The Catholic Family Podcast

Comment by Jeff Pinyan

November 12, 2007 @ 11:34 am

Hi, I just happened upon your podcast when looking for references to “Music in Catholic Worship”. I listened to this particular episode, and wanted to explain the position of the woman who spoke to you (and the many blogs you’ve seen online). (And to clear one matter up, Rory Cooney was born in 1952; he did not write “Bread of Life” until 1987.)

The issue a lot of Catholics have with much of the music we hear in our churches is that they are primarily congregation-oriented (”horizontal”) instead of God-oriented (”vertical”). The more “traditional” hymns and chants of the Church are directed to God (either to the Trinity as a whole or to a particular Person) or to Mary (of course, not in worship, but in honor, and usually asking her to pray for us). I’m thinking of songs like “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” (which is an adaptation of the Te Deum), “At the Lamb’s High Feast”, “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”, “Alleluia! Sing to Jesus”, “Come, Holy Ghost”, “Crown Him with Many Crowns”, and “Holy, Holy, Holy”.

Compare that to songs like:

* “Gather Us In”, which (although directed to God) is all about what the congregation is doing. “We have been sung throughout all of hist’ry” — We have been sung? Why weren’t people singing about God? “Not in the dark of buildings confining / not in some heaven light-years away” — what message is that giving?

* “Anthem”, which deals with “we are…” over and over again. It implies that we define and shape the Church, whereas it should be the Church that defines and shapes us.

* “Table of Plenty”: The refrain is spoken by us to… who? Ourselves? We’re already here. The verses are more or less the words of Christ, but they’re obsessed with the “feast” symbolism and entirely ignore the “sacrifice” reality. “Feast of gladness”, “cup of my love”, “my wine will flow”, etc.

* “Canticle of the Sun”, which until a couple weeks ago, I thought was about giving praise to the sun, the moon, the wind, etc., instead of to God. Then I realized (after finding the source, a prayer by St. Francis) that the verses are “Praise [God] for the Sun”, and “Praise [God] for the Moon”, etc.

While both traditional and contemporary songs are often filled with doctrinal references, they are far more explicit and clear in the traditional songs, whereas the contemporary songs usually need to be explained so as to make sure people understand what IS being said.

The example of “Bread of Life” is a good one in that regard. “I myself am the bread of life / You and I are the bread of life”. The first part should be quoted, because those are the words of Christ, to separate them from the second part. The second part, however, is ambiguous; it is playing off the “bread of life” / “body of Christ” analogy without making it clear, thus it sounds at first as if we are the Eucharistic Victim being offered on the altar.

Finally, a lot of contemporary music is all over the musical staff — what I mean is, it’s not easy to sing for everyone. They involve abrupt jumps from one note to the next, notes of difficult duration (very long or very short), and seemingly free-floating melodies. The traditional melodies are easier to sing (and easier to remember) because they often use repetition and the notes flow very well, one into the next. I would expect they were inspired by Gregorian Chant.

The USCCB is meeting this week to discuss liturgical music; here’s their PowerPoint presentation.

Finally, here are a couple of articles from the periodical Adoremus:

Ritus Narcissus, by Fr. Paul Scalia (March 1999)
Singing for the Supper or the Sacrifice?, by Lucy E. Carroll (November 2002)