mcommini wrote: ↑20 Sep 2022, 10:10
Del wrote: ↑19 Sep 2022, 21:02
Lots of great bits out there, mocking Evangelical praise & worship songs....
But for really bad church music, you gotta visit a suburban Catholic parish that still uses that awful and ubiquitous Gather Hymnal, with all the Hated Hits of Haugen and Haas.
Accompanied by a piano player.
[Insert: tongue-in-cheek]Hey, y'all had 900 years to translate the Mass into local post Western Roman Empire vernacular, but nooooo you wanted to double down on Latin.
One. Simple. Job. We showed you how multiple times. You don't even have to update the language as it changes- imagine a Tridentine Mass service book with all the glories of Chaucerian English sitting in every pew.
If you'd just done that to begin with you wouldn't have to deal with the Novus Ordo and all the bad hymns that came with it. There'd probably be far fewer Protestants, too, and the bad hymns that come with that.
So really, bad hymns are all Rome's fault. [Remove: tongue-in-cheek]
You're not wrong. But this isn't right, either. So a little Delsplain for those who aren't all up inside Catholic baseball:
The Novus Ordo Mass is still in Latin, officially. We are permitted and encouraged to translate it into local languages for worship. (The elder Tridentine Mass must not be translated for use in worship).
Daily Mass is offered at the diocesan chancery, Novus Ordo in Latin. It's marvelous.
The Novus Ordo Mass still has Latin music for daily antiphons and worship music. This set to the calendar in the
Roman Gradual, which is the schola music for worship in the Latin rite.
The problem is that this is universally ignored, and most Catholics have never even heard of the
Gradual. This is because the rubrics for the Novus Ordo Mass call for "settings from the Roman Gradual
or other appropriate hymns or songs." Immediately after the New Mass was rolled out, the church ladies started picking songs they liked. Folk guitar kids started writing amateurish songs. The missal publishers pushed pop tunes in their Mass books, and sold subscriptions so that parishes were able to keep up latest hits.
And in no time flat, the New Mass settled into the custom of Opening/Offeratory/Communion/Closing hymns, as if these were real parts of the Mass and absolutely belong there. And perhaps worst of all, the Psalm readings were quickly set to painfully unsingable tunes.
I am very fortunate, because our pastor re-discovered the Roman Gradual. He found a music guy who is passionate about authentic Catholic worship music. We have a great little schola choir, and they do some beautiful choral works as well. This brings so much more reverence to our worship. Once people experience it, we don't want to go back.
Now our schola guy travels the country, offering seminars to pastors and choir directors who want to restore authentic music into their parishes! It a work of evangelization.
===========================
Our previous bishop (God rest him) strongly encouraged us to attend to reverence at Mass, and especially to reverent music. He reminded us that we are always worshipping with the angels and the saints and with our ancestors (the "great crowd of witnesses"). His best bit of advice: "Always ask yourself,
'What does St. Jerome think of this song?'"
Brilliant!