The English And Their Hymns
I have noticed that the “English method” of hymnody prints the musical notes on one page and the words on another. Several experts explain why in this post.
Jesus said to them: “I have come into this world so that a sentence may fall upon it, that those who are blind should see, and those who see should become blind. If you were blind, you would not be guilty. It is because you protest, ‘We can see clearly,’ that you cannot be rid of your guilt.”
A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He completed studies in Education and Musicology at the graduate level. Having worked as a church musician in Los Angeles for ten years, in 2024 he accepted a position as choirmaster for Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Michigan, where he resides with his wife and children. —Read full biography (with photographs).
I have noticed that the “English method” of hymnody prints the musical notes on one page and the words on another. Several experts explain why in this post.
The priest who rejected my submission was very professional, polite, and encouraging.
“The Church asks those who will lead and shepherd her communities of Faith to give up the possibility of marital love as a prophetic witness that there is something even more important to our happiness than even beautiful intimacy possible in Christian marriage.” — Archbishop Naumann, 18 May 2013
The notion that the texts are there “to remind us that we should be singing something else” could not be further from the truth.
I took out my iPhone to record his exact words (“we don’t have any more airplanes”) and he called security on me. Classy.
The Sacred Congregation of Rites and the Consilium issued a joint statement on December 29,1966 prohibiting profane music in church. When Consilium spokesman Monsignor Annibale Bugnini was asked at a press conference what was meant by “profane” music, he said that this referred to such things as “jazz” Masses and instruments such as the guitar.
This hymn almost brought me to tears. I was shaking as I played it. It’s really beautiful and even haunting. But I was worried about the ending until I realized it was like the “smile” on the Mona Lisa.
“We have had pressreports of eccentric behaviour at Mass and of the introduction of singing more appropriate to music-halls than to the atmosphere of reverence that should prevail in a church. These reports have come mainly from America, and they refer only to isolated instances.” — Fr. Leslie Rumble of Radio Replies, writing in the early 1970s.
At last! We finally have the answer! . . . Er, sort of . . .
Verbal abuse of a mentally handicapped man was something hard to watch. But why do I mention such a thing on a Blog devoted to Sacred music?
Did you know a former president of the Church Music Association of America has his own STAR on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? That’s correct! Just like Michael Jackson, Rex Harrison, Alfred Hitchcock, Harrison Ford, and all the rest.
Does noticing this officially make me a “Chant Geek” ? Or is it the mere fact that I actually care about such things . . .
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