MAKE ME A CHANNEL: Much as I like the ceremony of the Catholic Mass, most parish music programs suck because -- in no small part -- most of the modern hymnal is dreadful. That said, Bono
singing 'Make Me a Channel of Your Peace' is something I'd drop $1.29 for. (Alas, no audio here).
I'm a former Catholic, and while there are many other and deeper reasons for my no longer being a Catholic...it's flabbergasting at how bad modern Catholic church music is. When "On Eagle's Wings" is one of the better songs, you know there's a problem there. Mediocre melodies based on trite poetry is what a lot of it seems to boil down to.
ReplyDeleteReally? Bono's church singing was awkward for me, as much as I love that prayer.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with your intial sentiment about Catholic church music. I lost three family members within a year back in 2002, and with the exception of the eulogies, the services were identical musically. They wouldn't even let us pick our own songs for the ceremony. It came off like a corporate assembly line.
I don't miss church one single bit -- but I loved "Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace." That was the one that stuck out when I was in choir. Great melody.
ReplyDeleteMy parents used to lead a folk choir in East Lansing -- it was how I first started to love music and harmonies, singing along with my mother's parts until my voice changed.
I was listening to the Soundcheck podcast the other day, and John Schaeffer was interviewing Carter Burwell about the score to "True Grit," and they played some scores from old John Ford westerns, which were based on old Presbyterian hymns. I could hear a direct line from the hymn to the sort of country music of the Carter family, and, in fact, the hymn in question was actually written by a Georgia church deacon with no formal music training, so it may have done less inspiring of country than been inspired by appalachian or southern folk. I thought that was interesting -- not least because the Presbyterian church I used to attend twice a year was not where you'd go for good music.
ReplyDeleteComing up next... Chris Martin sings "Great Things Happen When God Mixes With Us."
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that very thing -- that 'On Eagle's Wings' is top of the heap, for Bog's sake.
ReplyDeleteWas the Shriver funeral broadcast? I didn't see this performance but I think Bono's voice would be great for that song.
ReplyDeleteAs the resident Presbyterian, two thoughts:
ReplyDelete1. I loathe almost all contemporary "praise and worship" stuff--not only is almost all of it "God/Jesus is my boyfriend" theology, but it tends to be enormously repetitive both lyrically and musically.
2. Many hymn texts have aged badly while the music has not--for example, I love (both lyrically and musically) "O For A World," which takes the tune of an 1800s hymn and gives it new lyrics.
Part of the problem is that after about Ralph Vaughn Williams, few of the big modern composers (Adams, etc.) have done religious music, which has diverted in recent years into the "praise and worship" universe.
I believe that mom has written funeral instructions that prohibit the playing of "On Eagles' Wings".
ReplyDeleteI believe that my mom has written instructions that prohibit "On Eagles' Wings" from being played at her funeral.
ReplyDeleteQuite a few composers have done religious music, but more for the concert hall (or organ) -- Avro Part, Olivier Messiaen. Bernstein and Stravinsky both have done settings of Psalms, and Steve Reich is heavily influenced by his Jewish heritage. But no, there's nothing like the RVW English hymnal, although that was largely taking folk melodies, transcribing them, and professionally arranging them. From what little Contemporary Christian music I've heard, they need someone to fix their voice leading.
ReplyDeleteThe elegance of the old hymnals reflects, in a way, the restraint and austerity of the church practices Vaughn Williams was concerned with. Charles Ives also drew on Protestant hymnals in his music, though he didn't leave us with anything a congregation of non-musicians could bang through. He loved, I think, the inadvertent cacophony of church services.
When I was a kid going to catholic church in the mid 70s in my suburban, conservative parish, we used to sing Top 40 pop/folk songs as part of the Mass. I didn't listen to alot of pop music as a child, so I didn't recognize many of the songs, but I remember two that were on my father's John Denver Greatest Hits album ("Follow Me" and "Rhymes and Reasons"), as well as "Day is Done" by Peter Paul and Mary. At some point, probably by the late 70s when our young earnest priest "Father Tom" got transferred to another parish, my church did away with hymns altogether until I went off to college and stopped attending.
ReplyDeleteLooking back, I guess there must have been a period of time after the end of Latin Mass before the Church developed its modern hymnal, and so my parish must have improvised. I now only go to church for family occasions, so I'm not that familiar with modern Catholic music, but from what little I've heard at the weddings and christenings I've attended, they should have stuck with John Denver.