John Ainslie in The Tablet

[presbyter]

But for the sake of clarity, the post on the other blog is this:

jadis
04/13/2011 12:50 PM

The Acting Secretary of the Department for Christian Life and Worship is Martin Foster (composer)who is listed as speaking at seminars on the subject of setting the new texts to music - as are Paul Inwood (Director of Liturgy and Music - Portsmouth); Fr Peter Jones (Brum) etc etc continued in Psalm 94. So why bother making the panel anonymous, as we all know who will be on it.

The only people who know the identities of the individuals on the panel - my turn for guesswork now - are, I suggest, Bishop Hopes, Martin Foster and the members of the panel themselves.

[NorthernTenor]

Perhaps you would be so kind as to provide a link to the relevant place, Presbyter, so that I might see my namesake's comments?

The other blog is very confusing now (structurally different in the way it appears to this one). It has, as it were, overgrown since I was directed to it by a friend yesterday. I seem not only to have committed a capitalisation error in the poster's nickname - and thus failed the panel test - but ascribed the entry incorrectly to "ianw". The original speculative entry was by someone else and it is quoted by yet someone else later on. So my apologies to whoever IanW is. I am in error. I'm sure anyone who wants to will find the other blog with Google. I have no direct interest in it.

Thank you, Presbyter (whoever you may be), for your gracious apology. Perhaps you were misdirected by your friend? You seem not to be the only one who has laboured under this misaprehension.

[presbyter]

It would be an even greater blessing if, alongside
catechesis on the liturgy currently being
promoted for the new translations, there were
officially funded programmes for training
church musicians so that a renewed liturgy
could be sung well with the music it deserves.
John Ainslie
Chairman, Society of St Gregory, London N20

But John - who trains the trainers? What qualifications - either formal or by age and experience - and personal qualities should they possess? Where do we get these people?

This is not just about teaching people to sing. It's about personal and spiritual growth and understanding. It's about grasping ever more deeply the spirituality of the liturgy - a development of a person's faith. It's about music leaders in parishes understanding their ministerial and pastoral role (to the point of their acceptance of that role being in some way vocational). It's broader - in my opinion - than the preliminary syllabus that the Liturgy Office produced over a decade ago (Liturgical/Pastoral/Musical understanding and skills). Cullen makes a case for trained musicians. But no music college/conservatoire/university department is going to offer the breadth of formation that I think is needed. I don't want "performers" directing "church music" - I want those who pray leading/enabling sung prayer.

[Nick Baty]

Some of the worst liturgies I have experienced have involved professional musicians and some of the best have involved amateurs with limited musical knowledge. Obviously these are extremes.

The bishops' music syllabus was good although a tad OTT in places. The most modest parish musician can do an excellent job with a few very simple guidelines:
• What is to be sung?
• Who is to sing it?
• How/why do we select items?
Yes, there are many more considerations, but even these three would improve the liturgy in so many parish churches.

[nazard]

Nick,

I think we do need to look for the practicalities of musical performance too. You are quite right in that it is possible to give a rendering that is correct in timing, pitch, emphasis and so on but either lacking in feeling or, worse, with the wrong feelings. However, the standards in these elementary technical matters are often appallingly low in catholic parishes. It has become accepted that virtually every Sunday mass should have music, but no one has tried to manage the resourcing of that music. Surely it would behove our bishops to somehow match the work to the available resource? Failing to do this is regarded as a total failure of management in other areas of human endeavour.

This could be done either by reducing the number of masses with music, or by training more musicians. At present, parishes seem to have no help at all. I have seen on several occasions tone deaf parish priests being moaned at by pained parishioners about Florence Foster Jenkins' descendants being cantors or music group leaders. The priests are just helpless: they don't know whom to believe.

So I challenge our bishops: how about a five year plan to get an ARCO in every parish?

[Nick Baty]

Nazard,
I did not mean to give the impression that musical standards do not matter. But parish musicians of whatever standard need to understand "Why".
As for an ARCO....
I can think of quite a few superb organists who wreak havoc with the liturgy simply because they do not understand what it's all about. I can also think of a few excellent choral directors who have no idea how to use their skills in the liturgy.
Again I would stress that I'm citing extremes. But give me a liturgically sensitive Grade VI accompanist, any day, over an ARCO who doesn't understand the role of the assembly.

[NorthernTenor]

This is not just about teaching people to sing. It's about personal and spiritual growth and understanding. It's about grasping ever more deeply the spirituality of the liturgy - a development of a person's faith. It's about music leaders in parishes understanding their ministerial and pastoral role (to the point of their acceptance of that role being in some way vocational). It's broader - in my opinion - than the preliminary syllabus that the Liturgy Office produced over a decade ago (Liturgical/Pastoral/Musical understanding and skills). Cullen makes a case for trained musicians. But no music college/conservatoire/university department is going to offer the breadth of formation that I think is needed. I don't want "performers" directing "church music" - I want those who pray leading/enabling sung prayer.

Why either/or? Surely a confusion of categories here? Musical skills are needed, and not to be discouraged by those who give the impression that those with them are somehow spiritually suspect. That is a peculiarly damaging kind of philistinism. Musical skills require teaching, practice and encouragement. Knowledge of the liturgy also requires teaching or directed reading. The encouragement of spiritual committment is something that is particularly the concern of parish priests. it should be taken as a given, and not placed in opposition to the necessary specialist skills and knowledge we must attract and develop in liturgical music.

[nazard]

... That is a peculiarly damaging kind of philistinism...

I love that phrase. I have witnessed the havoc caused by the (un)musical philosophy which says "It doesn't matter about getting it right so long as you make a joyful noise to the Lord!" Unfortunately, pain overrides all other emotions if the music is not at least roughly in tune.

An old priest once advised me that you can get through anything by meditating on the agony in the garden. Catholic parish music has encouraged me to put this to the test on several occasions. I commend it to board contributors and readers.

[Nick Baty]

Unfortunately, pain overrides all other emotions if the music is not at least roughly in tune.

But the music will never ever be in tune – at least, the most important bits won't be as they are sung by the entire assembly which will, surely, include voices of all sorts.

[NorthernTenor]

Unfortunately, pain overrides all other emotions if the music is not at least roughly in tune.

But the music will never ever be in tune – at least, the most important bits won't be as they are sung by the entire assembly which will, surely, include voices of all sorts.

If those leading the singing of those elements proper to the congregation are not in tune, life becomes more difficult for the congregation. If those singing the elements proper to cantor or schola are not in tune, then it's better not to have them sung.

And in what sense are those parts of the mass sung by the congregation "the most important bits"? This sounds like the end of a good idea taken too far, hence to absurdity (you know: like the Reformation). I can think of one or two important parts of the mass that don't involve congregational song.

[HallamPhil]

I suspect that what is being referred to as 'the important bits' are those which our own Bishops' Conference, in line with others, determines to be a priority for singing the Mass by the assembly.

It is true that there may be 'some bits' which ought to be sung by the congregation and are not. This may be because some texts are awkward to set eg Credo. I suppose we might keep trying here to find or compose one that equals Credo III in popularity or effectiveness (although I'd have to say that some consider even this to be triumphalist). Yes these have been set admirably in the past when the congregation were not expected to sing or in this case express their faith in song but we are now in different times with different expectations. I was in India recently and they followed the same order of priorities as we have here but they also omitted the Creed in a sung form.

All this is work in progress. Some will never have engaged congregations in the dialogues. Perhaps now, with textual changes in these on the way, is a good time to re-visit them.

Happy and Holy Week folks.

[Nick Baty]

I suspect that what is being referred to as 'the important bits' are those which our own Bishops' Conference, in line with others, determines to be a priority for singing the Mass by the assembly.

Exactly, Phil. Although, not just because the bishops say so but because the Alleluia and Eucharistic Acclamations, by their very nature, demand to be sung (which is, presumably, why the bishops say what they do).

Sometimes the shape of the liturgy can be much clearer at weekday Masses where the only music is the Alleluia, Holy and Amen. (Although my own PP also leads a short opening song and post-communion chant most days.)

A nearby PP keeps telling me he can't sing. That's not at all true: he has a rather lovely voice but is too shy to start the singing at weekday Masses when there isn't an accompanist. Instead, one of the older chaps simply intones the Alleluia and Holy from his pew and the rest of the assembly takes up the song. It takes no great musical knowledge or skill to do this, just an awareness that the nature of these texts demands they are sung by the assembly.

Right, off to sing a few Hosannas. Wishing everyone a goodly week.

[Calum Cille]

But John - who trains the trainers? What qualifications - either formal or by age and experience - and personal qualities should they possess? Where do we get these people?

With regard to spiritual and liturgical formation, I dread to think who would train the trainers. My own experience of being on the receiving end of liturgical formation was an abject lesson in how not to treat your students in and out of lectures, particularly when they give up the course.

With regard to musical training, I would, as who one performs Gaelic music, be particularly wary of submitting myself to the correction of your average post-Romantic orchestral-type musician advising me, (as has happened before) for example, that every minor key hymn I play should end on a major chord as the alternative sounds unacceptably dull, or that my singing lacks feeling if I don't sing a crescendo on every stressed long note of a chant and a piano or diminuendo on every unstressed long note, or that a strict beat is unmusical.[/quote]

[NorthernTenor]

I suspect that what is being referred to as 'the important bits' are those which our own Bishops' Conference, in line with others, determines to be a priority for singing the Mass by the assembly.

Exactly, Phil.

In which case, I apologise unreservedly for my imputation of a different meaning.

[NorthernTenor]

Joseph Cullen's article and John Ainsley's letter are complimentary. Cullen's article is a cry of pain from a Catholic professional musician at the poor standards of liturgical music in this country, and at the widespread rejection and ignorance of the musical elements of our liturgical tradition, including the recent Council's understanding of it. The errors of fact in his description of the problem do not negate the substance of his argument, and they usefully illustrate the alienation of many Catholic musicians from the business of liturgical music. The focus of Ainsley's letter suggests that he understands this. Rather than spending time on correction of secondary matters, he observes the institutional lack of concern for musical standards, compares this unfavourably with other countries and suggests that the new translation is an excellent opportunity to begin to correct matters.

It's good that the chairman of the Society of Saint Gregory should respond to Cullen's article in such a generous and constructive manner, though I fear that some of the comments on the Society's discussion board reflect attitudes that are at the heart of the problem (I am aware that contributors are not necessarily Society members). The suggestion of training for those who already do the job but lack some of the necessary skills is good, though a careful line needs to be drawn between encouragement and facilitation on the one hand, and bureaucratic compulsion on the other. I don't doubt that Ainsley includes knowledge of liturgical matters in his training recommendation, and this would be particularly useful for many skilled musicians who lack a liturgical background. For this to be successful, it would be important to sell the idea to them. In many cases, this would involve reassurance that the teaching would be catholic (small c) in its approach, and not merely an opportunity for those with a partisan view of these matters to impose it on a captive audience. Sadly, I can think of one or two dioceses where this would be a real danger. That said, I hope to see Ainsley's suggestions bear fruit; they have the potential for a significant improvement to liturgical worship in many of our parishes.