TOP TEN MOST HATED CHRISTMAS SONGS

...or muzak that gets passed as Christmas songs

Here goes, in almost no particular order:

1) Happy Christmas/War Is Over (by Lennon, OR ANYONE who covers it --- and I'm a Beatles fan) Sounds like a really bad 1970 folk Mass revival
2) Santa Baby (by ANYONE) Nothing like a Christmas wish list by some spoiled, greedy slut
3) Baby, It's Cold Outside (by ANYONE) Which really has nothing to do with Christmas
4) The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (by almost ANYONE)
5) I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (especially the version by John Cougar Mellencamp)
6) Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (any version where the chorus screams SAAAAAAAAAAAAANTA Claus is comin' to town; SAAAAAAAAAAAAANTA Claus is comin' to town... / that goes for Bruce Springsteen, The Jackson 5, and similar styles. However, I LOVE the arrangement by the Beach Boys.)
7) Last Christmas (Wham!) Every time I hear that song, I think it's Boy George of Culture Club (BLECH!)
8) Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (by Billy Gilman - his then-boy voice sounds way too girly, or that jerk who keeps crooning "Rudy" in place of "Rudolph") (However, I'll always appreciate the classic Gene Autry version and the Ringo Starr rendition as well)
9) It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (by almost ANYONE - parodies are OK)
10) Silver Bells (by ANYONE, especially Gloria Estefan) "This is Santa's big scene?" Was Jesus' big scene first!

Honorable mention on my Scheiße-Liste:
We Three Kings/God Rest Ye (by Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan)
Little Drummer Boy (Bob Seger cover)
Let There Be Peace on Earth (Since when did THAT become a frickin' Christmas song?)
Merry Christmas, Darling (Carpenters - and I normally appreciate their music) "Christmasing"? Since when did "Christmas" become a VERB?
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (by ANYONE) "New old fashioned way" just never made sense to me, and probably never will
Silent Night (by Stevie Nicks) Can't stand her voice. Period.
ADDED XII-9-11:
Where Are You Christmas? - from the "Grinch" movie. Sorry, I like the cartoon much better. The movie seems to have a very morbid, depressing backdrop, like if Tim Burton had written it. As for the song... COME ON! Christmas comes once a year, December 25. Jesus hasn't failed yet! Be patient! Be ready, but patient! The music is depressing, too.
Grown-Up Christmas List - music sounds too much like "Where Are You Christmas". BLECH!
Anything sung by Annie Lennox. I can't stand her voice!
And what the hell is that goofy ditty that the kiddies sing over the Taco Bell Cannon indeed? BORING!!!

Peace on Earth,
BMP

I'M WITH FATHER

Periodically, I've been known to get a compliment from the "person in the pew" - not just at Sacred Heart, but just about anywhere I've served as an organist, whether as the principal organist or as a fill in. Oftentimes, it's my voice that gets more compliments than my organ playing, which is fine, although at a Mass as early as 7:30 AM, I often like to think the opposite. After all, Sunday is the one day I awaken at 5:45 AM and I sound about as tired as I am sometimes. The rest of the week I often sleep till about 8 (unless there is a funeral).

The compliments I usually watch out for the most, and I say this out of 30 years experience as an organist, are the ones that come from any woman who is old enough to be (but isn't) my mother. That is because most of THOSE compliments will often come with a "but". The compliment I got after 7:30 Mass this morning from a woman who fit the stereotype I just mentioned is no exception.

The woman started out with "You have an amazing voice!", to which I replied, "Thank you." "However, you never play any songs that I know."

Where the sam hell have I heard that before? Probably anywhere I've worked. I already knew what songs she was looking for, as they're the typical fare of most mainstream Catholic parishes, not to mention I did work at Sacred Heart for a brief period in 1989, under a pastor who is now retried. In 1989, Sacred Heart WAS one of those mainstream parishes. Let's go back to the conversation, shall we?

I went on to explain to the woman that I do not pick the hymns. "Well, who does?" "The pastor does. I only pick the Mass and the communion anthem." "Oh," she said with a change of tone for the droopier. "Were you looking for songs that sound more like pop music?" "Yes. In fact, I go to some of my friends' churches and they play those there." She mentioned two churches in particular. I will not mention them here. I will say that they are in neighboring towns. I explained to her, "You know, those styles of music were never meant to be played at Mass". "I know, but I miss those." "Sorry, but I'm with Father."

If I wasn't "with Father" on what the Church teaches on liturgy and music, my chances of being Sacred Heart's organist would most likely be slim and none, especially when you consider his desire to restore the liturgy to its highest beauty, something to be highly appreciated.

So here I stand. I'm with Father. And Father is with Mother - Holy Mother, the Church.

Peace,
BMP

DON'T DO THIS AT CHURCH!

I'm talking about the music, and ESPECIALLY in the presence of the Pope!

Opening of Berlin Papal Mass from Rocco Palmo on Vimeo.

Did someone from Berlin attend the infamous Los Ahn-ghe-leeze Religious Mis-edu-ma-cation Congress and bring back to Berlin what they learned in LA?

What the voices in the Holy Father's head must have been saying while and after listening to this garbage! Talk about "heilege scheiße!" And that look on his face just as this clip ends? Priceless. Can we say he's a bit "angepisst"?

Peace,
BMP

SOMETHING TO KNOW ABOUT CERTAIN "HYMNS"

These were collected over the last few years - mainly from a couple of priests whose names I will not mention, but they are a couple of better priests that I've worked with over the years.

1. Here I Am, Lord. (Too late, they've already left!)
2. Be Not Afraid. (You should be... very afraid!)
3. Let us build the City of God (NO! God builds his City.)
4. Let There Be Peace on Earth (There never will be!)
5. I am the Bread of life (No, you're not! However, Jesus is!)
6. Wherever you go, I shall go (So, if I'm going to hell, are you still gonna go?)
7. Sing a new Church into being (I've got a better idea. How about we sing of the ONE TRUE Church?!)
8. What is this place? (It's called a Church, the House of God. And in it, we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where Jesus Christ has given himself up for us. Any more stupid questions?)

OK, so the last crack was mine. :)
Peace,
BMP

THIS CONDUCTOR KNOWS WHERE IT'S AT!

Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, now conducting the Chicago Symphony, also detests the "greatest hits" movement that's been infesting parish after parish after parish since the mid 1960's.

Source: ANSA / RSCT: Ars Orandi Traditional Catholicism via Facebook / Emphasis mine.

Muti sides with pope against Church 'sing-songs'
Benedict right to want traditional music, says conductor

(ANSA) - Vatican City, May 26 - Italian conductor Riccardo Muti is backing Pope Benedict XVI's drive to discourage guitar ''sing-songs'' from Catholic masses.

The traditionalist German pontiff has called for an end to the use of pop-inspired religious music that many Catholic churches have used in different parts of the world to attract the faithful.

''It is possible to modernize holy music,'' he once said at a concert at the Sistine Chapel. ''But this cannot happen outside the great traditional path of the past, of Gregorian chants and sacred polyphonic choral music.

''(The Church supports) new expressive means (in music, as in art and architecture) without denying the past, the history of the human spirit, which is also the story of its dialogue with God''.

Critics have said the use of modern music helps the Catholic faith remain relevant and vibrant for young people and that it is better to have guitars and tambourines during mass than empty churches. But those objections have been rejected by world-famous conductor Muti.

''The pope is right when he says it is necessary to bring our great musical heritage back into churches,'' said Muti, a former director of Milan's La Scala who is now in charge of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

''The history of great music was determined by what the Church did.

"When I go to church and I hear four strums of a guitar or choruses of senseless, insipid words, I think it's an insult.

''I can't work out how come once upon a time there were Mozart and Bach and now we have little sing-songs. This is a lack of respect for people's intelligence''. Although many disagree with Benedict's views on music, there is no doubt that the pope speaks about the subject with authority. An accomplished pianist, he comes from a musical family and his brother, Georg Ratzinger, was for many years choir master in Regensburg, home to one of Europe's most famous boys' choirs.

Benedict's line on modern music is part of his bid to take the Church back to its roots.

This has also led to him reviving the use of the Latin Mass, which had been abandoned after the 1962-1965 Vatican Council introduced masses in local languages. In May the Vatican issued an ''instruction'' telling bishops to allow priests to say the old-style mass in Latin - the language of Benedict's beloved Gregorian chants - following a 2007 papal decree authorizing the wider adoption of it.

Many Catholics are uncomfortable about the resurrection of the Latin Mass as they see it as a partial reversal of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which is widely viewed as having brought the church into modern times.

The only error I found in this was in the second-to-last paragraph. The Holy Father did not revive the use of the Latin Mass. The Ordinary Form Latin Mass has been in use all along. What he did revive was more widespread use of the Traditional (Extraordinary Form) Latin Mass. Well, one other error - the last paragraph: the author didn't interview enough people, IMO.

Peace,
BMP

SEE WHAT BAD MUSIC CAN DO TO A PARISH?

Every now and then I like to read some of the new reviews of Masses and services given by mystery worshippers. I should let you know that these mystery worshippers come from all faiths. We Catholics aren't alone on this site. Most of the reviews I read are either positive, or at least pretty positive, or at least in the "par for the course" motif (the case of most Catholic Mass reviews).

This morning, I read this one! And although you can easily click the words "this one" in my last sentence to read the full review, I can't help but to offer these snippets that may seem typical in a number of parishes. This review was on a Palm Sunday Mass (yes, this year) in a Catholic church. (Snippets from the page are in italics. The stuff in normal print is me being my snarky self.

How full was the building?
Simply heaving with humanity, and it's not exactly a small church! We arrived 10 minutes early and it was a struggle to squeeze into a pew, We were packed in the pew like the subway at rush hour. Lucky to get seats, though, as it was standing room only shortly after we arrived. I counted 60 or so in the side aisles, back of the church and vestibule. I would estimate the total attendance was above 400, a feat made even more impressive given this was the third mass of the day.

Now, since I've never attended Mass anywhere in Brooklyn, NY, I can't really judge whether this is the regular attendance every week, or if it's just the APEX Catholic coming out to do what they do best, that is, act like APEX Catholics. And if they're meeting family or friends there for the first time in five years, they won't keep their holes shut for five seconds, let alone five minutes!

Did anyone welcome you personally?
A warm and hearty hello it wasn’t. There was a lady distributing giant handfuls of palm fronds out of a plastic bucket of water to the eager hoards gathered at the entrance to the nave. She handed my friend a bundle. Then, when she saw me, she stopped and looked incredulously at me and said, "Really?" That, in Brooklynese, is an understatement for "You've gotta be kidding!" I answered back with my own "Really" and she handed some over, punctuated with an eye roll. Later, I realized that the custom was to give out one helping of palms per family, and she must have thought that my friend and I were being a very greedy couple.

"Really?" I should have used that on the "extraordinary" minister of Holy Communion that once told me that she could only give Jesus in the hand. In this case, the person saying "Really?" was of the greeter variety (or in some parishes, the new term is "hospitality minister" - everyone's a "minister" now - sheesh!).

Was your pew comfortable?
It would have been more comfortable with perhaps two fewer people in it, but, as far as wooden pews with a kneeler go, it was fine.

OK.

How would you describe the pre-service atmosphere?
Bustling, loud and crowded. It was well nigh impossible to get into a pious mood beforehand, although a few valiant souls tried. As with any crowd trying to squeeze into a space all at once, it had crying babies, people talking, folks jostling for position, and a number of people complaining about the logjam at the center aisle where the palms were being distributed. (I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet that the crowds welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem didn't fight over who would get to wave the palm branches.) There were a few people kneeling at prayer, and I saw one lady interrupted mid Hail Mary, having to stop and stand to let more people into the pew. With a crowd this big, a few ushers would have been useful. Communion was a total free-for-all.

I won't even DARE to ask on that last sentence. My guess: it was either "Back off! It's MY Jesus!" or "Get out of my way so I can receive and get the hell out of here!"

What were the exact opening words of the service?
"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

Well, that's good, at least! But now, here's the liturgy that these people packed in like sardines to witness...

What musical instruments were played?
A small pipe organ. There was also a choir and a soprano soloist who was decidedly past her Use By date.

Anything like the geriatric glee club I once had to endure at a local parish one fine Divine Mercy Sunday?

Was the worship stiff-upper-lip, happy clappy, or what?
Middle-of-the-road novus ordo, which I find neither happy clappy or stiff upper anything. The whole palm liturgy was really confusing for me. The palms had apparently been blessed at an earlier service, as the priest merely read the first lesson at the door, then walked forward asperging left and right while we sang the processional hymn – or rather, some of us did, and I think it was a hymn (I'll have more to say about the music in a moment). At the mass itself, there was no incense and no chanting, nothing really solemn at all. Not even the bell at communion, which I found a little sad. It was all very unsophisticated, bland, a little sterile, and nothing whatsoever to plug it into the past. Some of the music was on the happy clappy side, at least I think it was. Sometimes it was difficult to tell exactly what was being played. There was what I'm guessing to be a five-year-old boy sitting several rows ahead of me just bored out of his gourd and letting everyone around him know it, but he provided me with a memorable impression that I'll save for the end.

LOL - I THINK it was a hymn. (Not so sure, eh?) And what's this "asperging left and right"? Liturgical prance?

And which part was like being in... er... the other place?
Catholics don't sing, do they? And who can blame them when what is on offer is truly, truly ear-splittingly bad. Something was sung that sounded like the K-mart jingle circa 1980. Another number, which I thought was going to be a doo-wop song, turned out to be a 1970s tuneless abomination. The choir and organist only made matters worse. The organist must have been a beginner, as it wasn't a case of a few misplaced notes, but rather whole misplaced passages! During the offertory, one half of the choir seemed to begin another hymn in a different key and tempo, while the other half continued on with what they had been singing. And I don't think it was meant to be contrapuntal. The old soprano punctuated everything with random impromptu solos. Is it any wonder that the congregation took the choir coming on as their cue to talk to one another? Everyone that I could see, save for one, completely disengaged when the singing started.

WOW! Very much like the geriatric glee club I linked a couple of questions ago!

What one thing will you remember about all this in seven days' time?
The only time the bored five-year-old was still was when the choir was singing. I was surprised at how attentively he listened, frowning and making faces throughout, but really listening. During one particularly bad moment where the choir managed to sing off-key in tandem with a string of wrong notes, he reacted by screwing his face into the worst mug, and it was all I could do not to burst out laughing. From the mouths of babes, so to speak.

This five-year-old could just be a future "mystery worshipper".

How would you feel about making this church your regular (where 10 = ecstatic, 0 = terminal)?
2 – Perhaps if stricken deaf.

Did the service make you feel glad to be a Christian?
Yes. This was perhaps the perfect place to hear the Passion read, since so much is about "the crowd," the nature of bodies and community.

I don't know if this last remark was sarcasm or a good point made "tongue in cheek", but this seems like a very angry place. Of course, I'd be angry too if I had to endure this.

Peace,
BMP

SACRO-POP = LITURGICAL KARAOKE

Never heard it that way till I read this report yesterday.
RSCT to Aristotle (via Facebook).

Let us join in singing our gathering song, "All Are Welcome".
Just follow the bouncing ball above the table altar.

Peace,
BMP

WEDDING MUSIC

Q: What does a polygamist sing at his wedding?
A: The Anne Murray classic, of course: Can I have this dance with the rest of my wives?

Now, now, did I say this discussion was going to be serious?????!!!!!
Peace,
BMP

GOOD CREATIVITY / BAD CREATIVITY

I'm taking the liberty of stealing this material from one of the message boards that I frequent. I won't mention the poster's name here. While some of the "bad creativity" points listed here may be an exaggeration in a good number of parishes, some of it, sadly, is accurate. There is a small number of parishes that have exercised the "good creativity" points as well - some occasionally (high feasts), some regularly (even Sundays of Ordinary Time).

Here goes... (with snarky remarks in blue)

Holy Mother Church gives us all we need to do the music at Mass.

She gives us a book of Gospels for the Deacon to chant from.
She gives us a Missal for the Priest to chant from.
She gives us the Graduale Romanum for the choir to chant from.
She gives us the Kyriale for the congregation to chant from.

If we all just chanted our parts, we'd be doing so well.

But then we need to get creative.

Good Creativity:
Oh I see CHANT X is the proper for the Offertory this weekend. I think I shall use the setting by Byrd rather than the setting from the Graduale at MASS X, since we have such a competent choir at MASS X. The chant from the Graduale will be used at MASSES Y, Z and A since there is no choir.

Bad Creativity:
I don't know what a Graduale Romanum is, or I just don't care about propers. I think we'll do a song about how we're all bread and we all eat each other during the Offertory this weekend.
(While we don't need cannibalism at Mass, we certainly don't need Hawaiian nose-humming songs, e.g., "Song of the Body of Christ" and similar ilk, either. The proper chants can be sung to a simpler form if need be - maybe a Psalm Tone for starters, work your way up to the Tozer or Koch and Green books as a primer - then wean in some Graduale stuff.)

Good Creativity:
During the Veneration of the Cross, we'll chant the proper Improperia, but then we'll have more time, so we'll do a motet by Palestrina - because after all, Sacrosanctum Concilium tells us we should use polyphony.
(Adoramus Te, Christe, et benedicimus Tibi, quia per Sanctam Crucem Tuam redemisti mundum - sounds really nice. Let's do it! Oh, many readers of CV I'm sure know this, but for those who don't, the "Improperia", or "Reproaches", begins with the words "My people, what have I done to you? Or in what have I offended you? Answer me!")

Bad Creativity:
The Improperia are anti-Semitic. Instead, we're going to sing a song about crosses to the tune of Gilligan's Island. After that, we'll get out our steel drum and sing O Sacred Head Surrounded with bongos.
(Bongos???!!! Arrrrrgh!!! An effect similar to this thrashing of the Exsultet???)

Good Creativity:
Why would we need to have anything sung or played during the Passion? We're already doing the ideal and chanting the Passion, so there's nothing else musical that needs to be done.

Bad Creativity:
The Passion is long and boring. If I don't ring bells or sing hymns during it, the congregation will likely fall asleep. Especially since Father SoandSo is such a boring reader. We could never sing the Passion because that would make it too long. And boring. Now where are those butterflies...?

Good Creativity:
We've been chanting the same "Thanks be to God" / "Deo gratias" response to "Christ our Light," / "Lumen Christi" for years and everyone knows it. Let's add an organum in the choir singing down a 5th to add some spice to the chant.

Bad Creativity:
Chant is boring. We should sing Farrell's Christ Be our Light instead of the chant. In fact, we should just use Farrell's Christ Be Our Light instead of the Exsultet. It's in the Missalette. And everyone knows everything in the Missalette is good and holy and the best option available.
(Oh yes. Why is all this missalette material good? Because GIA, OCP, and NaPalM all say so, and they hold pride of place over Holy Mother Church! Oh, and never mind "Christ Be Our Light" either. Let's do the bongo-laden, Survivor-motifed Exsultet instead - the one I mentioned earlier!)

Good Creativity:
Let's elongate the Offertory proper at the Offertory during the Easter Vigil by having an organ toccata on its melody first. This way Father will have plenty of time to incense the altar and gifts.
(I'm actually partial to full-organ fanfare after the singing. I'm a sucker for plein jeu during incensing!)

Bad Creativity:
Incense makes people cough. We shouldn't use it and instead we'll have dancing girls in the aisles.
(But they carry bowls of smoke too. Have you ever seen those Masses at the Los Angaleez Sacreligious Mis-Edu-ma-cation Congress? Truthfully I'd rather cough incense from the priest's thurible than barf over liturgical prancing?)

Good Creativity:
Of course we're singing the Sequence to the traditional chant mode. We'll be adding in some organum chant to add some variety.
(Click here for a top-notch example of what the poster means!)

Bad Creativity:
Sequences are long and boring. Instead we're just going to sing the Celtic Alleluia many, many times.
(Grab ye beer mugs and rock ye barstools and raise your bloody drunken voices in song!)

Peace,
BMP

BRIDEZILLA THE BARBARIAN

RSCT (for those who forgot what that is, "Red Sox Cap Tip") to Argent:

As I pasted the "embed" link to this, I can't get over the length of the code used to embed, compared to YouTube. Anyhoo...

I, like Argent, have been pretty lucky in not having too many "bridezillas" at the Wedding Mass. I've had many more struggles with funeral music than with weddings. I think the last time I wanted to strangle someone over music is when I was up in a choir loft (circa 1984), and a guitarist was downstairs by the altar. The guitarist was lucky of the distance between her and me in the church as I wanted so desperately to take the guitar and wrap it around her freakin' neck. Her song at Communion: "Up Where We Belong", from An Officer and a Gentleman. Now any time the song comes on the radio, I can't change the station fast enough!

As for the funeral struggles, Argent mentioned how people will ask for inappropriate music and then mention that they've worshipped here for x-amount of decades, and other useless "blah, blah, blah!" My former pastor from the "roundhouse" I once played would excuse such bad music by telling me that they're "good Catholic people." AH HA! So I guess that excuses them from proper catechesis?

Peace,
BMP

YOU BE THE JUDGE

Which anthem is worse? Rosanne's or Christina's?

I say Christina's. To me, Rosanne's was comedy (or at least "attempted comedy"). Christina's was just bad music, not to mention a minute longer - like going to Mass and having to endure four of the worst "Glory and Praise" and "Gather" tunes ever written.
Peace,
BMP

PS: I should add, at least Rosanne got all the words right, and didn't try to scat sing!

Christina Aguilera


Rosanne Barr/Arnold/just plain Rosanne

I'VE GOT A BETTER IDEA!

You know all those What is hell? jokes, bulletin bloopers, etc., that you read, like "Sermon: 'What Is Hell?', Come hear our organist play!" or "Come hear our choir sing?"

How about one more realistic? How about:
"Sermon: 'What Is Hell?', Come hear our 'music ministry' belch out a variety of tunes by Haugen, Haas, and Schutte!"

BWA HA HA HA HA HA!
Peace,
BMP

ON THE NEXT iSNARK!

It's a known fact that I'm not a big fan of Shall We Gather at the River - well, at least not as a hymn. But, because it's in the public domain, I figured I'd put the tune Hanson Place to better use - as a jingle for König Ludwig Weissbier (introduced by our good snark buddy Jason) the official beer of Christus Vincit Media. Listen below.

Peace,
BMP

STARTING JANUARY 12, 2010...

...on Fox


Who will last the longest in making a jackass of him-/herself this year?
And what's the latest from William Hung?

Peace,
BMP

MY NEPHEW'S GRADUATION MASS

On June 18, my nephew Christian and his eighth grade class graduated from a Catholic school in Woonsocket. I didn't go (I had to work), but my mother did, and she gave me a copy of the program. She did alert me that there was no organ. It was a choir, piano, and the gee-tar. So, yeah, pretty much the same goofy type of set-up that ran the music when he made his First Communion a few years back.

The opening "hymn" (if you want to call it that) was Here me is, Lard.
The "Gospel Acclamation" was Sing all sing. (Last I remember, the Gospel Acclamation at Holy Mass is supposed to be Alleluia, except during Lent.)
The offertory was some ditty called We offer gifts. (Is this supposed to be an eighth grade graduation or kindergarten graduation?)
The "Holy", "Acclamation", "Amen", and "Lamb of God" (exactly how these are written in the program) are listed merely as "sung". So I have no clue what settings were used, but can imagine.
The Communion ditties were My voice is thirsting (Does this title make any sense? I guess the opposite of this is My stomach is mute) and Open the eyes. And to add more crap to the crap, there was a "meditation hymn", With one voice.
The recessional was How great is our God. (If this is the one I think it is, which came from a 70's book called Songs of Praise, published by Servant Music, I haven't heard this one since my last nightmare.)

Whoever wrote out the program even went as far as thanking the eighth graders for choosing the music. I highly doubt that the eighth graders would have chosen this dreck on their own. I'm guessing they weren't given much to choose from. Awful stuff!

Peace,
BMP

DON'T DO THIS AT CHURCH

Blog edition!

RSCT to Rich at Catholic Lite, who sent me via e-mail this example of what NOT to do at church. This is NOT for the faint of heart. This is more or less a blatant thrashing of the Exsultet, and published by guess who.

Peace,
BMP

SPEAKING OF BIRTHDAYS

Now that it's been known that Massive Cremation turned 25 this year, I find that it's also been known that the Ordinary Form of the Mass turned 40 (RSCT to CUAGuy in our combox, and Fr. Loren in his own post).

However, Gregorian Chant has turned 1,100 this century, thus making it still far longer standing than Massive Cremation and the Ordinary Form.

Oh, BTW - there ARE a number of good musical settings in English in the Ordinary Form (People's, Christian Unity, Danish Amen Mass, Community, City). Unfortunately, they seem to take a back seat to Cremation, Jesuits, Celtic, and other similar dreck.

Peace,
BMP

I JUST READ THE FUNNIEST THING SOMEWHERE TODAY!

Yeah - Massive Cremation's 25th birthday. People are actually celebrating a quarter of a century of liturgies being infested with this "Mass setting!" Someone from a message board that I was booted from (guess which one!) actually wrote that Massive Cremation is the first Mass setting to "bridge the gap between the organ and guitar Masses", and that the Marty-meister "did us a huge service".

Click on the kitty at left for my reaction to that line of BS!

Nothing beats milleniae of Gregorian Chant! Still the official music of the Church, hands down!
Peace,
BMP

ALLELUIA CHEE CHEE REDISCOVERED!

More (Argent) and more (Curt Jester) people are rediscovering it!
Imagine waking up to that thing?! Or even worse, imagine waking up to that goofy music?!
Peace,
BMP

LET'S HOPE THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN

Let's pray that Rome does NOT approve the use of the Revised Grail Psalter, especially if it's the version I think it is - the "bastardized for so-called inclusive language version" which even neuters the Lord. Another ghastly alteration - "The Lord is my shepherd" becomes "Lord, you are my shepherd" - yes, from third person to second. The Latin "Dominus regit me" is clearly third person. Worse than that - it gives GIA an even bigger copyright monopoly on the liturgy. Their composers (namely Marty Haugen and David Haas) will be given pride of place in terms of their musical settings. If it's anything like that "Celebration Series" of Psalm settings that sold big in the 1980's and 1990's, prepare yourselves for a liturgical disaster in the making.

RSCT to Jeffrey Tucker.

Peace,
BMP