Dappling With A Song In My Heart

I was reading Father "Don Jim" Tucker's Dappled Things early in the morning -- as I am wont to do nearly every work day -- and I came across his reference to the website of the schola cantorum (the choir school) of St Michael's Church in Auburn, Alabama. The good father writes: "It still amazes me to meet older people who can still sing the Gloria from the Missa de Angelis or Credo III from memory after having learned them in the choirs of their parochial schools, lo, so many years ago."

In times of antiquity (that is, in ancient Rome and Greece and the Holy Land and thereabouts), there was little distinction between public oratory and what we know as "chant." Even today, if you listen to the street hawkers in major cities, and the hot dog vendors in the ball park, you will hear a two-or-three-note melodic line, not unlike the town criers in days of old. There's a reason for that, folks. Chant is the most natural way to sing in the world, as it is an extension of the natural rising and falling of human speech.

Tell that to your weenie pastor who says "I can't sing," but still kids himself and everybody else, into thinking that he's "totally supportive" of his parish music program.

I still remember daily Mass at my parochial school, in the town in Ohio where I grew up, and how the older children would chant the Mass settings together in unison. There was something called the "Archdiocesan Young People's Hymnal," I believe. And I can still remember hearing them singing "O Esca Viatorum" to this day. I remember learning the chants in class along with other children's songs, using the then-popular "Ward Method." Those were a series of books designed to teach sacred music to children. I understand they are making a slow but steady comeback.

Having been in parish choirs for much of my life, and having directed small ensembles of children, as well as adults, I've become somewhat cynical toward the Catholic music industry over the years -- not just because of weenie pastors, but the weenies they hire. Everybody touts "Vatican Two" as the excuse for every damned gimmick that comes down the pike, but it was that very Council that proclaimed Gregorian chant to have "pride of place" in sacred music, "all other things being equal." (Go ahead, look it up, I'll wait right here... Okay, you're back. Now then...) There is a segment of the industry that has gotten wise to this, albeit a long time coming, but at the parish level, the latest rendering of Haugen or Haas (those guys have gotta be stinkin' rich by now) rules the day. As I endure the typical "contemporary liturgy," people stand there like tree stumps watching a few people with too much sugar in their diets up near the altar, shaking up and down with tambourines and guitars, as if that'll get anyone to join in.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, it ain't gonna happen. But have a cantor lead a simple Kyrie or Gloria. Guess what? They sing! I know; I've done it. I couldn't believe it either.

To this day, I can walk into a little country church for Sunday Mass, and as often as not, I'll cringe as somebody who can't play an organ to save their lives tries to anyway, goading the assembled beyond their collective reach, and settling into new heights of mediocrity. I'd love to throttle the pastor some day, and just step in front of the lot of them. With a simple Gregorian setting, and a few traditional hymns (generally easier for crowds to sing than the contemporary drivel better suited to a recording studio), we could raise the roof.

Not to mention the collection for that week.

So, if you belong to that "little church by the side of the road," and you guys can't afford a music director, go to the website from down Ala-Good-Time-Bama way, and download a copy of Jubilate Deo. And while you're at it, read what authors Arlene Oost-Zinner and Jeffrey Tucker have to say about damn near anything else on the subject. They've got a great collection of articles and resources, including some of the great musical treasure of the Church.

That means... if you're Catholic, it's already yours.