“For the Sake of the Children”: How Far Should We Adapt the Music of the Mass?
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Another Summer ends, and a new School year begins at the Catholic School and adjoining Parish where I hold dual roles as Music Teacher and Music Director/Liturgy Planner.
I've spent the last four years moving the Parish and School toward a more traditional approach to singing the mass, with Source and Summit as a guide, with in the proper use of antiphons, chant, and timeless hymnody untainted by secular harmonies, melodies and instrumentation. When the school brought in a new principal, she was vehemently opposed to the use of Chant and Latin in School masses, and since then we've had a very contentious relationship that has been mediated by our head pastor, who unfortunately has had little or no experience overseeing either a school or music ministry. The principal's latest challenge came at our first meeting of the school year, where she requested that I use the music of Steve Angrisano during masses and music class. I don't know if I should feel bad that I didn't recognize his name immediately, and so I just said, "sure, I'll look into it." I am now filled with dread.
I came across a recent podcast with Steve Angrisano and Sarah Hart discussing the use of Antiphons and how exciting it is to "sing the mass", but when I went to listen to the music they've arranged for this "Let Us All Rejoice" project, I was baffled. I actually started to cringe at the beginning of every new Antiphon, because while the words were liturgically accurate, the music was mundane. Podcast: https://bustedhalo.com/podcasts/breathing-new-life-into-liturgical-music-with-sarah-hart-and-steve-angrisano/
I find myself wrestling with a question that I suspect many parish music directors have encountered: to what extent should we adapt the musical language of the Mass to what we believe children and young people will find attractive?
I have considerable experience both as a professional musician and in musical theater, and I am increasingly being asked to consider repertoire that is more contemporary in instrumentation, harmony, arrangement, and overall aesthetic, on the grounds that it will encourage children's participation.
I understand the pastoral argument. What I question is the underlying premise: should we begin with the musical language children already know from popular culture and bring that into the liturgy, or should we expose children to the musical patrimony and distinctive language of sacred music and teach them to participate in it?
This question has become particularly interesting to me after listening to Sarah Hart and Steve Angrisano. Whatever one's aesthetic judgment, their success demonstrates that there is a substantial contemporary Catholic music industry producing repertoire that is accessible, professionally arranged, and intentionally directed toward Catholic worship.
But accessibility and popularity are not necessarily the same thing as liturgical suitability. At what point does contemporary Catholic music cease to be an organic development of sacred music and instead become essentially secular musical language with Catholic texts placed within it?
I am particularly interested in how forum members understand this question in light of Sacrosanctum Concilium, Musicam Sacram, and the Church's broader teaching on sacred music. Pope Leo XIV's recent catechesis on sacred music seems especially pertinent: he speaks of music being appropriate to the liturgical moment “beyond fashions,” while simultaneously calling for music that is noble, simple, of high musical quality, accessible to the assembly, and rooted in the Church's musical heritage.
Most importantly for those of us working in Catholic schools, he explicitly connects sacred-music formation with Catholic education.
So I am left with a question I genuinely don't know how to resolve: am I being too rigid in wanting to maintain a distinctive sacred musical language, particularly for children? Or is there something pedagogically and liturgically backwards about continually lowering the musical/aesthetic threshold because we assume children will not participate unless the Mass sounds like the music they already hear outside the Church?
Is the proper response to children's presumed musical preferences to change the music—or to form their musical preferences through exposure to something more genuinely sacred? -
I think you already know the answer to your question...the problem is that your principal came to the opposite conclusion, so you have tension in your job because you are being asked to do something that you know is not right.
I think the Agrisano/Hart propers are following the letter of the law (using prescribed liturgical texts) while missing the whole point. That style of music does not foster prayer and contemplation. Gregorian chant does.
Music at Mass and concerts is the public facing part of your job. However, I doubt your principal makes regular visits to your classroom, so this could be your opportunity to *slowly* change the culture of your school by introducing quality music to your students,. even if at first this music is not used at Mass. My experience with teachers and principals resistant to good liturgical music is that what they mostly want is for the kids to sing confidently, and this means they have to sing what they know (which might be poor liturgical music). If you spend your time in the classroom teaching and memorizing solid hymns or Mass parts, you can overcome some of this resistance. The kids will sing what they know, and you have the unique ability to teach them this in class!
I teach K-12 music in a Catholic school where I am also the parish music director. While I have a wonderfully supportive pastor and principal, the parish only recently (a year ago) starting singing the Gloria in Latin. I have hopes that eventually we will sing the Creed in Latin, but the parish is not there yet. In preparation, I taught it in class to my Gr 5-12 students last year, and at the end of the year they had singing tests in small groups where they sang Credo III from memory. The kids are already asking when we get to sing it at Mass, so half my work is already done ;) I am planning to include it in our Christmas concert, with a polyphonic "Et incarnatus est."
In answer to your question, you are not being too rigid and you are being asked to do something liturgically backward. If it were me (and this has been me!) I would change the culture through my classroom first and at Mass second. For music at Mass, you might have better luck teaching motets and a few solid hymns to the kids and not die on the hill of "absolutely no P&W music." I have played far more P&W music than I care to admit, and I regret it, but also realize that I didn't have much say in the matter.
I wish you the best, and will pray for your perseverance as you begin a new school year! -
The school Masses should be purely recited Masses with no hymns or sung parts whatsoever if the principal wants to do something counter to the parish’s music program otherwise.
That goes especially for cases where the DM provides the music directly, and in this case you’re the teacher. The pastor needs to set the tone here. -
This is one reason that I am glad that, though I pick the music for the school Mass and accompany it as DoM, I am not the music teacher nor officially employed by the school in any way, and so I remain outside the principal's official control.
I would guess she heard some Angrisano (don't judge him by "Go Make a Difference," which was suggested to me by a teacher for this year's Masses and was shot down faster than a duck in an Nintendo video game; he does have considerably better music) and liked it, and that's the entirety of the thought she's put into it. Unfortunately, since she is your boss as far as school stuff is concerned, she surely believes she should have a say.
Speaking as someone who does mostly organ at the school Mass but includes one of the aforementioned Hart/Angrisano antiphons (at Communion) and usually one piano-based piece (often by Hart, occasionally by Angrisano), it doesn't bother me to add some "contemporary" music. But that's not actually the issue, is it? The issue is control. If you had control over the school Mass music under the prior principal, and this principal wants to take some of that back, that's something the pastor needs to adjudicate.
I have stressed with the principal at my parish's school that I would like to have continuity with the weekend Masses, and that our goal should be to have worship similar to what they experience on the weekend; if we try to entertain, we're missing the point. She accepted that. I can assure you your principal hasn't thought that far. If you haven't had that conversation with her, you do need to have it. But at the end of the day, this is going to be up to the pastor, I think.
On a related note: this sort of issue is why, in general, I do think that the DoM shouldn't be the music teacher too. You should be equal with the principal, not reporting to her. -
@TimTheEnchanter - maybe my school is weird, but although I am teacher I do not report to the principal, but only to the pastor. Perhaps this is why I have good relationships with the two principals I have worked with here. Neither is my boss ;)
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Children will find adult music attractive... chant, polyphony and organ. Anything else is dumbing down the effort and keeping them in the sandbox of musical dev.to what extent should we adapt the musical language of the Mass to what we believe children and young people will find attractive?
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There is a lot of wise advice in the comments above ^^
Children need to learn things that are good for them. Do they adjust math and reading to only material that the children like?
Good music is good for children, lousy music is not good for them. -
Do they adjust math and reading to only material that the children like?
No, but they do adjust the teaching materials so that attractive stuff is used to engage the particular children, and then invite them to branch out into more challenging stuff.
People who find chant and sacred polyphony prayer seem to have difficulty with the idea that not everyone prays the same way they do, or has the same reaction to those styles of music. Some of us find chant down-right creepy.
For a teacher, the answer is yes: You need to expose children to a broad range of styles, including at a minimum chant, traditional hymnody and contemporary hymnody.
One suggestion: play some Steve Angrisano on the organ, and see what the principal thinks of it!
I would be interested to know some examples of "timeless hymnody untainted by secular harmonies, melodies and instrumentation". -
People who find chant and sacred polyphony prayer seem to have difficulty with the idea that not everyone prays the same way they do, or has the same reaction to those styles of music. Some of us find chant down-right creepy.
That is your perspective... perhaps another perspective is:
People who find chant and sacred polyphony creepy seem to have difficulty with the idea that the church prayed the same way for two millennia, and knew that sacred music was an obvious style and form that crossed all cultural and geographical boundaries. When Christ said, "let them be one", He was being literal.
Examples of timeless hymnody:
Anything in the Parish Book of Chant is a great start.
By "attractive stuff" are you in a sense saying chant is not attractive? I have found the opposite to be true... children gravitate toward the chant as it is truly simple to learn, and doesn't require contemporary rhythms to back up a syncopated melody, which many times, IS the more challenging stuff.
JMHO
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It's not like the children have inborn "ways that they pray" where for some children that's chant and polyphony while for others apparently it's the stylings of Steve Angrisano. They are in class to be formed. Form them on excellent music.
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Is there some generic thing called 'chant'? Even we confine our discussion to books composed by Solesmes the difference between the melismatic antiphons of the Proper and the standard common tones for orations of the Mass suggests to me a need to be more explicit.
I was introduced to the Kyriale at age 11, and still enjoy it, but my musical taste was formed in the 40s by the BBC, which had a specific cultural mandate. -
I am so grateful for the comments in response to this post. Sometimes I feel disheartened for taking my work so seriously, perhaps, a little too seriously, but as someone with a doctorate in music, and with nearly twenty years experience teaching it to both children and adults, I'd like to think my expertise and experience carry more weight than someone's personal taste. I plan liturgies with appropriate music not because I like the way it sounds, and when our position is reduced to being a personal DJ, it shows an utter lack of understanding and awareness of what music during the mass is supposed to be.
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No, but they do adjust the teaching materials so that attractive stuff is used to engage the particular children, and then invite them to branch out into more challenging stuff.
The "challenging stuff" is what the children in my choir find most attractive (because I never did the "attractive stuff" in the first place).You need to expose children to a broad range of styles, including at a minimum chant, traditional hymnody and contemporary hymnody.
Why do they need to be exposed to contemporary hymnody? -
The kids I teach constantly surprise me (and it really shouldn't by now) with their ability to pick up on melodies so quickly and sing what an adult choir struggles to learn. My youth choir likes learning and singing the chant and has a genuine interest in doing what the adults do. There is even a friendly sort of competition going on. If they learn chant and good music they'll already have all the tools to sing the garbage that others offer them should they ever desire to do so.
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People who find chant and sacred polyphony prayer seem to have difficulty with the idea that not everyone prays the same way they do, or has the same reaction to those styles of music. Some of us find chant down-right creepy.
I don’t appreciate this comment. Most of us grew up in the real world, not the bubble, and I even went to Steubenville! Second of all, while I certainly would prefer a different kind of unity, I would just like to be left well alone. If Fr [insert names here] and his lay associates wish to do crazy things, so long as I’m left alone by him, by the bishop, and by Rome, whatever. The money will dry up. The people will not convert for that nonsense. More importantly, almost no one except grouches and ideologues (or really misguided, not necessarily the most well-reasoned folks, insofar as they believe in a purity of intention above all else) don’t find chant and polyphony prayerful, at least after a few exposures.
Why do they need to be exposed to contemporary hymnody?
Only good texts matter. Very few new tunes are worthwhile. They’re all in classic styles too. I’m not exposing the people of my parish to the latest from ILP, for example.It's not like the children have inborn "ways that they pray" where for some children that's chant and polyphony while for others apparently it's the stylings of Steve Angrisano. They are in class to be formed. Form them on excellent music.
Correct.
Also, while I don’t always like or love every last text and tune or motet etc. I hope that it grows on me and is well executed regardless. But it is never going to clash with the rest of the program. It’s not a soup with a little of this, a little of that. -
You need to expose children to a broad range of styles, including at a minimum chant, traditional hymnody and contemporary hymnody.
Spoken by someone who has no grasp of the problem, just continuing the dribble that has passed for liturgical music these last 40-50 years. Thirty years in Catholic schools...give them chant, classical hymnody and they will grow easily into it.
.People who find chant and sacred polyphony prayer seem to have difficulty with the idea that not everyone prays the same way they do, or has the same reaction to those styles of music. Some of us find chant down-right creepy.
Lack of exposure to quality music. Oh please, I find YOUR comment down-right creepy. Mostly because you judge music on an emotive internal response instead of the threefold judgement of Pope Pius.
This whole thread is a good reason why we don't get anywhere sometimes because of personal taste instead of a catechesis of solid material. The final answer is give them what they need and not what they want. And don't worry, I am old and don't care what you say about me. My words are like strong medicine. Doesnt go down easy but will cure the sickness. -
This question has become particularly interesting to me after listening to Sarah Hart and Steve Angrisano. Whatever one's aesthetic judgment, their success demonstrates that there is a substantial contemporary Catholic music industry producing repertoire that is accessible, professionally arranged, and intentionally directed toward Catholic worship.
Sarah Hart wrote a Mass setting that has parts to it that sound almost identical to the music from The Little Mermaid. I kid you not. My parish’s DM started using it for reasons unbeknownst to me, but thankfully stopped. I dubbed it The Mass of the Little Mermaid because every time they sung the Gloria, all I could hear was, “Look at this stuff. Isn’t it neat?” while images of the movie flashed in my mind. The Amen is even worse. It sounds exactly like the “Aaaah aaaah’s” from the movies’ Main Title. I’m genuinely surprised that Disney didn’t sue for copyright infringement.
There’s another song that sound exactly like the beginning of the Lion King’s, Can You Feel the Love Tonight. OCP has videos in which their composers even admit to getting their musical inspiration from movies. Movies are not the touchstone for judging the quality and appropriateness of sacred music used during Mass. Gregorian chant is.
Children aren’t dumb. I was chanting the Eucharistic prayer along with the priest at Mass as young as 5 and was drawn to chanting the Litany of the Saints and the chanted Mass parts. I was singing the psalm tones from CBW III from memory when I was 8. That’s how I started memorizing and learning the psalms. You know what I wasn’t into? The childish music they tried to get us to sing out of the Glory & Praise Young Person’s Edition. The whole “Friends are like flowers” and “His Banner over me is love” just didn’t do it for me. Kids are smart and can handle the chants and the Latin. -
So, both the religious studies teacher and the principal at my school like to play Contemporary Christian music at faculty retreats and meetings and in the principals case, over the aging school intercom for all the students. (Nobody asked them to do this.) So, the kids are getting exposed to this music, for better or for worse, but the point is that it shouldn't be during mass, especially when it would present such a glaring contradiction that would fly in the face of centuries of Church tradition.
I spent a month in Spain with my wife's family, and she grew up Catholic and even went to the University in Santiago de Compostela. My daughter was baptized in the church where my wife was brought up, the foundation of that church being laid in the year 1123. When I attend mass in a church that is centuries old, the thought of hearing music by Marty Haugen, David Haas, Sarah Hart, Steve Angrisano is really disturbing. The catharsis of singing chant in a space like that is an experience I'll always cherish. -
I have been following this post with some interest and I will offer my thoughts.
I think some of this discussion focuses too much on musical forms and tastes when the deeper issue is formation through the Church's liturgical inheritance.
As adults, we are part of the "cloud of witnesses" surrounding these children. The question is not simply, What music will children like? but rather: What are we handing on to the next generation, and what are they learning through the words they sing?
This is where lex orandi, lex credendi becomes important. Congregations are not just singing melodies; they are singing theology. The words placed on the lips of the faithful help shape belief and devotion. A beautiful melody cannot compensate for weak theology.
Rather than framing the issue as hymns versus chant, perhaps our priorities should be:
1. Theological truth
2. Liturgical suitability
3. Textual quality
4. Musical quality
5. Accessibility and singability
The more fundamental question is: How do we introduce children to the extraordinary inheritance the Church already possesses?
Children do not form their liturgical identity in isolation. They learn what is worth singing by watching the adults around them. Rather than another musical culture war, perhaps our task is simply to say:
"This is our inheritance. We have received it, learned it, and come to love it. Now we are giving it to you."
I've explored these questions further in my parish hymnological study, A Parish Inheritance, which grew out of my own reflection on what we have received from the Church and what we are handing on to the next generation. -
I might push back with the chants in Jubilate Deo. It is the minimum repertoire of chant that all Catholics are supposed to learn as decreed by the sainted pope who presided over the Second Vatican Council. I might ask the principal when and how are Catholics supposed to learn the minimum repertoire if not part of the education one receives in a Catholic school.
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This whole thread strikes eerily close to home. Now that I have pivoted our Mass Music to being something more in line with sacred tradition, the principal and another teacher have taken to having Monday morning hymn sings in the hallway, which is a GIA / OCP greatest hits roundup. At first it bothered me that we refuse to let this music die, but it occurred to me that this isn’t the worst thing ever. They can get their kicks in the hallway on a Monday, and then they can get actual sacred music when they come into the church for Mass, and know that there is a difference.So, both the religious studies teacher and the principal at my school like to play Contemporary Christian music at faculty retreats and meetings and in the principals case, over the aging school intercom for all the students. (Nobody asked them to do this.) So, the kids are getting exposed to this music, for better or for worse, but the point is that it shouldn't be during mass, especially when it would present such a glaring contradiction that would fly in the face of centuries of Church tradition.
At some point we just have to be honest: how many more times are we going to repeat the experiment before we realize the result is almost always failure? That is to say: how many more children do we have to indoctrinate with 80-90’s sacro pop before we realize that it is so vapid it does nothing to keep them in the church?
Most adults in their 30-40’s who have left the church can instantly sing Eagle’s Wings and other songs of that ilk from memory. Imagine if, instead of those things, they had been solidly taught the Salve Regina, a Gloria, or a Credo? I suspect our situation would be rather different. I, for my part, refuse to participate in the experiment any longer. There is a very deep well of perennial goodness, and it’s time we draw water from it again.
The sacro-pop approach infantilizes the mass to some degree. There is this idea that we should dumb down the mass to a 2nd grade level. The exact opposite is true: we need to have beautiful transcendent masses, and then each child will come to a deeper and deeper understanding of the Mass as they matriculate and are habituated to it. When the mass is infantilized, the older kids absolutely check out and stop caring. If we acted like Mass was the most important thing that we do, and then allow the children more and more privileges as they get older (such as altar serving), they would better intuit the importance and be excited about participating in the important thing prized by the adults. If you arrange mass such that it is fit only for a 2nd grader, the older children naturally internalize the dynamic that it’s something dumb for little kids. I’ve seen this with my own eyes and the contrast between two of my parish jobs could hardly be more different.
I’ve had someone on staff say to me explicitly that they want the kids to learn these songs so they fall in love with the faith. I responded honestly that this has been the running theory for 30 years and it has not played out in practice, plain and simple. The next objection was, “But the smaller children won’t understand it!!!” My reply: “no, they won’t. At least not at first. But the answer is to catechize them and bring them deeper and deeper into the mysteries. The answer is not to dumb down the mysteries.”
I’ve personally seen 150 children grade 5 and under chant the Salve Regina in Latin from memory. After a year, I had parents tell me that their children would sing it on the swingset in the back yard. The kids can do it. -
Andy Motyka once quipped on one of my posts about singing chant something to the effect of,I might ask the principal when and how are Catholics supposed to learn the minimum repertoire if not part of the education one receives in a Catholic school.“people may quibble about just what ‘pride of place’ actually means, but in no world is ‘literally no chant ever’ a reasonable interpretation.”
It was a brilliant humorous take that actually belies a deep truth: if your church has no chant, ever, you’re doing it wrong. Every parish is in a different place, but no parish should be in a place where there is no chanting. -
it would still bother me even if it’s a good example of wisely picking battles.
At first it bothered me that we refuse to let this music die, -
When I attend mass in a church that is centuries old, the thought of hearing music by Marty Haugen, David Haas, Sarah Hart, Steve Angrisano is really disturbing.
On a trip to England in 1976, I was fortunate enough to be in the City of Saint Alban for the feast of St. Alban. I saw a notice for a RC mass in one of the many chapels of the (CofE) Cathedral on the eve of the feast. It was a very small affair, and it was all guitar music! Nothering traditional whatsoever, and almost no participation by the thin numbers. Thank goodness, the Cathedral had Evensong with Procession to the Shrine the following day. The procession moved from the Great Choir to the Shrine while Peter Hurford at the organ made it THUNDER while we sang For All the Saints to RVW's Sine Nomine.
Very disappointed in the RC effort.
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