Music for the masses

by Letters Editor · December 30, 2010

From Barbara Gregory, Johannesburg

In response to Fr Chris Townsend�s opinion article �Why I Hate Catholic Music� (December 15), I am, with respect, happy that he is not my parish priest.

For the last 20 or more years, I have been in a leadership position of one of the three choirs in our parish in Edenvale, Johannesburg. It is criticism such as Fr Townsend�s that makes my job extremely difficult, simply because you will find in any parish (or indeed in any community) different people with differing likes and dislikes. So, whereas Mr A would love to hear the old Gregorian Chants at Mass, Mrs B hates them and suggests we sing more of the old �Soul of My Saviour� genre, while the teenager demands �Shine, Jesus, Shine�.

May I make three suggestions?

1. Settle down and read the words to those hymns that you hate, and consider if they really have no worth at all.

2. Plan, for one year, the music to be used at each Sunday and feast day Mass, avoiding too many repetitions, and ensuring that the music selected is pertinent and relevant to the theme of each liturgy.

3. Plan a training course for those of us whose job it is to select the correct liturgical music.

It�s not the music the youth find boring, it�s the ritualistic sameness of every Mass that is lost on the youth, and the sometimes, rambling, disjointed sermons delivered by ill prepared priests and/or deacons that bore not only the youth, but everyone in the church!