ex cathedra: Awful earfuls

Monday, August 22, 2011

Awful earfuls

Talking with one of my sisters yesterday, we referenced our uncle's and our father's* funeral Masses, both held in the last two years. I had a private thought, in reference especially to the "music" at both events. In a word, drek. From the traditional Protestant drek of "Amazing Grace" and "How Great Thou Art" to the groovy Vatican II drek of "On Eagle's Wings" and the pop cocktail-lounge treacle of the St. Louis Jesuits (below!) and Weston Priory. The liturgical equivalent to the score of a chick flick.

My thought, "Thank God I left the priesthood or I would have spent the last 25 years listening to that crap all the time."

Not that pre Vatican II Catholic music was all that great; not by a long shot. Popular Catholic taste has apparently always been really bad. With the exception of the Gregorian chant, of course, and the few pieces by great composers (Mozart's Ave Verum), even a hymn like "Holy God We Praise Thy Name", a lot of it was a different kind of crap: "To Jesus' Heart All Burning", "Daily Daily Sing to Mary", "O Sanctissima" and other waltz tunes to the Virgin...

One of my criteria for these things is: "Can a man sing this without feeling undignified?"

I sympathize with a convert to Orthodoxy, a woman who said that after her experience of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy, Western worship suddenly seemed "tedious and sentimental." I am sure that if I had remained in the priesthood as a Dominican friar, I would be looking for every opportunity to celebrate the recently re-approved medieval rite in Latin.

It might be somewhat obscure, but it sure as hell isn't embarrassing.

*I had a strong urge to sing In Paradisum for him, but it felt like grandstanding and anyway, I doubt I could have made it through without breaking down. He and I had a mostly rather formal relationship; it surprised me how much I cried over him...but I was glad of that. Cause when I needed him, he never let me down. He deserved the tears.

__

2 comments:

Leah said...: Having just been to the funeral of a dear friend, all I can say is that Jews do it quite well with this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxDWoVsAeu0
This version is specifically for victims of the holocaust, but it is sung at every funeral -usually the signer isn't as good as this cantor, but no matter what, it brings me to tears.; 3:11 PM, August 22, 2011
Anonymous said...: There's enough evidence now to prompt the most pious RCs to ask, "What day did the Lord create the Second Vatican Council, and couldn't He have rested on that day too?'"
(to vary a line from "Spinal Tap")

An intellectuals' council -- but in the name of or-and for the sake of the "pilgrim vulgus of God." I guess the results had to be dismal, in music and everything else.

er; 9:46 PM, August 22, 2011

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