Most of the seventies are half a century in the past now, and Catholics are still subjected to endless repetition of banal hymns from that decade and the sixties.
Yep
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
“Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”
Jesus was talking about earthly matters, not eternal truths. Only the unchangeable Sovereign of heaven and earth has authority over Truth, perfect Love and God.
Thomas Jefferson did not invent separation of church and state. God did
II
The good son did not rejoice with his father over the return of the Prodigal son. The good son’s celebration would be joyless.
III
The Holy Eucharist is God thanking man for appreciating and accepting our existence at His creation of man. And man retuning our thanksgiving to God for His creation of us. Love is a two way street. The miracle is that God Himself loves us.
The parish of my youth was the typical Spirit of Vatican II place, and especially true with the bitter with life, yelling at the world old boomer lesbian as the Liturgist/Musical Director. It was all I knew forever, and I took it for granted then.
Things changed with pastors willing to slowly alter things and by 2012-13, we had a very reverent Novus Ordo. The older folks (like my parents) screamed bloody murder but the Fathers stayed the course.
Irony, though, I leave the DC area in 2021 and settle on the Eastern Shore, and our parish now. Hippy dippy time-warp back to 1993. Same music, same messages as then. The music is catechetical, positively or negatively.
A big problem is the music directors. Some are older than Clive’s tortoise and as territorial as an Ulsterman. They play a couple of dozen songs from their youth and use them again and again, ignoring any grumbling (if the pastor allows any). Woe betide the young singer of good voice who wants to give something new a shot!
How about Joy To The World sung at a summer Mass? It happened.
Now everyone up on the altar has to be in investments, which looks nice and respectful. I see the Deacon’s hand in that.
Coming as a convert from evangelical protestantism, the “music” aspect of parish life was one of the most grating aspects. Say what you want about the megachurch “worship” services, they at least go all in on the artistry and performance so that it’s not a complete cringe-fest.
Although, to be fair, I experienced just as cringey music in smaller churches before I converted, and just as many issues with people involved in the music having their little fiefdoms, so I think it’s at least in part an American and generational phenomenon.
The odd thing to me about the Catholic side is how strong a grip (at least in the US) the music publishers seem to have. I’ve been to small and large parishes, and it’s largely the same GIA or OCP stuff, and even with better musicians it all sounds roughly the same (that is, awful). In the small evangelical churches you’d be just as likely to find a kid with a guitar doing the latest “worship” songs as some older lady banging out the four bar hymns from old hymn books.
I think the “worship” music side of things decided to basically go all in on the performance aspect, which means if you have a good musician, the music will be good, regardless of congregational participation. On the Catholic side, I’ve noticed that a lot of the music from these publishers purports to be for congregational participation, but in actuality is very difficult for such a thing. The tied-notes, the inconsistent meter, the weird intervals; all of these are tough for a group of people to sing together to. I’ve noticed that most of the time even the musicians struggle with it, which makes it a complete train wreck.
True, some chant (like the graduals and tracts/alleluias) is pretty challenging, but it’s not pretending to be for the congregation to sing. Other chant like the ordinary is usually very easy to pick up.
“I’ve been to small and large parishes, and it’s largely the same GIA or OCP stuff, and even with better musicians it all sounds roughly the same (that is, awful). In the small evangelical churches you’d be just as likely to find a kid with a guitar doing the latest “worship” songs as some older lady banging out the four bar hymns from old hymn books”
Blame the copyright laws at least in part. The other problem is that it is a small pool of people that are typically volunteers in most parishes and this is all they know. If you do have an organ which lends itself to traditional music, finding people that can play it is also a challenge. Most parishes can’t afford to pay a full-time music director. Many of the people that do volunteer are frustrated music artists. If you’re lucky enough to be in a parish that can afford to pay a full-time music director, perhaps you can encourage them to play different kinds of music at different masses and let those in the pews self select the kind of music they like.
My personal List of Dreadful Catholic Church Songs:
1) “All Are Welcome” – sounds like a Kindergarten marching song, with equally insipid lyrics.
2) “Gather Us In” – sounds like a sea shanty, with really bad lyrics.
3) “Amazing Grace” – sounds like a dirge, and *way* overused after 9/11, which is not a pleasant memory for me.
4) “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” – by Martin Luther. Enough said.
5) “All the Earth” – a formerly rather lovely hymn of my Catholic grade school days, which was viciously rewritten to reflect political correctness and to remove any mention of God as a male. Which is extremely annoying and objectionable, IMHO.
My personal favorites:
1) “Here I Am, Lord” – a pleasing melody with lyrics directly lifted from Scripture,
2) “O Sacrament Most Holy”
3) “O God Beyond All Praising” – splendid score from Gustav Holst
4) “I Vow to Thee, My Country” – ditto. Both patriotic and spiritual.
5) “I Wonder as I Wander” – Christmas Gospel-inspired hymn, beautiful if sung a capella. Underused.
6) “Ave Verum”
7) “Panis Angelicus”
8) “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name”
Nobody has to agree with me. Just my two cents.
I prefer plainchant, and would prefer it done a capella. You seldom hear it. In parishes where I’ve clocked it, about 85% of the musical selections are those composed after 1965.
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I assume in all parishes, there’s a constituency for dreck on the parish council.