In a spoof post, The Tablet cites this as what we should play, sing, listen to and generally actively participate in.
Oh whoops, they are for real.
Meantime lots of people can sing this and have been for lots of centuries.
I'll go with the option 2 please.
After all the western staff system was invented to notate it, so it must be quite important.
Plus document after document after document from the church keeps telling us it should have pride of place.
My nuanced reading of that is that it should have pride of place.
3 comments:
James Macmillan had some interesting things to say about contemporary Catholic music recently. He referred to ageing hippies. The Tablet option to which you link is probably most accurately described as kitsch.
The Tablet option is the example cited by Bernadette Farrell on a Tablet blogpost defending what has been written since V II to be sung at Mass and saying that James MacMillan has no place criticising different worship styles.
I am not a world class composer, just a Music teacher and I'm telling you that GCSE candidates can write better music. ALevel candidates are still studying Bach Chorales and they can handle harmony and part-writing better.
She says the LU contains good and bad examples of plainsong.
she compares VII to the Reformation in terms of the need for new music to be written despite the fact that we know the documents said that the faithful should be singing chant.
"She says the LU contains good and bad examples of plainsong."
Who is SHE to judge?
One insight I gained from, I think, the Dom Daniel Saulnier book was that the chant falls quite naturally into different "grades" of difficulty relating to the abilities of those for whom it was/is intended- from the relatively simple syllabic chants for the celebrant to the more elaborate and melismatic pieces- such as antiphons- reserved to the schola. I have been amazed at how easily a small congregation have picked up the Ordinary chants of the new Missal as well as old favourites like the Missa de Angelis and the Marian Antiphons in their simple tones. The wonderful thing about the chant is that it is, quite simply, sung prayer- rather than some "nice" tunes to which words have been added. Farrell, Inwood and co just don't seem to get that.
Keep up the good work!
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