David Schutz on Liturgical Music in the Catholic Churches of Australia

David’s “Reflections and Suggestions” are well worth reading.  He laments the lack of singing by the people at mass and the lack of supervision by the Church of what is sung.  While he’s from another planet theologically to me, he makes a lot of sense when he promotes greater assistance for the parishes with their music and liturgy.  His experience from his Lutheran days was that:

we discovered that when parish pastors and musicians were provided with a quality resource in a number of formats (including electronically) with as little copyright restriction as possible, and to which they could quickly go to for everything they need to prepare Sunday liturgy, they no longer went to the effort of searching out resources from unofficial sources.

I don’t think there is any great need to discourage unofficial sources, but there is a great need to at least provide better official sources.

He also decries the use of CDs because they reinforce the culture of listening rather than participation.  I strongly agree and fear that their use will lead to a return to complete marginalisation of the laity and be as bad as a return to the exclusivity of chant by monks or polyphony by elite choirs rather than participatory singing by those in the pews. 

There is yet the problem of the decline in available musicians that has seen the rise of the use of pre-recorded music in our parishes (played either on CD or as MP3’s on a computer). The problem with using pre-recorded songs is that they are not designed for congregations to sing along; in fact the recorded voice of the professional singer or choir actually encourages the congregation to become a non-participatory audience which listens to rather than sings the song. I would personally recommend that in the production of any resource by the NLMB, the Bishops Commission consider also providing a complete set of pre-recorded musical accompaniments – without vocal tracks – for use by parishes that do not have musicians. These may be CD’s, MP3’s or (conceivably) even midi files (designed to be played through the many high standard electronic keyboards currently available). A resource that provided a seamless combination of print music, electronic texts for powerpoint projection and recorded musical accompaniment would make a very attractive package for Australian parishes.

Now I know I’m going to be the first to scream blue murder when the hymn police shoot down the hymns that mean a lot to many parishioners, but to my amazement I find myself agreeing with much of David says.  I also personally find that the singing style of the choirs and vocalists on recordings of the songs we usually sing are like no normal choir I’ve ever heard.  They are generally devoid of all signs of life and sung with Celine Dion levels of faux sincerity.

And for those who think the sport of complaining about the state of music in the Catholic Church is new, may I suggest you peruse Richard Terry’ 1907 book “Catholic Church Music,” especially the chapter on the evils of modern music.