CS Lewis Anticipates the Style Wars. Sort of.

Thanks to Dave Simmons for enlightening me...

-j-

"There are two musical situations on which I think we can be confident
that a blessing rests. One is where a priest or an organist, himself a
man of trained and delicate taste, humbly and charitably sacrifices
his own (aesthetically right) desires and gives the people humbler and
coarser fare than he would wish, in a belief (even, as it may be, the
erroneous belief) that he can thus bring them to God.

"The other is where the stupid and unmusical layman humbly and
patiently, and above all silently, listens to music which he cannot,
or cannot fully, appreciate, in the belief that it somehow glorifies
God, and that if it does not edify him this must be his own defect.
Neither such a High Brow nor such a Low Brow can be far out of the
way. To both, Church Music will have been a means of grace; not the
music they have liked, but the music they have disliked. They have
both offered, sacrificed, their taste in the fullest sense.

"But where the opposite situation arises, where the musician is filled
with the pride of skill or the virus of emulation and looks with
contempt on the unappreciative congregation, or where the unmusical,
complacently entrenched in their own ignorance and conservatism, look
with the restless and resentful hostility of an inferiority complex on
all who would try to improve their taste – there, we may be sure, all
that both offer is unblessed and the spirit that moves them is not the
Holy Ghost."

- CS Lewis

Poor St. Cecilia

Trumped by a turkey this year. Ah well, sing something nice. Have some cranberries.

Jay

Five Masses, four parishes, one weekend

I don't think I'll try that again, but it was fun. About 250 miles on the car though. Only real hitch came when the 6pm cantor didn't show, so I had to lead the mass at a strange parish I'd only played at once before. But even that went okay, though I punted on some of the less familiar tunes / settings. I had learned them well enough to accompany, but not to lead.

Here's a songlist of sorts - it's from memory, but I think it's all there. Note - sometimes things add up to 5 because of repertoire changes at the two-mass parish:

Gathering:
All Creatures of Our God & King (LASST UNS ERFREUEN)
Embrace My Way and Cross (Glover)
Take This Moment (Bell)
We Come to Praise Him (?)

Gloria:
Creation (Haugen) x2
Mass for Grace (Haywood)
Mass in Memory of Fr. William Cunningham (moi)

Psalm:
Ps. 49, Rise Up O God (AURELIA, Morgan)
Ps. 95, If Today (Haugen)
Ps. 27, The Lord is My Light (Haas)
Ps. 95,If (Cooney) x2

Alleluia / Gradual Sequence Hymn:
Thy Word (Grant / Smith)
Mass of Remembrance (Haugen)
Alleluia, Give the Glory (Canedo/ Hurd)
Alleluia, Jesus Is Lord (??)

Intercessions:
Lord, Hear Our Prayer (Alonso)
Lord, Hear Our Prayer (Hay)
-spoken- x2

Offertory:
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart (SLANE)
The Servant Song (Gillard)
Lord, Increase Our Faith (Haas)
Only This I Want (Schutte)
Calling My Name (Walker)

Preface Dialogue:
(Brown) x2
-spoken- x2

Sanctus:
Mass for a Soulful People (Brown)
Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Sing Praise & Thanksgiving (Joncas)
Mass of the Angels and Saints (Janco)
St. Cyprian Mass (Louis)

Mem Acc:
Mass of Remembrance (Haugen, adapted)
Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Sing Praise & Thanksgiving (Joncas)
Mass of the Angels and Saints (Janco)
Jesus Died Upon the Cross (Brown)

Amen:
Amen I (Robinson)
Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Sing Praise & Thanksgiving (Joncas)
Mass of the Angels and Saints (Janco)
Amen from Total Praise (Smallwood)

Lord's Prayer:
The Lord's Prayer (Malotte)
-spoken- x3

Sign of Peace:
All These Blessings Come From God (trad?)
-spoken- x3

Lamb:
Lamb of God (McLin)
Mass of Creation (Haugen)
Sing Praise & Thanksgiving (Joncas)
Mass of the Angels and Saints (Janco)
Lamb of God (Ray)

Communion:
Once No People (Durran / Pulkingham)
You Are All We Have (O'Brien)
One Bread, One Body (Foley)
Gift of Finest Wheat (Westendorf / Kreutz)

Communion II:
Give the Lord Your Heart (Mahler)
Silver & Gold (Franklin)
Taste and See (Moore)
-omitted- x2

Exit:
Christ is alive! Let Christians sing (TRURO)
How Great Thou Art (O STORE GUD)
For the Healing of the Nations (ST. THOMAS)
Bless The Lord (Walker)

Goodbye, Karen Marie

http://markshea.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html#5655768003579042594

I didn't know Karen well, but she opened her home to me for the 2005 NPM convention. We spent some quality time together, she filled me in on Milwaukee history - I grew up there, but left in '69, still a teenager. I had the privilege of pushing her around town in her wheelchair, we shared a concert and "dinner at a nice place" together... and, outside of sending her a thank you note, I don't think we talked since. But she was still a small point of light in my journey, and I won't forget her.

Check out her blog, Anchor Hold, at http://kmknapp.blogspot.com/ .

Thanks to Mark Shea for the info, and Brian Page for the heads-up.

She was a great Christian. I'll miss her.

More on the Motu Proprio

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/article.php3?id_article=1977

Given the series of concessions that have already been made to Catholic traditionalists, and the radical views and program of those to whom this pope has given his approval and endorsement in the past, it is difficult to believe that with Summorum pontificum a definitive compromise has been reached and the matter will end there. A more plausible understanding of the present moment is that it marks another step toward a goal that the vast majority of Catholics would not countenance if it were openly acknowledged-namely, the gradual dismantling of the liturgical reform in its entirety.

I mostly agree. Though I am not fond of slippery slope arguments, the trend lines here are undeniable. And the SSPX's explicit rejection of the paschal mystery's centrality to the Mass - and the implicit embracing of that view by reinstating the old mass - is especially troubling.

New Motu Proprio

http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/

Chiding both sides in the furious debate over the wider availability of the 1962 Missal for voicing “very divergent reactions ranging from joyful acceptance to harsh opposition, about a plan whose contents were in reality unknown,” according to an advance copy of the documents obtained exclusively by Whispers, Benedict yields a clear verdict as the “fruit of much reflection, numerous consultations and prayer.”

IOW, something for everyone to hate. Or gripe about, at least. After all, we ARE Catholics.

It'll be interesting. I can't think of any priest I've worked with (not counting the occasional wedding) who would like this. Well, maybe that LOC priest I used to work with. Anyhow, some of the guys couldn't say a Latin Mass if their lives depended on it.

Interesting times.

Pentecost 5C at St. Paul's Episcopal, Romeo, MI
Entrance - In Christ there is no East or West (McKEE)
Gloria / Kyrie - Gloria (Mass for Grace, Haywood)
Psalm - Ps16 (TALLIS' CANON, Morgan)
Gradual Sequence Hymn - Alleluia (Sinclair)
Offertory - I Have Decided to Follow Jesus (unk)
Sanctus - Sanctus (Mass for a Soulful People, Brown)
Mem Acc - (omitted)
Amen - Amen I (Robinson)
Lamb - Lamb of God (McLin)
Communion I - Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart (SLANE)
Communion II - (omitted)
Exit - Shine, Jesus Shine (Kendrick)

Hymns are from Hymnal 82 and Songs of Praise 4th ed. Except Shine Jesus Shine which is in a homegrown collection for which we use a CCLI license.

Entrance, Psalm, and Communion are all possibly for pipe organ - haven't decided yet. At Clem's, I always did a real gospelly send-up of McKEE on piano. And I haven't used the organ yet for a psalm or for communion here, but there's no reason I couldn't. Obviously.

If you're looking for good metrical psalm paraphrases, Morgan's Psalms for Christian Worship is a great resource, though he's a bit careless counting syllables sometimes. $17 well spent.

The rest of it: acclamations, except the Robinson (H82) and Sinclair (SOP), are from Lift Every Voice. I'm not a fan of the Haywood Gloria - superfluous refrain, clunky transitions between phrases. Rev. Stacy likes it a lot, though, so I'm stuck with it for the next couple of months. Brown's Holy is better, but it sounds too much like his other ones. The McLin Lamb is nice. And this is our first week with the Sinclair - a staple at Elizabeth's, and my swanelluia at St. Clem's - but they'll fall right into it right away, even if they don't know it already - I imagine they do, given how long they've been using Songs of Praise in this parish.

The awesome power of prayer

For those of you who are inclined to discount this kind of stuff, you'll find plenty of reasons to do so this time too. But if you believe God can and does intervene in response to prayer…

...Mom-in-law Stella, 89 now, has lived with us for the past 5 years, and has a lot of health issues, but none of them life-threatening. Until now. Docs found fluid behind her heart and an aneurysm, put her on diuretics, she didn't handle the diuretics well, and a heat wave earlier this week nearly put her away. Kim called 911, we stayed at the hospital with her most of the night, they sent her home a day or two later after stabilizing her. Seemingly water under the bridge.

But after last night's choir practice, we had our usual closing prayer, and at the end, I asked everyone to pray for Stella, gave them a little detail, and a lot of eyebrows furrowed as they went into deep-prayer mode. I had just tossed it out in passing, they took it to another level, I decided it couldn't hurt, and didn't think much more about it.

When I got home, my sister-in-law was there as well as Kim & Stella, and I found out that Stella had another episode, Kim called 911 again, this time in tears - never did the tears before, but this time Stella really looked like she was fading - and then, as the EMS truck pulled into the drive, Stella snapped out of it, and said, "you know, all of a sudden I feel okay." EMS gave her the once over and went on their way without her, leaving Kim, and Debbie when she arrived, shaking their heads wondering what just happened.

So they told me this, but it didn't occur to me to ask exactly when all this happened. I did THAT this morning when I was getting ready for work. You guessed it - near as we can tell, the miraculous recovery happened almost exactly as we were praying for her. Nobody was looking at their watches, but it was +/- 10 minutes tops.

Something similar happened a few years ago, when a musician friend of mine nearly died from alcohol-related stuff. He also had a miraculous recovery, though there were differences - the timing wasn't as tight, and there were a whole lot of folks praying for him, all over the internet, not just our little choir. But the result was off the charts - not only did he not die, but he has thrived, kicked the alcohol habit, has his symphony career back on track, and released a solo CD.

When I left St. E's the last time, in 2004, I was concerned about losing that level of spirituality. And it happened, pretty much - I felt truly ungrounded during my stint at St. Clem's. And had a little trouble getting it back when I returned to Elizabeth's, probably due at least in part to the intervening deaths of our pastor and our assistant director. In fact, we prayed last night for all the folks we've lost, and thanked God for our time with them. So maybe a little saintly intervention too?

First thing I did this morning when I got to work was to call the choir director and let her know. She made a crack about St. E's having an inside track, but I gotta wonder.

Here's a song I wrote for my teen choir 8 or 9 years ago. I may dust it off and see if my choir / prayer team wants a stab at it:

"There is power in prayer, power in prayer:
God has power to change what needs change in my life.
There is power in prayer, power in prayer:
God will answer each prayer that I pray."

I should listen to myself more often, LOL...

Apologies...

...to those of you who have left me comments over the years. My new layout ate your comments. Hopefully, the new comment engine (Blogger rather than Enetation) will be a bit more reliable.

In other news, I fixed the "email me" link. And the new layout ate the "other blogs" links as well, but they were largely inactive anyhow. And you can click "about me" to get to my other blogs, GS Blog and Graytail Adventures.

Like the new pic?

From the Tiber to the Thames

A small Episcopal Church near my recently departed parish gave me a call. Their director, a colleague of mine, is leaving for warmer climes, and they're considering replacing her with me. I've done some reading up on Episcopal worship - as usual, the de jure doesn't exactly marry up with the de facto - the transition won't be too tough. It's aided, of course, by my 40 years as a Presbyterian: I could sing their Lesser Doxology in my sleep.

At any rate, I've attended a mass there, and sat in; and then accompanied a mass the following week. I guess, from what I heard later, that they enjoyed my style, despite an awful schoolhouse piano and an anemic parlor organ. Apparently it helped me get an "in" there when I recommended a GEM pRP-800 digital piano to replace their Wurlitzer Firewood Edition (TM) spinet. Reverend Stacy had already looked at much more expensive Kawais and Rolands and been unsatisfied, but she wrote me a few days ago to say they had bought the GEM. Hopefully with some sound reinforcement - the built in speakers are a bit anemic.

We have not come to terms on salary yet, but given their generous sub fee, I'm not worried. It will be interesting (a) working with a female priest, (b) working collaboratively for a change, rather than the loose-leash approach that I've come to loathe, (c) working with a priest without that built-in altar rail of arrogance I loathe even more, (d) playing a mass typically attended by 30 people or so, (e) working without amplification, except the new digital piano, and (f) returning to my Dad's church - he was born and died Episcopalian, though he did a lot of wandering in between.

I love their open communion table, and the ready participation from the pews - no coaxing required. Hate speaking the psalm, but maybe I can do something about that. I'd like to introduce them to responsorials, too. Part of their heritage, but apparently unexplored at this parish.

Best part is - mass is over at 11, so I can make it to St. Elizabeth's for noon mass. St. E's is okay with an occasional late arrival: traffic is out of my control, of course.

And THIS is going to be a real useful planning site, though I'll have to also do some digging. They/we have the old Cursillo Songs of Praise in the pews, plus a homegrown supplement, in addition to Hymnal 1982. Funny, I was part of Oremus' mail list for years, but never used the website before.

"Once and Future" Once Again

I was sacked last week, without warning, via FedEx: "You are hereby terminated". Classay... apparently Fr.'s Dream DM became available and he jumped at the chance. Arrogant and cavalier to the last. The choir and cantors are upset: to quote one, "Well, Fr.'s broken up yet another family".

So I'm back at my old urban parish playing Gospel Hammond again. And not likely to leave this time. Speaking of family.