Awful church music.

[Tracer]

I had regularly sung in my parish choir for years up until a couple of years ago when all the gorgeous, uplifting music was tossed out the window in favor of the dreck that's published by Oregon Catholic Press.

No more music by "dead white guys" like Mozart, Handel, Bach etc.

In came the hacks like David Haas, Bernadette O'Farrell and others.

We don't even have the option of having a "Folk" mass as in previous years. Now, there are teenagers pounding drums, slamming electric guitars and blaring saxes at almost every Mass.

I couldn't take it. I had to quit.

http://tommcfaul.com/escritaria/litmusic.html

[Maeve]

1. You're lucky you got Handel et al at all

Too many churches seem to think "traditional music" means dirge-speed renderings of "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name". However, I am biased toward "folk mass" stuff--the "Glory & Praise" songbooks are what we used when I came into the church and were usually led by decent musicians.

What used to be the "Folk Mass" at my church now sounds like the music at the Protestant mega-churches..and I haven't noticed a particular upsurge in youth attendance, either.

[pelagius]

2. In joining this group, I promised to be respectful of...

...Catholic and Orthodox belief and practice -- which I mostly am. But on this particular issue, I'll just smile my "separated brethren" Anglican smile and thumb through the Episcopal Church hymnal. Oh, yes, I read it for its poetic majesty, profound theology, and rich Christian history. And the dead white man music is pretty darn nice, too.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

3. I prefer going on Wednesday.

It's quiet. I hate sunday morning mass, except for Father's sermon. All the singing is ok, but there's too much of it and it's just screechy. Why do they feel they have to do all of that? Every other mass all week is quiet and very personal. Sundays just aren't.
Duckie

[laheina]

8. I like Saturday night,

but we still have the folksy stuff. :shrug:

[newyawker99]

4. I never liked the folk masses. I guess I am used to the

old-fashioned Church music from the past.

Hey, at least they still sing the old
standard Christmas hymns. ;-)

[struggle4progress]

5. Well, we Lutherans thought we had Bach's harmonizations ...

... in our hymnbook forever but about ten years ago a new hymnbook threw out all the Bach and replaced them with "simplifications."

[Matilda]

6. When I married, I entered the church to the great Martin Luther hymn

"A Mighty Fortress Is Our God". I asked Father first, and he didn't
mind at all.

I've asked my family, when I die, to have it played as I leave the
church for the last time.

[laheina]

7. I believe that hymn is listed as an option

in the Liturgy of the Hours. If that one isn't then others of Martin Luther's are. I was surprised to notice that.

[struggle4progress]

10. I'm under the impression the Catholics adopted it as a symbol of ...

... ecumenism around the time of Vatican II. And I've heard it sung in Catholic churches in recent years.

[AngryOldDem]

9. I'm in the minority here, probably....

But I like the "new" music by Haas, Joncas, etc. Maybe it's because my former parish had a really talented music minister who was great at arranging, as well as song selection. (Don't worry, I won't ask you how you feel about "On Eagle's Wings." :-) )

The church I go to now tends to focus more on the old, traditional hymns that come out sounding like dirges. Occasionally we hear Bach -- which is done well -- but never Handel, Mozart, etc.

And I know what you mean about the pounding drums. At the old parish I mentioned above, every so often they would have a drummer at the Saturday vigil who would put Buddy Rich to shame. My husband took to calling those Masses the "Buddy Rich Memorial Masses." I think a lot of people complained because he did tone it down a lot before he stopped coming altogether.

[struggle4progress]

11. The Catholic church I was attending for a while used some of that ...

... new stuff. I liked it, too.

[Maeve]

12. But that's one of the strengths of Catholic tradition

When we do it right, it's not "either" but "both". We need music of and for all tastes. (Talented people working with the music helps, too! I've heard too many who had no sense of rhythm butcher music I loved.)

[Tracer]

13. The "strengths of the Catholic tradition"?

In my opinion, the Catholic tradition is a very Bush-like "my way or the highway".

There is no option to sing anything other than what is prescribed in the OCP missals or songbooks.

My choir director is an extremely talented musician Ñ but she's a non-Catholic who has been in her position for 25 years, and has become more Catholic than the Catholics. She has also been effectively rolled by the pastor, who wants the entire congregation to sing every item of music during Mass Ñ no matter that 80% of the people don't open their mouths, or that the rest of them sound like a herd of cows.

[Maeve]

14. Wow, you've had some bad experiences!

I've been to folk Masses and High Masses; English, Latin, Irish and Spanish. There has been a wide of music, limited mainly by the presiding priest and his "style" of interpreting the guidelines.

I have to admit my favorite parish was the St Thomas More at Ohio State. They could draw from a very talented pool of musicians and the Paulist Fathers in charge of the place were open to innovation.

[Tracer]

16. "Open to innovation." There's your clue.

My pastor (a guy who wears sandals year round, even in the dead of a Massachusetts winter) seemed like a reachable, pleasant enough man in the beginning.

But over the years, has more seen himself as a CEO, instead of a pastor. The worst kind of CEO. The kind that brooks no dissent and is quite unaware of his insulting manner.

A few weeks ago during choir practice (yes, yes, I rejoin the choir for Christmas), we could see our breath in the church, it was that cold. The director went to the back of the church to turn up the heat a little, just at the same time the CEO happened to come in.

He started yelling at the director to leave the thermostat alone Ñstarting at the front of the church, and didn't stop yelling until he got to the back to stand toe to toe with her.

It was unneccesary, uncalled for and ultimately embarrassing for all concerned.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

15. I will always be a huge proponant of Gregorian Chant - there's a reason

why it worked for 1000 years - its beautiful and powerful. I go to some High Latin masses at a church here in Hartford sometimes - you can't beat the solemnity of it.

[TrogL]

17. I was at a Catholic mass a few weeks ago

Caught just the tail end of it.

Some chick singing garbage off key to an out-of-tune guitar.

People wandering in and out pretty much at random.

I was not impressed.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

18. You should check out a high Tridentine mass with the Gregorian chant

and the incense!

[The Jacobin]

19. Anything with tamburines

:mad:

I can't help it. Everytime some well-meaning dork pulls one of those things out, I start to twitch.

I don't mind much of the Glory and Praise, but some of it is truly awful.

I just flat refuse to go to the "Teen Life" mass.

That reminds me. I have a book somewhere around here called "Why Catholics Can't Sing" If I remember the premise right, most of the problem is bad music.