www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall A Gripe At Catholic Music

Dear Friends,

It is always around this time of year (well, this and Easter), that I am especially burdened by the terrible state of Catholic music in Roman Catholic parishes. Sure, there are some standouts from the sea of mediocrity, but they are painfully few and far between. What makes this exponentially harder to bear is that I was raised in the Methodist Church, in a parish with a gigantic pipe organ, great voices in the choir, congregational participation to blow your socks off, and very traditional hymnody, as far as Protestantism goes, anyway. When I converted, in terms of worship hymnody it was sort of akin to being raised chauffeured in a limousine all your life to being forced to drive a beat-up Pinto. I've never gotten used to that Pinto!

So to make myself feel a little better, I'm including a list of the main staple of songs sung in my old Methodist church on that big beautiful pipe organ. Some that stand out in my mind are...

Praise To the Lord, the Almighty
Crown Him With Many Crowns
The Doxology/Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Nearer, My God, To Thee
Jesus, Thine All-Victorious Love
How Firm A Foundation
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
Faith Of Our Fathers
Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing

And the worst part is, the once-in-a-blue-moon times that we may sing something in the Catholic parish like "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," the poor souls butcher it so badly, and the wording is rendered into modern English, it's just like twisting the knife! I'd rather not hear it at all than hear it butchered so shamelessly.

If any of you would like to hear some of these songs, the lyrics and the tunes of many Methodist hymns can be found here: http://www.hymnsite.com/hymndex.htm (click on the organ for what it would sound like in my old church).

Here is a YouTube video of Praise To The Lord, The Almighty being played on the organ: Praise To The Lord, The Almighty [youtube.com]

Of course there is Catholic music I could never get as a Methodist, the most obvious being chant, but for the average Catholic parish it seems like it's always Haugen and Haas and the most dreadful 1970s music. Even in more traditional Roman parishes around here, I'm usually shocked to death if I find a hymn that's pre-1940s, whereas in my old church the same would be true if I found a hymn post-19th century.

Did any other ex-Protestants who came from musically-inclined denominations of parishes feel such a sense of loss upon conversion?

Alexis

Oh my yes. I sang in the choir of a traditional Episcopal church, and we sang beautiful hymns. I loved everything about the music. It was and is still very hard for me to hear the music in most of the parishes we've been to. For probably about a year after we converted I wanted so badly to go back to my little Episcopal Church, I missed it so much. I did fee a big loss.

After entering the Catholic church I was stunned by a lot of the music. They played "Lord of the Dance" at my kids' baptism. Once, I they started the tune to "Come Thou Font..." but of course all the words had been changed.

I still miss it Going from Methodism with a Choir that held regular practices and sang in 4 part harmony and performed Oratorios at Christmas and Easter.

I also sang in an Anglican Choir - again 4 part harmony and some glorious Chant

Then to Catholicism - poor Choir , awful music and a congregation that didn't sing

Thank goodness for my UGCC parish ,they may be old - but oh how they sing

One thing that gets me, like I said, is that in the Methodist church when we sang "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" the first stanza always ended with "...shall come to thee, O Israel," but in the Catholic parishes I've been to that sing this song (cheesily, once, at Midnight Mass, lol), they say, "...will come to you, O Israel."

Now, I ask, is there really such an extraordinary need to change it from thee to you? We ALL understand what "thee" means, for crying out loud, and they're both one syllable. I can think of nothing else other than that it must be an intentional "de-beautification" of the text. It's very, very strange.

Alexis

I am music director and organist at a Catholic church, and we do many of the hymns you mentioned. See some pictures, etc. at: Holy Ghost Church [discoveret.org]
There is one folk-type mass late Sunday evening, but I have nothing to do with that. At the 4 morning masses, we do traditional hymns, chant - both Gregorian and Anglican, and classic organ music. There is another Catholic church in Knoxville that also does good music. Oh sure, there is plenty of bad stuff still around, but some of us refuse to do any of it. I will mention that on the hymn section of our website, there are a couple of pieces that none of the church musicians are performing. Maybe the web designer decided to stick those in, but I don't know their origins.

Alexis,

I have had the EXACT same experience as you! I grew up in a Methodist church in which the choir was awesome, the music was traditional, and the organ was beautiful. Now I wade through a sea of 70's folk tunes that went out of style five minutes before they were written!

I absolutely love being Catholic and don't regret my conversion for an instant, but the music at Catholic parishes is by far the one change in which things got much worse by converting rather than better!

ByzanTN,

That is encouraging. Say, what's the difference between Anglican and Gregorian Chant, anyway?
Alexis

P.S. What a lovely high altar your church has. It would be wonderful to see that free-standing altar removed, or at least adorned with an altar frontal.

Modern Roman Catholic music has a lot to answer for, but Lord of The Dance isn't part of the bill.

A Quaker used an older British song, setting it to a Shaker hymn. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Dance_(hymn)

Of course, many Catholic parishes are guilty of singing it. I even encountered it halftime as a dirge, once . . .

Then again, abysmal music obstructing the Mass had a lot to do with my finding my Byzantine parish, so . . .

hawk

Maybe this book can answer your gripe.


[Linked Image]

Anglican chant seems to follow the "flow" of English a bit better than the Latin Gregorian adapted to English. By this I mean the melodic voice is closely wedded to the natural inflection of speech. The Anglican chant often has fewer notes per syllable than Gregorian. Another difference is the use of minor thirds in Anglican, which doesn't tend as much to the use of perfect fourths as often as Gregorian. Also, Anglican is more homophonic than Gregorian - not surprising since much of it was written at a later time. Musicians can argue about the differences, but it seems to me that the most significant difference is that the two were produced in different places at different times. Of course, there are always the exceptions. Thanks for the compliment on the high altar. It was donated in honor of a bishop of Cleveland, Ohio, as I recall. The pictures are of the "new" church which was built in the mid 1920s. We estimate that there is around $3 million dollars in Austrian glass in the church at today's prices. The old church still stands next door.

Alexis

I can assure you there are Roman Catholic Churches as well as UGCC Churches where the singing will make you think you've died and gone to Heaven. Off hand I can think of at least 5 in Chicago. Unfortunately though I can relate to much of what you're saying, in many RC parishes nowdays the singing is terrible, and the modern hymns are still worse.

Boy oh Boy ...

I remember growing in an Anglican School - in which every morning we were "forced" to church for 15 minutes of chanting and prayer. Since then I hate the organ!

I am a "musical" person - I love music - all kinds and colors. But when it comes to Church and prayer I seem to be most comfortable with male voice(s) chanting without any musical instruments... It brings me closer to heaven than anything else. Byzantine chanting (I really can't call it music, as it seems degrading) is my spiritual choice - otherwise, I'll dance to anything that makes good sounds

I appreciate a capella chant and singing, and if I absolutely *had* to choose between only that and nothing else, or only chant or singing with instrumental accompaniment and nothing else, I'd choose the former, but really I do believe the organ is one of the greatest gifts to music and chant ever created. To this Westerner, it really is wondrous.

Alexis

When it comes to what music moves people in worship, it can be said 'chacun a son gout'...(to each his own).

I have been moved by the classic ecclesiastical music of many Christian traditions and cultures, and have not been moved by others (Byzantine chant is, to the dismay of my heritage, on the bottom of the list-- though I have heard a chanter or two that suited my more Western tastes--one was the female 'en'chantress at the GO Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the other the Greek American chanter who chants in English at my parish--in syncrony with my priest's amazing voice, services are positively inspiring and like heaven).

Alice

With an advanced degree in organ, of course I am a bit biased.