I plan music for the Mass itself, not holidays or private devotionals. July 4 is on a Wednesday this year, and we will have a Mass on that day and the homily and, I am sure, some of the music outside of the Mass will have a patriotic bent (ie. recessional hymn). Memorial Day week-end this year was Pentecost - we had propers and hymns for Pentecost. We had a separate service for Memorial Day. I get some grief for this, because people like having a two-fer - come to Mass on Sunday and get the July 4 music, or Veteran's Day music, or Memorial Day music, etc., etc. - without coming to the separate service. I am not a fan of that.

America the Beautiful is job security for some...and if otherwise I can plan music that is actually appropriate to the Mass the rest of the time (or work slowly towards that end), then I can live with America the Beautiful as a recessional 3x a year (..and I am even Canadian!)

I am not programming any patriotic music for the weekend Masses, either before or after Independence Day. I AM programming patriotic music for our 4th of July Mass (we have Mass on every civic holiday).

Most of those patriotic songs, if you sing enough verses, have a significant reference to God. Plus, I get to keep my job that way!

I typically only program patriotic music if there is no "other" Mass on that day. If July 4th were a Sunday, then perhaps I would program a patriotic hymn as the closing (if it were a normal Sunday in Ordinary Time). Since this year there will be a Mass (with music) on July 4th, I'll save the patriotic music for that day and use normal ecclesiastical music on Sunday.

A funny story... Last year I was substituting as organist at a parish on Memorial Day weekend. The organist left me only the music for the Mass, but then in the notes said "play something patriotic at the end of Communion." Well... the thing is, I'm Canadian. I don't know American patriotic music by heart like most organists. But, when I sub at this place I typically do whatever I'm told - the stipend is good and the organ is terrific. So at the end of Communion I improvised upon the only patriotic song Canada and America share. Most folks heard a slight variation on the tune My Country 'Tis of Thee... though in my head I was going back to high school and remembering God Save the Queen.

If the pastor asked everyone to recite a prayer for the country at the end of Mass, how would that be different? Have we forgetten that a "national hymn" is a prayer, not simply a piece of patriotic music?

Reviewing the words to America the Beautiful, it is certainly a prayer of petition, albeit part of a mixture of patriotism, national pride, etc. But not beyond the realm of prayer.

One can argue that it is divorced from religious practise in common use, therefore has no place in church. On the other hand, should we not continue to remind ourselves and others that the Deity is addressed in this hymn, and we should invoke Him anytime the national hymn is sung. Thus connecting it with the liturgy, after the liturgy has formally ended, can serve to continue to associate the hymn with a sacred context.

I currently attend a parish where God Bless America was the offertory hymn, (and the only music, at most of these Masses,) on Corpus Christi, Pentecost, one of the Sundays of Advent...
I'll be out of town, so I don't know what the Fourth or its bookend Sundays will be like.
I used to think people who told stories like this, (I've heard them described as "liturgical porn",) were making them up, or at least exaggerating.
Live and learn.

(Save the Liturgy, save the World)

Here's the link: http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/fortnight-for-freedom/

Well, Jackson, as cogent as your points prove, you've nonetheless entered the "patriotic songs" debate and called into question the distinctions that mark certain hymn texts/tunes in a broader spectrum. I would liken the singing of JERUSALEM in the UK as not substantially different than singing MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY here in the US. There are elements of secularist, patriotic sentiment that some taking up their singing may hold dear, but don't necessarily negate the theological or worship context (in the Howe-eschatological aspects.) OTOH, the singing of GOD SAVE THE QUEEN or AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL, even having a clear tendon of prayer intent in tact, infers a more nationalistic emphasis.
For me, the question only arises if the national observance falls within the weekend sequence of Friday to Monday proximity. And in any case, no one is under obligation other than ettiquette or manners to remain present in the church after "Ite missa est. Deo gratias," even if the celebrant hasn't left the sanctuary. So, your aesthetic point is made and valid, but technically irrelevant. But local customs often dictate what is displayed in this window of opportunity: a grand postlude, a hymn of any kind, silence, the recitation of the St. Michael prayer, etc.
In reality I'd speculate 80 percent at least of congregants herd themselves through the exits ASAP in the average RCC parish. Maybe we should try Bart Simpson's solution, and sing "In a gadda da vida/In the garden of Eden, honey, don't you know that I love you?" just to see if the PIPs haven't joined the zombie apocalypse.

If it's not the day, I ignore it. If it is, I either do a sole closing hymn, or a patriotic prelude OR postlude. Or how about this - works by American composers? I've been known to do that, too.

I don't know why holidays have to get expanded to "the holidays", or a "holiday weekend". Every. Last. One. It doesn't make you more patriotic just because you want to have your hangover on Sunday instead of Monday or Thursday.

I think you should make music decisions based on your congregation, its needs, and its pastor's directives. We all do that. What works in one situation may not work at all in another. In all my years, I have yet to see two congregations or pastors that were alike.

I think that the Ordo provides for a Mass of Thanksgiving on Independence Day in the US. At that Mass, I don't think that it is in bad taste to use music by American composers based on the Propers of the Votive Mass. And I see nothing wrong after singing the proper offertorium, of singing "Almighty Father, Strong to Save," the All-Services version of the Navy Hymn (since I served in the Air Force, needless to say I
love the third verse)- or sing it after the Dismissal. If you have lots of Tenors & Basses,
sing a verse or two TTBB. I don't think anyone will complain. You might get some new recruits! I get teary-eyed on the last verse: "O Trinity of love and power ..."

And now I will go find a recording on-line of Ives' "Variations on America".

RC, while you're there, send the new Vatican II Priests Conference Organization thingy a recording including Charles' "The Unanwered Question" and "Central Park in the Dark." The Bernstein recording is definitive and apropos.

The last vernacular Mass at which this was even a question (for me, but not for most on this thread) my pastor, a veteran, gave firm instructions that no patriotic music was to be used. Mass is not the praise of our nation. I had no problem with this, for it merely confirmed my sense that anything which intrudes into the Mass draws our attention to ourselves and away from God.

Now, in answer to the general objection that some of these pieces could be used as prayers and are (therefore) appropriate, consider the experience of my mother-in-law, who came to see a real purpose in singing "mother Mary come to me", right before she came to her senses and decided that the Beatles didn't belong at Mass. If the Beatles belong at Mass, John Lennon's Imagine can be there, and so nothing can be excluded.

This highlights something else: while the Mass is the source and summit of our lives in Christ, it is not the only part of that life. If we knew (collectively) more of the Church's repertoire for the liturgy of the hours and ..... we wouldn't even consider recourse to the other stuff.

Chris

I think Charles "hit the nail on the head." There is a difference between patriotic songs and national hymns. "God Bless America" and "Almighty (Eternal) Father, Strong to Save" are two very different classifications. Check the texts and backgrounds of the two.

Perhaps this sweet priest was trying to be respectful of the area. I was told "no patriotic music AT ALL", when I asked about recessional music for today. I totally agreed, although I think the people would have appreciated it and sung wholeheartedly.

I guess this must have been the external solemnity of Independence Day. ;-)

Since the "Mass has ended" and everything that follows that declaration isn't that important... how about some Aaron Tippin "Where the Stars and Stripes and Eagles Fly" or maybe Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA?" Everyone could stand up all at the same time when we get "and I gladly stand up *dramatic pause* next to you..." lol

people who will sing patriotic songs (with the most meagre of prayer-like fig leaves) at the eucharist

This reminds me of the traditionalist "American Catholic Church" (I think that's right?) from Walker Percy's Love in the Ruins, where the Elevation piece is always "The Star-Spangled Banner".