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{"id":5552,"date":"2012-07-05T16:57:04","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T21:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?p=5552"},"modified":"2012-07-05T16:57:04","modified_gmt":"2012-07-05T21:57:04","slug":"banal-hymns-at-mass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/07\/banal-hymns-at-mass.html","title":{"rendered":"Banal Hymns at Mass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Anthony Esolen has a good moan here <\/a>about some of the hymns he has to endure at Mass. Anthony is an English professor and noted translator of Dante. So he knows something about poetry. Why oh why are such awful hymns allowed in the Catholic Church?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve mused on the bad music myself in this post<\/a>, but one of the reasons music at Mass is so bad is because Catholics are ignorant of the great tradition of decent hymns. Before Vatican II they didn\u2019t sing hymns \u201cThat\u2019s Protestant!\u201d very much, then after Vatican II everybody went crazy for the folk Mass and most of the faithful wandered about singing (or not) what was dished up for them. Priests weren\u2019t trained in the traditions of sacred music, so they were largely ignorant of what was good, and the pressure was on them anyway from the people\u2013some of whom felt good when they sang songs like, \u201cI was walking on the beach when I felt the good Lord reach\u2026.for my hand.\u201d It was easier to go along with those who actually had an opinion or preference, and so reigned the dictatorship of sentimentality.<\/a> Sentimentality is often an artificial kind of manufactured emotion\u2013sort of like artificial flavoring in candy. Go here<\/a> for further thoughts.<\/p>\n

The mantra of \u201cfull participation\u201d had a part to play as well. Everybody had to be involved and everybody\u2019s taste and opinion was just as good as the next person\u2019s. Here\u2019s a post <\/a>about the destructiveness of this sort of shallow egalitarianism. It brought in a superficial equality which was really a form of relativism\u2013no one dared to suggest that one kind of hymn might actually better than another and nobody had any idea why one hymn could actually be better than another. There was no understanding of poetry, sacred music and the idea that one form of music could be superior would \u2013shock horror\u2013be perceived as snobbishness.<\/p>\n

There are some standards for good hymns, and they\u2019re not actually too difficult to figure out. Some time ago I wrote a four part series on what makes a good hymn. Here\u2019s<\/a> the first part. Here\u2019s<\/a> part two, here\u2019s<\/a> the third and here\u2019s<\/a> the fourth.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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