The Recovering Choir Director

Jenny Woo comments on this previous post:

I really enjoy your blog but on this point I disagree with you. It is the guitar strumming set that has given us barren ugly churches. “Come as you are” Masses have no need of ceremony and sacred music ’cause Mass is really about ‘community’, right? My experience is that the more orthodox the priest, the more he is interested in beautiful liturgy. The other guys just want ‘active participation’.

Forgive me in advance for rambling, but I hope to get to each of your points.

I wouldn’t pin the blame the emergence of ‘barren, ugly churches’ on the ‘guitar strumming set’ as much as assert that the two are effects of a more fundamental cause. I tend to think that the sense of what Fr. Jim terms ‘American utilitarianism’—especially pre-Vatican II—created an aesthetic ‘vacuum’ that was filled up after the Council by, among other things, music of the ‘guitar-strumming set.’ I’d be happy to hear other perspectives as to “What happened?” because we’re still suffering from it.

If the silent Low Mass was what the vast majority of the faithful attended pre-V2, then who among them knew the chanted Latin Ordinaries, “the parts of the Mass that pertain to them [the faithful]” (Sacrosanctum concilium, § 54)? I wasn’t alive then, but my instincts say “very few.” And instead of teaching the faithful the sung Ordinary to fill this musical vacuum—an explicit desire of V2—the bishops’ conferences implicitly allowed ‘music’ written by the likes of Ray Repp, Carey Landry, the St. Louis Jesuits, et. al., to enter. (We still sing the STL Jesuits Mass here at Eastertide, a practice I would so very much like to see ended.) So now the non-singing faithful, instead of learning the chants of the Church, are either 1) forced to sit through schlocky musical settings of an even poorer paraphrase of an already poorly translated Mass text, or 2) not going to Mass at all. If they choose the former, perhaps their version of participatio actuosa may go like this:

Cantor sings “The Love of the Lord,” by Michael Joncas.
Congregant thinks, “That sounds like the Sears jingle from a few years back.”

The singing faithful, of course, will wonder “Is this the best we can do as a church?” and/or bolt to the nearest Anglican/Episcopal ‘high church’ service. And a lot of them will also equate the above hymn with the Sears jingle.

The aesthetic vacuum hits home hard at our campus ministry. We have worshiped in the same auditorium/soundproof chamber since 1952. Though I do not question the orthodoxy of Fr. Cleary, the chaplain at the time of its construction, I do wonder if he had the Low Mass mentality. The design of the auditorium tells me that he did, at least when it came to music. Though there is a choir loft, the room is acoustically dead—acoustic tile lines the ceiling and the back wall. For a silent Low Mass, it’s absolutely perfect, but I cannot tell you how depressing it is to sing anything in such a space, especially since the smaller chapel, though utilitarian in its own right, is an acoustic paradise.

I cannot question your experience with orthodox priests, but I can share my experience with conservative ones. Three years ago, the then-music director confronted the more conservative of our two priest chaplains after Mass and took him to task for racing down the aisle at the beginning and end of Mass, effectively cutting off the choir. The following Sunday and thereafter, all verses were sung to all hymns. (I cannot comment on the theological/musical worthiness of the hymns, though, because I honestly can’t remember. I can say that we did use “Anthem” somewhat frequently.)

Perhaps the ‘conservative’ mindset in some clergy has developed to the point that given the choice between secular-styled music and silence, silence is preferable. I cannot argue against that—silence is more beautiful than some of, say, Rory Cooney‘s work. Perhaps, too, they don’t think it’s worth the effort to promote true sacred music and subject themselves to scars possibly inflicted by invincibly ignorant pastoral councils and music ministers. If so, it is sad, and we in the pews should encourage the promotion of sacred music to bolster the efforts of those clergy who desire it, ad majorem Dei gloriam.

In closing, if there is a disagreement between you and me, it’s only on minute particulars. I believe we are of one mind as far as substance is concerned. I’m happy to hear that, in your experience, the more orthodox clergy are coming around to reaffirm the value of incorporating beauty into the liturgy. Unfortunately, today it seems to take a lot of courage to actually incorporate it.