Play That Funky Music, Monk Boy
The new Pope with the Prada slippers whose name nobody can remember, and who is, by the way, German, is apparently banning modern music in the Vatican. Seems he thinks that Pope Gregory pretty much nailed it and is backing his chief enforcer–Mgr Valentin Miserachs Grau, director of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, which trains church musicians, who says that there had been serious “deviations” in the performance of sacred music.
“How far we are from the true spirit of sacred music. How can we stand it that such a wave of inconsistent, arrogant and ridiculous profanities have so easily gained a stamp of approval in our celebrations?” he said.
He added that a pontifical office could correct the abuses, and would be “opportune”. He said: “Due to general ignorance, especially in sectors of the clergy, there exists music which is devoid of sanctity, true art and universality.”
The Pope is also considering having the Sistine Chapel ceiling painted to remove any hint of perspective.
I’m entering this discussion rather late, sorry. But in the great out-there music composed under Vatican auspices, I thought that someone should also mention Julian Carrillo’s amazing Mass for Pope John XXIII which is scored exclusively for men’s voices a capella in quarter tones. This fascinating work, which is also very deeply moving IMHO and I’m not a religious person, was issued once upon a time on LP by the late, lamented CRI and, to the best of my knowledge, has never been reissued on CD or any sort of digital download. I wonder what former cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) would have thought of such a composition at the time.
Between the Oregon Catholic Press, GIA and World publications there is no good catholic church music anyways! All of the music directors have a bach complex and think that they’re ragtag choir of six maybe seven amateur singers can sing Mozart’s Ave Verum better than the Hilliard Ensemble. I play mass every sunday and am presented with music that sounds like it could come straight out of james taylor and cat stevens backcatalogue. Needless to say I go straight to plainchant and early music when it comes to preparing instrumentals. But even that stuff has been dressed up and dolled up in the latest chord progressions. Last week I just played a damn near new age rendition of Ubi Caritas. Messaien would literaly scare the crap outta any churchgoing person.
Don’t worry, this is no Artusi affair. By modern music, they’re talking about all that Oregon Catholic Press stuff and low standards for performances. See http://www.mgilleland.com/music/moratorium.htm. That music makes John Rutter seem like Bruckner. Not like there’s any chance that you’ll hear the Ligeti Requiem or even the Stravinsky Mass in a service, but there’s nothing wrong with hearing a Schubert Mass in it’s original conception (except that it probably requires keyboard technique beyond the old lady with the Wurlitzer in her living room that ends up playing the 7am and 8:30am Masses on a Sunday before they show up with the dreadnaught guitars for the 10:30 and 12:15 masses.)
Someone did relate the story of going to Messaien’s church in Paris where his improvisation at communion was cut short by ‘damn hippies’ with guitars, oblivious to what was going on around them.
That article in the Telegraph was terribly misleading. Best to go to the source. Pope Benedict’s remarks last month clearly outline his view on the matter:
“the ecclesiastical Authority must work to guide wisely the development of such a demanding type of music, not “freezing” its treasure but by seeking to integrate the valid innovations of the present into the heritage of the past in order to achieve a synthesis worthy of the lofty mission reserved to it in divine service. I am certain that the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music, in harmony with the Congregation for Divine Worship, will not fail to make its contribution to “updating” for our times the precious traditions that abound in sacred music.”
I’ve been a part of performing Olivier Messiaen, Peter Maxwell Davies, Schoenberg, Webern, Jonty Harrison, Helmut Lachenmann, and others (and my own music) in Christian church services. (Also Palestrina, Orlando, Gesualdo, etc.)
Music that is “modern” and “great” and other stuff and stuff like that, etc. does get played in some churches.
“Stravinsky doesn’t get played”, etc, is just factually incorrect, even though it might not be the majority case. One can’t just attend one church or go to an occasional service and expect to get a view of what is going on… just like Ratzinger can’t see what is going on by just listening in the Vatican.
Also, I wouldn’t put it past Ratzinger to lump Stravinsky with ‘folk masses’. You’re all giving him far too much credit and looking for more nuance to his decisions: He’s just a reactionary storm trooper neanderthal elevated to a high position. He’ll be conducting services without electricity in no time. Throw your tomatoes and move on.
I have to agree with Rodney on this one. You can at least hear “mainstream” 20th century (the composers he mentions) with some regularity in Episcopal churches. Hey, I’ve conducted / played them there myself.
The two times I’ve heard the Stravinsky Mass live were at a Unitarian Church [!] on a “special music offering” Sunday (meaning they cut the sermon, and I played Albright as the offertory) and at the Episcopal Cathedral.
And believe me: compared to the “music of the people / bad guitar / bad melodies / bad harmonies” stuff Wes, Christian and Jeff mention, an entire mass of unaccompanied plainchant would be an unbelievable improvement, let alone Palestrina, Bach or anyone else you care to name.
Actually you CAN hear Stravinsky and Poulenc and Vaughan Williams and Davies, etc., etc.,at mass, but to do so you probably need to find an Anglo-Catholic (i.e.–or is it e.g. high church Episcopal) church.
I was at the Vatican just three weeks ago (and did Benny hang with me? I wasn’t thrilled with his blowing me off. Guess he has something against atheists). I’m not happy to hear of his anti-modern-music dictum, but not at all surprised. It’s the same attitude in orthodox Judaism. Same I suspect with most other Western religions. If any place needed some modernization, be it in music or art or perspective, it’s the Catholic church. No disrespect intended, but they need to get with the 21st century. I have nothing against Bach or Palestrina, etc. Great stuff. But what about any of a number of modern composers who have written for the church (and truthfully, Stravinsky and Messiaen are so early-mid 20th century—why not some more recent composers?)
But it’s no different in Judaism. Never heard Schoenberg’s Kol Nidre being performed in shul (it was actually banned in Orthodox synagogues, I believe). Same with much of Bloch’s music (but not all) and stuff by more recent composers. Quite a shame.
This is off topic, but my first impression when walking into St. Peter’s Basilica was that, as the largest, most ornate building I’ve ever seen in my life, isn’t it a shame that all that wealth was not being put to the use of the poor? I mean, keep the michelangeo and other works of art, but just one of the marble columns could probably feed half of sub-Saharan Africa for a year or two.
You know, Alan, there’s a whole two or three generations that have never – ever – heard Palestrina in a church. All they’ve heard is this crap. This is totally about getting rid of this crap.
They’ve never been given the opportunity to sing Palestrina. I’ve had to go to mass more than a few times in Europe because of Elsie’s family and I’ve never heard any good music, except for the Messiaen organ music in Paris and the romantics. If any cult needs music, it’s the Catholic Church. And they need GOOD music. Otherwise, why go to church? 😉
FWIW, I was going to start a thread on this topic, because I knew from my European travels and family responsibilities that it would being mis-interpreted. But I decided not to, because I knew it would end up a modernist<->traditional debate. It’s not that. It’s a SHIT<->OldSchoolBoringOldMusic debate. 🙂 It’s really not ours.
“It’s the shit that gets played.”
As a former Catholic I can tell you – you’re right.
Is that what he’s doing? We’ll see. Christianity, until very very recently, though, adopted new art forms very very cautiously.
When was the last time a new Tibetan chant was introduced? Balinesian religious music? It never changes. Why does it never change? I think it has more to do with a desire to connect with timeless things. New things immediately connect you with timely things. Before anybody gets too bent out of shape about this, though, I suggest you go to church, any church and listen. It’s the worst.
And regardless of these dynamics, real modern music NEVER gets played in the churches. One never hears Stravinsky, even Poulenc etc. in church. And I don’t think for a second he’s talking about Messiaen organ music. When we go to Mass in Paris we hear Messiaen, and other French Romantics all the time. The people come to mass to hear great organ music.
Alan, I think that’s what you’re getting at – and it’s a non-issue because modern vocal church music just doesn’t get played anyways. It’s the shit that gets played.
Furthermore, how exactly does the wider use of “Gregorian chant and baroque sacred music” lead to a reconnection with God and ecstasy?
Forget about it. Let’s hear Bruhns and Buxtehude every Sunday and throw Martin’s Mass in the firepit. While we’re at it, let’s completely ignore Messiaen, Penderecki, and Part.
I also forgot that, since we’re focusing on chant and baroque music, we’re going to ignore Palestrina, Josquin, Mozart’s masses, Bruckner, etc.
Is Stravinsky’s Mass too modern? Was it written in the 20th century? Yes? Nevermind.
I have nothing against a war on bad music. I don’t want to hear crappy music anywhere – church, the dance club, the concert hall, or the ball park.
I DO have an issue with equating “modern” with “bad”.
This really has nothing to do with theology more to do with how beauty and religion and our world have been separated. I’m more with Wes and Christian here. Have you guys been to a mass recently? The music sucks! The art work is abominable. Next time you’re in Rome and go to the Vatican museum, actually spend a few minutes in the modern collections you have to go through to see the Sistine Chapel. It’s abhorrent stuff. :shudder:
By re-introducing the Latin mass, he’s shown that he’s committed to making the service beautiful again. Most of Elsie’s relatives stopped going to Mass in France when they introduced the vernacular. Add some folk songs with idiotic rhymings and bad guitarists and you have nothing but a boring kind of folksy vibe. Religion today needs ecstasy (and not just the drug haha). It needs the power that GREAT music can deliver to connect us with God. It needs beauty in order to create the transcendental experience. Something we all need, believers and non-believers alike – to make us human. To get us out of our skulls.
As I’ve posted repeatedly and annoyingly before – this decline in artistic values is EVERYWHERE. It’s not just the church. Good new music is just really hard to find now. And great music forget about it. We’re living in a time when cronyism, careerism, and $$$ determines who gets played – not quality, not beauty, not greatness. Churches have it even worse, because you have all kinds of decision-makers deciding what to play and when. (I was lucky to grow up in North Florida and sing in a choir with a GREAT African-American choir director who knew how to make ordinary hymns sound great).
Is it any wonder the last remaining ‘King’ has decreed that new church music sucks? It does!
Ugh. Theological stagnation substituting for faith. Someone send him a shovel.
Huh. Also:
Compare this to John Paul II’s invitation to Penderecki to give a concert at the Vatican (late 70’s, early 80’s?).
I can only imagine that Messiaen is weeping right now. No modern music for the Catholic church?
Olivier’s birds have gone silent….
Well, whatever he’s talking about, it IS amusing that it’s about the same language used by people complaining about before the Council of Trent, or during the English reformation. So I guess everybody’ll just have to lay off the L’homme Arme for the time being.
Hi – long time lurker, first time poster. As a not-really-Church-going protestant, I did not think I was ever going to defend a pope. But I think in this case we have to put his statement a bit into perspective.
When I was a teenager I sometimes participated in Church music, both catholic and protestant, in my rather conservative suburb of Vienna. In the protestant Church, this normally meant supporting the bass with the cello in a couple of Bach chorales. The Catholic Church musicians, par contre, prided themselves in promoting ‘modern music that really speaks to the heart and that people can relate to’ – which meant I head to accompany and out-of-tune guitarist on an electric keyboard playing some dumb, incredibly cheesy popular tunes underlaid with religious texts and harmonized by somebody who apparently thought anything beyond tonic and dominant was too twisted and difficult to ‘be modern and speak to the heart’. It was horrible.
I suspect that the pope might be referring to this idea of ‘modern’ rather than, say, the Cerha requiem – and if such is the case, I am not too sure this is such a bad initiative. I also like the fact that someone seems to actually care about Church music instead of considering a background element that ideally should go unnoticed or at least not disturb too much.
Maybe I am giving him too much credit here… but still…
Well, if he means banning that “Songs 4 Worship” claptrap I see advertised on various basic cable channels, then count me in favor of it.
[/snark]
Seriously, what is this? I’m no fan of the Marty Haugen/”On Angels’ Wings” claptrap, but it seems like every few decades we have to dig up Palestrina to explain all this.
WF