When the chorus started singing the Kyrie I was so excited I wanted to jump in with the tenor line. Fortunately Mother Valencheck taught me how to restrain myself in such situations.
A friend had given me free tickets to a concert at Severance to hear the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus perform a mass. The mass goes under several names and so I did not recognize it by the program. But when they started singing it I thought, “I know this! I sang this! I learned this in public high school.”
Yes, I learned it in public high school.
As a matter of fact I learned a lot of great Catholic music in public school. Among others I learned Panis Angelicus and Ave Verum before I ever sang them at church. At the University of Akron I sang Kodaly’s Missa Brevis. It was in Protestant Churches that I sang or played other great pieces. My favorite was singing parts of Vivaldi’s Gloria at an Episcopal church.
One time I asked how we could get away with singing this music in public schools (Especially since at the time even many Catholic Churches seemed to have some allergic reaction to them.) Thge teachers would just say, “This is good music. It is classical music. This is the musical heritage of Western culture. We would be remiss in not exposing it to you and teaching it to you”
I was fortunately enough to be at a parish when I was growing up that started singing some of
these songs again when they realized there was a desire for them. But far too many places have the idea that this is just “old stuff” and not the mind of the Church anymore.
Happily I think we are past the arguments of whether or not Vatican II said, “Throw out everything old.” Now the question is can we restore at least some of what has been lost?
No, I take that back. Now the question is, “Should we restore what we can?”
It would not be entirely wrong to bring back some of our classical musical heritage out of nostalgia. (Why does that necessarily have such a negative connotation?) A little nostalgia is good for the soul. But is there a reason beyond nostalgia?
Yes!
1. We are a Church of history. We are the universal Church not restricted by time or space. We are a Church united in the Body of Christ. We are ever ancient, ever new. Taking a piece from our history in some way reminds us and unites us with our greater selves. It tells us that we are more than the here and now. It is a lesson that things were not always as they are. We are bigger and broader than that. It is not simply about us. At mass we are placed in the timeless, we are taken out of our world. Discovering our musical past will help reiterate this vital truth.
2. The Church is patroness of the arts. This is not a fanciful title, wishful thinking, or an artist’s outrageous wish, rather it is vital to our mission and for anyone to dismiss this ideal out of hand is not giving a great tool to the faithful. “The one, the true, the good, and the beautiful; they rise together and they fall together.” It is essential that we entertain and promote the beautiful when it is in our power to do so. And not only by that which we like, but what has been thought beautiful in our classical history. Yes! It is our role to inspire and teach through the arts! We are a faith that honors and respects the senses and the ways we can come in contact with the Divine through them. The broader we can expand our horizons in this respect, the closer we can grow to God.
3. It will offer the opportunity to assist people to pray and honor God in different and challenging ways. (With the number of times I’ve been forced to expand my horizons doing new age rubbish you would think this should be a no brainer. And the theology is proven!)
4. It affords us (in our American culture) the opportunity to LISTEN! To pray in a different way. Not all full, conscious, and active participation means doing something. That falls into the trap of mere activity. And we do not always understand every aspect of everything. Sometimes we need to be challenged out of our worlds and complacency.
5. In an age when we can travel more and find ourselves in communities of mixed nationalities and languages, it is good to have at least a modicum of Latin under our collective belts.
6. It also a kindness to those who find the current crop of politically correct music to be mind numbing. As a child I was constantly told that certain music was being done “for me” to be more relevant. I hated it. And more and more I find young (and youngish) people who do not enjoy the categories of music they are told they are supposed to find more inspirational.
*sigh*
A friend had given me free tickets to a concert at Severance to hear the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus perform a mass. The mass goes under several names and so I did not recognize it by the program. But when they started singing it I thought, “I know this! I sang this! I learned this in public high school.”
Yes, I learned it in public high school.
As a matter of fact I learned a lot of great Catholic music in public school. Among others I learned Panis Angelicus and Ave Verum before I ever sang them at church. At the University of Akron I sang Kodaly’s Missa Brevis. It was in Protestant Churches that I sang or played other great pieces. My favorite was singing parts of Vivaldi’s Gloria at an Episcopal church.
One time I asked how we could get away with singing this music in public schools (Especially since at the time even many Catholic Churches seemed to have some allergic reaction to them.) Thge teachers would just say, “This is good music. It is classical music. This is the musical heritage of Western culture. We would be remiss in not exposing it to you and teaching it to you”
I was fortunately enough to be at a parish when I was growing up that started singing some of
these songs again when they realized there was a desire for them. But far too many places have the idea that this is just “old stuff” and not the mind of the Church anymore.Happily I think we are past the arguments of whether or not Vatican II said, “Throw out everything old.” Now the question is can we restore at least some of what has been lost?
No, I take that back. Now the question is, “Should we restore what we can?”
It would not be entirely wrong to bring back some of our classical musical heritage out of nostalgia. (Why does that necessarily have such a negative connotation?) A little nostalgia is good for the soul. But is there a reason beyond nostalgia?
Yes!
1. We are a Church of history. We are the universal Church not restricted by time or space. We are a Church united in the Body of Christ. We are ever ancient, ever new. Taking a piece from our history in some way reminds us and unites us with our greater selves. It tells us that we are more than the here and now. It is a lesson that things were not always as they are. We are bigger and broader than that. It is not simply about us. At mass we are placed in the timeless, we are taken out of our world. Discovering our musical past will help reiterate this vital truth.
2. The Church is patroness of the arts. This is not a fanciful title, wishful thinking, or an artist’s outrageous wish, rather it is vital to our mission and for anyone to dismiss this ideal out of hand is not giving a great tool to the faithful. “The one, the true, the good, and the beautiful; they rise together and they fall together.” It is essential that we entertain and promote the beautiful when it is in our power to do so. And not only by that which we like, but what has been thought beautiful in our classical history. Yes! It is our role to inspire and teach through the arts! We are a faith that honors and respects the senses and the ways we can come in contact with the Divine through them. The broader we can expand our horizons in this respect, the closer we can grow to God.
3. It will offer the opportunity to assist people to pray and honor God in different and challenging ways. (With the number of times I’ve been forced to expand my horizons doing new age rubbish you would think this should be a no brainer. And the theology is proven!)
4. It affords us (in our American culture) the opportunity to LISTEN! To pray in a different way. Not all full, conscious, and active participation means doing something. That falls into the trap of mere activity. And we do not always understand every aspect of everything. Sometimes we need to be challenged out of our worlds and complacency.
5. In an age when we can travel more and find ourselves in communities of mixed nationalities and languages, it is good to have at least a modicum of Latin under our collective belts.
6. It also a kindness to those who find the current crop of politically correct music to be mind numbing. As a child I was constantly told that certain music was being done “for me” to be more relevant. I hated it. And more and more I find young (and youngish) people who do not enjoy the categories of music they are told they are supposed to find more inspirational.
*sigh*
6 comments:
YES! To everything you said!
Not only in most the music played in Catholic Churches poorly crafted, the lyrics are heretical.
I disagree, Adrienne. Strongly.
I have seen that one woman's iffy music is a young Rwandan widowed mom's aria unto God. I fear we'd many of us snicker at the Little Flower's songs..
But otherwise, I must say that I will not clap to any song unless I am helping out in the Children's Liturgy, and I will not learn the signing involved in "Awesome God." Mostly because I'm from New England--our inherent solemnity is only 3 degrees shy of full death; but inarguably, there IS something offputting about a 300-lb. bearded guy signing to "Awesome God."
Wow, you just reminded me that most of the Latin hymns that I know, I learned in public, high school choir! I don't think that would happen too much nowadays.
I always thought, well at least they can't mess with the Christmas songs. Then this year I noticed the hymnal offered alternate PC lyrics to "What Child is This". Ug!
I've taken singing lessons in the past, but I never knew what to sing that was good other than the Ave Maria. Father, can you suggest any good CDs? I don't know any of the songs you mentioned.
SPARKY Not being much of a CD buyer - I'm hard pressed to think of one that might have the greatest hits save for this - the Daughters of Saint Paul always have good stuff like this and you can call them (or whatever) and they will CERTAINLY have good suggestions as they ALWAYS do. (I do miss them no longer being here in Cleveland - they were so wonderful. I hope they come back.)
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