Three paths to Sacred Music
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Some speculations on this here
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    Through the years of working as an organ company representative [read that as organ salesman] with Allen, Tellers Pipe Organs, Moller Pipe Organs and more recently Rodgers, I can tell you that the most rabid, enthusiastic people are the ones who leave one realm, finding it possible to assume a new identity. Those who are pipe organ purists can become amazed when they find a rare digital that sings for them. And those who are digital fanatics can switch totally when they find a pipe instrument that is affordable and musical...after being told for years such a thing was impossible to find.

    The ones that are difficult...and unreadable are those to whom it really does not matter. A choir program that strives to sing polyphony and chant can be destroyed by a person or two who act as if they support the program, but never lose their connection and desire to sing what may most politely be described as crap music. They never become converted, believing they can live in two different worlds. And can become an albatross of intolerable weight. Albotrosses? Albotrossi?

    It's impossible to be card-carrying Baptist and be an Orthodox Roman Catholic....for some odd reason.

    Jeffrey describes well the true convert. May we all find that strength of purpose within us.
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    Today, I met the same old priest you mentioned in your article. The one who sang chants alone at the altar and converted you, Jeffrey. This got to be the same priest. His pitch and melody got off here and there. But there was something so holy and beautiful... made me cry. I think his singing was so sincere and honest, nothing to pretend and overdo, in front of God, I was so moved. He wasn't singing for himself nor for the others in the pew. He was singing only to glorify Him and express his joy and love for Him. If our church choirs can sing like that sincerely, I think we can convert many people, including catholics. Also if the congregation sings like that, isn't that the true 'active participation ?"
    Chant teaches humility, Christ's humility, to musicians and the catholics. Without that humility, we cannot truly love God and others. If we are just to be nice to others, maybe Christ didn't have to come and die for us. (By the way, our pirest said that ' nice' means 'know nothing')
    Chant is beautiful for many reasons. I think one of them is it's because it's humble as Christ is. I thought I converted to catholicism 20 years ago. I'm becoming a true catholic since I started to sing chants last year.
  • janetgorbitzjanetgorbitz
    Posts: 964
    Noel,

    I think you are right... and it is sometimes difficult to identify those who only give 'lip-service' to supporting chant and polyphony at first. It can cause such great difficulty and waste so much time when you are trying to work with someone like that.
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