Pius X, Mavis Staples, and Sacred Music.
Liturgy and music.
Truth be told, I love sacred music - I once or twice (Or maybe several times more than that) commented on this blog that I really didn’t like church music - what I really meant was that sentimental stuff we are supposed to “actively” sing every Sunday at that tired old Novus Ordo liturgy, whose music is now so passe. I gave people like Brian Michael Page from Christus Vincit the idea that I didn’t like sacred music at all… and he has never commented again on my blog.
My all time favorite music for liturgy is Gregorian chant and those hymns from the monastic office. I really don’t like orchestras and baroque music at Mass. That is just me however - for instance, I never attend the 10AM High Mass at St. Agnes, only the 6:30AM in which there is no singing. (There are critics who say some people in attendance at the St. Agnes High Masses are there more for the ‘entertainment’ than the worship experience - I don’t know, I don’t attend.) I’ve never believed people when they tell me ”singing is twice praying” - if that’s the case, I can claim part of their prayer - since they are praying twice. (Also - Augustine probably didn’t coin that cliche either.)
Mavis Staples
On the other hand, I love Gospel Music, and the music influenced by it - R&B, Blues, even some hip-hop. Mavis Staples recently released a great CD, “We’ll Never Turn Back” which more or less chronicles the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s in both traditional and contemporary Gospel music. I have to say, this is the music I most deeply love, The Staples Singers, Rev. Al Green, Marvin Gay, Mavis Staples, Aretha, Merry Clayton - she did the background vocals on “Gimme Shelter”, and so many others… Otis Redding, and so on.
Respect yourself.
African American Gospel singers do indeed esteem their music as Sacred. Mavis Staples’ dad always reminded her of this fact, that they were singing for the Lord and spreading his Gospel. I’ve never attended a Gospel church but I’ve watched clips on TV and in the movies. Catholics can’t criticize or condemn their exuberant worship-style as inappropriate or unsuitable for worship; for one, it is outside of our cultural experience and ecclesial jurisdiction; and more importantly, because these congregations have no liturgy. It ain’t liturgy - although it is authentic prayer, hearing the Word of God, praise and worship - it isn’t liturgy. Nevertheless, these Protestant denominations certainly are offering high praise and worship - and I’m pretty sure people are not there just to be entertained - well, maybe some of the white folk.
I’m told some black Catholic congregations will employ similar music at their celebration of Mass. I’m sure it is a lot more meaningful than some of the junk we have to sing Sunday after Sunday at the average Novus Ordo most of us attend. Having said that, I still prefer a silent Mass - maybe I’m Quaker at heart?
Gimme that ole time Motu Proprio.
Today is the feast of Pius X, the great Pope who was so concerned about modernism, warning of the heresies emerging in the late 19th and early 20th century - which have taken hold in a few sectors of today’s Catholic Church. He wrote a Motu Proprio of his own on Sacred Music entitled, “Inter Sollicitudines” - he must be weeping in Heaven as he watches liturgical dancers and church-lady music directors in their tight little tops and shorts, conducting contemporary congregations in those schmaltzy sing-a-longs during Mass, accompanied by Joanne Castle on the piano.
At least black Gospel singers have passion and soul - not to mention reverence and devotion. (Have you ever noticed how Black people dress up for church? I should do a post on ‘Church Hats’ for black women. But I digress.)
Anyway, here is something from the first paragraph of St. Pius X’s Motu Proprio - contemporary Catholic liturgists and music directors would do well to read it - unless they think it has been suppressed or something…
“Among the cares of the pastoral office, not only of this Supreme Chair, which We, though unworthy, occupy through the inscrutable dispositions of Providence, but of every local church, a leading one is without question that of maintaining and promoting the decorum of the House of God in which the august mysteries of religion are celebrated, and where the Christian people assemble to receive the grace of the Sacraments, to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar, to adore the most august Sacrament of the Lord’s Body and to unite in the common prayer of the Church in the public and solemn liturgical offices. Nothing should have place, therefore, in the temple calculated to disturb or even merely to diminish the piety and devotion of the faithful, nothing that may give reasonable cause for disgust or scandal, nothing, above all, which directly offends the decorum and sanctity of the sacred functions and is thus unworthy of the House of Prayer and of the Majesty of God.”- Pius X
August 21st, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I’m with you on the silent Mass. I think that is why I love weekday Mass–no music, no singing, just the Mass. Likewise when I attend Mass at the local Cistercian monastery. I find music and singing distracting. Having said that, I enjoy Gregorian chant as well (perhaps more within the bounds of the Divine Office than the Mass itself)
When I was Protestant, one Sunday afternoon, the choir of the local black Catholic parish came and gave a concert. It was very good, a little showy for my taste and not something I would want to experience on a Sunday morning.
August 21st, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Steve, dare I say this? There is a good deal of the Protestant in your observations. Mostly in the I’s: “I’m with you. I love. I find. I enjoy.” Subjectivism. What I think, feel, love, and enjoy.
It might be helpful for you to acquire a more traditional and classic viewpoint on the place of chant as an integral part of Catholic worship and, most certainly, of Holy Mass. For starters, you may want to read “Tra le sollecitudini” of Pope Saint Pius X and then “Musicam Sacram (1967) from the Congregation for Divine Worship.
Of course, nothing can replace an initiation into Chant as the Church’s own idiom, as the expression of what the Holy Ghost murmurs in her heart.
August 21st, 2007 at 3:16 pm
My favorite Mass is the 6:30 am weekday one, which has no music (most days I am unable to attend it because of my work schedule). Which is a weird thing for someone who loves to sing, and has been a choir member and organist for more years than I care to count. I collect hymnals, and love everything from Catholic traditional oldies, to songs from the Protestant tradition, even some from the dreaded Glory ‘n’ Praise (ducking lightning!) So I don’t know why my favorite Mass is the silent one. Maybe like you I am a Quaker at heart!
August 21st, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Don Marco - Me thinks I’m afflicted with the “I’s” too.
August 21st, 2007 at 6:08 pm
My favorite Mass is the 7:30 AM. No music, no cantor and no nonsense in the homilies.
August 21st, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Don Marco, with all respect, I disagree.
I prefer silence over music. Sheesh.
What is the deal with anytime a Catholic expresses a preference or uses the letter ‘I’, there is someone waiting in the shadows to throw out the Protestant accusation?
While I appreciate your help in correcting your perceived deficiencies in my Catholic understanding, I had already read both St. Pius X documents your referenced.
August 21st, 2007 at 6:54 pm
“Have you ever noticed how Black people dress up for church?”
You want to see something neat, you should check out the Somalian/Ethiopian Orthodox Church (I’m not sure of the name, but it is not a mosque) at about 44th and Minnehaha. It’s a very nice old, probably Lutheran, church building.
Virtually all of the women and many of the men wear all white to services. And some of them have services during the week since I occasionally see a couple, dressed in white, returning home after having been to church.
I’ll have to investigate more about this parish.
August 21st, 2007 at 10:59 pm
I too regard it as a treat to attend a weekday mass with no music. It is easier to concentrate my mind.
But we have to think of the People of God, and humble ourselves. When I came over from the Episcopal Church, I refused to sing Amazing Grace, which to me was not only borrowed from Methodism, but unbearably sentimental. I observed over time that this hymn was dear to many of our parishioners, and I resolved to sing it along with them, over my own objections. We have retired the Glory and Praise hymnal, but I have come to love some of its hymns, “contemporary” though they may be, On Eagles’ Wings, Turn To Me, (which always takes my breath away).
My wife and I like to listen to Millenium of Music on NPR on Sundays. It’s the only place I’ll ever hear chant and other traditional sacred music.
August 21st, 2007 at 11:36 pm
That would be Ethiopian Orthodox, as nearly all Somalis are Muslim.
I’m Ethiopian Orthodox - I’ve been to Greek, Russian, and Coptic masses as well, and I like them all.
I also attended quite a few Catholic masses, and been to a few Black Protestant churches.
IMHO, when the focus is on worship, everything works well.
I once attended a wedding at a Catholic Church where the musical instrument was a guitar. It was awful, I suspect, because the guitar was brought in there to make a statement, and of course took away from the focus on God. I’ve been to Black churches where such-and-such singer was the focus, and not only the worship but the music was bad.
IMHO, like any other Christian music, a lot of Black gospel music can be poor, but what is good is simply awesome - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC6gJWfgddU.
August 22nd, 2007 at 6:30 am
Saul - I love Ethiopian Orthodox - I worked with Fr. David - can’t remember his name and knew Sebel - a lovely lady. I’ve always told them that I believed Our Lady loves the Ethiopian Church very much because the Holy Family was sheltered there when they fled Herod. I also think Ethiopians are the most beautiful people from the continent. God bless you!
Brett - I agree with you that in some Gospel churches the singer is the focus - as well as the music.
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:08 am
My difficulty is with the “I like” and “I don’t like” tenor (pardon the choice of the word!) of so many discussions like this. Essential to the sacred liturgy is its givenness. The liturgy is received from the Church, not dished up to suit the taste of various groups or individuals.
The Church holds
1) that sacred chant is integral to the liturgy and not a mere decorative accessory to it;
2) that sacred silence is also integral to the liturgy and not a mere pious additive.
Songs and hymns are foreign to the Mass of the Roman Rite. In the Catholic tradition hymns are sung at the Divine Office and in certain processions. The chants of the Mass, apart from the Ordinary, are antiphons and psalms. The one exception would be the Sequence which is a development of the Alleluia. One sings the Mass. One does not sing at Mass. And what does one sing? 1) the dialogical elements and acclamations; 2) the Ordinary of the Mass; 3) the Proper of the Mass.
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:58 am
Thank you Don Marco - what you have said fits with what attracts me as far as liturgy and worship is concerned.
Perhaps the “I” we always hear comes from the fact that there has been so much diversity in the way Mass has been celebrated in the Ordinary rite, with the focus upon the people as opposed to the glory of God.
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Terry: Are you familiar with the Fisk Jubilee Singers? I think there is a modern incarnation of them around. They were formed just after the Civil War and their first recordings were in the 1920’s.
I have a German import of their earliest recordings. The sound quality is really poor: I think the originals were on cylinders. But, the deep spirituality remains.
Not sure if you are into the “Negro” spirituals much or not.
Anyway..
There are some outstanding local Gospel singers. My favorite is Robert Robinson. He sings and conducts the Minneapolis Community College choir.
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Cathy - No I have never heard of them. I believe the old Spirituals were the basis of blues.
Do you remember Steve Martin from The Jerk? That’s pretty much me.