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Views from the Choir Loft

Emotional Baggage and Changing Demographics

Richard J. Clark · December 20, 2013

E ALL HAVE EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE when it comes to liturgy. I have it. Despite it, my experiences growing up shaped and formed my faith very positively. But liturgical music is where most of my emotional baggage lies. Born in 1969, I’m part of an interesting generation. Yes, I can attest that liturgical music in the 1970s was just as bad as you have read about.

I have often told the story that as a boy of eight or nine, I was exasperated with the music at mass. (This was independent of style and pertained to the issue of competence.) I remember like it was yesterday saying to myself that “to be a church musician had to be the lowest musical aspiration possible.” Of course, such irony that has unfolded since! I told this very story to Dr. William Mahrt and he responded immediately with his wonderful smile, “It is the HIGHEST!” Dr. Mahrt is right.

So, here I confess my emotional baggage: the embarrassment that surrounded Roman Catholic liturgical music. Yet this embarrassment (my personal issue) has been catalyst to a career in Roman Catholic Sacred Music. As a child who was studying piano and clarinet, played classical music but also loved pop and rock music (my apologies to Dr. Kwasniewski), I was well aware of the utter incompetence I was hearing on Sundays, regardless of style, as it varied. As you can tell, I am still pretty upset about it. (I still seem to be carrying this baggage around. Perhaps, I should let it go.)

UT AS A CHILD, I also had no frame of reference. I was blissfully unaware of the historic and sometimes traumatic changes the Church was going through. I was ignorant of the parish’s particular resources during an uncertain time. I was ignorant of the great effort and spirit put forth by the very musicians who were stretched terribly thin to cover a dozen liturgies on a Sunday, several in a gymnasium. But my intuition and my ears told me something was greatly amiss for mass! Luckily, I was surrounded by great priests and wonderful Ursuline Nuns who guided my formation. This was not to be taken for granted, but it also guided my sense that something was lacking in our sacred song.

But here is where I must be mindful. My personal experiences and my emotional baggage is not the same as others. In fact many make this very mistake: that what we think and we feel about liturgy is shared and understood by others. I assure you, it is not.

(I beg your patience as here is more of my emotional personal baggage on display: I hate the terms “contemporary” and “traditional” as they are applied to sacred music and liturgy. Ironically, “contemporary” music is no longer contemporary. Many forget the prevailing popular music in the last two decades has been hip-hop. As a guy who “rocked out” in the 1980s, I am a dinosaur. Yet, this is the musical style that is called “contemporary” in the Catholic Church. It ceases to be with each passing year. Furthermore, there is traditional music of all styles. This is not a critique of musical style, but of language. )

O AS TIME MOVES ON, SO DO THE GENERATIONS. I have come to terms that I am thoroughly middle-aged, like it or not. But it gives me an interesting vantage point. I’m slightly younger than those who came of age in the 1960s while old enough to be connected with many who grew up in the pre-conciliar world. I am also young enough to appreciate a new generation reclaiming our traditions and join their cause!

And why should Millennials not reclaim the traditions? Previous generations forfeited them (Oops, there goes my emotional baggage again.) What a middle-aged man like myself and the Millennial generation share in common is a starvation for the spiritual substance of our lost traditions because this starvation spanned fifty years and continues today in most parishes. (This is not to say that other spiritual needs are not being met.) Perhaps for Millennials, a lack of proximity to the older generation allows them greater freedom to decide for themselves whether or not to seek reverence, transcendence, and tradition. I can’t speak for them, but with distance perhaps comes greater clarity.

Furthermore, as a musician who ministers to a great number of college students in various settings, I find it relatively more difficult now to get young congregations to sing “contemporary” music (of the 1980s and 1990s) than perhaps a decade ago. (Remember, I’m a Berklee graduate and very comfortable playing and directing various styles.) But regardless of their musical or liturgical preferences, college students are incontrovertibly the most reverent demographic that I observe. Why is this? I don’t know, and I find its implications fascinating.

HE GOOD NEWS is there are a lot of young people attending mass. Most are not interested one bit in the “liturgy wars.” But they are interested in prayer. Very interested. For those of us responsible in ministering to them, we should be mindful and loving when sharing our faith with them. As they make their own way in the world—let us have them remember how much we love our God, each other, and our faith. Likewise, we are fortified by their faith. This will shape our young people as best as possible. They will decide for themselves.

Meanwhile, I pray my personal biases and baggage won’t get in the way, even if I keep writing about them.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)
    With each passing day, more is revealed about how the enemies of the liturgy accomplished their goals. For instance, Hannibal Bugnini deeply resented the way Vatican II said Gregorian Chant “must be given first place in liturgical services.” On 6 November 1966, his cadre wrote a letter attempting to justify the elimination of Gregorian Chant with this brazen statement: “What really gives a Mass its tone is not so much the songs as it is the prayers and readings.” Bugnini’s cadre then attacked the very heart of Gregorian Chant (viz. the Proprium Missae), bemoaning how the Proprium Missae “is completely new each Sunday and feast day.” There is much more to be said about this topic. Stay tuned.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

“Only against this background, of the effective denial of the authority of Trent, can one understand the bitterness of the struggle against allowing the celebration of Mass according to the 1962 Missal after the liturgical reform. The possibility of so celebrating constitutes the strongest, and thus (for them) the most intolerable contradiction of the opinion of those who believe that the faith in the Eucharist, as formulated by Trent, has lost its validity.”

— Cardinal Ratzinger, 2001

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