Your childhood associates in the "Church of Christ" had it right about what the word "denomination" conveys, Jam!

Besides what is in a dictionary definition, "denomination" is a label for Christian communities that vary on the basis of theology, governance, ethnicity, or mere historical accidents, but which are treated as equally legitimate in their right to exist, their authority to preach and to conduct worship, etc. This egalitarianism makes sense within the context of free-church Protestantism, but sweeps aside fundamental questions about the Christian community. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches, because of their teachings on church authority, do not accept the term denomination for themselves.

As for the idea that a full liturgy with elaborate music is "monastic", I doubt that this is a legitimate claim. The slowest-moving music in the Western church, early organum, originated in cathedrals. The orchestral Masses obviously didn't come from the monasteries.

For those with more historical knowledge: does the lack of cathedral canons in US dioceses contribute to our relatively deprived experience of liturgical music?

Repeating from above:

In Salem, Ohio in the 1950's and early 1960's, 10:30 High Mass was sung by men and boys, Gregorian Chant Mass, Propers to the Rossini tunes except for Feasts, which is I why I know Dominus Dixit years and years later.

A gentleman from Youngstown, Ohio came over and started the choir and trained the director AT THE INVITATION OF THE PASTOR. In 1964, in the presence of then teenager Joseph Barry Smith, Director of Music at St. James Cathedral, Brooklyn, NY today, was at the organ when the director collapsed and died while conducting the choir at Mass.

I have the sad news to deliver that the afternoon of December 27th, 2012, Joseph Barry Smith was discovered dead in the choir loft of St. James Cathedral, of an apparent heart attack.

Joe was a very fine musician and a wonderful person.

Prayers, please, for his family.

This is off topic, but those of us that have come out of the church of Christ (Campbellite) into the Church of Christ (Catholic or Orthodox), no longer call call ourselves "non-denominational" but "pre-denominational."