Wow. I’m hardly a fan of much of the music the author speaks of (I have been known to do a scathing parody of “Be Not Afraid”), but clearly his personal experiences have made him incredibly bitter. I suspect this angry superiority has tainted his interactions with his priests and with others at his parishes, and has much to do with his unemployment.
Ice cream and candy? Yes. But a good church musician weaves in the ice cream with healthy doses of other, more nourishing forms of music. Everyone benefits– the congregation hears the music they love AND learns NEW music to love. Flaunting your exalted musical superiority over a congregation with little or no musical education isn’t going to help them learn anything new. It’s just going to piss them off.
Music is a MINISTRY, and part of that MINISTRY is outreach. In this case, outreach involves finding ways to engage and involve the average guy/gal in the pews, and to help enrich their worship experience. I’m guessing that no one’s worship experience is enriched when there’s a stream of bile coming from the organ bench.
I’ve sung under two extremely well-known Catholic church musicians; both have published (one extensively) with GIA. And both knew how to balance the music and make it a win for everyone. I sang Haugen that made my toes curl in pain (and the congregation loved it) and then turned around and sang Palestrina or Bach (and the congregation loved that, too).
The author really needs to take a deep breath and get over himself.
(I’m not even going to touch his rant on “inclusive language” and “feminist theology.” There’s a reason I’m not Catholic any more, thank you very much.)
(I should also note I’m not a fan of GIA. They run like the mafia. But that’s not the point here.)
Great commmentary. We’re trying to walk the fine line with the GIA hymnal that we’re stuck with at St Nicholas, and the 1982 Hymnal that we brought over from Holy Innocents, and other music that Mary brings in. She’s a music educator and knows a lot of what she’s talking about, but I’m not going to hand her a print out of that page, because it would be like giving dynamite to the Mad Musical Bomber. I’m trying to avoid the kind of long-standing conflict suffered by Catholic parishes between the “traditional mass” people and the “contemporary worship” people. I already stuck my foot in it when I started discussing “On Eagles’ Wings” and a fellow choir member piped up with “Oh! I love…” just as I said I hoped we wouldn’t sing it too much, because it was my least favorite “new” hymn of all. Her face fell and I felt like “oops, that just emphasised the differences between us, way to go.” She’s a St Nick person, and we’re still trying to make it a seamless fit, but have a ways to go. Music is one of the points where there is potential for problems.
There are some things that we’ve sung out of “Gather,” and I’m the first to admit that I actually like singing “One Bread One Body” because it’s kind of our signature tune as a merged parish. By the time we got through “On Eagles’ Wings” I was satisfied that we had done it well enough to please the people that love it, and not badly enough to keep me from gagging and making surreptitious “Mr Yuk” faces during the break between verse and refrain.
I browsed other, similar sites the other day, and I was ASTOUNDED that some people will refuse to sing something because in their very narrow interpretation, the words are “heresy.” They rise and stand in silent protest, hoping that other people will see them and also refuse to sing. They’re always disappointed to see everyone else around them, happily joining in “because they don’t know any better.”
Um. Some of them didn’t want to sing something purely because the musician was not Catholic. This was pointed out in some comments to be absurd; did they stop going to church just because some of the construction workers probably weren’t members of the Faith?
I have to be kind of careful when we sing something, because the choir faces the congregation in our current configuration (the seating config changes with the season, you really must stop by sometime). I can’t be caught rolling my eyes when something I don’t much like to sing comes up! 😉
There’s a full choral version of “Eagle’s Wings” that we’d do occasionally at my old church. It even split into seven or eight parts here and there. It was like an uber-cheesy, ultra-smarmy way to Give The People What They Want.
It brought the freaking house down, every time. It was dreadful. But something about doing an absolutely over-the-top version made it palatable, and almost fun. (I have no problem with a little emotional manipulation every now and then!)
I could handle singing that if it was a bunch of parts and really gooshy accompaniment.
We were working on a setting tonight (AFTER the labyrinth thing, we had a full-on choir rehearsal for another 90 minutes,yeesh) of “When Jesus Wept.” It’s a very simple round from the hymnal, but this arrangement was more complicated andit added all kinds of tension between the high and low voices that resolves in a satisfyingly dramatic fashion.
Mary’s threatened to make us learn something called…Durufle? Doufle’? The name is familiar. In 8 parts. Oh, my.
Durufle is wonderful. His Requiem is absolutely heartstopping– once you are able to hear what he’s getting at.
Also, the Durufle “Ubi Caritas” is something of an old faithful for me, but it’s so lovely that I never really get tired of it. It has a gorgeous alto line– not fancy by any description, but absolutely lovely. And the “amen” at the end is possibly one of my two favorite amens in all of church music.
I think it was the “Ubi Caritas” that she dangled all carrot-like on a stick.
By the way, I think Douglas is going to borrow some of your handbells for some nefarious project Mary has up her angel sleeves. They will be returned only after the surrender of a suitable amount of chocolate, I think.
What interesting stuff do you have coming up? In Holy Week, and in general?
We have a pretty standard Holy Week program– and I’m going to miss all of it. I have a meeting on the left coast Weds through Friday, and am staying overnight Friday to visit with a friend. Then I fly home Saturday (alllll day Saturday, since it’s from CA– I actually used my miles to attempt an upgrade because ICK four hours in a plane) so I can sing Easter.
::sigh:: Really bad planning on the meeting scheduling, as that week is also Passover. And I absolutely love Holy Week; it’s where I sort of sink into the waiting and the quiet and get ready for the bursting joy of Easter. I’m going to miss all that now.
I may attend some Good Friday services with my friend and her family, but it won’t be the same.
My life frees up, schedule-wise, after Easter. We should get together.
Wow. I’m hardly a fan of much of the music the author speaks of (I have been known to do a scathing parody of “Be Not Afraid”), but clearly his personal experiences have made him incredibly bitter. I suspect this angry superiority has tainted his interactions with his priests and with others at his parishes, and has much to do with his unemployment.
Ice cream and candy? Yes. But a good church musician weaves in the ice cream with healthy doses of other, more nourishing forms of music. Everyone benefits– the congregation hears the music they love AND learns NEW music to love. Flaunting your exalted musical superiority over a congregation with little or no musical education isn’t going to help them learn anything new. It’s just going to piss them off.
Music is a MINISTRY, and part of that MINISTRY is outreach. In this case, outreach involves finding ways to engage and involve the average guy/gal in the pews, and to help enrich their worship experience. I’m guessing that no one’s worship experience is enriched when there’s a stream of bile coming from the organ bench.
I’ve sung under two extremely well-known Catholic church musicians; both have published (one extensively) with GIA. And both knew how to balance the music and make it a win for everyone. I sang Haugen that made my toes curl in pain (and the congregation loved it) and then turned around and sang Palestrina or Bach (and the congregation loved that, too).
The author really needs to take a deep breath and get over himself.
(I’m not even going to touch his rant on “inclusive language” and “feminist theology.” There’s a reason I’m not Catholic any more, thank you very much.)
(I should also note I’m not a fan of GIA. They run like the mafia. But that’s not the point here.)
Great commmentary. We’re trying to walk the fine line with the GIA hymnal that we’re stuck with at St Nicholas, and the 1982 Hymnal that we brought over from Holy Innocents, and other music that Mary brings in. She’s a music educator and knows a lot of what she’s talking about, but I’m not going to hand her a print out of that page, because it would be like giving dynamite to the Mad Musical Bomber. I’m trying to avoid the kind of long-standing conflict suffered by Catholic parishes between the “traditional mass” people and the “contemporary worship” people. I already stuck my foot in it when I started discussing “On Eagles’ Wings” and a fellow choir member piped up with “Oh! I love…” just as I said I hoped we wouldn’t sing it too much, because it was my least favorite “new” hymn of all. Her face fell and I felt like “oops, that just emphasised the differences between us, way to go.” She’s a St Nick person, and we’re still trying to make it a seamless fit, but have a ways to go. Music is one of the points where there is potential for problems.
There are some things that we’ve sung out of “Gather,” and I’m the first to admit that I actually like singing “One Bread One Body” because it’s kind of our signature tune as a merged parish. By the time we got through “On Eagles’ Wings” I was satisfied that we had done it well enough to please the people that love it, and not badly enough to keep me from gagging and making surreptitious “Mr Yuk” faces during the break between verse and refrain.
I browsed other, similar sites the other day, and I was ASTOUNDED that some people will refuse to sing something because in their very narrow interpretation, the words are “heresy.” They rise and stand in silent protest, hoping that other people will see them and also refuse to sing. They’re always disappointed to see everyone else around them, happily joining in “because they don’t know any better.”
Um. Some of them didn’t want to sing something purely because the musician was not Catholic. This was pointed out in some comments to be absurd; did they stop going to church just because some of the construction workers probably weren’t members of the Faith?
I have to be kind of careful when we sing something, because the choir faces the congregation in our current configuration (the seating config changes with the season, you really must stop by sometime). I can’t be caught rolling my eyes when something I don’t much like to sing comes up! 😉
There’s a full choral version of “Eagle’s Wings” that we’d do occasionally at my old church. It even split into seven or eight parts here and there. It was like an uber-cheesy, ultra-smarmy way to Give The People What They Want.
It brought the freaking house down, every time. It was dreadful. But something about doing an absolutely over-the-top version made it palatable, and almost fun. (I have no problem with a little emotional manipulation every now and then!)
I could handle singing that if it was a bunch of parts and really gooshy accompaniment.
We were working on a setting tonight (AFTER the labyrinth thing, we had a full-on choir rehearsal for another 90 minutes,yeesh) of “When Jesus Wept.” It’s a very simple round from the hymnal, but this arrangement was more complicated andit added all kinds of tension between the high and low voices that resolves in a satisfyingly dramatic fashion.
Mary’s threatened to make us learn something called…Durufle? Doufle’? The name is familiar. In 8 parts. Oh, my.
Durufle is wonderful. His Requiem is absolutely heartstopping– once you are able to hear what he’s getting at.
Also, the Durufle “Ubi Caritas” is something of an old faithful for me, but it’s so lovely that I never really get tired of it. It has a gorgeous alto line– not fancy by any description, but absolutely lovely. And the “amen” at the end is possibly one of my two favorite amens in all of church music.
I think it was the “Ubi Caritas” that she dangled all carrot-like on a stick.
By the way, I think Douglas is going to borrow some of your handbells for some nefarious project Mary has up her angel sleeves. They will be returned only after the surrender of a suitable amount of chocolate, I think.
What interesting stuff do you have coming up? In Holy Week, and in general?
We have a pretty standard Holy Week program– and I’m going to miss all of it. I have a meeting on the left coast Weds through Friday, and am staying overnight Friday to visit with a friend. Then I fly home Saturday (alllll day Saturday, since it’s from CA– I actually used my miles to attempt an upgrade because ICK four hours in a plane) so I can sing Easter.
::sigh:: Really bad planning on the meeting scheduling, as that week is also Passover. And I absolutely love Holy Week; it’s where I sort of sink into the waiting and the quiet and get ready for the bursting joy of Easter. I’m going to miss all that now.
I may attend some Good Friday services with my friend and her family, but it won’t be the same.
My life frees up, schedule-wise, after Easter. We should get together.