Fr. J. Michael Joncas addressed the National Pastoral Musicians Conference June 29. You might have noticed his name in the hymnal.
"We spend most of our time worrying about the tones we produce, not grappling with the texts we sing," said Fr. Joncas, an associate professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. "People will ask questions about the texts we sing, not about the notes we sing."
Like at our parish, where one of a Sunday's readings from the Bible will talk about kneeling, one of the hymns will be about kneeling, and so I'd ask why we don't have kneeling. Neither I, nor anyone else as far as I could tell, ever got an actual answer to that question. Finally Archbishop Dolan came for a confession service, and apparently decided against trying to have us kneel on the kneeler-less sloping floor of our auditorium-style church, even with kneeling in the printed guide to the service. After that, it hasn't seemed like there was much point taking the issue from the parish to the archdiocese, should I have otherwise been so inclined.
This liking or disliking can vary from person to person, through their own musical tastes and past experiences with music in the Mass. A parish must find out through experience what its parishioners prefer.
"Through experience, we will find out which form actually leads our parish into common prayer," said Fr. Joncas.
I can't recall seeing any indication that lack of results ever caused any liturgical decision to be reconsidered.
Update: Commentator Dad29's more musically informed post, which in turn drew a post at Confessions of a Recovering Choir Director.
Ah, well.
ReplyDeleteUsing Joncas as an "expert" on Musica Sacra is like using a seagull as an "expert" on cleaning automobiles of bird waste.
More to follow...