I was just about to post this question before I stumbled upon the "spiteful drivel" thread and its associated link which rather put me off doing this for a while.
This really is just a simple (naive, perhaps?) search for a shorthand to use in for instance meetings of our Liturgy Committee, that means "music by the likes of Haugen, Hass, Kendrick, Walker, White, - dare I say Inwood? - the St Thomas Moore group, The St Louis Jesuits . . . " - I'm sure you know exactly what I mean, but what do I call it (when I am trying to be constructive and polite, and yes, I can see even as I write it that the phrase "by the likes of...." already seems to disapprove.)
I suppose it would be churlish of me to try to forestall suggestions of a (gently) humorous nature, but I am looking for something I can use in mixed company (ie secular and clerical).
It would be a very broad genre indeed to include everything by all these composers.
I would try and avoid classifying as much as possible. IMHO most of those composers have written some good stuff and some absolute turkeys (in varying ratios). But my turkey might be another man's good stuff(ing)! Best to take each piece on its own merits.
The only thing I can think of that perhaps does link much of the material by those composers is that on the whole, it is amenable to being led by instruments that are not pipe organs. Much of it also works on the organ too.
docmattc wrote:It would be a very broad genre indeed to include everything by all these composers.
I would try and avoid classifying as much as possible.
Well, I really wasn't trying to make a quality judgment - just to have a word or phrase to use in say the parish notices "Next Sunday's music will be thingummy and the Sunday after wotsitsname". Varied though they be, the works of my specimen list and others are perceptibly (if not definably) of a different character to - er - well, to the other sort - which conversely also lacks a usable handle ("traditional"? - perhaps not!). Some other churches talk of "worship songs" which seems rather unfair on other genres which are also about worship. Perhaps the important word there is "songs" - "Next Sunday's music will be songs, and the following Sunday, hymns"? I think not!
What do the composers and groups such as those I mentioned call their music?
quaeritor wrote: Next Sunday's music will be thingummy and the Sunday after wotsitsname".
Why segregate thingummy and wotitsname music to different Sundays?
On any given Sunday I will use both thingummy and wotisname music, sometimes as well as stuff from the watchamacalit genre. It works well.
You could say Pre V II and post V II, or, as others have realised before, hymns old and new, or ancient and modern... (':)')
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And we mix them too. I do tag the hymns O, I or O&I on the music/ choir lists for organ, instruments or both, and it's pretty ad hoc. Some new hymns get played on the organ and some old trad ones get instrumental treatment. Just don't call any of them 'folk.' Folk is something else altogether, and another whole discussion!
V.
So why do you have to announce what is coming up? Is it because you think it may attract or deflect folk from coming along to that service? Or are you just sharing information?
Maybe it needs a new label, one that stakes out a particular musical territory and asserts its mainstream status. What if you started calling it vernacular liturgical music, or VLM for short - would people recognise the specific genre?
What about A Bit more Contemporay (ABC)? Or Within Living Memory (WLM). Or Occasional and Slight Syncopation (OSS). Can you think of words that fit POP or even better GIRM?
Don't get me wrong. I love folk music and folk song, and am very much involved with it.
It would be lovely if our parish congregation could sing spontaneous harmonies like a gathering of trad song singers.
One of the best local unaccompanied singers I know, - not a Catholic, though her granddaughter is, - was at Mass on Sunday. I would love to persuade her to sing with us, but she's just a rare visitor.
My last post meant just that what we use in church isn't folk, and seventies songs for lazy guitarists should never have spawned the name 'folk hymn.' Are there any other old folkies in SSG?
One of the most frustrating things is the wonderful music being sung gorgeously by West gallery choirs, - all old English church song, - with absolutely no connection with any Faith.
The teenagers of our parish call it "Granny Music", which I suspect is not helpful in your circumstances. On the other hand, they call "Praise and Worship" "Terry Wogan" music, which is just as unhelpful. Of course, the names they use when they think no adult is listening are considerably less polite.
Which do they call 'Granny Music', 'Bind us together' or 'Salve Regina?'
Lots of grannies learned the 70s stuff at school. There is a widow of advanced years, (i.e. older than I am,) in our parish who has pre-arranged her funeral, and wants 'Here I am Lord', 'Father I place into your hands, and 'Be still for the presence of the Lord'.
Folk is something else altogether, and another whole discussion!
