"The Music and Appeal of the Old Rite" « The Recovering Choir Director

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"The Music and Appeal of the Old Rite"

An article about an Ecclesia Dei indult parish in North Carolina. (local registration required). Observations by Mr. Tucker at the CMAA weblog.

Posted 09.03.2004
by Aristotle Esguerra
5 comments.
Filed under: Relevant Reading.

5 Comments

So I log onto the ‘confessions’ site for the first time thinking, “aaah, at last– a place dedicated to the restoration of litugically relevant and appropriate CATHOLIC music, with melodies that are singable but yet exclusively characteristic to the Mass, rather than pop culture; and with lyrics which reinforce the true teachings of the church in a way that focuses one’s attention on the sacrifice through the Eucharist, and away from ourselves”…what a PLEASURE it will be to… wait… what is the opening song listed?? is it?? could it be?? Marty Haugen’s GATHER US IN????
Well, off to do some more web searching.

K. Ford
09.06.2004 @ 12:19 am #

Perhaps it would be well for K Ford to differentiate between reporting facts and, ahem, approbation thereof.

Mark Wyman
09.06.2004 @ 5:57 pm #

K Ford, please delve a bit deeper into this site. Your comment belies a complete misunderstanding of The RCD’s stance on liturgy.
For starters, the liturgies for which he reports the musical selections are not of his devising. (I think we all, from time to time, find ourselves, much to our sorrow, participating at Mass at parishes with what could charitably described as “unfortunate” ideas about appropriate liturgical music.)

Geri
09.06.2004 @ 7:18 pm #

It’s a good thing that the RDC gives readers a taste of parish reality with these weekly samples of music. The listings, often dreadful, speak for themselves. One of the habits that people with some musical/liturgical sense have is the tendency toward escapism–a wholly understandable tendency, to be sure. We find a parish that doesn’t assault our ears and burrow in as deeply as possible, and try not to think what is going on in 95% of all the other parishes out there. Thus do the very people who are capable of bringing whole parishes around essentially removed from the battle–ghettoized in a sense–and thus do we even try to pretend that there is not a battle that can or should be engaged at any level. In contrast, the enlivening spirit of RDC is evangelistic: it honestly confronts the reality of the current miasma and points forthrightly and courageously toward tradition.

Jeffrey
09.06.2004 @ 9:53 pm #

Peace, all.

To be fair, not everyone has the time (or takes it) to go in depth to ferret out the truth of a situation. So while I feel a bit of sympathy for our host’s fisking at the pen of Mr Ford, it strikes me that it’s a bit of unfairness shared.

It begs the question: what purpose do these weekly listings really serve? To share a few knowing smirks at some poor uneducated sap’s taste in liturgical music? Do the readers of this site really need more convincing that liturgical music is not in a good state?

Todd
09.07.2004 @ 7:23 am #

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