• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

  • Our Team
  • Catholic Hymnal
  • Jogues Missal
  • Site Map
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

Entering The Danger Zone: Congregational Singing

Jeff Ostrowski · June 10, 2013

HOPE everyone will consider reading one of my recent blog entries, called What Is Currently Happening? — I feel it was one of my better articles, and it’s fairly succinct. During that blog post, I linked to an article called “Modernizing Sacred Music” which I wrote in 2007.

In the footnotes for “Modernizing Sacred Music,” you’ll notice I made a very dangerous statement. I called into question the notion that the “entire congregation” can sing anything.

Warning: Talking about this subject tends to enrage people!   It isn’t my intent to enrage anyone. At the same time, we ought to be able to conduct a conversation about this issue in a civilized way.

A FEW QUESTIONS: Are we being honest when we claim that the “entire congregation” can sing a hymn at Mass? What about tone-deaf people unable to sing in tune? Is it better to pretend such people don’t exist, in an effort to be “polite” to them? Why is it frowned upon to be honest? Shouldn’t we stop pretending everyone can sing in tune since this notion is demonstrably false? Several people whom I love dearly cannot sing in tune. Does admitting this fact make me a bad person?

I had to search pretty hard, but finally found someone willing to admit the truth. Here’s what Msgr. Francis P. Schmitt wrote in a 1961 article:

Before venturing a solution to the problem, it should be remarked that the new rash of so-called “people’s masses”, most of them maudlin, is no answer at all. [Ready? Here it comes.] For they too can serve but a select group of people (likely less than 50%) who can carry a given tune in a given key.

And here’s what I wrote in my 2007 article (mentioned earlier):

These same composers continue to propagate the lie that the only acceptable post-Vatican II pieces are those that can be sung “by the entire congregation.” This notion, however, is madness, because “the entire congregation” cannot sing anything. There are some people who simply cannot sing, and nothing can change this. To speak of the “entire congregation” singing is like speaking of the “entire congregation” becoming pregnant. I fear that when most people use this phrase, they envision a type of congregational participation akin to chants that happen in football stadiums. True: everyone present participates in those chants. But this is the “lowest common denominator” of music, not the Church’s heritage of sacred music. Nor is it “true art” as Pius X said sacred music should be. Alas, how often is the church musician, having composed a Responsorial Psalm refrain which cannot be instantly learned by every member of the congregation, admonished by his priest not to write music “that is so difficult for the people.”

In case you don’t know what I meant by “football chants,” I remember one that went: “We will, we will rock you.”

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: congregational singing Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe to the CCW Mailing List

Jeff Ostrowski

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

Can You Spare 33 Seconds?

Here’s an audio excerpt (33 seconds) of a setting for Kyrie VIII which was recorded live last Sunday at our parish in Los Angeles. The setting (“Missa de Angelis”) is by composer Richard Rice, and you can download the free PDF if you click here and scroll to the bottom. I think Richard’s composition is marvelous. I missed a few notes on the organ, but I’ll get them right next time.

—Jeff Ostrowski
5 April 2021 • When Girls Sing

Covid restrictions here in California are still extremely severe—switching “two weeks to flatten the curve” into “two years to flatten the curve.” Since 2020, we’ve had police breaking into our church to check if everyone is wearing a mask…even when only 5-6 people are present! But we were allowed to have a small percentage of our singers back on Easter Sunday, and here is their live recording of the ancient Catholic hymn for Eastertide: Ad Cenam Agni Providi. The girls were so very excited to sing again—you can hear it in their voices!

—Jeff Ostrowski
29 March 2021 • FEEDBACK

“E.S.” in North Dakota writes: “I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU for all the hard work you have put—and continue to put—into your wonderful website. In the past two years, my parish has moved from a little house basement into a brand new church and gone from a few families receiving Low Masses twice a month to several families (and many individuals) receiving Mass every Sunday, two Saturdays a month, and every Holy Day. Our priest has been incorporating more and more High Masses and various ceremonies into our lives, which has made my job as a huge newbie choir master very trying and complicated. CCWatershed has been an invaluable resource in helping me get on my feet and know what to do!!! Thank you more than I can express! May God bless you abundantly and assist you in your work and daily lives!”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

Yet, with all its advantages, the new Missal was published as if it were a work put together by professors, not a phase in a continual growth process. Such a thing never happened before. It is absolutely contrary to the laws of liturgical growth, and it has resulted in the nonsensical notion that Trent and Pius V had “produced” a Missal four hundred years ago.

— Josef Cardinal Ratzinger (1986)

Recent Posts

  • Can You Spare 33 Seconds?
  • The Great Reset—for Your Choir?
  • “Adze” • Do you know this word?
  • PDF Download • Vespers for Holy Thursday?
  • PDF Download • “Sanctus for Three Voices” (Soprano, Alto, and Bass)

Copyright © 2021 Corpus Christi Watershed · Charles Garnier on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.