Use of automatic drum beat, or automatic rhythm/bass to accompany liturgical singing
  • romano
    Posts: 1
    Can the use of automatic drum beat, or automatic rhythm/bass be permitted to accompany liturgical singing? It is said by some that the youth and the modern generation are drawn to singing with such music. Is there any document of the church prohibiting this explicitly?
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    I should add that this post was sent to me on email, and it refers to a situation in India, I believe.
  • JamJam
    Posts: 636
    Pre-recorded music is expressly forbidden, is it not? Doesn't this fall under the same category?
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    In some situations it becomes a pastoral decision. There are places where there are no organists.

    Coming from India, there are certain styles of indian music that involve percussion that are prayerful.

    But if it is to be used not as part of an indigenous art form, but rather so that young singers can be attracted to sing AWESOME GOD, then it's AWESOMELY NOT permitted.

    Unless the pastor buckles under. Hope that this helps.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    I'd call it wrong in any case. The reason for the prohibition on recorded music is that music should be humanly created, which a drum machine doesn't really allow for.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    It might be considered pre-recorded music, if the act of "playing" it consists of merely turning a machine on. Or it might be considered the sound of a synthesizer being played.

    Pre-recorded music and the use of automatic instruments (e.g., a player piano) are expressly forbidden in the 1958 document De musica sacra, paragraph 71. Whether someone who wants to use such "music" will be persuaded by a prohibition in a pre-conciliar liturgical document is another matter.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    So, Gavin, where do you stand on the Sruti?
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    I don't think one has to factor in the unique vagaries of east Indian musical forms that mitigate the use of a drum track; there are likely hundreds of choirs and coros using the style button number assignments for everything from "polka" to "mariachi" to "reggae" to "rhumba" on their Yamahas every Sunday here in the states. As Gavin and chonak rightly point out, that does indeed amount to pre-recorded accompaniment and is thus canonically banned. And that ban would extend even if one were using multi-hundred dollar sampling software and assembling phrase units manually.
    What is a considerable question is whether a truly live sequence, whether using percussion or other digital software is performed, again live, in advance of the real performance as an augmentation. Yes, it would technically be recorded, but it could be also justifiably defended as being actually performed by a live musician.
    In all but the most exotic of cases, I don't see actually doing it as a necessity or adjunct to the forms of music generally discussed here.
  • JamJam
    Posts: 636
    I've seen percussive instruments used well in liturgy. Actually, it was a Coptic Orthodox (non-Chalcedonian) liturgy, and they used hand cymbals during a good long part of the Mass to accompany the chanting. It was very well-done, I think. I don't know if this is the same kind of thing that's going on in India, but what exactly is so difficult about having the percussive instrument played live?
Add a Comment