Damian Thompson has an idea...
  • G
    Posts: 1,397
    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2008/09/23/the_fight_against_futurechurch_music

    Damian Thompson in the Telegraph present a proposal with a familiar ring to it.

    Today I spoke to a leading Catholic cathedral musician, who said he was fed up with SSG composers "pushing their own rubbish at dioceses in their endless workshops". His suggestion: commission simple, chant-based settings of the liturgy from composers and publish them free of charge on the internet.

    Imagine the fury of certain well-off composer-publishers if settings of the Mass and antiphons that were better than their own tripe – and more in line with Pope Benedict's teachings – could be downloaded for nothing.
  • He's correct.. Chabanel Psalms beat the hockey shorts off the OCP and GIA PAYTOPLAY stuff.
  • Another positive point to this would be any upcoming live broadcast of any large, special occasion Mass. While parish/cathedral musicians sometimes need to check copyright permissions for printing parts in the worship aid, they don't usually have to pay royalties for the performance, since it's not a ticket purchasing event. But, when that Mass gets to the radio station, especially a non-profit Catholic station, these stations are required to pay fees to the PROs (Performing Rights Organizations) for the broadcast content. Now many, if not most, of these stations are mostly "talk" - only occasionally music, maybe seasonal. But, if they play ANY music in the year, they MUST pay the fee for the entire year. Some of the Catholic produced talk shows with "bumper music" have removed all such music so their broadcasting stations who get their productions don't have to pay. This is something that Catholic Radio is working to fix, but it's not going to be over-night. As a church musician, I would hate to need to program the liturgy around secular taxes and fees, but there might not be any way around it in this corporate atmosphere, and where all our "Catholic" publishing companies are following the Hollywood example.

    Just something else to consider when dealing with music composing and performance.