Why Catholics Can't Sing, in two words:

Irish-Americans.

Something I prepared years ago for a music leadership staff meeting back in July 2005:
Why Don't Catholics Sing? a synopsis-

Every once in a while a book is published that falls into the category of "must" reading. Thomas Day's compelling book, Why Catholics Can't Sing (Crossroads, 1991) is that book. It is "must" reading not only for church musicians and the clergy, but for all Catholics who care about the liturgy. The following are a few of the main salient observations and opinions of Dr. Thomas Day:

•There are folk groups, reformed folk groups, and "sweet-song" hymns. We have the St. Louis Jesuits, the Weston Monks and many others, singing "comforting words and easy-listening sounds."
•"Mr./Ms. Caruso, upstairs, sings with amplification."
• Sanctuaries were remodeled with carpeting and hanging plants, giving a "homey look" to what should be a temple of prayer.
•The amplified sound that discourages the congregation from singing should be thrown out. The congregation must hear itself.
•The three-chord guitarists, who give "new meaning to the word 'monotonous'" can go out along with the mics and speakers.
•The Second Vatican Council specified that the treasure of sacred music should be preserved.
•Choirs were to support congregational singing.
•Day suggests that we "smash" the microphones; end the “Big Voice syndrome;” Day draws an amusing caricature with the description of the enthusiastic music director who drowns out everyone else with his mic’d and over amplified performances. Let the assembly hear its own voice, not the voice of an ego behind a microphone.
•He wants good, plain and wholesome music: a few basic hymns and unaccompanied chant- like singing.
•Gregorian chant has an aesthetic, an hypnotic sound. It is impersonal, humbling. Church music should elevate the people to prayer.
•A superior church music program in a parish can only be attained if and when the pastor assumes a constructive, cooperative role with his music director. The pastor must be in charge. First-rate people chose other first-rate people. Second-rate people chose third-rate people! The pastor must be capable of teamwork. Everything begins with the pastor.
•It is impossible for the man in the pew to choose what hymn he wants, since an unknowledgeable person does not know what he wants. No one can want what he does not know. Catholic people can sense inappropriate music; they may protest by not singing.
•Day insists that a good Catholic hymnal is an absolute necessity. It should contain chant and simple responses. With a core repertory established as the music of the people, then other music can be added later. He suggests that music be contemporary in the sense that it speaks to the congregation.
•Today, as in the past, there are those for whom the sung Mass poses a problem. In their judgment, the higher forms of liturgical singing are a 'performance,' which distracts from the real business of the liturgy.
•But the fact is that the Church does desire a sung liturgy - and not just for great and rare occasions but ordinarily. The sung Mass is the norm.
•Occasionally sing unaccompanied music supported only by a choir.... Maybe once a month let the music reach its full potential; let the entire assembly sense that it is doing its best to pray in song.
•Hymns and songs are useful, but they can die from overuse. Catholicism's real musical destiny is in singing the actual texts of the liturgy, not songs which are dropped into the service.
•Encourage music as an art.

If nothing else it has aged well. Truth does that.

Thomas Day’s book was originally published in 1990. A revised version was made available in 2013 entitled, Why Catholics Can’t Sing: Revised and Updated with New Grand Conclusions and Good Advice.

The revised edition was just recently reviewed by Marilyn Biery (a fine musician) in this month’s (November 2014) issue of The American Organist magazine.

In her extensive review, she had some concerns about the book.

For those who aren’t members of the A.G.O., recent past issues of The American Organist are available to read on the A.G.O. website, but the November issue is not yet posted there.

http://www.agohq.org/current-issue/

Gavin

Definitely in many places different. And, now there is a magnifying glass on the liturgy that has everyone a bit more focused on the subject, including what is and what isn't appropriate. Of course there are those who choose to ignore the facts and truth about sacred music, and still continue to march down the path of do your own thing. But the people are not fooled. The protest is still obvious in those places. No one sings.

Okay, okay.... where do you all really want this thread to go since CK thought it worthy of resurrecting?

I would also highly recommend the sequel, "Where Have You Gone, Michaelangelo?"

BTW, do you know the difference between a Liturgist and a terrorist?

You can negotiate with a terrorist.

Mr Day,

Thank you for writing the original book, and publishing an update. I read it as a (much) younger musician and was grateful that someone was willing to announce that the Emperor had no clothes, but also to explain why so many people still thought he did.

I discovered your book at roughly the same time I encountered Professor Hitchcock's book on the recovery of the sense of the sacred.

God bless,

Chris

Charles,

I'll wish you a happy Advent in the morning, or at least on the other side of the Vigil Mass. Nevertheless, thank you.

Thank you for examining my analogy. I'll take some time to consider how appropriate modifications are to the general idea I tried to present.

"Why Catholics Can't Sing" because the cantor sings for them :)

Marilyn Biery... had some concerns about the book.

It's a bit of a stretch to call it a review, but she is at least upfront about her attitude:

If you are the kind of person who responds well to biting sarcasm and criticism that strives to be humorous, and if that spurs you on to thoughtful evaluation of the singing of your own congregation, then read the book. If not, don't bother.

What you won't learn from reading to the end of the long and ill-tempered American Organist feature is how the 2013 edition differs from 1990.

Dad 29,

Would the decline be uniform across the Catholic world? Would the "crash" or lack of one relate to specific issues?

For example: in this country, Irish Catholics were a "persecuted" minority for many years. In Ireland, not so much. Was there a persecuted group in Ireland which, when persecution came to an end, had taught people to love the bits of driftwood instead of the full, dry, whole boat?

Chris, I don't think that we'd see either a "decline" or an "increase." (Remember, we're talking about liturgical/liturgical-music praxis, not attendance, confessions, etc.)

Amen to that, Bruce. The celebrant is key, as if they don't intone/sing their parts, then it doesn't make sense for the PIPs to do the same, and it will feel awkward to them, and they won't sing. It must be led from the clergy, with us in close support.

Nothing but concurrence with Kevin and Jared here. But, to be fair, Professor Day's first edition (as I've not read its 2nd edition either) still remains a valuable, viable resource because even in my few and short visits and encounters both in and out of my diocese, there are parishes aplenty for whom Day's caricatures and circumstances are yet and still standard operating procedure.
There remain lay and clerics alike aplenty who, were you to ask them if the term "Reform of the Reform" meant anything, or "Can you explain the difference between an Ordinary or a Proper," "What is progressive solemnity," and largest of all, "What do the documents pertaining to liturgy and music promulgated at Vatican II actually say?....all you'd hear would be the silence of the crickets.

Okay, okay.... where do you all really want this thread to go since CK thought it worthy of resurrecting?

*Bookmarks thread for resurrecting November 28, 2016.* :)