The Recovering Choir Director

“Offertory: Do You Really Love Me?”

Is that the Boy George opus?
“Closing: Gather and Remember, vv. 1-2 (Alstott/FINLANDIA)”

What is this like?
From the title it seems an odd choice of the recessional on the 3rd Sunday of Easter, but it’s a great hymn tune, and Alstott’s work is usually very sound.

Now you’ve whetted my curiosity, Jenny.
I’ll have to look it up.

I earned a certain amount of well-deserved enmity once, when I declined to make the jump from chorister (where I felt empowered to just not sing on certain selections I deemed inappropriate from the stand-point of either doctrine or aesthetics,) to cantor (who really has no choice but to sing all of everything.) with the excuse, “I won’t sing cheese.”

“it sounded like a broadway show tune. I could not bring myself to sing it”

I am curious about something.

The ladies (I am not being sexist, but in my experience, they are always women,) who do the altar cloths and vestments know what the norms are for their ministry, they never say, wouldn’t a nice yellow look good on Father for springtime?

The person in charge of lector training and assignments consults the lectionary so that the correct readings are done at each mass, and has read at least the pertinent parts of the GIRM, so that no one ever tries children’s choral readings of the Gospel, for instance.

So why do so few people involved in music ministry and planning (and this includes priests,) seem to have read the documents that apply to that? No one seems to even know there ARE any rubrics, that the matter of style HAS been addressed, of the existence of Musicam Sacram or the Pope’s recent chirograph on music.

They think gregorian chant and songs with a salsa beat are equally suitable to solemnize the words we address to God during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

They don’t even seem to know that that is the very purpose for singing rather than saying words at liturgy, to SOLEMNIZE them
They think “solemn” is a criticism!

Would like the music for this hymn. I heard it a mass in Turks
& Caicos, and thought it would be nice for my niece’s wedding.
Thank you,
Anne McGill
36 Ridgewood Drive
Norwich,CT. 06360

Checking the song list, an intelligent guess would be the “Do You Really Love Me” song, since she stated it was for her niece’s wedding. However, she may not realize that (1) this board, in general, rather dislikes Carey Landry, and (2) even if we did like the song, copyright laws prevent us from passing this along as such. Better if she contacts a major publisher and asks them. http://www.OCPMusic.com is the place to start.

Nick

A far better alternative to “Do You Really Love Me” is “Christian, Do You Hear the Lord”, found in Worship III, #694. The tune is a metrical adaptation of CONCORDI LAETITIA.

BMP