At yesterday's Mass, I heard an OCP hymn with syncopated rhythm and a few interesting chord progressions. Couple that with an instrumentation of electric piano plus flute and "Voilą!" I was momentarily transported back in time to the days when I used to listen to Jethro Tull. The thought of this happening at Mass made me feel ill. I suspect most listeners don't recognize the problem, but if the music you hear reminds you of something secular, then it is secular.
In our previous parish they were very fond of one called "Enter In", which invariably cracked up my children, because it began with the theme from "Jurassic Park". In our present parish there are one or two (I don't remember the names) which structurally and melodically are dead ringers for songs from Disney cartoon features. I'm less impatient than usual with our organist at the moment, however, because yesterday we got to sing "Holy God We Praise Thy Name".
I agree entirely. For an even more horrifying experience, go to a "Life Teens" Mass. What dreck! Our schedule a couple of weeks ago forced me to attend one of these shindigs for the second time in my life. It was every bit as bad as I'd remembered. Down to the "cantor-ess," who seemed to want desperately a career on stage. What was worse was that some of the more smart-alecky teens were clapping in time to the music as a joke. So, if the music isn't reaching the kids, and it's driving the adults batty, why do they still do this nonsense. Someone should at least have the sense to recognize that the Kyrie should not set your toes a tappin'.
I never, ever, on principle, go near any Church function that's designated for youth. I know what to expect, and I have to consider my blood pressure. What I've noticed about folk Masses is that, when they started thirty years ago, the people playing the guitars and tambourines were from my age up to ten years or so older than I was. Whenever I see one now . . . the guitarists and so forth are still my age or up to ten years older. It's the same people! I'm inclined to think that the music at such Masses is chosen to appeal to the middle-aged folkies who still consider themselves "youth".
Elinor, you and I must be about the same age. From the folk Mass I remember thirty years ago, the people playing the guitars were also from my age up to about ten years older. The difference is that, today, those musicians are no longer in the Church. That's my point. Secular music breeds secular thinking.
The age of the folkies is passing. Some kids actually like the older hymns. My son studies the organ and I noticed even some of his peers come up and compliment him after he plays at Mass.
But there are some hymns that should be banned--for either wretched music or horrible lyrics. The OCP psalm settings are awful--I hear a lot of the music ministry bashing the psalm settings. I wonder what the good alternatives are.
Well I'm 23 (I guess that's fairly young) and sing in my church choir at the 9:30 mass. I think that there's a good mix of things in our repetoire, about 50% of what we sing is in latin, and the rest 25% from the early 19th century in english and the rest is possibly newer.
I think we need to rmemeber that "new" music can be reverent and sacred, it's really all in that particular pieces attempt.
Cantique De Jean Racine is my all time favorite.
Uh, oh- sacred music: another topic that makes me type furiously on blogs. As another Mid-Period Baby Boomer, who remained in the Church solely by the grace of God and the prayers of a devout mother and maternal grandmother, my adolescent
(aka youthful lib) years were spent at many a Hootenany Mass. As a participant in the Charismatic Renewal for more than 20 years, I was able to test-market most of the hymns written post Vatican II worth warbling. With drying up of Renewal, new church music populated by swill like Enter In, Gather Us In. Or variations thereof. Will take another 20 years or so for OCP to purge ditties of this generation from its hymnals. Will take redhot younguns schooled at Steubenville, Christendom, Ave Maria, Thomas Aquinas, etc. to get the job done. Or maybe we surviving Baby Boomers are putting too much on their shoulders- since the absence of first-rate liturgical music is apparently in inverse proportion to the rate of legal abortions. Just a thought.
Jo --
The alternatives are chanting the psalms a capella to psalm tones.
It is easier, it is more beautiful, it is more reverent, it is more authentic and the congregation will SING.