21st century music
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nazard
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21st century music
A parishoner has pointed out to me that my repertoire is falling behind: I play no 21st century music. This is not quite true, I do play the music of Olivier Schmitt, but the catholic in the pew probably just thinks its ghastly. What 21st century hymns and organ pieces, or any other music, do the members of this board recommend?
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docmattc
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Re: 21st century music
For congregational singing, I can recommend some of the material in Bob Hurd's "A Lenten Journey" and "One with the Risen Lord" collections. I've used these effectively throughout Lent and Easter, in particular we did "Turn Our hearts", "Come to me and Drink" "I the Lord am with you always" and "I am the Way" These have a congregational antiphon and verses for a cantor or choir. "I am the way" was a particular hit with the congregation so it will be making a return in the near future.
Most of Psalite is also 21st Century and I've used some of this effectively. We will be using Psalite's "This is my Body" at Communion this Sunday. Depending on how it goes at rehearsal, the choir will also be singing this on Sunday which is from 2003.
Most of Psalite is also 21st Century and I've used some of this effectively. We will be using Psalite's "This is my Body" at Communion this Sunday. Depending on how it goes at rehearsal, the choir will also be singing this on Sunday which is from 2003.
Re: 21st century music
Are you talking about contemporary in style? An awful lot of modern church music is still stuck somewhere in the comfortable 19th century in terms of harmony, melody and rhythm (be it organ based or guitar based.) Sometimes a proficient organist will play something a bit spikey and exciting, but we do seem to be stuck in a rut of maximum comfort and minimum challenge in terms of music and much else in our churches.
Alan
Alan
Re: 21st century music
Dear Nazard,
Your question is much more penetrating than appears at first sight, as Alan's reply demonstrates. If one follows his lead and thinks in terms of style and technique as opposed to merely the date at which a composition was written then it quickly becomes apparent that, not only is a lot of recently composed church music in an old fashioned idiom, but that even the more 'modern' St Thomas More style was developed in the 1980s and 1990s - i.e. 15-20 years ago. The same sort of thing applies (to a lesser extent) with ethnic musics. For example the South African inspired choral tradition has been available for decades. However, here there does seem to be more scope for development, both by cross-fertilisation of different ethnic styles and by mixing them with music in the Western Classical and Popular traditions. Apart from this, as far as I can tell, no new idiom suitable for use at Parish level (i.e. sufficiently easy to perform) has evolved within the English Catholic Church since that time. If anything, there has even been something of a technical retreat from the interesting developments in the way instruments were combined with keyboards/organs, choirs, cantors that was such a feature of the scene from the 1970s onwards. It is also perhaps significant that this failure to develop new methods has coincided with the current revival of older musical forms, such as plainchant. If, in fact, it turns out that this assessment is wrong, then I am sure we would all be delighted to hear about genuinely new approaches.
In the meantime I would suggest five inter-related approaches:
(1) We write as much music as possible for our local use.
(2) We make full use of the SSG composers group meetings to share compositions and methods.
(3) As a matter of urgency, we all need to find (or set up for ourselves) tame publishers willing to publish new music in new idioms, given that existing producers seem tied to established styles and repertoires. After all it was the sudden appearance of new publishers in the late 1960s and 1970s that opened the floodgates to a vast outpouring and dissemination of new music at that time.
(4) Linked to this is the need to find ways round the apparently crippling restrictions imposed by the law of copyright. Copyright, one should note, applies not just to music but to texts. At present the only sure way of being legally safe on this front is to write new texts; yet it is precisely this aspect that is being attacked by the thinking that underpins Liturgiam Authenticam. This particularly applies to Responsorial Psalms, given that copyright on the currently used texts is held by The Grail/Collins. It is a great pity that these texts, and other texts in the Mass, are not free from copyright restrictions. Until such restrictions are overcome I cannot see how any new music is going to become available quickly and in quantity to parishes up and down the country.
(5) In terms of idiom I still think that the most fruitful way forward is to develop our methods of using instruments. At present we seem polarised into two camps (a) The 'folk' group lead singer, mixed instruments with guitars and electric keyboards combination and the Taize/St Thomas developments therefrom (b) the traditional choir-organ setup. We actually need to find something different. Here I would suggest that the use of 'all purpose' instrumental parts in Taize and St Thomas More compositions has proved in the long run to be a false step. We need to think in terms of writing parts for specific instruments, including specific types of keyboard (be it a Pipe Organ, Digital Organ, Electric Keyboard/Synthesiser or a Piano). This is what I do in my local parish. The advantages are as follows:
(a) You tap into the array of instrumental, as opposed to choral, talent that is available. It is still not very well appreciated that one of the major educational developments in the 1960s and 1970s was the expansion in the provision of teaching for instrumentalists. This is what in part lies behind the decline in the supply of choral and keyboard musicians. It is little use trying to reverse or redress the balance. What we have to do is adapt to and take advantage of this (not so) new situation.
(b) You make proper use of the instrumental colours characteristic of each instrument.
(c) If you can hang on to your adolescent instrumentalists as they become technically more competant, then you can make full idiomatic use of the different speeds, dynamics and pitch ranges inherent in each instrument. In other words you partially release them from being fettered to duplications of what singers and keyboards do.
(d) It forces one to rethink how one sets up the stops and the style of playing you use on keyboards, especially Pipe Organs.
(e) By taking as much care with the instrumental parts as with vocal parts, you are signalling to your instrumentalists that their role is as important as singers' and that the 'hang-loose', 'happy-go lucky' attitudes so often associated with 'folk' music are not going to be allowed to detract from the quality of performance and quality of that particular music. I often think that the conservative diatribe against 'folk' stems from a failure to distinguish shoddy performance standards and poor technical compositional finish from the intrinsic quality of the often excellent musical ideas that have been presented in this idiom.
Thomas (Muir)
Your question is much more penetrating than appears at first sight, as Alan's reply demonstrates. If one follows his lead and thinks in terms of style and technique as opposed to merely the date at which a composition was written then it quickly becomes apparent that, not only is a lot of recently composed church music in an old fashioned idiom, but that even the more 'modern' St Thomas More style was developed in the 1980s and 1990s - i.e. 15-20 years ago. The same sort of thing applies (to a lesser extent) with ethnic musics. For example the South African inspired choral tradition has been available for decades. However, here there does seem to be more scope for development, both by cross-fertilisation of different ethnic styles and by mixing them with music in the Western Classical and Popular traditions. Apart from this, as far as I can tell, no new idiom suitable for use at Parish level (i.e. sufficiently easy to perform) has evolved within the English Catholic Church since that time. If anything, there has even been something of a technical retreat from the interesting developments in the way instruments were combined with keyboards/organs, choirs, cantors that was such a feature of the scene from the 1970s onwards. It is also perhaps significant that this failure to develop new methods has coincided with the current revival of older musical forms, such as plainchant. If, in fact, it turns out that this assessment is wrong, then I am sure we would all be delighted to hear about genuinely new approaches.
In the meantime I would suggest five inter-related approaches:
(1) We write as much music as possible for our local use.
(2) We make full use of the SSG composers group meetings to share compositions and methods.
(3) As a matter of urgency, we all need to find (or set up for ourselves) tame publishers willing to publish new music in new idioms, given that existing producers seem tied to established styles and repertoires. After all it was the sudden appearance of new publishers in the late 1960s and 1970s that opened the floodgates to a vast outpouring and dissemination of new music at that time.
(4) Linked to this is the need to find ways round the apparently crippling restrictions imposed by the law of copyright. Copyright, one should note, applies not just to music but to texts. At present the only sure way of being legally safe on this front is to write new texts; yet it is precisely this aspect that is being attacked by the thinking that underpins Liturgiam Authenticam. This particularly applies to Responsorial Psalms, given that copyright on the currently used texts is held by The Grail/Collins. It is a great pity that these texts, and other texts in the Mass, are not free from copyright restrictions. Until such restrictions are overcome I cannot see how any new music is going to become available quickly and in quantity to parishes up and down the country.
(5) In terms of idiom I still think that the most fruitful way forward is to develop our methods of using instruments. At present we seem polarised into two camps (a) The 'folk' group lead singer, mixed instruments with guitars and electric keyboards combination and the Taize/St Thomas developments therefrom (b) the traditional choir-organ setup. We actually need to find something different. Here I would suggest that the use of 'all purpose' instrumental parts in Taize and St Thomas More compositions has proved in the long run to be a false step. We need to think in terms of writing parts for specific instruments, including specific types of keyboard (be it a Pipe Organ, Digital Organ, Electric Keyboard/Synthesiser or a Piano). This is what I do in my local parish. The advantages are as follows:
(a) You tap into the array of instrumental, as opposed to choral, talent that is available. It is still not very well appreciated that one of the major educational developments in the 1960s and 1970s was the expansion in the provision of teaching for instrumentalists. This is what in part lies behind the decline in the supply of choral and keyboard musicians. It is little use trying to reverse or redress the balance. What we have to do is adapt to and take advantage of this (not so) new situation.
(b) You make proper use of the instrumental colours characteristic of each instrument.
(c) If you can hang on to your adolescent instrumentalists as they become technically more competant, then you can make full idiomatic use of the different speeds, dynamics and pitch ranges inherent in each instrument. In other words you partially release them from being fettered to duplications of what singers and keyboards do.
(d) It forces one to rethink how one sets up the stops and the style of playing you use on keyboards, especially Pipe Organs.
(e) By taking as much care with the instrumental parts as with vocal parts, you are signalling to your instrumentalists that their role is as important as singers' and that the 'hang-loose', 'happy-go lucky' attitudes so often associated with 'folk' music are not going to be allowed to detract from the quality of performance and quality of that particular music. I often think that the conservative diatribe against 'folk' stems from a failure to distinguish shoddy performance standards and poor technical compositional finish from the intrinsic quality of the often excellent musical ideas that have been presented in this idiom.
Thomas (Muir)
T.E.Muir
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johnquinn39
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Re: 21st century music
Just a few practical thoughts.
In a recent conversation with Fr Tim Menezes, Fr Tim pointed out that there is a lot of excellent materiel in Laudate, CFE, and in Hymns Old and New, that has yet to be tried.
Moving on to the future, if we are going to sing more scripture (God willing!), then should we be looking at harmonic and melodic formulas that would accomodate this, whether the texts are prescribed or 'original'.
Also, do we need a few more chiefs?
Could the RC Church maybe employ composers to look at what has gone before, add to it, 'tidy up' good local music, and maybe ultimately transcend their influences and come up with something new?
In a recent conversation with Fr Tim Menezes, Fr Tim pointed out that there is a lot of excellent materiel in Laudate, CFE, and in Hymns Old and New, that has yet to be tried.
Moving on to the future, if we are going to sing more scripture (God willing!), then should we be looking at harmonic and melodic formulas that would accomodate this, whether the texts are prescribed or 'original'.
Also, do we need a few more chiefs?
Could the RC Church maybe employ composers to look at what has gone before, add to it, 'tidy up' good local music, and maybe ultimately transcend their influences and come up with something new?
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nazard
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Re: 21st century music
Thank you all for your comments, which have been utterly different from what I expected, which was a few recommendations.
I don't think that the parishioner who asked me was being very deep, and I certainly wasn't. Nevertheless, you have set me thinking, Thomas in particular. We are a very small parish, often with less than a hundred at our one Sunday mass, so we are very limited. We sing hymns, chant psalms and do occasional propers, very occasionally from the Graduale Romanum, and slightly more often, I write modal unison settings. More complicated things require that I borrow resource from neighbouring catholic or protestant parishes, which can obviously only be done occasionally.
I hope that the twenty first century will give us some more great congregational tunes in the way the twentieth gave us Woodlands, Guiting Power and Coe Fen, and some lighter but thought provoking material in the mould of Damian Lundy, and perhaps a little more showy material like "Shine, Jesus, shine." (I obviously could go on with more categories, but brevity is of the essence. Please interpret them widely.) However, as Thomas points out, we are being encourage to sing more propers, which is scriptural material, and no one seems to be producing such material for the very small congregation.
I note the comments about copyright, and I too am concerned. If I sit at the organ and play something other that the accompaniment on the page in front of me, am I infringing copyright by making an unauthorised arrangement? I believe the church has an agreement with the Grail that the words of the psalms can be included in service sheets. Presumably it is alright to put your own music with them, but not to give a copy to another parish. The church really needs to either own the copyright to its scripture, or have a very wide agreement allowing its more or less unfettered use, or, as Thomas says, we are stuck with writing new. Perhaps the church could have some scholars put a widely accepted text into modern english. I suggest the Douay Challenor could be updated at reasonable cost.
In the meantime, please all post to this thread what recent music has captured you, as you are doing on the other threads.
I don't think that the parishioner who asked me was being very deep, and I certainly wasn't. Nevertheless, you have set me thinking, Thomas in particular. We are a very small parish, often with less than a hundred at our one Sunday mass, so we are very limited. We sing hymns, chant psalms and do occasional propers, very occasionally from the Graduale Romanum, and slightly more often, I write modal unison settings. More complicated things require that I borrow resource from neighbouring catholic or protestant parishes, which can obviously only be done occasionally.
I hope that the twenty first century will give us some more great congregational tunes in the way the twentieth gave us Woodlands, Guiting Power and Coe Fen, and some lighter but thought provoking material in the mould of Damian Lundy, and perhaps a little more showy material like "Shine, Jesus, shine." (I obviously could go on with more categories, but brevity is of the essence. Please interpret them widely.) However, as Thomas points out, we are being encourage to sing more propers, which is scriptural material, and no one seems to be producing such material for the very small congregation.
I note the comments about copyright, and I too am concerned. If I sit at the organ and play something other that the accompaniment on the page in front of me, am I infringing copyright by making an unauthorised arrangement? I believe the church has an agreement with the Grail that the words of the psalms can be included in service sheets. Presumably it is alright to put your own music with them, but not to give a copy to another parish. The church really needs to either own the copyright to its scripture, or have a very wide agreement allowing its more or less unfettered use, or, as Thomas says, we are stuck with writing new. Perhaps the church could have some scholars put a widely accepted text into modern english. I suggest the Douay Challenor could be updated at reasonable cost.
In the meantime, please all post to this thread what recent music has captured you, as you are doing on the other threads.
Re: 21st century music
Some random thoughts on a thought provoking string:
New music - what style or styles should this be in? What part should education play in the liturgy? Should
anyone try to do a 'Messian' ever again? The only 2 things I've tinkered with were very simple solutions to a need in my own parish. It's OK if you're a composer but there aren't that many of you around. The idea of local music is interesting. How do people learn it? What about the old concept of 'universal' Catholic music. Another string mentioned that Credo 3 isn't as well known as it was (though I could still sing it from memory if I had to).
Publishers: companies need to make profit to survive and we are in a niche market. However, I'm sure the SSG could make facilities available on this site - but then you need sophisticated programming to prevent unauthorised copying. I'd be happy to pay an increased sub to contribute towards the cost. I guess it would need someone to calculate what each composer is owed each month as well. What are the legal and tax issues though?
Copyright: To me it is unacceptable that Mass and scripture translations are copyrighted. They ought to be in the public domain. It isn't a question here of making sure that authors/composers get properly recompensed. Of course the old Latin texts are out of copyright... I was pretty shocked a couple of years ago when the Tablet published some of the proposed new translations and Bishop Roche complained about copyright breach as part of his letter of defense. Legally, he is right but lots of things are legal which shouldn't be.
Parish inertia/poverty A year or so ago I tried to persuade the parish to update from the 1989 Edition of HON to the 2005 edition. However, the PP put to the liturgy committee that he had got a load of 1989 books in reasonable nick in his car from another church for free - and so the idea of upgrading was shelved. Our parish seems quite happy to ignore the last 20 or so years musically, though the choir does has introduced the Mass of the Celtic Saints for our 50th anniversary this year.
Difficulty New music can be challenging both in terms of melody, harmony and rhythm. Most parishes prefer not to challenge their congregations. Even with incidental music: as an organist with minimal time to practice, I cannot introduce new music if it much harder than Grade 4 - and the vast majority of it is. Much of the 'new' music around is simply pastiche and re-working of existing styles.
There are no easy answers here. Perhaps one year, I'll come along to Summer School to soak up all the good work that you fold are doing - what do spouses/partners do when the rest of you are in session? The religious bits of my holiday this year will consist of a weekend reunion at St Rita's in Honiton (no liturgical music unless I provide it myself on a keyboard) and a week at the Keswick Convention (Yup, Keswick Convention - lots of modern music but probably not all of it suited to Catholic liturgy).
New music - what style or styles should this be in? What part should education play in the liturgy? Should
anyone try to do a 'Messian' ever again? The only 2 things I've tinkered with were very simple solutions to a need in my own parish. It's OK if you're a composer but there aren't that many of you around. The idea of local music is interesting. How do people learn it? What about the old concept of 'universal' Catholic music. Another string mentioned that Credo 3 isn't as well known as it was (though I could still sing it from memory if I had to).
Publishers: companies need to make profit to survive and we are in a niche market. However, I'm sure the SSG could make facilities available on this site - but then you need sophisticated programming to prevent unauthorised copying. I'd be happy to pay an increased sub to contribute towards the cost. I guess it would need someone to calculate what each composer is owed each month as well. What are the legal and tax issues though?
Copyright: To me it is unacceptable that Mass and scripture translations are copyrighted. They ought to be in the public domain. It isn't a question here of making sure that authors/composers get properly recompensed. Of course the old Latin texts are out of copyright... I was pretty shocked a couple of years ago when the Tablet published some of the proposed new translations and Bishop Roche complained about copyright breach as part of his letter of defense. Legally, he is right but lots of things are legal which shouldn't be.
Parish inertia/poverty A year or so ago I tried to persuade the parish to update from the 1989 Edition of HON to the 2005 edition. However, the PP put to the liturgy committee that he had got a load of 1989 books in reasonable nick in his car from another church for free - and so the idea of upgrading was shelved. Our parish seems quite happy to ignore the last 20 or so years musically, though the choir does has introduced the Mass of the Celtic Saints for our 50th anniversary this year.
Difficulty New music can be challenging both in terms of melody, harmony and rhythm. Most parishes prefer not to challenge their congregations. Even with incidental music: as an organist with minimal time to practice, I cannot introduce new music if it much harder than Grade 4 - and the vast majority of it is. Much of the 'new' music around is simply pastiche and re-working of existing styles.
There are no easy answers here. Perhaps one year, I'll come along to Summer School to soak up all the good work that you fold are doing - what do spouses/partners do when the rest of you are in session? The religious bits of my holiday this year will consist of a weekend reunion at St Rita's in Honiton (no liturgical music unless I provide it myself on a keyboard) and a week at the Keswick Convention (Yup, Keswick Convention - lots of modern music but probably not all of it suited to Catholic liturgy).
JW
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organist
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Re: 21st century music
Oxford Book of flexible anthems has some fine new material notably by Bob Chilcott. Look out for new organ albums too. I suspect it is the style not the date of composition which is the issue.
Re: 21st century music
JW wrote:New music can be challenging both in terms of melody, harmony and rhythm. Most parishes prefer not to challenge their congregations. Even with incidental music: as an organist with minimal time to practice, I cannot introduce new music if it much harder than Grade 4 - and the vast majority of it is. Much of the 'new' music around is simply pastiche and re-working of existing styles.
You need to shop about, I think. An example of a good piece of new(ish) music is Martin Barry's Spring Sanctus. It's a good memorable setting that is easily learnt by choir and congregation alike. The contributors to the St. John's Cathedral thread say that it was picked up and sang gustily by almost 3,000 Catenians last Sunday and I'm sure not many of them had come across it before. It's published by the Society, in the Baptised with Fire collection. There is lots of new music about that has been written by MDs to meet the need in their own parishes. Nick Baty has written some very good simple mass settings that are unpublished. SSG Composers Group meetings, as Thomas mentioned, are a good source of new unpublished pieces.
JW wrote:Perhaps one year, I'll come along to Summer School to soak up all the good work that you fold are doing - what do spouses/partners do when the rest of you are in session?
The sessions are not all musical! There is just as much that's not musical at all. This year, Michael Joncas will lead a workshop on Models of Prayer and there's one entitled Building Communities of Hope, led by Paula Bailey who works in adult formation. Among the seminars there's one by CAFOD on the livesimply campaign, one on inclusive liturgy in a multicultural society, and a talk by the Abbot of Worth. The keynote talks are definitely not directed just at musicians, but anyone who comes to Mass, and the Big Sings and social activities are fun for everyone. Lots of people choose to leave their other half behind for a week, but many couples do attend and there always seems to be something for everyone.
Mary
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Southern Comfort
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Re: 21st century music
JW wrote: Copyright: To me it is unacceptable that Mass and scripture translations are copyrighted. They ought to be in the public domain. It isn't a question here of making sure that authors/composers get properly recompensed. Of course the old Latin texts are out of copyright... I was pretty shocked a couple of years ago when the Tablet published some of the proposed new translations and Bishop Roche complained about copyright breach as part of his letter of defense. Legally, he is right but lots of things are legal which shouldn't be.
A lot of people think the same as you, or are not even aware that many liturgical texts are copyright and may only be reproduced with permission.
Unfortunately, however, the costs of producing them initially are substantial and take many years to recoup - think of the work involved in producing a translation of the Bible or the entire Roman Missal: translators' time, meetings and travel, quite apart from the costs of editing, printing and publishing (and even web publishing costs money). It's a matter of justice. If those who produce these texts could not eventually recoup the outlay, we just wouldn't have these texts at all.
It's worth pointing out, though, that some of the common texts we currently use are usable free of charge:
The Gloria, Creed (both Nicene and Apostle's), Dialogue before the Preface, Sanctus, and the ICET Lamb of God are all effectively in the public domain as long as the ICET copyrightis acknowledged. No need to apply, and no fee to be paid. This was a great gesture from the ecumenical working group that produced them.
Memorial Acclamation A ("Christ has died") is also in the public domain. ICEL tries to claim that the copyright is theirs, but this text was being used by the Anglicans for a number of years before ICEL produced its translation of the Order of Mass, and no one actually knows who wrote it.
Lots more that could be said on this sub-topic, but that's enough for now.
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Southern Comfort
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Re: 21st century music
nazard wrote:we are being encouraged to sing more propers, which is scriptural material, and no one seems to be producing such material for the very small congregation.
Small congregations are precisely what the Psallite music is designed for. You only need a cantor and a congregation. If you happen to have an organist or a guitarist or a choir, so much the better; but this music is all "essentially vocal", not difficult, certainly scriptural, and seems to be an aid to people's prayer.
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nazard
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Re: 21st century music
Here is a link to a piece of 21st century music:
http://olivier.schmitt.org.free.fr/notre_pere.pdf
It is a setting of the Our Father for SATB in french. Unfortunately, the french has far more syllables that the english, so it is beyond me to adapt it. However, the organ part, which is the SATB parts reduced to two staves, makes an excellent organ prelude. I printed myself a copy, cut it into strips and stuck the organ parts onto one sheet of A4, which is very convenient.
Olivier Schmitt seems to be a promising young man. There is some more of his music available on the sibeliusmusic site. Have a go and post your thoughts here.
http://olivier.schmitt.org.free.fr/notre_pere.pdf
It is a setting of the Our Father for SATB in french. Unfortunately, the french has far more syllables that the english, so it is beyond me to adapt it. However, the organ part, which is the SATB parts reduced to two staves, makes an excellent organ prelude. I printed myself a copy, cut it into strips and stuck the organ parts onto one sheet of A4, which is very convenient.
Olivier Schmitt seems to be a promising young man. There is some more of his music available on the sibeliusmusic site. Have a go and post your thoughts here.
Re: 21st century music
This Our Father illustrates the point made above that, while a piece might have been composed in the 21st century, it may well be much earlier stylistically. Earlier this morning, I was perusing my copy of Four Latin Motets by Elgar (Novello). The most well known of these, the Ave verum, is harmonically far more advanced than the Schmitt piece, as well as being melodically more sophisticated, and it dates from 1902!
Irrespective of the date printed on a piece of music, if the listening ear assigns it to pre-WW1, how can it be said to be 21st century music? Or, to put it another way, if the BBC advertised a programme of 21st century church music, which style(s) might the listener reasonably expect to hear? Not that of the Schmitt, I suggest.
Irrespective of the date printed on a piece of music, if the listening ear assigns it to pre-WW1, how can it be said to be 21st century music? Or, to put it another way, if the BBC advertised a programme of 21st century church music, which style(s) might the listener reasonably expect to hear? Not that of the Schmitt, I suggest.
musicus - moderator, Liturgy Matters
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nazard
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Re: 21st century music
That was a quick reply, Musicus.
I think we are floundering about between styles at the moment. The twentieth century started with a style you could call romantic or dramatic typified by Elgar and the like, moved on to strange tonalities typified in the extreme by the "Stockhausen - I once put my foot in some" type of music, and then moved on to the type of mild "rock" of the Hare / Jesus Christ Superstar genre which seems to have inspired much 1960s to 1980s church music. Other styles such as jazz and heavier rock had little effect on church music. However, what is the contemporary style? More four square hymns, although always welcome, do not get considered by the worshipper in the pew to be modern. They tend to think that "Guiting Power" and "Coe Fen" are victorian. Syncopated jolly hymns with unchallenging words seem to be an idea that is well and truly worked out. Where do we go from here?
I think we are floundering about between styles at the moment. The twentieth century started with a style you could call romantic or dramatic typified by Elgar and the like, moved on to strange tonalities typified in the extreme by the "Stockhausen - I once put my foot in some" type of music, and then moved on to the type of mild "rock" of the Hare / Jesus Christ Superstar genre which seems to have inspired much 1960s to 1980s church music. Other styles such as jazz and heavier rock had little effect on church music. However, what is the contemporary style? More four square hymns, although always welcome, do not get considered by the worshipper in the pew to be modern. They tend to think that "Guiting Power" and "Coe Fen" are victorian. Syncopated jolly hymns with unchallenging words seem to be an idea that is well and truly worked out. Where do we go from here?
Re: 21st century music
Just typing while I think.
Horses for courses - there are those who see liturgical music as being a part of a classical tradition, and there are others who see it as more a part of popular culture (broadly.) Sometimes that is reflection of their own musical likes and dislikes dressed up in their sunday best. Sometimes it is a reflection more of their ability. Now I can understand how the "average" music group would confine itself to rather rudimentary stuff - harmonically and melodically. But I do find it hard to understand why parishes etc with better musical resources are not much more adventurous in their choices of, in particular, organ pieces and choir pieces. It is as if time stood still in about 1908.
Is there a place for some serious repertoire exploration that goes way beyond the usual new thing for Advent days?
Should the compilers of simple anthologies for choirs or organists slip some spikier stuff under the wire?
Alan
Horses for courses - there are those who see liturgical music as being a part of a classical tradition, and there are others who see it as more a part of popular culture (broadly.) Sometimes that is reflection of their own musical likes and dislikes dressed up in their sunday best. Sometimes it is a reflection more of their ability. Now I can understand how the "average" music group would confine itself to rather rudimentary stuff - harmonically and melodically. But I do find it hard to understand why parishes etc with better musical resources are not much more adventurous in their choices of, in particular, organ pieces and choir pieces. It is as if time stood still in about 1908.
Is there a place for some serious repertoire exploration that goes way beyond the usual new thing for Advent days?
Should the compilers of simple anthologies for choirs or organists slip some spikier stuff under the wire?
Alan