Old and New
One of the things I have loved about attending Mass over the years is the music.
Catholic Report has this interesting story about our Holy Father's read on liturgical music new and old.
It seems Pope Benedict wants to encourage good Catholics to keep the old in mind with the new when appreciating liturical music. Context is especially important here. "Old stuff" is the hit parade of 16th century composers such as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. "New stuff", as viewed by the pontiff includes the latest hits of the 89-year-old former director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, Monsignor Domenico Bartolucci.
(Give me a minute here. I'm checking my ipod. Nope. Nothin'.)
The Holy Father says that this mix of Palestrina and Bartolucci is music to his ears, and so shall it be for us, too.
...having Palestrina's music and Msgr. Bartolucci's music on the same program "confirms the conviction that sacred polyphony, particularly that of the so-called Roman school, is a heritage to preserve with care, to keep alive and to be made known."If the Holy Father's intent is to encourage the music of past while welcoming the liturigal music of the present, I'm all ears. That said, I did a bit of on-line research on "modern day" composer Bartolucci. Most of it was in Italian, which is far from my native tounge. But, I was hard pressed to find anything that we here in the Cafeteria would consider "modern".
The entire church should be able to hear that type of music, he said, because it is part of the church's "invaluable spiritual, artistic and cultural patrimony."
At amazon.com, I found a sample of "Ex Omibus Terroribus", a very Gregorian Chant-like tune from the Monsignor. Go here, and click on track #7. "Christus Est Qui Natus Hodie" (that's track #11 here) could be tagged as slighty-more-modern-than-Gregorian chant.
With all due respect to the Monsignor, let's shed some light on some much more modern liturgical favorites. What's the song you most love to sing on Sunday?
posted by CafeCath @ 8:45 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I love to sing "Ubi Caritas" which does appear in my hymnal, but is never chosen by my parish music director. I learned it in my public high school chorus, from a devout Lutheran director.
Translation of "Ubi caritas" is the Scripture, "where charity and love prevail, there is Christ". Where is the charity and love when all hymns written before the Vietnam Era are virtually banned from Masses? I call for a rediscovery of over 1900 years of great music which formed the basis of western classical music.
Do you actually consider the lame, "One Bread, One Body" equal to let's say, the Bach B minor Mass' "Gloria"? Are you even familiar with the great musical heritage of our Church? By the way,lest you cast me as a crusty senior, I was born during Vatican II and suffered through, "Blowing in the Wind" during my First Holy Communion.
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