Temple Cleanser

Museum of Bad Liturgical Music

Stained Glass

I found a great site today, thanks to a link on Father Joe's Blog:
It's the Museum of Bad Art! I'm inspired to begin a Museum of Bad Liturgical Music, but where to begin? Could your parish be a local branch?

Part of the problem is that the Church keeps telling us what she wants, but won't be too specific on what she doesn't want. Still there's talk of the cult of the banal, and Sacramtum Caritatis says this:
"Certainly as far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that one song is as good as another. Generic improvisation or the introduction of musical genres which fail to respect the meaning of the liturgy should be avoided."

As Msgr. Miserachs Grau, President of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music said, "But the reforms of the past had to deal with forms of music that were, perhaps, "excessive," but formally correct. But much of the "music" that is written today ignores, I will not say the grammar, but even the ABC´s of musical art. In the more or less critical situations that we have considered, there was never a degeneration like the present one."

Humility of Excellence

Rembrandt: Saul and David Web Gallery of Art
The National Catholic Register has an article today that suggests that no music at Mass is preferable to "weak music marked by commercialism." Further, the author writes that a mass with no music takes on the virtues of humility and poverty.

I must agree that, given the choices above, even I would prefer a silent Mass. But let us never consider that these are the only two choices available. Good liturgical music must be our only choice. And it must be nurtured by pastors who are knowledgeable and courageous, and led by musicians who are prayerful, trained and talented. It sounds simple, but such a pastor and music director working together are nearly as rare as hen's teeth.

So where do we start? First, train the future priests, and teach, speak and act with charity and truth to pastors and parishioners who don't know the difference between Bob Dylan and Palestrina.

Second, learn the documents. Know what the Church, the Bride of Christ, desires in liturgical music.

Third, rid ourselves of the baloney we were fed in the sixties that told us good musicians were performing, and that paid musicians weren't dedicated. Performance is common accusation made of trained and competent musicians who do traditional music (chant, organ, hymns and polyphony), and it is often made by untrained musicians who enjoy contemporary popular liturgical music. It is a criticism thoughtlessly handed off as if musical incompetence were a badge of spirituality. “Performance” here implies a lack of humility and an intended edification of self.

Sacred music played or sung well draws one's attention away from the performer and points it toward God. Unskilled musicians attract attention only to themselves. Musical competence is not incompatible with a humble, prayerful and praise-filled spirit. If it were incompatible, surely the musical tradition of the Catholic Church, which requires competence to sing, would not be considered any sort of treasure, much less a treasure of inestimable value. Musical competence is not incompatible with participation and it is not incompatible with ministry. Indeed, musical excellence is the result of a God-given gift that is humbly, carefully and obediently cultivated through study, diligence and endless hours of practice. In liturgy, musical excellence willingly submits to the needs and desires of the Church.

As far as poverty, how many rich liturgical musicians do you know? To dedicate one's life to serving the Church through its rich musical tradition is the next best thing to a vow of poverty! Many liturgical musicians have as much training as your doctor, and the good ones practice and pray every day. They need to make a living making music for God and in the service of the Church, or they waste their gifts and years of study, working their "day jobs." See that they're paid a fair wage, and they will help heal your soul through what Pope John Paul II called "the beauty that saves." (Letter to Artists, 1999)

It's not a simple recipe, but when did the Church ever ask us to take the easy way out? As Fr. Richard John Neuhaus wrote in “Singing the Lord’s Songs" (First Things, Oct. 2000), "There is nothing mere about the beautiful." We can have beautiful music, humility, and even poverty (just don't impose poverty on the musicians). Dare we offer less?

Exhortation

Gregorian Chant Released from "Pride of Place" and Put Back in Liturgy!

Kill Me Now!

“Kill me now.” For if this be our exile, what shall our consolation be?

“All my life I have been taught that we live in the true Church, that all the means of grace are ours, and that things essential to the Church’s life were lost by Protestants at the Reformation. And yet this morning I endured the wretchedness of that first Mass, only to experience in Protestant worship the most breathtakingly beautiful liturgy I have ever seen. I don’t understand.”
--From Fr. Jay Scott Newman's new blog.

Bring on the Reform!

Cleansing the Temple (click image to enlarge)

Ashes and Sacrifice

"The time I burned my guitar it was like a sacrifice. You sacrifice the things you love. I love my guitar."
Jimi Hendrix

Dreaming of Change

(Tune: Wouldn’t it be Loverly)

All I want is a church somewhere
Where musicians and priests will dare
To have good music there,
Some chant and some polyphony!

Who will tell the guitars to go?
Benedict, you can make it so,
A motu proprio
For chant and some polyphony!

Oh how wonderful will it be when there’s some dignity
In our Catholic liturgy!
Oh, is it too much to ask?

All I want is a real good choir
Trained musicians we'll have to hire
The situation’s dire
For chant and some polyphony!

Entertainment Liturgy

Tune: AUSTRIA (Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken)

Father has a sour expression
church attendance has decreased
No one’s going to confession
Mortal sins have yet increased
Can he find a way to way to fill the pews
What will bring the people back?
Strummers, drummers, dancers, jugglers
Old Sister Martha had a heart attack!

Some folks want a liveli'r setting
Older ways will not suffice
They complain that they’re not getting
entertainment Sacrifice.
Smells and bells and pray’rs and chanting
can’t with our TVs compete.
Can you tell me how to get to,
how to get to Sesame Street?

These days Mass has recreation
Sing along and clap your hands!
Karaoke inspiration
microphones and big praise bands.
How can liturgists make the liturgies
bigger, better than before?
Pyrotechnic Consecration,
Charismatics falling on the floor!

When you find your faith is lacking,
don't be tempted to define
Holy Mass as entertaining,
void of art and things divine.
Superficial extravaganza
does not help to sanctify.
Humble hearts and contrite spirits
offer, instead, to God on High.

We believe in Real Presence,
Holy Sacrament Divine!
Spare us, then, from hymns that tell us
there’s no more than bread and wine.
If the Mass were all about us
there’d be nothing to extol.
Let us offer praise and sacrifice,
not half-time at the Super Bowl!

Recovering Means Uncovering

what was swept under the carpet

Defense

No Soloists! Who's Going to Tell Her?

PONTIFF: NO SOLOISTS IN EVANGELIZING!
VATICAN CITY, JAN. 31, 2007 Zenit.org.- St. Paul didn't evangelize alone, but acted as a member of the Body of Christ, Benedict XVI says.

The Pope explained this at today's general audience in Paul VI Hall where some 6,000 people gathered to hear a reflection dedicated to three of St. Paul's collaborators: Barnabas, Silas and Apollos.

Highlighting the support the three men gave the Apostle, the Holy Father said: "Paul does not act as a 'soloist,' as an isolated individual, but together with these collaborators in the 'we' of the Church."

original--van Eyck: Ghent Altarpiece: Singing Angels Web Gallery of Art

Chant A Lot!

(Tune: Camelot)

It’s true! It’s true! The documents are clear!
The music must be sacred art, my dear!

Some laws were made a distant moon ago here:
Polyphony and chant are to be taught,
And students of the schools of sacred music
should chant a lot.

The music that’s profane, it is forbidden,
In liturgies the chant has pride of place,
So seminaries should train future priests all
to chant a lot.

Chant a lot! Chant a lot! I know it sounds a bit bizarre,
We don't chant a lot, chant a lot—instead we have guitar!

Not ev’rything that stands outside the temple
is worthy to come in, and yet it does,
A treasure, sure, we’ve got!
Don’t let chant be forgot!
The only way to save it is to
get the Church to chant a lot!

Chant a lot! Chant a lot! I know it gives a person pause,
But to chant a lot, chant a lot, those are the Council’s laws.

So teach your choirs to read the little square notes,
Instruct your children, still upon the knee!
Don’t let chant be forgot!
Church budgets, please allot
some funding for directors who will
teach the Church to chant a lot!

Quarrelling Musicians

Does this happen at your parish?


Quarrelling Musicians by Georges de la Tour (original, anyway)

"I told you it would be bad news if she ever got hold of the mic."

Mass Projections

This afternoon we popped into a newly-built Catholic church to see if we could perhaps to go confession, or at least pick up their bulletin to read the schedule. I knew we weren't "in Kansas anymore" when I mistook some of the landscaping fountains as unfinished plumbing projects. Mass had already started, and we peeked in from the "vestibule." There were four large video screens mounted around the church, and the text of the responsorial psalm was being projected in black type on a blue background. The cantor sang with an elaborate and loud synthesized accompaniment that must have been pre-programmed, as there was no accompanist near any of the several keyboards. The readings were also projected.

Now that we have embraced (?) what Nicole Kieper of Tennessean.com calls "large-group karaoke," I thought I'd see how this new multi-media liturgy could be "enhanced." Why just have the words on screen, when we can set moods, provide count-downs, pre-liturgical music videos and still or even motion backgrounds? I visited Onscreen Impact to see what might be available. Here's something they don't offer--the offertory antiphon for Sunday, January 28. Imagine this image being projected. What is it about this that just doesn't work? Some days it's just hard to be funny.

New Translation Released

So simple, even a cave man could understand it!

The Pope's Cologne

Do people disregard your liturgical authority? Doubt your holiness? Wear the Pope's Cologne and smell pontifical! Or do you just need a gift for your ambitious parish priest? This is for real. Who could make this up?

Okay, others blogged this at least a month ago, but I just found it. A company in San Rafael produces The Pope's Cologne. The website reads:
"....a fresh new fragrance from the past."
"The Pope’s Cologne is a classic Old World cologne made from the private formula of Pope Pius IX (1792-1878). We obtained this formula from descendants of the commander of his Papal Guard and lifelong friend, General Charles Charette. We have followed this complex, exclusive formula meticulously, using the same essential oils that his perfumers used 150 years ago. We believe that we have succeeded in capturing the same fragrance that he and those around him enjoyed so long ago. This is a truly extraordinary cologne with surprising freshness and notes of violet and citrus. We are pleased that you will have the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful, historic fragrance. It is an honor for us to be able to produce it and make it available for your pleasure today."

But seriously, folks, imagine of the benefits of owning your own bottle of The Pope's Cologne...(harp arpeggio, please)
--It gives me that "just-saw-the-pope" feeling of superiority.
--Not only am I holier than thou--now I SMELL holier than thou!
--I'm going to give a bottle to our new, ambitious pastor!
--I like to wear it around dissenting clergy. It really makes them nervous!
--The fragrance lingers in a room long after I've left. I think of it as a territorial marker: "Catholics have been here."
--I find that it repels those who would try to convert me. They know that I have such confidence in my faith that they don't even bother.
--I find it really helps to identify proper papal people.
--I only wish it came in fragrances of other popes-- SPX, JPII, etc.
--"No, really darling, I was with the pope today!"
--It's the scent of authority!

Another Conversion

Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul
St. Paul and I have something in common--a startling conversion! I'm a recovering liturgical guitarist. I was "knocked off my horse" when I realized that, although the Church considers her musical tradition to be a "treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art," this treasure was almost lost. I say that I'm recovering, not cured, because I still have a soft spot in my heart that finds the pop sound alluring, and many of the people who do it sincere. Pop liturgical music was a part of my formation.

But I have put away my guitar for liturgies. I love and value the Church's musical tradition more, and the Church, the Bride of Christ desires it. I have dedicated my professional life to its restoration in the liturgy. Generations of Catholics have never heard it done well, if they have ever heard it at all. It's no wonder that pop liturgical music is the path of least resistance, but when has the Church ever asked us to take the easy way?

No Photoshopping Necessary

Yup. This is the real thing. Catholic World News--Off the Record
points out this tabernacle from a parish in Italy, Parrocchia di San Giuseppe Moscati. You can see more of the building and environment if you click on "Immagini dalla Parrochia."
Visibilium saw the "hidden Mickey" right away. As for me, any comments would be superfluous. Oh alright, it does call to mind what David said to Nathan:
"Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent."
Just change "tent" to...well...what do YOU see?

The Sweet Smell of Indult

(click image to enlarge)

The Curt Jester reports a new French perfume--Indult
Perhaps soon we'll see this new Vatican version.

Horizontalism in the Liturgy

"Horizontalism … Does Damage to Catholic Faith and Worship"

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 20, 2007
Cardinal Francis Arinze gave an address on Oct. 26 at a colloquium to celebrate the golden jubilee of the Institut Supérieur de Liturgie of the Institut Catholique de Paris. Zenit.org
Here's a quote:
"Many abuses in matters liturgical are based, not on bad will but on ignorance, because they "involve a rejection of those elements whose deeper meaning is not understood and whose antiquity is not recognized" ("Redemptionis Sacramentum," No. 9). Thus some abuses are due to an undue place given to spontaneity, or creativity, or to a wrong idea of freedom, or to the error of horizontalism which places man at the center of a liturgical celebration instead of vertically focusing on Christ and his mysteries."

Chanter's Anthem

(tune: To Dream the Impossible Dream)

To chant the antiphonal psalm
To know the Gregorian modes
To master the difficult introit
To know where the breaths should all go

To lose the vibrato-y sound
A tone that is straight I desire
A voice that is pure and so pray’rful
and blends with a unison choir

This is my quest:
In chant to expound
Be one of the schola
A joy so profound

At end of the psalms
in humility bowed
sing my Gloria Patris with
endings I know are allowed

And I’ll know what the squiggly things do
how quilisma’s expressed
And I’ll feel monophonic delight
and my heart will be blessed.

And the world will be better for this
that one voice undistinguished alone
can soar up to God in his glory
by chanting Gregorian chant!

Reform Kit

I borrowed this from the forum of Choral Treasure, an internet "radio station" that plays sacred choral music of the Church's tradition 24/7. And no commercials!

Only question is, should we really wait for the reform of the reform to come before breaking the glass, or should we break the glass now and start the ball rolling?

Motu Proprio Round Up Time

Who will be rounded up in the Motu Proprio? Name the horses. Time will judge who's right. (whose rite?)

Guido's Austrian Cousin's Hand Discovered

Don't Leave Rome Without It

Memling's New Band

click image to enlarge