentimental mush of the Haagen-Dasz (sorry, Haugen-Haas) school, but we really need to be singing the Mass rather than singing at Mass.
(Don’s wife Cathy again:) A small schola would be great, John – but our parish doesn’t seem to have that many musically-inclined individuals (or even just enthusiastic singers) all willing to come to the same Mass on a regular basis. We can occasionally round up a volunteer choir for special occasions (f.ex., our old priest’s final Mass before retirement, or the Christmas or Easter Vigil Masses), but not for every weekend at the same time.
It isn’t so much that this music is bad in itself as much as it is often not suited for liturgical purposes. Perfectly fine for a coffeehouse, but not the liturgy. Or, as in the case when some it might be suited for such purposes, is done in exclusion of traditional hymns of the past.
Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), no champion of liturgical banality states:
“Thus instead of ‘church music’–which is banished to cathedrals for special occasions–we only have ‘utility music, songs, easy melodies, catchy tunes…In questioning this approach, we are not, of course, opposing the efforts being made to encourage the whole congregation to sing , nor are we against ‘utility music’ in itself. But what we must is the exclusivity which insists on that music alone and which is justified neither by the Council nor by pastoral necessity.” (The Ratzinger Report pp.128-129 emphasis in the original)
I have seen the use of both more older traditional hymns alongside the newer hymns ala Music Issue, Oregon Catholic Press to good effect in some parishes here in the San Diego area. Unfortunately, Gregorian Chant is virtually non existent, despite the fact that the Second Vatican II, taking its cue from the reform efforts of Pope St. Pius X, called for a greater restoration of Gregorian Chant, that it was to have “pride of place.” But the reality is that you are more likely to hear Gregorian Chant as background music in a New Age coffeehouse than a Catholic parish–and that’s a travesty!!
However, this problem is not at all unique to the post Vatican II Church. Before he became Pope Pius X, Bishop Sarto according to Cardinal Ratzinger/B16, “As Bishop of Mantua and patriarch of Venice he had fought against the operatic church music that was dominant in Italy at that time.” (A New Song for the Lord pg. 131)
Perhaps we can move past the “bitch fest” aspect of this subject that so often dominates Internet posts towards a real honest discussion. Otherwise, I think we are not only wasting our time but doing more harm than good.
Eagle’s Wings! My main problem with 70’s hippie folk hymns is that one way or another they always end up being about me – what God does for me – or worse yet, what I do for God. In Mass, I want to sing hymns about the greatness of God. A hymn like How Great Thou Art really makes me understand how God inhabits praise.
“The Supper of the Lord” – that’s the name I was trying to think of, when Jack said “Disney” hymns. Every time I hear that one, I picture Belle singing it to a candlestick or something. I’m convinced that it actually is a Disney song.
Greg – I agree that conversations like this can turn harmful, but I think they can be beneficial too. It’s contrary to human nature to pretend that all music is equal, but that’s kind of what our politeness moves us to do every week at church. It’s as natural to say “I don’t like that song” as it is to say “I like this one”. Then again, the invitation to applaud a choir at church opens the door to booing them, in my book. (That was a semi-jest.)
There’s a deeper issue, that hymns are not just for our pleasure. They’re also for worshipping God, and for elevating us to the state of mind to properly do so. And there’s also the question of propiety: some hymns may be appropriate for worship, but better suited for informal worship settings. There are a lot of issues here.
Antidote music.
Just saw a schedule from EWTN for a two hour concert on Sunday. I made a double check on the cable tv guide, which shows a change to 1 hr. 15min. due to Rio de Janeiro coverage beginning at 2:45.
July 28th at 1:30 – 2:45 EST
A tribute to Joseph Haydn at Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt on the 200th anniversary of his death, which appears to be ‘The Creation’.
Pinky is right to remind us of the elevating power of music.
As Bl John Henry Newman says, “To speak of an idea or a subject seems to be fanciful or trifling, to speak of the views which it opens upon us to be childish extravagance; yet is it possible that that inexhaustible evolution and disposition of notes, so rich yet so simple, so intricate yet so regulated, so various yet so majestic, should be a mere sound, which is gone and perishes? Can it be that those mysterious stirrings {347} of heart, and keen emotions, and strange yearnings after we know not what, and awful impressions from we know not whence, should be wrought in us by what is unsubstantial, and comes and goes, and begins and ends in itself? It is not so; it cannot be. No; they have escaped from some higher sphere; they are the outpourings of eternal harmony in the medium of created sound; they are echoes from our Home; they are the voice of Angels, or the Magnificat of Saints, or the living laws of Divine Governance, or the Divine Attributes; something are they besides themselves, which we cannot compass, which we cannot utter,—though mortal man, and he perhaps not otherwise distinguished above his fellows, has the gift of eliciting them.”
Canticle of the Sun (I can’t believe it hasn’t been mentioned already). I am convinced that Asissi does not have earthquakes, but rather earthquakes are blamed everytime St. Francis rolls over in his grave at that trite little neo-pagan ditty being ascribed to or inspired by his prayer of the same name. We may endure songs with lyrics about singing. We may endure songs with lyrics about dancing. But when you have a song with lyrics about singing, and dancing, and “playing in the fields” you have hit the trifecta of trite.
In Scotland, there is a great tradition of congregational singing. No choir or instruments, each line is introduced by the precentor and repeated by the congregation.
The more traditional Presbyterians eschew hymns, using only metrical versions of the psalms and the canticles of the Old and New Testaments.
Here is an example from a wedding reception on the isle of Harris:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd4nDXXyuS
I hve heard them sung on the quayside, by women gutting herring.
Some of the melodies are at least as old as the Irish Mission of the sixth century, and may well be older than that; some of the harmonies are Byzantine. They were preserved down to the Reformation in the Culdee Houses that never adopted the Roman psalmody.
MPS-
Thanks!
🙂
Pinky:
I didn’t say that Internet discussions of this subject cannot be beneficial, but that they are almost always, not beneficial. While Schutte, Landry, Manion, O’Connor et al are by no means above criticism, merely throwing rocks at them misses the mark by a country mile. Such criticisms so so clicheish, it seems clear that those who make them have clue as to what they are talking about. They are just parroting what someone else said.
I don’t believe the Holy Father, bishop or any Catholic in good standing would approve of a site and or blog which starts out by asking which song they “hate,” the most. Why must we begin a discussion asking what, who we hate the most? Why do we need to examine how the cup is half empty rather than half full. While civil discussions should be welcome, who are these people who find the need to judge using the word, “hate” rather than asking for God’s wisdom rather than a small, judgmental group, using soundbites to support a particular viewpoint.