Good news! Bp. Vigneron of Oakland is addressing a long-neglected issue: hymns that do not reflect Catholic teaching. The Register reports that he's drafting guidelines for the USCCB's consideration.
(Via med student Dev Thakur's new blog. Welcome, Dev!)
Update: Fixed the typo; thanks for spotting it, Fr. K. I've had an unblemished record with Nihil Obstat until now and wouldn't want to lose it!
I especially like the idea of 100 core hymns.
I have avoided mentioning which hymnals I selected for my parishes but the same idea is there. I am banning ten percent of the hymns on grounds of theology alone. The bad music part I will just have to live with.
How do you work that out, Fr. Shane? Just give the music director a copy of the hymnal with a big red X through all the unacceptable ones? :-)
I had Ritual Song in the pews. Most of it was not bad, best collection of psalms, horrible choice for a Benedictus, good selection of Magnificat tunes but only one useable. Occasionally I would have a disagrrement with the musician, but she had a degree in Theology too and so mostly we were of one mind.
I hear the music director at my new parish is quitting, so I will be looking again.
+J.M.J+
The "100 core hymns" idea does sound good. Though something similar already exists by default in some parishes in my area. They have those annual throwaway hymnals containing literally hundreds of hymns, yet they keep playing the same few familiar songs (Gather Us In, The Cry of the Poor, One Bread One Body, Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee, etc.) over and over. The music ministry hardly ever ventures into the undiscovered regions of the hymnalette. Which is probably just as well, otherwise we might be subjected to "Ashes"!
In Jesu et Maria
RC:
The matter of banning certain hymns is simple. I will hand a list of hymns to the music director which requests that she doesn't use them. I mean, that's part of my job of a pastor is to direct the celebration of the liturgy.
The Brompton Oratory has a wonderful hymnal. Fr. Rutler uses it at Our Saviour.
Fr. Shane, you rock.
Now, I want to say that I think everybody in the world should use the Adoremus Hymnal. Then there'd be no problem.
Ewww, Rosemarie. Most of the ones you listed reek....
But my all time favorite is (hum along):
Verse 1:
Here's the story of a lovely lady,
who was bringing up three very lovely girls,
all blond like their mother,
the youngest one in curls.
Verse 2:
Here I am Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go Lord.....
Well, you get the idea......
;)
Catchy too, no? Takes a bout of real rough country western music to get it out of your head and off your stomach.
+J.M.J+
Yeah, I really can't stand "Gather Us In"; it's so narcissistic. I hope it is among the first to get the axe from the bishops, along with "Sing a New Church" (blech!), which fortunately I don't hear much around here.
"The Cry of the Poor" is almost bearable in its original version because it's mostly taken straight from Scripture (the "inclusive" version is terribly stilted, though). But when a folk group uses it in place of the Responsorial Psalm *every Sunday*, it really becomes sickening.
"One Bread One Body" also comes from Scripture but is getting old; and "Here I Am Lord" never thrilled me either, for that matter. Another annoying one: "You Are Mine". Too saccharine.
The crackdown on church music is long overdue.
In Jesu et Maria
In regards to Church music and liturgy, if they would return the Church to the Tridentine Mass, many of these problems would turn around in a decade. Why worry about orthodoxy if the very Mass you attend is not orthodox? think about it.