As you would expect their is lots of commentary on the music for the Papal Mass today. Jay Anderson reports that Fr. Neuhaus said ""An Overweening and Preening Exercise in Multicultural Exhibitionism"
Whoever wrote Archbishop Wuerl’s welcome for the Papal Mass at Nationals Stadium should resume his career as a diversity consultant.
Ditto for the liturgist. The "multicultural" music (Raymond Arroyo’s description) for the offertory and the beginning of the Eucharistic prayer simply has no place in the Mass. We’ve heard so much about "active participation" by the laity. Explain to me how anyone in attendance can hum these … pop stylings, much less sing them. (Is that a bass guitar and saxophone I hear as Communion is distributed?) Appalling.
Raymond Arroyo, commenting on the odd choices for some of the music in the liturgy at Nationals Stadium, after listening to an absolutely awful conga version of an offertory hymn (including bongos and a kettle drum) just said that "the music in this liturgy, is out of character for papal masses of late. The music has a sort of amazon flavor to it!"
I went to an Easter Vigil Mass this year where the kettle drum was quite prominent in a five minute or longer Alleluia. I thought for a bit that someone was doing a drum solo. The singing of the alleluia itself was pretty hard to describe unless you imagine Tarzan doing this – and unhappily this is not hyperbole. Though to be fair the "Hallelujah" chorus from Handel’s Messiah was extraordinarily well done so there was a bit of an oasis in a liturgical dessert.
Now I realize that those involved in the musical selection surely had good intentions and in their way thought they were honoring the Pope. It seems to me though that a musical selection of this type is kind of like dedicating a Automobile Combustion Engine Museum for Al Gore with a massive tree burning demonstration afterwards.
If those involved have a copy of Cardinal’s Ratzinger’s book Spirit of the Liturgy I bet it is in mint condition totally unstained by any fingerprints. The tone deafness of the selections serve as a antithesis to everything the Pope has written about the liturgy is it is hard to fathom how this was not taking into account. If Bishop Trautman was Pope than they would of hit it out of the ballpark. In contrast the sacred music used during Vespers last night was phenomenal and the beauty of it with the Pope present brought tears to my eyes.
Amy Welborn writes quite well about the problems of critiquing the Mass in general and on this occasion and about the obvious reverence and deportment of the people at the Mass. I just think that this was despite the music and not aided by it. Visiting various parishes I really try to shut down the :Mass Reviewer" in me because it is quite destructive to entering into the prayer of the Mass. So instead of being angry I usually try to shunt off criticism into humor instead and to laugh off some of the sillier displays of liturgical silliness. As Jimmy Akin says it is not God’s will that the Mass be a source of anger for us. So while I think critiques are somewhat necessary if we are ever going to truly start a reform of the reform, we can do it in a manner that will actually lead to reform and not just bitterness.
Update: Looking at Father Z’s post on the subject he says "It is almost as if the organizers of this Mass had never read a single thing of what Joseph Ratzinger has written about sacred music and liturgy." Fr. Z will be updating this post.
NLM focuses on the postive and has many wonderful images.
Jeffrey Tucker at NLM writes:
Indeed, when Marty Haugen’s Mass of Creation finally came on at the Sanctus, it was a moment of dignity—so much so that I want to take back all my negative comments back when I thought that this Mass setting was unsuitable for a Papal Mass. I don’t think anyone knew before this what the phrase "unsuitable" could really mean.
20 comments
Having attended, I tried to overlook the music. Yes, a lot of it was not very good, but hey – I got to go to Mass celebrated by the Pope. And Jimmy Akin’s right about the Mass not being a source of anger.
That particular quote of Fr. Neuhaus was in reference to the ‘prayers of the faithful’ where everyone dressed in different ‘cultural’ costumes, and prayed in different languages. At least I think they were praying. Like 99% of the listeners, I could only understand 2 of the languages.
Ha ha your story about the 5 minute kettle drum makes me think (pushing aside traumatic memories of the psychedelic, running up and down the aisles psalm they used to do at the Vigil at my old Newman Center) of that old story about the missionary travelling through the jungle with an indigenous guide. There’s this incessant drumming in the distance that just seems to go on and on. When the missionary asks the guide what the drums are about and whether they will EVER stop, the guide says, “Drums play, GOOD; drums stop, BAD.”
So this goes on and on and then just when the missionary can’t take it any more, the drums suddenly stop.
The guide turns and with an ashen face says, “Drums stop, bad……….now bass solo.”
Nice post, BTW.
I was also at the Papal Mass in DC…sitting in the front row in the stands.
Regarding the reverence of those attending the Mass � I have nothing to add here. During silences in the Mass, it was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. I don�t think I’ll ever hear that kind of silence in Nationals stadium again.
Regarding the music � Some commentators might be missing the fact that music that sounds garish to us IS reverent for the Hispanic populations that were present. Most of the reverent and orthodox Hispanics that I know do prefer the pop-folk music that Anglos love to malign. What’s reverent to one community may seem out-of-place to another.
Regarding the applause that broke out during various parts of the Mass � It made me uncomfortable, but the Pope was obviously encouraging it by waving in response. If it doesn�t bother him, it shouldn’t bother me.
My biggest complaint: The opera performance of Panis Angelicus after communion. This was a performance, not a meditation, and the crowd applauded enthusiastically at the end. (Lest you see this as an indictment of those who attended the Mass, the Knights of Columbus seemed to be the ones who were most enthusiastic in their standing ovation… 😉
Regarding the multiculturalism: The situation “on the ground” in the Archdiocese explains some of this. The Archdiocese of Washington is only thriving because of the large numbers of ethnic minorities who are moving into the area and becoming active in the church. As long as this continues, the Archdiocese will do everything they can to pander to these minorities and persuade them to stay.
Music I liked during the Mass:
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
O Spirit All-Embracing
O Holy Spirit, by Whose Breath
The Kyrie eleison
the Alleluia
the Agnus Dei
Lord, you Give the Great Commission
people…it wasn’t ALL bad! Those who claim that they hated the entire thing are probably only remembering the bad parts, and forgetting the good.
Regarding the prayers of the faithful: All the languages used during the Prayers of the Faithful did correspond to languages used by various ethnic Catholic communities in the DC area.
I realize that the languages are from the local community. However, the Church , in its UNITY, is promoting Catholic culture, not cultural diversity. It just isn’t the right venue for a ‘show’ of this kind (IMO). I don’t doubt it was well intentioned, and I did note that the overall atmosphere of the Mass was reverant.
I teased my kids , that if they had been attending our parish school, they wouldn’t have had the chance to participate by watcing the Mass ‘live’ on EWTN. They noticed that very few people who received Communion, showed an overt sign of reverance before receiving. They also thought the music was very ‘weird’.(We have large Hispanic,Indian, and Phillipino contigents in our Carribbean parish.)
They listened intently to the homily, and watched the Pope’s movements closely. I’m glad we homeschool.
lwestin: Thanks for your comment.
Regarding the “weird” music…there are many majority-African, majority-African-American, and majority-Hispanic parishes in the Archdiocese that are playing similar music on any given Sunday.
The music at the Mass simply reflected the music that Catholics here are hearing every Sunday. Nothing “weird” about it for those people.
The music at the Mass simply reflected the music that Catholics here are hearing every Sunday. Nothing “weird” about it for those people.
What does this mean exactly? That there is some sort of ethnic trump card over liturgical norms available to Latin Rite Catholics?
Please don’t blame the musical taste of Hispanics for the musical debacle at the Washington Papal Mass. we have beautiful sacred music every Sunday at our Cathedral’s Spanish-language Mass here in Los Angeles.
I think the bottom line is that there are guidelines set up by the Church as to what is appropriate at Mass, and what is not, and what should be given primacy of place. It is not a matter of personal opinion, or personal taste, or what is going to make people feel comfortable. With a proper understanding of what the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is, we can better understand what music is appropriate to raise the heart and soul towards God and direct the mind toward prayer and reflection of what is going on. Its object is not to direct attention at the choir, or the music itself, or each other. It should never be a performance.
You all need to wake up and realize that openness to other cultures has been practiced in the Church since the ministry of PAUL and Barnabas. If the Church shared your narrow minded mentality we would still be a splinter of Judaism practicing Jewish liturgy and customs.
NEW CULTURES ARE THE HOPE AND FUTURE OF THE CHURCH IN THE US. WAKE UP
This is the USA where the official language is English. If you don’t like to speak English then go somewhere else. The music we sing should be in English or Latin and from Europe. The prayers we say should be in English or Latin. We are Catholic United States Citizens, if the pope had gone to Mexico, then instead of English it should have been Spanish, but he came to the USA, so English it should be.
I don’t mind the multi-language stuff at the pope’s mass in Rome, because that is sort of a country without an identity, its identity is a mixture of every countries identity, but in the USA, we are English speaking Americans and so the mass should be said in English or Latin. It doesn’t help the Spanish speakers for their priests to bow to their weaknesses. Those people came to America, so they should learn our language and having Spanish masses does not help!
Yours Through Our Lady,
Margarite
I started to wrtie a comment on the music to Fr. Jonathan Morris, but stopped, as thought it might not be appropriate, since no one else had said anything. I managed to get to the Pope’s homily, than had to leave… the music was hurting my ears, literally… everything was so off tune, like the newer “classical” music. Enough to drive one mad, especailly knowing there are so many beautiufl hymns, and like was stated, since our wonderful Pope is such a lover of beauty. Surely they did not read any of his books, or listen, recently, to any of his talks to us.
Discovered this site as was googling Rosalind MOss to see were her new order of nuns will be living. We are in St. Louis and would like to support them in some way, at least with our prayers for success. She is a wonderful, faith filled woman!
Christ’s peace to you and thank you for what you are doing,
Judy
Margarite? You must mean “Margaret”. We are in America. Quit using your foreign sounding name!
I was there. The music was bad but that’s a good thing. This is exactly the kind of crap most of us have to put up with every Sunday. It’s about time it was laughed at on a national scale.
I found the music to be just fine and a wonderful expression of our Catholic culture. I found Fr. John’s comments to be quite preening in nature, but he’s a loveable old man who I respect…so I give him (and even Raymond, whom I respect as well) a pass on their condescending comments.
The Mass SHOULD be about prayer…and their comments didn’t help at times, but in the end it was on a whole a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL Mass.
…And, Jeff, Placedo’s “Panis Angelicus” was a marvelous mediation hymn…I wish you’d take those words back. It was the gem of the liturgical music of the day. It was very respectful and a wonderful gift.
However, I would’ve liked to hear the Prayers of the Faithful at least translated if they’re going to do the multi-language bit to an extreme!
There I’ve said my peace…now y’all can go back to picking the Mass apart again…just think about how much worse it could’ve been. I think it went well. Now, I’ll pray that we can be united…with Christ, our Hope. (Which is the reason for the trip after all, right?)
Jeffrey Tucker stole my thought. Marty Haugen has been much maligned for a Mass that is really not bad at all, though somewhat overused. When done right his music has a dignity and granduer that works well. If I were a mean spirited individual I would wonder if he had a hand in this, this…whatever it was, in order to be the hero of the day.
Yes, Haugen in very small amounts isn’t too bad…and if it’s executed correctly.
Oh, and my apologies…it’s Placido not Placedo. It was a moving performance worthy of listening to again.
I’ve had many people report to me that the music was irrelevant to those who were actually there and did nothing to distract from the glory of the occasion. Apparently television and etc. really had the effect of exaggerating how overweening the music was.
I have gotten so I can’t stand the music at any mass. I just wish they’d shut the hell up. Catholics are apparently all tone deaf.
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