Gianluigi chose today’s videos to complement his theological reflections. Enjoy!
Music has been one of my earliest passions. My father was a church musician (among other things), just like his father and his grandfather. My brother became a professional singer and a musicologist. I was trained as a classical pianist, and I directed church choirs in my youth. Right now, I am waiting for my grand piano to join me in my new home. It still feels like the soul of the home is missing until it gets here.
I was quite impressed by the last few DMs about Brendan Doyle that Matthew penned, because it is rare that I agree with somebody on church music. It is indeed Doyle’s comment about “current liturgical music” which made me jump in my seat with approval (see DM July 6).
He was speaking about the subject a few decades ago, but not much has changed, at least not enough to make his comment obsolete.
Here again is what he says: So much new music is missing mystery. The music is so obvious. There are no secrets to be revealed. And it’s missing the prophetic side as well. There is so much positive thinking in a lot of liturgical music. No darkness. I don’t even know why there are crucifixes [in churches] if we’re trying to avoid this aspect…
Yes, yes, and yes. Contrary to Doyle, I am not a Wagner fan. But I don’t need to be one to know the importance of mystery in church music. And this should not be about musical preferences either. Mystery, depth, sorrow, prophetic engagement, ecstatic joy… all of these can be expressed in a variety of styles.
My personal preference for a Gregorian chant Mass, maybe sparkled with some Buxtheude organ pieces, has not prevented me from attending — and sometimes presiding — Jazz masses, Taizé prayer meetings, Gospel choir worship services, Catholic Scouts, open-air Eucharists with guitars, and so on and so forth. What matters is whether there is real thinking behind your stylistic choice for a specific group and a specific occasion.
Are people involved? Are they involved deeply, in their guts? Are they able to sing at least some pieces? And, whenever possible, are they able to move and dance? Is the music helping the community to reach ecstatic moments?
These are, to me, the most relevant questions.
However, when I talk about liturgical music, I feel very often misunderstood and even isolated. Nobody else seems to share my point of view. I have been called “old-fashioned,” “conservative,” and even “oppressive,” “racist,” and “narcissist” when I oppose a trend that presents itself as innovative — although it has existed for at least 50 years — and is sometimes called “contemporary worship” or “progressive church songs.”
What my opponents apparently see in this trend is a new, exciting way of worshiping, more in tune with everyday life and with the message that is preached. What I see is people who think that by modernizing their worship music, many new people would flock to their church. And I have never seen this happening in real life.
The new “songs” might correspond word by word to the biblical text that is preached, or they might present a current issue that the preacher is addressing. Yet it is a dead sound. It does not speak to the soul at all. It is supposed to be prophetic, but at most it is informative. It pleases the lead singer and the pastor and seldom someone else, if one has to judge from the facial expressions. It raises no spiritual energy, even though its proponents assure you that it does.
This way of dealing with church music is truly “modern”: it is chopped up, unfeeling, personalistic, ideological. It is a quite bizzare phenomenon to observe. When I had the audacity to sit in a service of this kind, I invariably observed that the music is impossible to sing — even if you are given the score — because it changes all the time, it is not easy to learn anyway, and most importantly, it is written for a solo, not for a large group.
— to be continued —
Banner Image: Evensong rehearsal by Blue Coat CE School Choir, Coventry, in the quire of York Minster, showing carved choirstalls. Photo by Allan Engelhardt on Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
What is your experience with music in church? How does it relate to your spirituality and the spirituality of the church group?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
Prayer: A Radical Response to Life
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time
WHEE! We, wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality
10 thoughts on “Liturgical Music – part 1”
so glad you joined Matthew, Gianluigi, bringing in some italianità, legerezza, beauty, senses, music….
the mysteries in a small Italian church, dim light, with its scents and music calms the heart, putting you into a trance with gratefulness, love, admiration ….
I hope your Grand all soon arrive to put you out of loneliness….
Elisabeth from Zürich
The Walton Te Deum!
Liturgical music I believe is another layer of prayer and should reflect the solemnity, joy, sorrow of the occasion the Gloria should be glorious and loud and beautiful, and the different parts of the Mass reflective of the holy as in the Sanctus or plea for mercy/ peace in the zag us Dei the music should also be simple enough for the congregation and may have an added range for a choir to enhance the beauty
Music like spoken prayer can be rote if it is not done consciously. We speak many parts of the Mass but often without any kind of reflection and so too the music.
Personally, I like the songs to speak to the people and to correspond to the readings for the liturgy. I want the final song to send me carrying a message that I can live out of until the next celebration.
Yes, Gianluigi, “Are people involved deeply, in their guts? Able to sing at least some pieces? Able to move and dance? Is the music helping the community to reach ecstatic moments?” are “the most relevant questions.” I stopped attending Sunday Mass in Catholic churches long ago out of boredom. The only exceptions I have experienced were the Pardons of Brittany and pilgrimages like Lourdes and the Black Madonna of Częstochowa.
When I was a child, two people sang in church: the priest and a nun from a nearby convent whose angelic voice fascinated me, but did not silence the recurring question: “What are we all here for?” The only thing that seemed to change was the color of the liturgical clothes. On the day of my First Communion (a fossilized rite of passage of adolescence), as we were entering the church in a procession singing a pious hymn, the priest walked by us and turned towards me saying, “[my full name], when one sings so badly, one shuts up.” Had I ever contemplated a singing career, it would have died on the spot! Some 50 years later, I was able to find the singing nun at a nursing home and to thank her for having been the only voice that ever lifted my soul during those sad Sunday services.
A mere cosmetic switch from the harmonium to the guitar won’t do it. What is needed is a heartfelt sense of belonging in a biospheric choir. Whenever I enter the cathedral of the natural world, I belong in that choir.
When I young attending RC mass as an altar server an choir boy mass
was in Latin and much transpired in chant and call and response.
Hymns I noted were hardly sung by congregants when invited – Why I wondered.
After the second Vatican Consul and Mass in the USA was performed in
English the congregation still had no real enthusiasm in singing.
Today though I seldom attend my observation is its still the same.
Why does the congregation lack participation? There are likely a number of reasons I guess but perhaps the experience of sound in a musical context does not resonate mystery with everyone. To some degree it may simply depend on an individuals musical skill or training. Training in the arts has never been a priority in America.
For the last four years I have participated weekly in a native drumming circle here in Miwuk territory. I love it. We also do a meal afterwards. We put prayers on the drum before we start and usually do a blessing to creator before. I have learned many songs now, and I also enjoy singing and chanting to Kirtain outside, mostly chanting, Krishna Das is one of my favs. I sing my heart out outside in the evening to all that hear me out there 💕music and sound I believe connects us to spirit. Thank you Gi Gi
Blessings,
Meg
I try to Faithfully be open to soulful spiritual music, like the beautiful liturgical music in today’s DM, in All of ongoing evolving Co-Creation from Source that expresses Our human and Divine natures on Our Eternal Spiritual Journeys of Loving Beautiful Diverse Oneness, including All the physical/nonphysical subtle spiritual realms/dimensions of Our Cosmos, of LOVE~LIGHT~LIFE….
Yes! “ Are people involved? Are they involved deeply, in their guts? Are they able to sing at least some pieces? And, whenever possible, are they able to move and dance? Is the music helping the community to reach ecstatic moments?”
Congregations no longer sing. There is no “joyful noise making” by congregants and the music is performed by “soloists” and trax rather than guided by music “shepherds.”
This “entertainment” has kept many out of sanctuaries because the soul is not welcome.
I believe that singing is everyone’s birthright.
As a singer/choral composer/arranger, my pieces are created in a spirit of contemplation. I include on the covers of the printed music, art work that invites the singers into the spirit of the song before they hear/sing the music for the first time. There is always a way for the congregation to be a part of the choral pieces.
May we rediscover in our communities the power of congregational singing in collaboration with shepherd musicians!
My father was a cantor in the Byzantine Rite Catholic church in Passaic, New Jersey. As children, we attended all the Masses, and were surrounded by beauty. When the whole congregation sang the responses, it was magical. On my bucket list: to attend a Mass in Church Slavonic.
Oh, my, and yes, yes, yes. The music of masses today is deadening and done simply, in many cases, just to be done. Hymns chosen at the last minute that have no relevance to the rite, have no joy, no meaning for the congregation. I’ve sung in choirs for sixty years, beginning with all Latin, Latin that few of us understood in an English speaking land. Few have been uplifting or soul filling times. When sitting in a pew I see serious faces ( might I say, even bored) in the choir. There is no sadness in the sad hymns, no joy in the joyful ones; just a job to be done. Only one choir director comes to mind who had close to the correct mindset: she told us to sing the meaning not the words. I try to do this. But like you, I’m an island in a sea of noise.