Damian Thompson on the UK Papal Visit Music
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Damian writes:

    Also confirmed today: the music for the Hyde Park Vigil on Saturday September 18 – and it’s a victory for the cloth-eared philistines of the Bishops’ Conference. On the menu: “Shine Jesus Shine”, the happy-clappy anthem by the (very) Protestant composer/theologian Graham Kendrick (b. 1950). It’s not my cup of tea and, indeed, seems to inspire unique loathing among Anglican churchgoers who dislike charismatic worship. But I don’t think it’s anything like as bad as the folk-style music favoured by the mafia of ageing trendies who exert a vice-like grip over the dioceses of England and Wales. And, boy, we’ll be hearing plenty of their dreary stuff in Hyde Park.

    A dismayed Fr Ray Blake has the full list of pieces to be sung at that event. Bernadette Farrell (b. 1957)? Check. Christopher Walker (b. 1947)? Check. Taizé chant from the 1960s? Buckets of the stuff. (Incidentally, will Kendrick, Walker and Farrell be charging copyright fees for the event? I want to know the answer to this, Catholic Communications Network. Since Farrell is a Left-wing activist, I would hope not.)

    How very, very “groovy” for the young people attending the event to hear sacred music with a “contemporary swing” to it. Who knows, perhaps it will set the Holy Father’s red shoes tapping so much that he will jump off his podium and “get on down” with the kids!

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  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,515
    http://media.photobucket.com/image/%2522father jolly%2522 fireside rector/sionnsar/TradAnglican/blogjolly2.jpg
  • Maureen
    Posts: 679
    It's official. They're trying to kill the Holy Father again.... What is it with papal visits and cruddy music choices?

    Sigh. The poor man. He'll get that look of relentless politeness on his face again.

    On the bright side, things seem to get better as the program goes along, and there is a piece by soon-to-be-Blessed Newman.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    In preparation for the Beatification, Watershed has created short videos shot in Cardinal Newman's house in Birmingham.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,424
    It is difficult not to conclude that all, high and low, cleric and lay, responsible for a choice of music such as this for a visit by our Holy Father are poking with some Schadenfreud a quite deliberate finger in his eye. This is an affront to the whole Church.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    They are choosing the music that they do in their parishes for special occasions. That's all.

    If anyone is actually choosing music to anger the Holy Father in a liturgy, would that not be a serious sin?
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    I keep having this argument with middle-aged Episcopalians.

    Let's say that you do, in fact, think that, contemporary, folk, or pop music IS appropriate for Mass.
    And then let's say that you think the best way to "reach the youth" is to fill the Mass with music in "their" style...

    EVEN THEN:
    Teenagers do not listen to forty year old folk church music. They don't really listen to fifteen year old rock church music.
    It is almost as far away from what they listen to on the radio as Gregorian Chant.
  • MaryAnn Carr WilsonMaryAnn Carr Wilson
    Posts: 1,738
    Adam, Bingo!
    It wasn't that long ago that I keenly remember the mixed feelings of embarrassment and a sense of guilt at disgust when organizing folks were using dated pop music to try to keep me and other teens around. And for most of us, it didn't even work, sadly.

    Honest and thoughtful people have come to realize that what started out 'for the young' has become glory days music recalling youth and retreat experiences for certain groups. We need timeless music for a timeless Sacred Liturgy.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,424
    Whether this is usual music for these people or not, it is still conscious effrontery. One does not invite a very special or important and respected person to diner at one's home and serve him what one knows he has an aversion to. To have the choir of Westminster Cathedral and its repertory at hand and deliberately choose this music is to communicate shamelessly calculated disregard for papal teaching and admonishments.
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 763
    Kathy: Wonderful.

    As to this event and what's planned for it: well, Westminster's choir would have to be amplified in an unsuitable way for them to be heard, so it's got to be something else. The problem is that 'something else' seems to be largely the usual suspects, the ghastliness of whose shoddy, shallow and tacky stuff has kept many of us away from Catholic parish music for so much of the time. The exception is the Taizé chant, which is ideally suited to this kind of event.

    ps I won't be there.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    One does not insult the people by doing high class music on front of the Holy Father when that is not what they hear every Sunday, if at all.

    There is a degree of honesty to what they have chosen. While I preferred much of the music that we heard in NYC, it was the people in DC who showed the Holy Father the truth of the state of Catholic music in the United States. They put lipstick, toe nail polish, high heels, and pretty dresses on it, but it was obvious that it was still a hog with cloven hoofs.

    If the Holy Father wants the music changed, he will act to make it happen. He has indicated he wants it changed, but not acted yet.

    There are sadly, many out there eagerly anticipating his demise.
  • Donnaswan
    Posts: 585
    Don't you think it's odd that there are new rules for what a visiting choir may sing at the Chair of St. Peter, but not when the Pope comes visiting?
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