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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

MUSIC AND REVERENCE AND THE MASS

UPDATED!!!!At the bottom is visual art which describes what I am writing and here is auditory art doing the same!

Now, I haven't heard this in decades,but it was a staple in parish Masses I attended in the 60's, 70's and yes, 80's--how does this "corrupt"our understanding of Holy Mass when we sing this genre of stuff? AND CHECK OUT THE OTHER OLDIES BUT RUSTED GOLDIES AT THE END OF THIS VIDEO--IT WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO HAVE DEMENTIA WHEN YOU REALIZE THAT WE ACTUALLY SANG THIS STUFF AT MASS AND SOME PEOPLE KEEP THE GENRE ALIVE TO THIS DAY! O TO BE ALIVE!

And how about this "Gloria" (which actually uses the 1966 English translation that is very much like our 2012 translation:

And this glorious piece from England captures the sentiments of the Mass in a way the above piece actually mocks (although unknowingly):

And this "contemporary but in keeping with Catholic spirituality" revised "Community Mass" by Richard Proulx--splendid!!!!:

When we celebrate the Holy Mass, we are celebrating a most "somber and sober" event, the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, known as the Paschal Mystery or the Redemption.

We are happy because of Easter Sunday, but we know that Easter Sunday is preceded by so much that is sad, namely Jesus' rejection, suffering, death and burial.

The style of celebrating the Paschal Mystery at Mass can affect how we understand the Paschal Mystery and its sober, solemn and somber nature although there is joy in the Resurrection. But Jesus still suffers and dies for us in an "eternal way" always captured "in the here and now" through the sacramental experience of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Until the Bridegroom returns at the end of time to make complete the Paschal Mystery, there will always need to be a solemn, reserved, sober and somber attitude about the Mass and precisely what it is we are remembering during the Mass.

Charismatic,and contemporary music be it folk or other types of happy, peppy liturgical hype, depict this kind of piety that is not complimentary to what Jesus actually does for us in His Paschal Mystery which in my opinion has led to the diminution of our appreciation of what exactly we are remembering in an "unbloody way" at every Mass. It is "feel good, energizing music" but misses the mark on so many levels:

More solemn expressions of the Mass with music that is more in keeping with the following two images of CHRIST THE BRIDEGROOM, one from Latin Rite art and the other from Orthodox Iconography captures better what it is we are actually celebrating at Mass and our response to it during Mass. I find the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and its "ethos" as well as more traditional chant like music used for the Ordinary Form of the Mass better enable assemblies to be more sober, somber and solemn in "celebrating" the Sacrifice of Jesus albeit in an "unbloody" way than more happy, peppy genres of celebrating the Mass do. Just my opinion, what do you think?





12 comments:

William Meyer said...

Again and again, so many parishes focus on the notion of Mass as a communal meal, and fail to teach that it is the unbloody sacrifice. In my own parish, this is signified by their permanent selection of response B to the Mystery of Faith: When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your death, O Lord, until you come again.

And then, despite the new translation and the rubrics, our new setting for the mass treats "until you come again" as a refrain, which is repeated at the end.

Anonymous said...

I think a lot of this could be fixed if we referred to the Mass as captured in the 1962 RM as 'Ordinary Form' and the current 2011 RM as the 'Extraordinary Form'. It's sort of like going to Mass while on vacation: you normally are more dressed up, but sometimes you go as you are.

FWIW, Fr., your idea of merging the two is very appealing. But I am really digging the TLM and would like to see that remain available.

rcg

Pater Ignotus said...

I think you are unduly influenced by the sometimes morbid piety of your Italian background and by your desire to make your congregation "behave" as you would have them behave.

And this is something of a paradox, since Italian culture and, in general, Mediterranean cultures, tend to be exhuberant, even boisterous, in their expressions of joy.

Somewhere the exhuberance of "Roman" culture has been diminished by the imposition of more northern European cultures.

Any number of icons of Christ, every one as historic as the two you have posted, depict scenes of happiness and jubilation. The Resurrection icons are bright and cheerful, showing biblical characters who are ecstatic.

"Happy, peppy" tunes can be as expressive of true faith as "somber, reserved" sounds. Each has its place.

I cannot imagine the angel in the tomb chanting "There is no need for you to be afraid. I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said he would..." in a minor key.

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

While in an eternal or cosmic sense I think, Pater, that we can say that salvation history is complete and that Christ is Victorious. Since heaven has no time as we understand it, although I guess those saints praying for us in heaven have a "time reference" with us here on earth, technically we can say we are already in heaven just in the "giving birth" stage here on earth where remnants of suffering continue and in some most dramatic ways, such as in Syria and elsewhere.

While I don't deny the happiness of Easter and would abhor a "dirge" like celebration of it at Easter Sunday Mass, we must understand the spirituality of the Mass and make the music comply with it and not make the Mass comply with the music.

I find contemporary music, but old and new missing the mark and especially if that is the only genre used at Mass--it has a terrible sameness and vapidness.

Anonymous said...

"Happy, peppy" tunes can be as expressive of true faith as "somber, reserved" sounds. Each has its place.

Of course, "happy, peppy tunes" have their proper place. But surely that place is not at the foot of the Cross of Christ, which is where we are in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. But only when more Catholics regain a sense of their own place at Mass will they realize what music is appropriate to liturgy (and what is not).

Pater Ignotus said...

I agree - we must understand the spirituality of the mass. And that includes, I suggest, demonstrable joy in the gift of salvation.

qwikness said...

FWIW that first image of Jesus is called "the Buddy Christ." It is a parody icon from the movie Dogma, a highly offensive movie with George Carlin as a Bishop and Alanis Morissette as God.

Gene said...

Ignotus, Do not confuse joy with happiness. The joy of the Mass is an internal, chastened joy. There is a sad grandeur in the joy of knowing my redemption was bought at so dear a price. I find that the last verse of "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" captures it well. There is a certain exultation there, but it is qualified by the confessional tone of previous three verses.
True to form, you immediately leap to the humanistic/modernist emphasis upon the "me." BTW, how does what you call the "morbid piety" of Fr.'s Italian background contrast with the "drunken brawl" piety of your Irish background? I'll take Italian piety...have you ever heard of an "Our Lady of Dublin?"

William Meyer said...

One problem, Pater Ignotus, is that "demonstrable joy" is not expressed with music best described as banal. There is a plethora of traditional hymns which would be appropriate, and which can express that joy, but I never hear them in my parish.

Anonymous said...

Pater, I understand your sentiments. I think there is a Haugen masterpiece, "How can I Keep From Singing?" In all seriousness, it seems that we want to have the celebration a little too soon and a little too confined. The state of Elysium we may enter needs to be restrained in the same way we would control any desire or emotion. This is meeting the Father, why would we approach him differently than we would the patriarch at any Thanksgiving? Once we are told to 'go forth' then we should live our lives with the open joy and happiness people want to cram into the one hour of Mass with toe tapping tunes. Why not wait and go to the Parish Hall afterwards and break out the banjo and sing? God will be there too. I think that's how my string broke.

rcg

Marc said...

There was no 1962 GIRM, there was the General Rubrics of the Missal. It can be found here (http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/rubrics/) in English. You're looking for Section X, Paragraphs 6-7 for purposes of this conversation. Note that very little is said in terms of absolute things the laity should do (because local custom had and continues to have the force of law for these things).

Now, the other interesting thing is to compare how the Church used to treat the laity - as rational beings with some sense who knew how to act the in the presence of their God by giving them very little written and concrete instruction in these things, including the "rubrics" for posture during the Holy Mass.

These days the Church's idea of an "ecclesiology" of the laity is to treat us like idiots who need to be told specifically and exactly what we should do and when. Granted, for most of the laity, being as poorly catechized and Modernist as they are, this is completely necessary. Still, this more pernicious form of clericalism resulted in the sorry state of the modern laity in the first place...

Templar said...

Ignotus said: "I think you are unduly influenced by the sometimes morbid piety of your Italian background..."

Excuse me?

Would this be anything like the lack of piety in those of Heretical Irish backgrounds?

Don't paint with broad strokes.