I read this article some time ago. Essentially, I agree with him. In many Catholic hymnals applying his principles would reduce the volume by half, at least. The hymn I really want to see squelched, stomped, destroyed, and with pain inflicted on the composer is, "Now in This Banquet." That's the silliest piece of music I have ever heard.

I propose a prohibition on such a ridiculous idea as such an index. Once someone says "someone ought to ban _____", I stop listening to what that person has to say.

Realistically, there is not much support out there for such a ban. If the Church is unable to enforce legislation on genuinely serious matters, it's not likely a hymn ban could succeed. Perhaps I should just put a picture of Haugen and company on a dart board. ;-)

Agreed with Aris. I have no objection to a silent Index. I object to the idea that I need to be told not to use "Ashes". I know that. Anyone with two braincells and a catechism can tell that the song promotes falsehood. If someone doesn't have the intellect or integrity to refrain from its use, they're not going to care that Noel Jones told them not to use it.

Time to restore sacred liturgy (or better, 'continuing the Sacred liturgy') by singing Propers of the Mass and reducing the number of sining hymns in Mass, reducing the number of hymns in hymnals, and reduce the number hymnals by secular publishers whose main goal is doing business.
(When I learned to play organ, I loved playing hymns. Organists can do lots of things to make hymns sound great. Some organists might find this is hard to give up. But they can also find more time to learn great organ pieces and other improvisaions, instead of focusing on playing hymns.)

Gavin, our parish school children sing 'Ashes' on Ash Wednesday. I'm not sure whether they really pay attention to the texts or they simply don't know what it means, but they do evey year, and the preists don't say anything. It's in the approved hymnal, how the average parish people can object? Someone has to tell them or ban it from singing in our sacred liturgy. Simply ignoring, because people just do it anyway, is not also an act of charity. At least it will make some people think and/or pay attention to what they are singing.

Recently a parish council member who is the liturgical representative took the my issue of Ashes to the pastor who referred this person to a very learned priest who is roundly respected and on a par with and conversant with Fr. Z.

The answer that was conveyed to me, and that forced the singing of this song, went through the filter in the mind of the parish council member and after that process was: "He said that one must examine the entire work [i'm sure that he would have said oeuvre, so this indicates that the filter was firmly in place] of the person rather than just a bit of his work to determine heresy.

So we were forced to sing it.

"Forgive me for saying this, but I still feel that a lot of Communion Antiphons use the first person "Ego Sum Pastor Bonus" because they are quoting our Savior, Jesus Christ."

Forgiven!

To me this falls under the understanding that the Communion Antiphon was not to be sung by the people, but by singers who have a liturgical position. Just as we should not vocalize Y.....w, we should be prudent and refrain from over use of music that is titled with the letter that falls between H and J, let's call it the H.....j rule.

If there is a more appropriate time to quote the Savior's words than Communion, I am not aware of it.

But the repetition of "And I Will Raise" over and over by the people seats something within them that cheapens and does not have the impact of an ordained Deacon or Priest saying "And He will raise you up."

I've often wondered if I wrote a hymn paraphrase of Arius's hymn "There was a time when he was not" (perhaps in a Latin-American style) and sent it in to OCP.... how much money would I make when they published it?

Could the top 25 list of songs represent what Catholics want to believe?


The List (composer and votes in parentheses):
1. On Eagle's Wings (Michael Joncas, 242)
2. Here I Am, Lord (Dan Schutte, 152)
3. Be Not Afraid (Bob Dufford, 146)
4. You Are Mine (David Haas, 138)
5. How Great Thou Art (Stuart Hine, 76)
6. Holy God, We Praise Thy Name (Ignaz Franz, 70)
7. Amazing Grace (John Newton, 69)
8. All Are Welcome (Marty Haugen, 58)
9. Prayer of St. Francis (Sebastian Temple, 43)
10. Ave Maria (42)
11. We Are Called (David Haas, 38)
12. Let There Be Peace on Earth (Miller-Jackson, 36)
13. I Am the Bread of Life (Suzanne Toolan, 30)
14. The Summons (trad./John Bell, 30)
15. Panis Angelicus (29)
16. The Servant Song (Richard Gillard, 29)
17. Pescador de Hombres (Cesareo Gabarain, 28)
18. Servant Song (Donna McCargill, 28)
19. Shepherd Me, O God (Marty Haugen, 27)
20. Ave Verum Corpus (26)
21. Lord of the Dance (trad./Carter, 24)
22. One Bread, One Body (John Foley, 24)
23. Tantum Ergo (24)
24. Hosea (Gregory Norbet, 23)
25. Pange Lingua (23)

Source: National Pastoral Musicians Association

Apologies, I thought that didn't sound right. At any rate, I think neither of those are professed "heretics". Wait until we get the songs by Hans Kung for that declaration.

Fallacious...I agree, and this priest would never ever present such reasoning....so it had to come through the filter of the person who relayed it all to me.

Sacrosanctum Concilium
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html

B) Norms drawn from the hierarchic and communal nature of the Liturgy

26. Liturgical services are not private functions, but are celebrations of the Church, which is the "sacrament of unity," namely, the holy people united and ordered under their bishops [33]

Therefore liturgical services pertain to the whole body of the Church; they manifest it and have effects upon it; but they concern the individual members of the Church in different ways, according to their differing rank, office, and actual participation.

27. It is to be stressed that whenever rites, according to their specific nature, make provision for communal celebration involving the presence and active participation of the faithful, this way of celebrating them is to be preferred, so far as possible, to a celebration that is individual and quasi-private.

This applies with especial force to the celebration of Mass and the administration of the sacraments, even though every Mass has of itself a public and social nature.

28. In liturgical celebrations each person, minister or layman, who has an office to perform, should do all of, but only, those parts which pertain to his office by the nature of the rite and the principles of liturgy.

29. Servers, lectors commentators, and members of the choir also exercise a genuine liturgical function. They ought, therefore, to discharge their office with the sincere piety and decorum demanded by so exalted a ministry and rightly expected of them by God's people.

Consequently they must all be deeply imbued with the spirit of the liturgy, each in his own measure, and they must be trained to perform their functions in a correct and orderly manner.

30. To promote active participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes. And at the proper times all should observe a reverent silence.

Hymns - metrical texts in stanzas, all set to a single melody - are one genre of song; they appear as an integral part of the Liturgy of the Hours, and are prescribed in the Church's liturgy, according to the liturgical calendar and the particular Office being celebrated within the day.

But they appear nowhere in the Mass. The closest thing to them in the Mass are the sequences, which have multiple stanzas set to a series of melodies.

If I remember right, the options provided by the GIRM do allow "alius cantus aptus" (another suitable 'song' or 'chant') at times. Hymns are a lawful possibility, but the document doesn't specifically recommend that genre. If one were to substitute some non-proper chant for the entrance antiphon (for example), it could still have the structure of an entrance antiphon.

Let's go back to that definition I gave about "hymns". I'm using "hymn" above in a narrow technical sense, to refer to a poem (rhymed or not) with a fixed metrical pattern. For example:

Te lucis ante terminum
Rerum Creator poscimus,
Ut solita clementia
Sis praesul ad custodiam.

That's four lines of eight syllables each; and the next strophe has four lines of eight syllables each.

Te corda nostra somnient;
Te per soporem sentiant;
Tuamque semper gloriam
Vicina luce concinant.

The melody of the second strophe is the same as of the first strophe.

Hymns with that kind of repeating structure are not found in the Roman Mass; but they are in the Office.

Also, that sort of structure is not found in the Byzantine examples you cited (as far as I know). I suppose the structure of the Odes might be comparable to the strict structure of Latin hymns -- is that right? I think the Odes in Byzantine liturgy appear sometimes in the Office; are they also found in the Divine Liturgy?

But there are other analogies we can find between the chants of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy and the Roman Mass. The Great Doxology, in its melody, is like a sequence: the melody changes after every two strophes. The text of the Great Doxology, of course, has much in common with the Western Gloria. "Only-begotten Son" is also comparable to the Gloria: they have free irregular melodies. The Roman Mass propers (entrance, gradual, offertory, communion) are comparable to the Troparia and Kontakia, with their free-form texts and their melodies that have some formulaic and some free elements.

So, yeah, we were using a different definition of "hymn" after all.

The odes are kind of like hymns, and the aposticha, too, but they're not that metrical, really--more like straight chants. Most of the things I think of as "hymns" don't fit your definition.

I think I heard odes sung during Divine Liturgy during Lent/Holy Week. But there are so many services during that time, it is easy for them all to blend together and I get confused trying to remember particulars.

I still think that hymns are a good thing for after the communion proper, if there is a very long communion line (and there should be, sans an army of EMCs!), or during processions. But it would be better to have no hymns at all instead of replacing propers with them.

Here is Musicae Sacrae (1955):

36. We must also hold in honor that music which is not primarily a part of the sacred liturgy, but which by its power and purpose greatly aids religion. This music is therefore rightly called religious music. The Church has possessed such music from the beginning and it has developed happily under the Church's auspices. As experience shows, it can exercise great and salutary force and power on the souls of the faithful, both when it is used in churches during non-liturgical services and ceremonies, or when it is used outside churches at various solemnities and celebrations.

37. The tunes of these hymns, which are often sung in the language of the people, are memorized with almost no effort or labor. The mind grasps the words and the music. They are frequently repeated and completely understood. Hence even boys and girls, learning these sacred hymns at a tender age, are greatly helped by them to know, appreciate and memorize the truths of the faith. Therefore they also serve as a sort of catechism. These religious hymns bring pure and chaste joy to young people and adults during times of recreation. They give a kind of religious grandeur to their more solemn assemblies and gatherings. They bring pious joy, sweet consolation and spiritual progress to Christian families themselves. Hence these popular religious hymns are of great help to the Catholic apostolate and should be carefully cultivated and promoted.

62. As We have said before, besides those things that are intimately associated with the Church's sacred liturgy, there are also popular religious hymns which derive their origin from the liturgical chant itself. Most of these are written in the language of the people. Since these are closely related to the mentality and temperament of individual national groups, they differ considerably among themselves according to the character of different races and localities.

63. If hymns of this sort are to bring spiritual fruit and advantage to the Christian people, they must be in full conformity with the doctrine of the Catholic faith. They must also express and explain that doctrine accurately. Likewise they must use plain language and simple melody and must be free from violent and vain excess of words. Despite the fact that they are short and easy, they should manifest a religious dignity and seriousness. When they are fashioned in this way these sacred canticles, born as they are from the most profound depths of the people's soul, deeply move the emotions and spirit and stir up pious sentiments. When they are sung at religious rites by a great crowd of people singing as with one voice, they are powerful in raising the minds of the faithful to higher things.

64. As we have written above, such hymns cannot be used in Solemn High Masses without the express permission of the Holy See. Nevertheless at Masses that are not sung solemnly these hymns can be a powerful aid in keeping the faithful from attending the Holy Sacrifice like dumb and idle spectators. They can help to make the faithful accompany the sacred services both mentally and vocally and to join their own piety to the prayers of the priest. This happens when these hymns are properly adapted to the individual parts of the Mass, as We rejoice to know is being done in many parts of the Catholic world.

65. In rites that are not completely liturgical religious hymns of this kind - when, as We have said, they are endowed with the right qualities - can be of great help in the salutary work of attracting the Christian people and enlightening them, in imbuing them with sincere piety and filling them with holy joy. They can produce these effects not only within churches, but outside of them also, especially on the occasion of pious processions and pilgrimages to shrines and at the time of national or international congresses. They can be especially useful, as experience has shown, in the work of instructing boys and girls in Catholic truth, in societies for youth and in meetings of pious associations.

66. Hence We can do no less than urge you, venerable brethren, to foster and promote diligently popular religious singing of this kind in the dioceses entrusted to you. There is among you no lack of experts in this field to gather hymns of this sort into one collection, where this has not already been done, so that all of the faithful can learn them more easily, memorize them and sing them correctly.

67. Those in charge of the religious instruction of boys and girls should not neglect the proper use of these effective aids. Those in charge of Catholic youth should make prudent use of them in the highly important work entrusted to them. Thus there will be hope of happily attaining what everyone desires, namely the disappearance of worldly songs which because of the quality of their melodies or the frequently voluptuous and lascivious words that go with them are a danger to Christians, especially the young, and their replacement by songs that give chaste and pure pleasure, that foster and increase faith and piety.

68. May it thus come about that the Christian people begin even on this earth to sing that song of praise it will sing forever in heaven: "To Him who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever."[25]

69. What we have written thus far applies primarily to those nations where the Catholic religion is already firmly established...

You know, we only sing 5 out of the top 25 at my church. The other 20 we never sing. That tells me we are doing something right.