Tag: singing

The mixed joys of not joining in

Read Kate’s latest for The Tablet :  The mixed joys of not joining in

The choir summer holiday is coming to an end, and I am really pleased.

Not because I like having to spend time and energy on organising and delivering the music, not because I am looking forward to seeing the choir members back again, not because I am looking forward to making music together and creating something beautiful to the glory of God, though all of these things are true, but because I have been feeling increasingly uncomfortable at Mass on Sunday mornings.

We all know priests are in short supply currently, and this is especially true in the summer months, when they are as entitled to holidays as anyone else. This year our parish reduced its number of Sundays Masses for the summer, and instructed the choirs to take a holiday until September. I actually rather like a spoken Mass for a change, it gives me a different angle of focus. Then one of the church music groups decided that since they were mostly still around, they could do ad hoc music at the one remaining Mass. I’m sure that their motivation was just to improve the service for the Lord and for everyone else, but it’s a style of music with which I am very uncomfortable.  I do happen to know all these hymns, they were new and regarded as exciting when I was a student nearly fifty years ago, but I don’t think they have all worn well; or more accurately, some people love them and find them prayerful and helpful, but not all of us do.

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Psalms stripped of poetry and impossible to sing

Read Kate’s latest for The Tablet – Psalms stripped of poetry and impossible to sing.

The new lectionary has now been in force since the beginning of Advent last year. I say “in force” rather than a more neutral expression, because there was no question of parishes choosing to adopt it, or even vary the timing. It came to us out of nowhere and was presented as compulsory. Now we have sung our way through the joys of Christmas and Eastertide. We have experienced both the high points, the greatest feasts, of the Church’s year in this new format. How is it going for you?

My closest dealings with the New Lectionary are the Responsorial Psalm and the Gospel Acclamation every week. I have been setting these to music for the last twelve years or so, for all the different anglophone lectionaries I can get hold of (the US, Australia/New Zealand, and Canada), often needing a different setting for each. So far only the UK Lectionary (not even the “and Eire” version) has chosen to make this change, but in England and Wales we have been doing our best with it from week to week. Other jurisdictions have been discussing it for years, because anyone can see that the old lectionaries are not perfect, but have not yet taken the plunge.

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