BruceL:

First of all, if they didn't sign the e-mail, and you can't identify the sender by their address, ignore it. It was cowardly, uncharitable and demonstrates that they haven't clue one how to prepare their hearts and minds for the second coming. If they did ID themselves, and if you have the patience, the arteries and the stomach to meet with them, more power to you. I've had people "complain" third-hand, and put it into perspective by realizing that on any given weekend we have about 3,000 souls (or more) in the pews, and not everyone is going to "like" what's used at Mass (including homilies and the like). I tend to ignore this kind of petty sniping unless it comes from someone for whom I have respect. Still, if you do choose to meet with them, ask your pastor to be in on it, or at least be available to help.

Which leads me to my second point, do you have the backing of the pastor? If so, you could e-mail this person back and suggest they raise this with him. With any luck he'll blow it off, which is what I recommend you do.

Finally, we don't sing "O Come" at least until the third or even fourth week of Advent.

When I was a Presbyterian we sang "O Come" on Advent I, but then again we started singing Christmas carols about week three.

My experience has been that the loudest complainers about the music at Mass are people who are significantly ticked off about something else and, having been rebuffed when they lodged their complaints, then are on the lookout for something else to complain about.

It's that simple. Rarely do I find valid complaints about the music coming from people who are known to love everything else about the parish and its functions.

But the worst are the people in the parish who are, or think that they are, musical because they sing in some sort of secular singing group. This then gives them the right to complain about the choice of music, the way the cantors sing, the shortcomings of the choir while not participating themselves. It is easy to identify them because they often only participate in elite groups within the secular group, being above the level of ordinary people.

I always tell them, if I can get a word in edgewise, that I'll make the changes they want once they have joined and established themselves in the music program at the church. That solves it for me.

I recall a lady who always wanted us to sing the Deutsche Mass Glory To God transcription. When I finally told her that we anticipated it would be sung at the 11:00 Mass in two weeks, she ooked at me and said: "But I got to 9:30."

Honest.

You have my permission to tell them that "We hope to help the parish realize the goal of 'full, conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations' desired by the Second Vatican Council." means that you are permitted to enter the church and not be forced to keep silent for the next hour.

Instead you are expected to sing the Kyrie, the Gloria [when not omitted], the Credo, the Sanctus, the Agnus Dei and....if you are good, we might let you sing them in English. These are the GREAT hymns of the church.

Once you are really, really good and confident in singing them....words that you were NEVER permitted to sing up until Vatican II...then we can talk about what other parts of the Mass might be sung.And whether we might be able to sing the seasonal Introit, Offertory and Communion....either in Latin from the Simplex....or if you insist, English.

But best of all....consulting a mind-reading is considered by many to be sinful. And no one expects you to sin to be able to find out what traditions, undocumented as they are, you are failing to carry on.


Just the other day I showed someone a layout for the choir seating and they were upset that the left and right sections will be facing each other rather than the altar.

I guess those monks that sat that way for centuries did not realize that they were not fully participating as they HAVE THE RIGHT TO.

Several years ago, we did "O Come, O Come..." every week during Advent. We were all sick of it by the time Christmas came. Since we display banners for each of the "O" antiphons, adding a couple each week, the antiphons that match the banners are sung and mentioned in the sermons. We didn't do the hymn, "O Come..." today, but the choir and cantors sang the chants matching the first two banners. Next week, the congregation will sing the hymn, but the choir and cantors will sing the appropriate verses from a setting by Gounod. For week three, the familiar hymn will not be sung, but the choir and cantors will chant the next two antiphons to match the newly added banners. On week four, we will sing the hymn, and finish the "O" antiphons using something I haven't decided yet. It all seemed like a good way to sing the hymn a couple of times, yet get the "O" antiphons in, as well. I don't get too many complaints. I had a predecessor who would pitch hymnals at those who irked him. While I am much less volatile, the congregational memory lingers and it serves me well.

I tried doing "O Come, O Come" every week during Advent a few years ago - and I never wanted to hear it again. Today it was programmed where I'm the organist and I was happy to play it, mostly because there are so many other nasty tunes out there for the Advent season. (They'll probably start to turn up soon and very soon.)

I was also happy because I remember how much I loved this hymn as a teenager - I liked the tune, the Latin orgins of the text, the associations with the Magnificat. And darned if people don't sing it. But four weeks in a row, even changing the verses, it got real old.

While I'm merely a singer at my parish and not in charge of any decisions regarding music, I am also a teacher and get the occasional complaint about this that or the other. I second Gavin's "I didn't intend to disturb your sensibilities, thank your for your opinion, I'll take it in to consideration" response. If the person is really just upset about something else then simply acknowledging that you understand that she is bothered can go a long way. Don't feel the need to defend your decision over much to a single complaint. You could put the person off guard by saying when you're available to meet to teach her the new music, perhaps at the next choir rehearsal? Then she'd have no one to blame but himself for being unfamiliar with it.

Regarding Frogman's approach that "I'll make the changes they want once they have joined and established themselves in the music program at the church," that's exactly what I've been doing the past 6 months at my parish. I joined the choir to help strengthen the tenors and now am in a position to make little suggestions here and there to our DM.

I agree with priorstf to a point. The person probably has not been a big fan of musical changes in the parish. When today came around and there was no O Come Emmanuel, she and her friends gave each other shocked looks and said "This is the last straw!" She would not have written if she didn't feel really put out. Here she was, already to get the Advent season off to a great start and no "Veni". If you write back, sympathize with her loss a little and explain that the hymn will be sung, but that you want to use it where it will be most effective (just before Christmas). If she's anything like some folks I've had to deal with, there may be little hope for conversion, but no one said your job was going to be an easy one. We are all just starting to turn the ship around. As soon as folks understand what's happening, it's going to get much worse before things calm down. Be prepared!

Funny how we Christians can get so worked up about which melody a prayer is sung to? I guess it just means that worship is important to us and we all want to get it right.

"I was very disheartened to begin the season of Advent today without the traditional "Oh, come, oh come Emmanuel". Instead there were four songs that obviously no one in the congregation knew at all. Even the musical responses were unfamiliar to everyone. This directly contradicts the quote on the last page of today's worship aid. "We hope to help the parish realize the goal of 'full, conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations' desired by the Second Vatican Council." If no one has ever heard the music, there cannot be full, active participation."

Personally, I agree with chonak, that it sounds like quite a bit of change at one time. Now, maybe that is what was needed; I certainly don’t know.

Did your pastor sign on off your music choices beforehand? That is a very good thing to mention whenever music choices are questioned, that these were approved by more than just yourself: the pastor, a liturgy committee, or whoever.

Really, we all need to get past the old line of “full, conscious, and active participation” meaning that musical choices should be made subject to the over-arching concern of whether the congregation will sing them. Moreover, congregations are capable of singing quite a bit. They could sing chant, even Gregorian chant, even Gregorian propers, if they were taught to do so AS THEY WERE BEING TAUGHT in some places before V2. And, if they were simply willing to sing.

The reality is that most people in a congregation don’t sing because they don’t want to, and no one whose authority they respect tells them they should, or even why they should. I am still waiting for it to be said that, in an ordinary OF parish, someone who attends Mass without singing has selfishly held back from the liturgy what it naturally deserves: the singing voice of each and every last person there.

Noel also has a good point, namely that this should have been brought up sooner. Despite my often harsh responses to criticisms, I do value the traditions of the parishes I work at, even if it's (as with my last church) "Bring Flowers of the Rarest" for the crowning. Heck, if they just HAVE to have "On Eagle's Wings" on Lent I, and no one asks for it any other time, I could maybe live with that. Maybe. Anyway, I tried to make it clear to choristers at my last church, as I will at my next church, that I want to continue whatever traditions they have. As you all know, I'm not a pushover, but often I just don't care about hymns, and I care even less what the closing hymn is. IF it's a situation like the OP describes, I would probably stick to my guns and tell the complainer, "you'll get your hymn at an appropriate time". Or one Ascension Sunday, there was also May Crowning and I fought a battle to exclude Marian music from the Mass itself because there just was no room for another hymn with all the great Ascension hymns and the Introit. Likewise, when a boss complained that the midnight Mass won't have a certain hymn and demanded I put it in somewhere, I told him that we had every Christmas carol we could fit in, including the one he wanted, and that if people wanted it, they can go to all three Christmas Masses.

My point is, we can be pastoral without being pushovers. It just means respecting valid traditions in the parish and keeping in mind what people's preferences are and how you can aptly fit them in to a program harmonious to the Church's wishes.

From Frogman:

"Protestant churches usually keep and even hard-bind an annual set of bulletins and keep them in the office. You inerview as pastor or organist or chori director, you ask to see them and see what they have done...and you can then decide if you want to continue it or take them in a different direction.

At the last church I got one cantor sheet with hymns for one month and a note on it: "Cantors, I have assigned you dates to sing. If you cannot, don't call me. Find your own replacement."

That's the total printed history of 20 some years at the parish."

Read my article on keeping your choir's history in the upcoming "Sacred Music" and make sure you do better for your successors! Sheesh.

Pes writes: What interests me is the perceived difficulty of eating and digesting a tradition like the O Antiphons.

I don't think there's any perceived difficulty at all. The case presented was a parishioner who believes that singing OCOCE is part of their church's tradition and might well be correct. The folks don't come forward ahead of time because they expect the hymn, and missing it only once triggers a response. I've sung it enough over the years that I've rather grown to be weary of it.

The problem I see, to keep in your metaphor, is that nobody is serving it properly to be eaten and digested. What percentage of a typical congregation has ever even heard the term "the O Antphons"? I'd be stunned if it's 1% in any parish I've attended. Possibly 2% in the choir, but I'm not holding my breath.

So my question is simply how many of the DMs and/or choir directors around here have a regular column in their parish bulletin to TEACH the people?

According to this logic, there ought to be no unfamiliar music, ever. No change. Stasis. Frozen tradition. What exists, is right! etc.

Thus my overarching thesis of Sacred Music, namely that what we are battling is NOT liberalism, but rather conservatism.

And on a practical matter I MUST vehemently disagree with Dave: Make sure you respond in writing! #1, that's the format you received the complain in, so it's only proper. #2, and more important, if you take a more direct response, people WILL twist your words if they are spoken. Just like how my former boss gave a sermon where he said "it's better to pray in Latin." He said nor implied no such ridiculous thing. But that's what he was accused of. I don't think this is anything serious, just sounds like a suggestion to me, but if you SAY something that gets twisted and escalated, it's your word against theirs, and we know how much trust priests have in their musicians...

I second Pes' (Pes's ? Pedis ?) idea about a weekly column. I've been using the Sacred Music FAQ's in our parish bulletin. One question per week, and I only posted the question - the answer was on the Parish's TLM website, so we could track traffic and maybe get people interested in learning more when they saw the site.

You might consider keeping your new Mass parts through the Presentation of the Lord to give unity to the related Advent and Christmas seasons (with the return of a familiar Gloria and maybe a new Alleluia providing contrast). This will give people more time to learn the new music. If they are as simple as you say (the acclamations, not the people), by the end of January everyone will be wondering what the fuss was all about in the first place.