tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002745.post111629446322249920..comments2023-06-08T11:21:10.878-04:00Comments on EPISTLES FROM THE SCRIPTORIUM: MY DAUGHTER'S FIRST COMMUNIONBrian Michael Pagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09836644567939527991noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002745.post-52074023496634466942020-12-13T15:49:40.306-05:002020-12-13T15:49:40.306-05:00All sacred music that was hidden: please come back...All sacred music that was hidden: please come back to every parish.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13870168078267605674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002745.post-1119563950721304282005-06-23T17:59:00.000-04:002005-06-23T17:59:00.000-04:00Anonymous, you pose a good question? If the music...Anonymous, you pose a good question? If the music is good and the text is theologically sound, the answer is yes. Much of the "Hi God" type paraphanalia (sp) does NOT fit that category in text or in music.<BR/>I'm not one to say that all contemporary music is bad. It isn't. I'm using James Moore's "Taste and See" on the weekend of 7/3. Schutte has two ditties I like - "Only This I Want" (scriptural, yet devotional to an extent), and "Christ, Circle 'round Us" (the "O" Antiphons set to a not-so-bad metrical adaptation of "Salve Regina"). However, I'd still trash his "Table of Plenty" in a heartbeat.<BR/><BR/>Peace<BR/>BMPBrian Michael Pagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09836644567939527991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002745.post-1119544519522378022005-06-23T12:35:00.000-04:002005-06-23T12:35:00.000-04:00Hard to believe, well into the 21st Century, that ...Hard to believe, well into the 21st Century, that people are still arguing over what music is "Catholic" and what isn't. Because something is in Latin with organ accompaniment, does that make it "more" Catholic than a song in the vernacular accompanied by guitar? Sing good music in praise to God, regardless of its origin or language!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002745.post-1117116115075092532005-05-26T10:01:00.000-04:002005-05-26T10:01:00.000-04:00Mr. Page,You are my long lost brother. I am toilin...Mr. Page,<BR/>You are my long lost brother. I am toiling in the wilds of Michigan after teaching K-8 music in a Catholic school in the Diocese of Arlington, VA (aka "Eden"). <BR/>There, I spent my time teaching the kids "Panis Angelicus" and chant and "Tantum Ergo". Got lots of flak for it from the menopause crowd, but told the kids, "I am teaching you music that you can have for your Catholic weddings, your parents' funerals." They understood.<BR/>Now I'm going to be the CCD teacher for my son's 2nd grade class (because of course the Catholic school shut down ten years ago), and am salivating at the thought of teaching the kiddies Actual Catholic Music again. Your post about your daughter's First Communion was hilarious, just the balm I need, for I am sure to run into more menopausal DREs and Haugenettes, only this time it will include issues of doctrine as well as liturgy.<BR/>Sometimes I feel so alone . . glad to know I'm not, at least in cyberspace. BTW, I immediately threw out the copies of "Hi God!" that I inherited from the previous music teacher in Arlington. I do remember singing "His Banner over Me Is Love" in Protestant Sunday School in my 70s youth! <BR/>Before I converted them, the big song was something called "GLYSDI -- God Loves You So Do I." Is that a Landry ditty? Poor me, I never got to actually hear it.<BR/>Thanks again.<BR/>SimmEAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002745.post-1116814018718590362005-05-22T22:06:00.000-04:002005-05-22T22:06:00.000-04:00"Any other parish..." you say?Yes, I work at that ..."Any other parish..." you say?<BR/>Yes, I work at that "any other parish" and the animus inspired when I dare to chant a psalm rather than sing the favorite Haggen-Hasz ditty is a great sorrow to me.<BR/>I do not want the principal to be unhappy, but I do not wish to conribute to the degradation of the liturgy and the malformation of the students by filling them with the "earworms" I was subjected to in my formataive years.<BR/>My second and third graders are like Christians in the catecombs, we secretly work on the missa orbis factor and the sequence for Corpus Christi, unbeknownst to the "Why don't we sing any of the good old songs like 'We Are Called' anymore?" crowd.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002745.post-1116467881906353442005-05-18T21:58:00.000-04:002005-05-18T21:58:00.000-04:00Daniel writes:"The problem with teaching children ...Daniel writes:<BR/><I>"The problem with teaching children this silly stuff is that, even if it is somehow relevant to them in some mysterious preadolescent way, it will never be useful to them in later life."</I><BR/><BR/>Exactly, Daniel! Or, on a more positive tone, I'm a firm believer that today's junior choir is tomorrow's senior choir. Though I wouldn't expect a choir of 7 to 12 year old kiddies to chant out a Gradual with 20-some-note neums from the Liber Usualis, they need to learn at least the basic standard pieces that the average congregant <B>should</B> know. Wean them on "Hi God" (and facsimiles thereof) now and they WILL be completely lost as they grow and try to blend with the average adult.<BR/><BR/>My junior choir knows, at this point, a good selection of metrical standard Catholic hymn tunes, how to chant propers (in English for now) to Psalm Tone 8, Sanctus and Agnus XVIII (both in Latin), and they LOVE the Gloria and Sanctus from Peloquin's "Mass of the Bells". They even get little liturgical tidbits of trivia in bits and pieces during rehearsal. Any other parish would have CCD directors, teachers, and even senior choir members, growling at me.<BR/><BR/>Great post, Daniel!<BR/>BMPBrian Michael Pagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09836644567939527991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002745.post-1116457056926839202005-05-18T18:57:00.000-04:002005-05-18T18:57:00.000-04:00We come to your table (from that insipid "Hi God" ...<I>We come to your table (from that insipid "Hi God" book)</I><BR/><BR/>Being a member of the original <I>Hi God!</I> generation, I am somewhat disappointed that I am not familiar with this song.<BR/><BR/><I>"Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road"</I><BR/><BR/>Such a puzzling post! Would it have gestures like "His Banner over Me is Love?" The opposite gestures? Or would they be more like a PC version of "Jump down, turn around?"<BR/><BR/>The problem with teaching children this silly stuff is that, even if it is somehow relevant to them in some mysterious preadolescent way, it will never be useful to them in later life. I can sing "Hi God" after 30-odd years, but why? I can confidently say that I have no use for it in my liturgical or devotional future. And what good does it do that I can when the priest intones "Laudate Dominum, omnes gentes" after Communion at the lunchbreak Mass at the downtown chapel? I was studying the wrong book precisely at the age that the information was going to remain with me!Daniel Mullerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06900966929871262620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7002745.post-1116338045400492662005-05-17T09:54:00.000-04:002005-05-17T09:54:00.000-04:00Ah yes - I remember "Dead Skunk in the Middle of t...Ah yes - I remember "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road" - from about 1972-73 or so. Stinkin' the highway, just like Carey Landry's insipid four-plus volume collection does to Catholic liturgy.<BR/><BR/>BMPBrian Michael Pagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09836644567939527991noreply@blogger.com