What our "Catholic Music" has done
  • SarahJ
    Posts: 54
    Attended an Episcopal parish where they sang “Here I Am Lord”. I was disappointed. My husband had never heard that song before and I think he was downright horrified. It sounds like children’s music (bad children’s music, at that).
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Sarah,

    Are you (or is your husband) an Episcopalian? I'm asking because Episcopalians with any sense of beautiful music have been horrified by the sewage, but some have decided to make peace with it anyway. Catholics made peace with sewage some time before Vatican II.
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,467
    The songwriter had no great expectations of it - https://aleteia.org/2018/05/10/the-story-of-how-the-hymn-here-i-am-lord-came-to-be/
    Thanked by 1Ted
  • Ted
    Posts: 204
    This is just an observation, not an opinion. Because I was not certain what some of these hymns mentioned above sounded like, I went to Youtube. The comments there were rather interesting as almost all of them were very complementary of the hymns. For instance for The Summons:
    "I love this song so much!!! We sang it during chapel today, and it moved me so much. I forgot all about my school work and my friends and continue on worshiping God. I love it."
    For Here I am Lord:
    "This is one of the most powerful hymns I have heard. This was one of the reasons I became active in my parish."
    I can go on and on for various Haugen hymns also.

    There is a stark contrast between the negative attitude in this post towards these hymns and the overwhelming positive response of ordinary folks on Youtube to them that perhaps explains the popularity of these hymns in almost all NO parishes in English speaking North America.

    So I have to ask the big question, is this all a matter of "taste" or are there any apodictic principles to be considered here to favour one over the other?


  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Ted,

    No, it's not just a matter of taste, with the ordinary folk liking what we elitist snobs can not abide.

    I enjoy the music of W.S. Gilbert, in his operettas, but I wouldn't find any of it appropriate for Mass. Imagine singing "For it's greatly to his credit.... that he is an Englishman" at any point in Mass! Advertising jingles are good as...advertising jingles, not as music to worship God.

    Beyond all that, however, there are prescribed texts to be sung at Mass, and the group you mention either fail the text or the appropriate music test.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,092
    This reminds me of a dear friend of mine who, having spent years as an accompanist to and sometimes singer with Catholic parish choirs, encountered HIAL in his sister's Methodist chapel - being done at a nearly martial tempo and in an arrangement that sounded, well, not entirely afield of common Methodist SATB hymn praxis.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    @Ted
    overwhelming positive response of ordinary folks
    They are not ordinary folks, they are a small self selecting subset of the population. Other subsets of the population with different ideas are not so vocal.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 708
    I don't know if this falls into this discussion but we sang this for offertory today: "Without seeing you, we love you; without touching you, we embrace; without knowing you, we follow; without seeing you, we believe" it's the refrain to a "Eucharistic" hymn. Is this what Catholic music has done or what it has become?

    I was going to post this in another discussion about "what I heard today at church which was funny" but I thought maybe it belongs in this discussion since it seems we discussing what our Catholic music has done. As I was singing this, I wondered how or why I would want to follow someone I don't know? I can clearly see Jesus Christ on the cross, I can see Him in the Blessed Sacrament.
    Thanked by 1Carol
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Don,

    I don't know the piece, but it sounds (from the text you provide and from your description) narcissistic and anthropocentric, neither of which is suitable to the worship of God, but which is a fairly accurate description of what our music has become. "Funny" in the sense of "odd", or "I'd rather laugh because the alternative is to cry."
    Thanked by 1Don9of11
  • MarkB
    Posts: 1,079
    We don't see Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. We see the accidental forms of bread and wine; the substance of Christ is inaccessible to the senses.

    The song "Without Seeing You" is by David Haas and is in the Gather hymnals. Haas took a lot of sentimental liberties with the 1 Peter 1:8 text that it is allegedly based on.
    Thanked by 1Don9of11
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 708
    MarkB, I see Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, on the Cross, in paintings, statues, in the Priest just to name a few. I know Christ through confession, communion and so on. I just think music directors need to pay closer attention.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,185
    Pay close attention: præstet fides supplementum sensuum defectui.
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