Just.....speechless
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    Daughter away at college sent me a link to a song her parish actually inflicted on the congregation this evening. It was from Spirit and Song, called We Will Follow.

    Maybe it's just me, but from the snippet I heard, it is the singular worst church song I have ever heard.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,206
    This? http://www.spiritandsong.com/compositions/64978
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    That's it.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,206
    Here's a direct link to the song, in case anyone wants to play it for their penance: http://cdn.ocp.org/shared/mp3/preview90/11809_1_5.mp3
    Thanked by 1Jani
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    Hahaha- that made me laugh. Out loud. :-D
  • francis
    Posts: 10,783
    Hey Maahnnnn! Poot dee lime in dee coacoanut.
    Thanked by 5expeditus1 ContraBombarde chonak Mark M. Scott_W
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    And call me in dee mornin' oooweeeehhh
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,971
    Makes me want to get out my beach hat and fix a few umbrella drinks. Wonder if the good archbishop has heard this garbage put out by his publishing company?
  • Musicteacher56
    Posts: 621
    Unfortunately, this is the kind of music that has been inflicted on me at one of my schools. The former music teacher used all Spirit and Song music, along with Amy Grant. I am trying to s l o w l y bring in some traditional hymns, but have been totally out voted. So, now it's a case of principle and good Catholic music versus my job (which I need). While this particular song is not on my "songs that we sang last year and loved" list, the repertoire is vey similar.

  • musicman923
    Posts: 239
    I can't believe I'm writing this but I would totally take Haas and Haugen over that!!!! I would take Shepherd Me O God any day over that! I'm lucky at my parish my pastor supports me 100% as music director and he wants everything to match liturgically. I've been sticking with traditional hymns mostly and using "decent" communion hymns like Bread for the World and Bread of Life, Hope of the World. We use traditional organ hymns for entrance, prep and recessional- communion, I use piano sometimes so that's why I use Bread for the World since it's a great text and the Congo sings it!!

    I'm sorry for any parish that has music like the link you provided! Mea Culpa!!!
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    I have lots of people from the Islands in my choir. They would love this... So let's keep it our little secret.
    Thanked by 2CharlesW expeditus1
  • francis
    Posts: 10,783
    Lets keep it in the islands... preferably in the prayer meetings, not at Mass.

    I love lots of musical styles... Some of my loves have nothing to do with liturgy, nor should they.
    Thanked by 6CHGiffen canadash ContraBombarde bkenney27 Jenny char
  • PaixGioiaAmorPaixGioiaAmor
    Posts: 1,473
    Appropriateness aside - yeah, I can just see the average cantor in the average parish managing those syncopations (or average keyboard player for that matter). And hope you have a really good tenor, well versed in this style of music to sing that descant. Yeah, doing this well is TOTALLY within reach of the average parish choir/band/etc.

    This music is far more performance based and requires professional musicians to pull off well far more than any so-called "traditional" style.
    Thanked by 1Jani
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,971
    Some of that is like P.D.Q. Bach. Not in quality, but it takes a pretty good musician to play the goofs in it.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    I-IV-V-bVI-bVII (or v)-I doesn't require professional musicians, and a pretty good musician wouldn't choose it in the first place as a vehicle for worship AT Mass. It's just as vapid and banal in it's "melody" (I could do the scale degrees from memory with just hearing that mp3 clip the first time, the only time but it's pointless.)
    It all comes down to text first, melody second. All else is adornment, this one happening to be faux hemp.
    Strip it (and every "song") down to just that and listen for whether that can be sung or even chanted out of its trappings. This one is the huckster hiding behind a reggae Oz wizard costume, and a not very good or authentic one at that.
    There's nothing inherently wrong with reggae.* One does not have to be from Kingston to credibly render reggae at service. One has to be discriminate as to whether the style in question serves text/melody. Doubt me, come out west, I'll help you with the concept. But again, one has to ask "why bother?"
    If one wants to reggae up something, try it on Scholte's "They'll know we are Christians." That's far more palatable than this TV Jingle, which almost gives credibility to Fr. Ho Lung's well-intended but banal musical offerings.

    *Dr Peter K's argument aside but acknowledged
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,469
    "If you're going to do calypso music at liturgy, it at least ought to be GOOD calypso music."
    -Adam Wood, in an interview with Jeffrey Tucker on Chant Cafe


    This music is insulting to the Mass.
    Also it is insulting to Reggae.

    Anyone who thinks that primary problem with this song is "reggae shouldn't be done at Mass" is missing the point. This song is terrible.


    I think that there is at least a legitimate argument that could be made in favor of a variety of musical styles, even secular ones, having a place at liturgy. (By legitimate, I mean not that it is correct, but that a sane and reasonable person could provide a coherent rationale which could conceivably be assented to, even if mistakenly, by well-meaning and rational people.)

    Even when I disagree with that legitimate argument, it's important for me to realize that it can be made by sane, well-meaning people, and that the problem is with the MERITS of the argument overall, not with the mere existence of the argument.

    HOWEVER
    The fact that a publisher even puts out music like this is evidence that, while some may hold the belief stated above legitimately, many others are using the existence of the argument as a cover for either their illegitimate motives, their lack of an understanding of liturgy, or their complete and utter insanity.
    Thanked by 2Bobby Bolin Jani
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    I used less words than you, AW!
    Thanked by 2Adam Wood Gavin
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    This song is terrible

    That's it right there.
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    Let's see - I think most comments agree the song is bad. At best, some might say it was neutral, yet probably inappropriate for use at Mass. So -- whomever gave my initial comment a negative -and only my comment - I can only assume its personal. If not, why don't you tell me why you either like the song, or at least, why I am wrong?

  • Bobby Bolin
    Posts: 418
    Looking up there, I wondered if I may have clicked it by mistake... so I put it back at 0. What does that even mean? Maybe myself or someone else clicked on accident?
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    I'll buy that. :)

    I'm not thin-skinned...well not always...and that was a pretty innocuous comment, so I was curious.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Jani, I think my analysis was pretty specific. Beyond that, there's really not much to say and much more to be apalled at that happens in Masses every Sunday all over the world.
    Thanked by 1SamuelDorlaque
  • SamuelDorlaque
    Posts: 318
    Sadly, this isn't a singular case. My wife is barraged with this type of drivel at the
    "monthly" school mass where she teaches. Her Second Graders will sometimes ask
    after mass if "that was a real mass or another assembly." Years ago Leo Nestor coined
    his unforgettable phrase "Kiddy Litter- It rots their teeth and destroys their faith." Is it
    any wonder that a huge percentage of young people raised with this don't believe in the
    Sacred Mysteries?
    Thanked by 5chonak CharlesW francis ContraBombarde Blaise
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,069
    Sorry, but this is far from the worst of the popular contempo pieces (assuming, arguendo, it's popular). "Anthem" gets my nod. I can understand this one, but Anthem is a question (pun very much intended) both textually and musically. Like the burning questions left on front lawns by fundamentalist agnostics.
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    I haven't heard all the bad ones yet.

    Melofluent- ? Your comment was great. I never thought otherwise.
  • ContraBombarde
    Posts: 471
    Sadly, this isn't a singular case.


    It's definitely not a singular case. I am in the same situation. We have a new pastor that is in love with contemporary music, and could care less if an organ was in the church. The school music teacher's highest achievement is Dan Schutte's Here I am Lord. The rest is all contemporary christian with watered down theology, and praise choruses.

  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    My worst musical experience at Mass is still at the Gospel announcement when the choir, complete with electric guitars and rainsticks, did the vacation bible-school song, "Halleluja, praise ye the Lord".

    But this certainly is in the same league.
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    I have played this song, with musicians far less gifted than those on the recording.

    The silliness at that parish was what led me to think "something's wrong here" and start investigating what music was appropriate for liturgy. This is certainly not.

    (And I love a good reggae jam ... Just not when preparing for the Lord's appearance at the altar!)
  • David AndrewDavid Andrew
    Posts: 1,206
    Plain and simple, music like this, and indeed the entire "diversity" canard popular among the "spirit of the council" set, is based on an incomplete and tortured interpretation of a paragraph in Sacrosanctum concilium that deals with inculturation. It doesn't take an advanced degree in liturgics or sacred music to discover that the key portion of that paragraph, that is, the phrase in mission lands is conspicuous by its absence; an omission that persists in that unfortunate document inflicted on us by the USCCB in 2007, "Sing to The Lord."

    We're not in a Jamacan mission field here, and I rather doubt that calypso passes as serious art music among the natives of Jamaca or at least those who study ethnomusicology.
    Thanked by 4Jani ContraBombarde SamuelDorlaque francis
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    I've resisted for a few days, but I have to express a contrary opinion: while not great music, I can see its appeal. Better than some of the white-bread-english-yuck notated to look like Gregorian chant I've seen.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,783
    Hey maahn... We're Jahmmmin now!
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,971
    O Lord, Kum ba Yah! At least the "O Lord" is close. Oh my God would be more accurate. Now where did I put that Metallica shirt?
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    What this is, is ridiculous. Most of us here weren't born yesterday. So when we're prompted by someone's local outrage, must we salivate like Pavlovian Pitbulls and all get a bite out of the dead horse. Let this thread just RIP. If it doesn't affect you directly, let it go.
    Thanked by 2Adam Wood Gavin
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,971
    Have some good chocolate and become truly mellow. That always works for me, but then I am addicted to dark chocolate. Sts. Lindt & Sprungli, preserve us.
    Thanked by 1francis
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Losing 40 lbs doesn't involve endorphin release via chocolate. Get thee behind me, Ghiardelli and Hershey!
    Thanked by 1Jenny
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,971
    Hah! I have always wanted to visit the Ghiardelli shrine. Perhaps some day.
    Thanked by 1Gerald_Klaas
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    Local outrage? Wow, now I feel stupid.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,783
    I would much rather hand out chocolate at mass as a substitute for singing the stupid songs
    Thanked by 1SamuelDorlaque
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,206
    Uh-oh, mustn't break the fast. But you can hand out chocolate as a substitute for the antidoron.
    Thanked by 1SamuelDorlaque
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,971
    Dark chocolate never breaks a fast in eastern Churches. It doesn't contain dairy, which is the forbidden item. Chocolate is never forbidden.
    Thanked by 3canadash SamuelDorlaque Jenny
  • David AndrewDavid Andrew
    Posts: 1,206
    Wait, what? What's "local outrage"?
    Thanked by 1Jani
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    I figured "local outrage" was meant for me - that maybe I shouldn't have brought it up.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,971
    Local outrage? Is that anything like Democrat angst? LOL. See what I miss by going to bed. I should stay up all night and read this forum because I missed it all. Those videos were funny, but definitely off topic and political. No argument there. But as for local outrage, "The wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot be calmed..." Isaiah 57:20
  • Scott_WScott_W
    Posts: 468
    Think globally, act locally. Ouch! Who threw that boomerang?! :)
    Thanked by 1expeditus1
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,971
    And pots should never call kettles black. LOL.
  • charchar
    Posts: 19
    TGIF! Tequila anyone?
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,971
    put de lime in de coconut... Party time! :-)
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    Well come on over char. I've got a bottle of Patron just waiting for a party to happen:)
    Thanked by 1char
  • ContraBombarde
    Posts: 471
    Isn't TGIF usually Monday or Tuesday for us musicians? lol
    Thanked by 3char CHGiffen francis
  • charchar
    Posts: 19
    Very true, ContraBombarde, however we can make it any day - and sometimes need to, especially with such wonderfully inspiring music - apparently for some Friday comes on Sunday;)
    Thanked by 2ContraBombarde expeditus1
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,971
    Yeah, Monday is my Sunday. I am at masses for 7 and 1/2 hours on Sunday, so I leave exhausted. Monday is definitely a day of rest.
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