A lot of places in America lost people on the Titanic, too, and a lot of Titanic survivors died not long ago. There are places in Europe that are still having requiem Masses or thanksgiving-for-surviving Masses every year, for disasters that happened hundreds or even more than a thousand years ago! Moreover, a good many priests gave Titanic sermons on Sunday, because the readings on Sunday back then were the same as the readings on Sunday today.

So yeah, I think angsting about Titanic memorials is silly, that the memorials themselves are appropriate if done with taste, and that there's absolutely no problem with a memento mori at Eastertide, especially given the huge number of martyrdoms that occurred during these times among the early Christians.

Nothing like harvesting a crop of newly baptized Christians as soon as they're reborn, as far as most persecutors are concerned. Everybody's together in one place more, so it's convenient; and since it's convenient for them, we should always be ready for it ourselves.

(Reprint of combox posted elsewhere)
I rather think there’s a clear exhortation in that question calling repertoire “deciders” to due diligence that we expect of our priests as both celebrants and homilists. As should be preferred, celebrants observe the axiom to “do the red and say the black” from the liturgical books, but then utilize their own charisms within the context of delivering their homilies. Shouldn’t we musicians also share in that discipline? Yesterday’s circumstances serve as a perfect example. One can chant “Quasimodo” or a vernacular version of it (“As newborn babes long for spiritual milk…SEP/Bartlett) only to function properly (!) as the Introit.(This is added in response to Joy's comment- how can one not make the connection both to the mystigogical affect of the Resurrection upon believers being made "newborn babes" along with the "First born of the dead" along with the contemporaneous resonance with the initiation of the elect and converts into full communion as "newborns" or neophytes?)

http://causafinitaest.blogspot.com/2012/04/quasimodo-sunday.html#comment-form

But how can a director ignore the impetus to program “Ye sons and daughters”? (“Well,” some might say, “you can’t sing nine verses as an Entrance!”) True enough. But why not consider chanting the Proper and then chanting the first three verses of “O filii…” to satisfy both concerns, and then return to the chant hymn for both the gospel acclamation (vs.8) and as the Offertory beginning at vs.4? What other day in the whole year are we provided this opportunity?
Then moving to the next processional, what other day serves so well to couch “Adoro te devote” as an option four at the Communio? Sure, one could claim this metric chant is specifically reserved for devotion, not as a liturgical accompaniment. But, if one prefaces singing “Adoro te…” with the Proper “Mitte manum…” (Stretch forth your hands and feel the place where the nails were….SEP/Bartlett), I believe, no pun intended, that you are musically recreating that very moment when Christ compelled Thomas to that act, at which he then exclaims the most personal devotion: “My Lord and My God.”
And then, imagine concluding with M.D. Ridge’s brilliant “Three Days” to THAXTED with its recollections of the disciples’ waiting in fear! . But if such discipline isn’t applied, then the question of one's due diligence goes from an exhortation to an indictment perhaps.
That's why I had not a little difficulty with the mere mention of commemorating the centenary sinking of an ocean liner on a Sunday rife with sacred music options. And to think, we didn't hardly mention Divine Mercy....egads, the mind reels.

Again, I'm sorry if I've offended you. What I was trying to do was point out how the Proper texts can often compliment "hymn of the day" texts. Again, "dense" would not be a term I would associate with you or most everybody on this forum, Joy. Mea culpa.
Maybe I need to take a holiday....

CW, that was conjecture and couched as so with "some might say...."
There's a forest among all the trees, yeesh.
Yup, come to colloquium for a holiday from all the local stress.

The verses are also pretty short, especially if you don't sing it as a dirge...

We had a polka Mass at two different parishes I've belonged to. Both Polish. So here's a summary of what I personally have experienced.

Basically all the music is polka music...played by someone on an accordian, with a "choir" singing. It sounds like a very bad lounge act.

No one has actually polka'd that I've ever seen, but there is a lot of swaying to the music. At one parish the Mass took place outside (during the church festival) and at the other one, Mass took place inside (also during the church festival).

I didn't go to either Mass on purpose I assure you. I was a child at the first parish and didn't know it had replaced the Saturday evening Mass at the other.

just PLEASE for the love of all that is sacred, don't sing all FOURTEEN verses for EVERY SUNDAY OF EASTER, for THREE YEARS CONSECUTIVELY....

bitter? who's bitter?

In spite of that experience, I program the hymn anyway. But only once per Eastertide.

"They could never afford to hire a band for the service, especially if any amount of travel was involved. But the Mass makes an attractive add-on."

That is a fiscal motive which I had not entertained, Jeffrey. In all things pecuniary, I guess it makes sense - regrettably, so. I know that my own Mother, who was raised in a Polish community, finds the polka Mass to be a fond bridge to childhood memories of family, security, customs, etc. (My liturgical mindset is of a different variety.) Churches in my tri-county area and beyond, publish their calendar list of upcoming polka Masses in each others' bulletins; some folks are most eager to drive the distance for these, and I am presuming that some stay to grab a festival chicken-barbecue dinner, et al.

I played the whole Polka Mass. It was great background for doing the supper dishes...

I know it's heresy, but I actually thought the music was mostly ok. It was the singing and performing quality that made me see red. Horrifying.

I like polka music, too, but also feel it is not for the mass, any more than hard rock and roll is. I don't believe that we should give the people what they want to "fill the seats". If that is the case, then we should start selling tickets to our masses because they are becoming too entertaining. There is a place for everything, and, imho, the mass is not the place for polka music.

Thankfully I have never experienced a clown Mass...yes...nightmares in the making.

OH my. I was in Godspell in high school. But NEVER in church. The idea of a Godspell Mass is fairly terrifying.