At Pontifications, Alvin Kimel writes of The Tyranny of the Ubiquitous Song Leader, aka the cantor of most Catholic Masses.
I don’t know where in the world she came from, and and I don’t know why the brethren put up with her. All I know is that the one feature of the contemporary Roman Mass that I despise most is the Ubiquitous Song Leader. You know who I mean. She stands in front of the congregation and sings into the microphone, upraising her hand(s) whenever she wants the congregation to sing along with her. She dominates the liturgy. Not even the celebrant at the altar enjoys such an imposing presence. All eyes are turned upon her. Thanks to the amplification, her voice drowns out everything and everyone. She is everywhere. I’m just about ready to start a one-man crusade to eradicate this blight upon Catholic liturgy.
I have to agree somewhat. Now, the woman who leads music at my parish isn’t that bad. She doesn’t overpower the congregation, but many of the complaints that Alvin lists are endemic to the role, regardless of who holds it. The USL does often become the focal point of the Mass. And because she’s usually a better singer than most, with greater range, the songs are usually sung in keys I couldn’t reach on my best days. I think many of the congregation are in the same boat. Likewise, the pace of the music is so slow that even songs that should be peppy and glorious sometimes sound like dirges.
If you have a choir why can’t she be in the choir with them, unamplified, leading the choir by example? I think the current system leaves too much temptation for song-leading to become song-performing. And as usual that’s a bad thing in the liturgy. And do check out the quote from Thomas Day’s “Why Catholics Can’t Sing.” Right on the money.
Technorati Tags: Catholic, hymns, liturgical music, liturgy, Mass
Nothing gets the blood going like ranting about modern Catholic hymns. Unless of course we start talking about modern Catholic architecture.
Among the wonderful things our new pastor did was to put the choir—including the USL—in the balcony in the back of the church so they were heard but not seen. The music once again became an adjunct to the Mass and not a concert performance. Once we get the hymn selection improved, the music will be perfect.
The USL is but a symptom of a wider disease; the “Catholics don’t sing” illness. Now before anyone jumps on me, this in turn may be due to the constantly changing hymns and their insipid character, which in turn is likely due to the wider liturgical problems which have beset the Church.
The USL is simply an attempt to paper over the cracks and create some sort of volume so as to give the appearance of a vibrant liturgy, when in reality, most of the congregation is bewildered and embarassed.
Also, USL’s are usually part of a double act. The other half of the act is an extroverted and wisecracking Fr. Bob.
I can tell you for one, that at our parish the USL doesn’t dominate. At the Mass I attend, he sings the psalm verses and the Gospel acclaimation. For all other songshe takes his place with the choir, sans his own microphone, and just becomes another voice.
Pace is set by the organist. I truly love the cantor at our 1030 Mass.
The massacre of the hymns is the absolutely worst part of any Mass, anywhere, in the US today.
The church I attend is brand new (merger of 3 parishes), and has new hymnals (OCP). There are 550 hymns, of which 30 or so are suitable for worshipful congregational singing (Wesley, Newton, Isaac Watts, etc).
There are 100 or so seasonal selections, and 100 or so variations on Catholic liturgical music.
The rest are either new and unsingable, new and heretical (Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing has been transformed into Sing A New Church Into Being), or new and Diverse (All Are Welcome In This Place).
I have no idea if hymns belong in a Mass, but assuming they do, the current implementation of their use is a travesty. Since congregations of 50 people routinely do this successfully all over New England, why is this such a problem?
And who’s in charge? I see all these debates about rules set in Rome about the color of various obscure vestments, how on earth does “Sing a New Church Into Being” (what’s wrong with the old one?) get on the agenda?
The practice in Akron is very much as Joe Soucy describes it. But when I go out of town …….
I wish for some silence following Communion, but often the hymns continue on through. Sometimes there is a “solo” vocal performance, which means we are receipents of a round of applause too.
Me…I prefer some silence for reflection.
Charles,
I didn’t bother to mention who our cantor is at our parish….
Me.
Bring back:
-Gregorian Chant
-St. Gregory Hymnals in the Pews (They were thrown out by the dumpster-full so should still be easy to find. Otherwise, the Adoremus Hymnal or Cantate et Jubilate Deo.)
-Choir in Choir Loft (Remember? That’s why they called it that.)
-Fire everyone else/heave everything else into the trash where it belongs, including the guitars, pianos and mikes.
Eventually, the Church is going to have to recover bit by painful bit the resplendent patrimony it has squandered over the last forty years. All power to those who try.
Man, I’ll tell ya….one thing I still miss about the Episcopal church is the music.
Especially at the “anglo-catholic” type churches.
Over at Church of the Advent in Boston, is the only place you can still hear the whole Mass sung by a chior…Palestrina, Byrd, you name it.
We have a folksy group at our parish and most of the people think they ar just plum dandy. I think I am the only one who’s not wild about it.
dpt, they applaud at our parish too! I loathe that. Am I just a sourpuss?
Part of the problem is the point Jim suggests: hymns are not part of Catholic tradition in the liturgy. The tradition of the Latin church is rather marked by the use of the Psalms with short antiphons for the people to sing. The Mass of Pius V used psalms and antiphons throughout which could be sung or recited. This is still true of the Mass today, though sadly the only time you usually hear the antiphons today is when there is no singing at Mass at all and the priest speedly mumbles the antiphons at the Introit and Communion.
However in those places that do sing the antiphons you immediately see their genius. In my church today for instance we sang the famous antiphon Tu est Petrus. The choir sang it once, the people responded and then the choir sang verses from the psalms between which everyone responded with the antiphon. What is does is it:
a) gets a catchy little antiphon stuck in your head that can help you pray all day long.
b) garantees that the singing is orthodox (i.e. scriptural) and relevant to the days mass
c) exposes people to praying with the psalms as Jesus and the Jews did in the first century
d) the antiphons can be so easy that anyone could get them and yet quite beautiful.
Also antiphons are modular insofar as depending on your choirs/cantors abilities you can include a little Latin and a little venacular, a little polyphony or a little gregorian chant, organ interludes, etc. etc. and still allow the people to participate by always coming back to a simple antiphon.
In Latin there are tons of collections of antiphons with psalms in corisponding tones, in fact there are proper antiphons for each day, however while we don’t have all the proper antiphons set to music in English, there are more and more antiphons availible. For instance there is a series called “By Flowing Waters” and also the Worship hymnal series as a few decent antiphons with psalms.
As to the cantor situation, my thought is: out of sight out of mind.
janjan,
“Man, I’ll tell ya….one thing I still miss about the Episcopal church is the music.”
For years my home parish in Austin had an Episcopalian choir director. And the music was awesome. Eventually he and his wife swam the Tiber.
I have to say that I generally find the music at the daily mass, led by our pastor, to be much better than that chosen by the choir director. Now I’m not saying he’s a great singer, cause he isn’t. But he picks the old, hymns that everyone can sing without accompaniment. He even throws in a Latin hymn on occasion. It is beautiful and prayerful. So why can’t Sunday mass be like that?