This is a disaster
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,478
    We need for everyone to be aware of this "Catholic Music Initiative".
    When I was a seminary professor, someone invited the group to offer music at mass. I will not forget the piano player banging on the piano in his bare feet.

    https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/inbox/id/AQMkADAwATYwMAItODQwYi0yMDM0LTAwAi0wMAoARgAAA5fjq4Mh93hKqhzBdG6K6PkHAIFDKNaMvf9IuHqwR3CDaGEAAAIBDAAAAIFDKNaMvf9IuHqwR3CDaGEAB6N7PAEAAAA=
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  • MarkB
    Posts: 1,061
    The link doesn't work. I'm interested to see or hear what you want us to after you fix the link.

    Catholic Music Initiative led the music at the National Eucharistic Congress stadium sessions.

    There are plenty of liturgical disasters. Consider this pic showing regularly scheduled "pajama Masses" at a well-known Jesuit university in Los Angeles.

    image
    LMU pajama Mass.png
    2563 x 2959 - 9M
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  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,965
    EEEEK! What next?
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 606
    My eyes.
    Thanked by 2tomjaw CharlesW
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,478
    The Catholic Music Initiative is very deceptive. They are riding on the resurgency of Traditional Catholic Music, and advertising themselves as such. However, they are NOT trained musicians - I am not aware of any musical training they have recieved -and the qaulity of thier presentaion is simply awful and amateur. However, they are fooling those that do not know better.
    As I mentioned, they were invited many times to the seminary where I was faculty. After awhile, the seminarians and staff realized how awful they were...including the piano banging in bare feet. Everything of course is blasted through mics.

    https://www.eucharisticcongress.org/congress-speakers/dave-moore
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  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,447
    Lauren Moore founded Catholic Music Initiative alongside her husband Dave. With a background in vocal performance from Texas A&M Corpus Christi and The University of Texas at Austin, Lauren has sung and directed in over a thousand recordings. Her unique crossover Soprano style blends opera, chant, and popular expressions, reflecting her commitment to orienting God's people towards divine worship.
    Ugh! Lauren Moore has training and talent as a performer, but as it is 'unique' it cannot be a useful example. And anyway the church doesn't want either operatic or pop forms at Mass because these focus on the performer, not on God.
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  • MarkB
    Posts: 1,061
    Yes, so much of the "recording artist" model of liturgical music leadership that is in vogue among the Steubenville and OCP artists borrows heavily from Evangelical Protestant megachurch acts such as Hillsong. It's not Catholic.

    I think many of those people wish they could be secular pop recording artists who tour to perform in sports stadiums and record platinum-selling EPs, but they settle for what they can get, and the Church's liturgy suffers as a result.

    I attended a prominent conference at which the LifeTeen-Steubenville-Catholic Music Initiative model of music -- loudly amplified soloist/recording artist on a NORD keyboard playing sacropop with bass, elec guitar and cello -- prevailed during the Masses and Eucharistic adoration.

    It's not a good model. It's not fulfilling the Church's norms for liturgical music. But it's widespread.
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  • Reval
    Posts: 185
    https://youtu.be/3iigPXUpcjg?si=FkPZS3GFWXbiQzGX
    This reminds me of a Sarah Brightman style performance.
  • davido
    Posts: 921
    The music is so bland. At least the St Louis Jesuits and Marty Haugen had fun rhythms
    Thanked by 1a_f_hawkins
  • lmassery
    Posts: 422
    Here is where the CMI can be used as a bridge that only goes in one direction: They make classic hymns such as "Be thou my vision", "O God beyond all Praising", and "Let all mortal flesh keep silence", seem hip enough for your lifeteen or P&W groups to use. They do so by presenting them in a secular style. So they have no appeal to those already playing those hymns on the organ with a choir. But these are objectively better songs than much of the P&W repertoire.
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,837
    As is not uncommon, I think MarkB hits the nail on the head:

    The problem is that this initiative is not at all in keeping with the mind of the church, liturgical tradition, or even regulated norms.

    Yes, it’s better than purely secular music, but it is merely a thin religious veneer applied to fundamentally secular music (which was resolutely condemned by Pope St. Pius X). It is great for driving in the car, mopping the kitchen, going for a jog… but not for formal corporate liturgy. I do not hate this music in se but I do when it is manifest at a liturgy, or parading as a legitimate option for liturgical music.
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  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,208
    In some ways we are spinning around after Fr Smith’s article (@chonak did he retract the first?? It is no longer found at the Chant Café.)

    I have some thoughts for another time and place, but while being attracted to reverent things is good, it’s not the whole story, and stopping at things which are aesthetically pleasing is odd, because it shows that while they are important (I firmly urge priests to call the ICRSP in Chicago and arrange for boot camp; learn Benediction etc. in the Roman way even if you no longer can do the TLM and such publicly) they are not the most important reason to be attracted to the usus antiquior.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,196
    His article about "praise and worship" music? It's still there. You can use the search box on the site to find it.

    https://chantcafe.com
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,208
    Well the article is not there, as it got moved from the blog, and quite a few links are now dead (including in his belated follow-up article) as a result of something which, given that it is still on the internet, was not particularly wise IMHO — it's not like the site got shut down or moved to a new home in a complicated way. Anyway it was much harder to find than I imagined it would be…
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  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,391
    BANALITY
    We shall all die - and we shall all die under the dead, suffocating weight of mediocrity..
    ~~ from a play by Debussy
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • TJR
    Posts: 3
    https://catholiceducation.org/en/culture/music/why-praise-and-worship-music-is-praise-but-not-worship.html
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,046
    That's funny - I searched "praise and worship" at Chant Cafe and both of Fr. Smith's articles came up right away (1) (2).
  • MarkB
    Posts: 1,061
    Yes, but in support of MatthewRoth's observation that articles disappear from their original links, click on rich_enough's second article link, then click on the link in the first sentence of that article, which will take you to an error page.
    Thanked by 5Liam tomjaw rich_enough MatthewRoth LauraKaz
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,208
    Yeah. Thank you — and Google is awful, most internal search engines are not good. See. This is not ideal!

    Having a separate article series not included in the main blog feed is confusing, and since the blog still exists as it was (is), moving the article broke a lot of links in a rather unfortunate way. It’s especially frustrating because these undated articles are just on their own, out of context… and it breaks the nature of a blog to have out of context things that you can’t click to easily. All IMHO of course, and I get that it’s such a foundational text deserving of easy access, but making it easier to find, not less, was the way to go. I’m fairly good at searching myself but wouldn’t have guessed that the article got moved and therefore the URL changed, causing the dead link.

    And that it is elsewhere is beside the point.
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  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,447
    .
    Sorry, confused about several threads on broken links.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,208
    As far as I know he is still pastor in good standing of his parish.
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,447
    MatthewRoth - deleted comment was not about Fr Smith.
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  • jguardino82
    Posts: 6
    @lmassery hits it on the head. Not youth program is ready to jump both feet into Scholas with chant and polyphony: we have to meet our parishes where they’re at, not where we’d like them to be. It’s the old parent trick of making zucchini bread—they get some vegetables in with the stuff they like.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,466
    > Mass Including LGBTQ+ Lions

    Regardless of their sexual orientation, I should think lions would only be included (if ever) on the feasts of either St. Mark or St. Francis of Assisi.

    Or perhaps some of the early martyrs during the Roman period.
  • OMagnumMysterium
    Posts: 235
    St. Ignatius
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