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In addition to what I wrote yesterday...

Can the Couperin Organ Masses be reintroduced to accompany the Liturgy?
Couperin also wrote lovely solo motets to Psalm texts.
It would be nice to hear them for the responsorial hymns.
Remember this is just a suggestion; but, I believe if classical music was used more frequently for the liturgy, classical
compositions would not be so strange to the parishoners.
Eventually they might even be caught-up into the meditative
quality of the music and come to appreciate it.
It might even be a partial remedy for the irreverance sometimes experienced....Who would dare make noise with such lovely music playing to accompany the Liturgy!

Last night, I told my parish priest again, how I could not concentrate on the Liturgy and Christ with the Rock music....the extra heavy drum beat and swervy vocalistics, etc.
He replied "Rock and Roll live forever." And he attempted to explain that this was the soul of American tradition. (Mind you this comes from a priest of 40 years and from Vietnam at that!) Then he said if I could not take it, that I did not belong in the Communion of Saints, and should not be there.!!!
I am a lector/commentator at my Parish. I love the Church and this really hurt.
I am not telling Fr. Peter how to run his Parish....He is great with all else. This really hurt. And I cannot help what I feel. I cannot change my innerbeing, and I feel I know for myself what is inappropriate for the liturgy and me.
Am I wrong as he states; or is Cardinal Ratzinger right in condeming soul and rock in the Liturgy of the Church (as I thoroughly also believe with all my being)?

Beware of the destructiveness of "Sacro-Pop" in the Liturgy.


PLEASE read the second part of "A New Song for the Lord".
Here is some of what Our Holy Father rightly states:

Rock and pop music, music of the masses, the crowds, seek in reality

"the pleasure of destruction, the removal of the barriers of every day life and the illusion of redemption in the liberation from oneself in the wild ecstasy OF NOISE AND THE MASSES."

"...in this area, Satanical Cults and Satanical types of music are constantly spreading today whose dangerous power intentionally to wreck and eradicate the person HAS NOT BEEN TAKEN SERIOUSLY ENOUGH." ... "It is similar to "Ritual Music" where in many forms of pagan religions "music is ordered to stupor and to ecstasy. Freeing humans from limitations, which is the goal of that hunger for the infinite proper to humans, is supposed to be achieved through 'holy madness' through the delirium of the rhythm and the instruments Such music pulls down the barriers of individuality and personality, in it human beings free themselves from the burden of consciousness. Music turns into ecstasy, liberation from the ego, 'becoming one with the universe'. Today we experience the profane return of this type of music in a large part of the rock and pop music whose festivals are a counterculture of the same orientation---the pleasure of destruction, the removal of the barriers of everyday life and the ILLUSION of redemption in the liberation from oneself, in the wild ecstasy of NOISE AND THE MASSES.It is a question of redemptive practices whose form of redemption is related to DRUGS and diametrically opposed to the Christian faith in redemption...."

Our Holy Father goes on to explain what certain types of rhythms create and its destructive powers, all too well known by Satan. [J.R.R.Tolkien explained it very well in the beginning of the Silmarillion.]
Our Holy Father wrote:

"...music has become today the decisive vehicle of a counterreligion and thus the showplace for the discerning of spirits. On one hand, since rock music seek redemption by way of liberation from the personality and its responsibility, it fits very precisely into the anarchistic ideas of freedom that are manifesting themselves more openly all over the world. But that is also exactly why such music is diametrically opposed to the Christian notions of redemption and freedom, indeed their true contradiction. MUSIC OF THIS TYPE MUST BE EXCLUDED FROM THE CHURCH, not for aesthetic reasons, not out of reactionary stubbornness, not because of historical rigidity, but because of its very nature."
Our Holy Father then goes onto explaining the different kinds of music, and what they accomplish...
...ordinary Light music which does not seek to make a statement; but only wants to break open the burden of silence...rationalistic music, in which the tones simply serve rational constructions but no real penetration of the mind and senses ensues...."

Considering the complete Western Music Historic Tradition from plainchant up through the modern Christian works of such as Hohvaness and Prt, etc....It is

"the music that corresponds to the worship of the Incarnate One who was raised up on the cross lives from another, greater, and broader synthesis of spirit, intuition, and sensuous sound. " It "derives from the inner richness of this synthesis and has developed its posibilities abundantly. This magnificence exists only here because it was able to grow solely from the anthopological ground that combined the spiritual and the profane in an ultimate human unity...For me the greatness of this music is the most immediate and most evident verification that history has to offer of the CHRISTIAN IMAGE OF HUMAN BEINGS and of Christian Faith in redemption. WHOEVER IS REALLY TOUCHED BY IT KNOWS SOMEHOW DEEP DOWN INSIDE THAT THE FAITH IS TRUE.......such redemption is more arduous than that of rapture , but this struggle is the exertion of truth itself. On one hand it must integrate the senses into the spirit, it must correspond to the impulse of the 'sursum corda'. On the other hand, however, this effort aims not at pure spiritualization but at an integration of sensuality and spirit so that in one another both become person. It does not debase the spirit when it takes the senses into itself; rather it supplies the spirit with THE WHOLE WEALTH OF CREATION. Nor does it make the senses less real when they are permeated by the spirit, rather only in this way do they receive a share in its infinity.---Whoever expects redemption from it will be disappointed, ---but by being integrated into the spirit of the senses receive a new depth and reach into infinity of the spiritual adventure. Only there do they come . This, however, presupposes that the spirit as well does not remain closed. The music of faith looks forward to the integration of the human being in the 'sursum corda'; human beings, however do not find this integration in themselves, but only in the self-transcendence into the incarnate Word. Sacred music that is in the framework of this movement thus becomes a purification of humans, their ascent. But let us not forget that this music is not the work of a moment, but participation in a history. It is realizes not by a single individual but only in cooperation. Hence, it is precisely in this music that the entry into the history of faith and the cooperation of all the members of the body of Christ also express themselves. The music leaves behind joy, a higher kind of ecstasy which does NOT wipe out the person, but unites and thus liberates. It lets us glimpse what freedom is, that freedom which does not destroy, but gathers and purifies."
In the ongoing paragraphs he explains the roadsigns that the Church has put up; and "often and not incidentally liturgical music actually has a mature quality about it and presupposes that a process of growth has already taken place...."

Can anyone really compare sacro-pop to the splendour of Johann Sabastian Bach's "St. Matthew Passion"....? or to that of Machaut's "Messe de Notre Dame", or even to the simplicity of well performed plainchant?
Our Pope has said that the use of "pop" music in Liturgy is treading on very dangerous ground, if by only reason of pop music's nature, and its "mass" appeal, and its origins. READ HIS BOOK.

ElCapitanAmerica:
There are some GREAT LATIN COMPOSERS:
Some native to the Americas, and others Old World.
But this is what is so unique about what I term the "Western Tradition"......it is virtually with masterpieces thoughout the ages and from ALL THE WESTERN CULTURES. I cannot compare "music of the masses [small 'm']" with it, and give it the same merits, just as Our Holy Father has expressed too.
Unfortunately in this "New Age" we are being forced away from the roots and traditions of the West, and instead we are told to embrace "Internationality" of World Music. Really it is just the "pop" novelty of mass popularities.
Unfortunately, I cannot give a discourse here (space prohibits such) on the the wonders of so-called "classical" music. It is immensely varied and is the cultural vein and artery of Western Tradition for over 2200 years (no matter what era). IT IS DICIPLINED MUSIC, as opposed to: instantaneous untutored outpours with Rhythm being its major component...I mean no disrespect.
Enjoy it at home, at Fests, elsewhere....BUT NOT DURING THE ROMAN CATHOLIC RITE at Mass and the Liturgy.
We do not go to Mass to be entertained, or hypnotized; nor do we go to sway to music...But rather we go to feast on Christ, and to Live in Him more abundantly....
Please read Ratzinger books on Liturgy. He says it better than I ever could; and he is a great classical musician too like his brother, Georg....
P.S. I wonder if Our Benedict XVl will find time to sneek away and poke at the Vatican organ!
And you should try to listen to more classical music: it may just grow on you too and help you to understand Jesus far greater....(Much Classical Music was precisely created for this purpose.)

I was overwhelmingly compelled to add a postnote:

Whoever thought of that musical End to the First Mass of Pope Benedict XVl.......the J.S.Bach: Toccata and Fugue....
especially as the media showed him in the Pope Mobile, couldn't have made a better statement...That is IT!

Looks as if we have a supporting site now. It's the "Official Pope Benedict XVl Web-site"...check it out and "LESEZEICHEN" (book-mark it) please:


bach-toccata-and-fugue-d-minor

The Liturgy is SACRED, as well as alive.
Here is another quote from Our Holy Father:
"Pop music, in contrast, is a standardized product of mass society, a function of supply and demand. The 20th-century composer Paul Hindemith called the constant presence of such noise 'brainwashing,' and C. M. Johansson claims that hearing it gradually makes us incapable of listening attentively: 'we become musically comatose. . . . This medium kills the message' (p. 108 cf. footnote 19)."

Cardinal Ratzinger insists that the faith must not be trivialized in the name of inculturating it. Liturgy requires our Utmost respect. It is the focal point of our Faith. If not accompanied by silence, the music attached to the Liturgy must be such as that we would be overjoyed in having the Celestial Presence literally there amongst us...of which in fact we have there amongst us in the Holy Eucharist...And we should never forget that He is there....listening to us, yes!

P.S. During my youth, my favorite Mass setting was Guillaume duFay's "L'homme arme". And it still moves me.
Our Holy Father has also told us, just because something was preconsular, or prior to the Messe Novus Ordo, it need not be deemed inappropriate and be discarded. If it was good for the Church in the Past; it still should be considered good and of high worth to the Church today as well!

'Although born out of the Western Church tradition some 1200 years ago, I firmly believe that classical music is God's gift to the world, and was meant to be used for the Roman Rite Mass.
One need not be "from the West" either to understand Western Classical Music. Japan has many great classical conductors, musicians and singers, as does now China, India , Egypt, the Philipines, New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands. These nations and people have fully adopted it, without hesitation. And as Our Holy Father explains, it fits the Roman Rite the best, as it was intended to do.
Its origin is not the public en masse; but the eternal spheres for which it was intended to open our minds to the understanding of God and his appointed Roman Liturgy.

To some this may appear racist; but I honestly believe it to be true, as pertaining to at least the Official Roman Rite. The rhythms, as Our Pope explained, are NOT there to hypnotize, stupefy, or amaze. It remains as its sole purpose to uplift the spirit, BUT NOT TO CLOUD THE SPIRIT and smother reality and consciousness. It rather will intensify our alertness to the Divine without squashing our human dignity and individuality. The music is not focused on itself, but rather on God and his workings. The tunes are not hummed "for kicks" or to get away from something; but rather to help us understand Jesus and his sacrifice in the Majesty of mankind and what mankind can accomplish if we keep our thoughts God-centered instead of self-centered.

Much of the West unfortunately, has become desensitized by pop culture [which was developed to manipulate the masses/crowds and to exploit by entrepreneurs the minds and souls of the populace for capital gain or power over the people]...To make everyone alike, like dumb sheep.So by their manipulative measures they could easily control and exploit the "public".
"Classical" music was never, and can never be the music of the masses. It is too varied and individual. And even more peculiar is the development of "classical"-music from out of the monastic culture of the Middle Ages. It must not be discarded in favor of the popular trends of an era, by terming it (or relegating it to the sense of being) antiquated.
Certainly Ralph Vaughan Williams, who incorporated folk modes into his compositions, but sought for purposes of worship, to refine its style, and by finely working out its utmost possibilities (with mankind's highest ideals and intentions) into a deliberate form....alleviating from it all possibilities of wanderance, and "free-form", which would distract from the content and intent of the Holy Liturgy...And the same can be said of van Beethoven, Alan Hohvanness and many other composers, who knew that they had to tread a careful path appropriate for Liturgical celebration....The Liturgy is Sacred 'though very much alive; and it cannot be smothered by self indulgence and a smog to escape the realities of Jesus' unbearably bloody sacrifice for us. Pop music's origins aim at the opposite. Pop music was not created by the divine; but by men, and sometimes men under the influence of the Dark One. It is inappropriate therefore for use in the Roman Rite Church Liturgy, by its very nature.