A Popular View Of Sacred Music
  • Ted
    Posts: 201
    I came across this old article on what makes music sacred to an apparently Protestant minister in response to a music minister's question. Although there is so much to disagree with, what struck me is that this article presents a succinct summary of arguments that one often hears in Catholic parishes! What also struck me is that it is almost impossible to argue against these because my very presuppositions are so different from the minister's, as we live in different musical worlds, if not, as it were, worlds with our own worldviews quite opposed to each other in many ways.
    I thought I would suggest this for discussion if for no other reason than to seek suggestions as to how to reconcile the worldviews at this juncture in Catholicism which seems headed more and more towards an unofficial schism.

    http://www.jmm.org.au/articles/8564.htm
    Thanked by 1Casavant Organist
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    Even in the somber monotone of a sacred chant there are harmonic vibrations that the ear can’t hear.


    Somber monotone?

    Like...

    RECTO TONO PROPERS?

    There are secret vibrations?

    This all gives one a reason for pause. Are the secret vibrations of chant too scandalous for liturgy?

    If a chant vibrates, but your ear didn't hear it, did it make a sound?

    SO MANY QUESTIONS
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    Your link is 2003-Jan-5.

    This one is 2001-Mar-4.
    http://www.born2serve.org/email/music_email.html

    If we keep digging (feed Google with random fragments in quotes)
    then maybe we will discover an earlier internet copy.

    ***EDIT***
    Be sure to scroll down to [Editors Response] for rebuttals.
  • "... If those monks from the Medieval period could have heard them they would have freaked out." haha.
  • RECTO TONO PROPERS?

    There are secret vibrations?


    "Rossini's got good vibrations/we're givin' him good citations . . ."
    Thanked by 1melofluent
  • Earl_GreyEarl_Grey
    Posts: 890
    Slide guitar...that's what my praise band is missing...
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    our entrance song this past sunday

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Eab_beh07HU
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    In the article which Ted cited, "Reverend J" claims that Luther got the melody of "Ein feste Burg" from the taverns, though that doesn't seem likely.

    For a long time the conventional attribution of the tune was to Luther himself, and scholarship for the past fifty years at least has attributed the tune to Johann Walter (the elder), Hofkapellmeister of the Prince of Saxony until 1547. (For example, this German page cites a 1985 scholarly work; and this letter to The Tablet expressed the same view in 1961, citing a Lutheran scholar.)
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,150
    I'd be tempted to say something about thread drift/hijacking here, but I won't. Or did I just do it, too?
  • "Reverend J" claims that Luther got the melody of "Ein feste Burg" from the taverns, though that doesn't seem likely.


    Better than getting it from the place where he formulated most of his theology . . .
    Thanked by 1CharlesW