Finding a musical identity in our liturgy for the English-speaking community

Jul 24, 2014

By SHANTI MICHAEL
Our churches are currently going through a rather confusing stage regarding music in our liturgy. We went from being very liberal in our musical worship to suddenly having big restrictions. No more drums and bass; no more praise and worship music at Mass; preferably only the organ to be played, the return of more ‘solemn’ music at Mass.

It seems we are caught in a contextual wedge with a generation of musicians who are not really sure how to move forward. We are after all, not in Rome…do we have to do as the Romans do?

There is now a generation of people like me whose identity is not necessarily tied to my race. I am Indian by race, but my first language is English. I can get by speaking Malay, but do not speak any Tamil, save being able to count from one to ten. I have other peers with similar issues, Chinese who don’t speak or worship in Chinese, Chindians, Eurasians etc. The issue of inculturation does not necessarily affect us because there are no real cultural issues to battle with other than social cultures. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, the television we watch are mostly influenced by the West. With globalization moving at the rate it is now, the acceptance of more ‘western’ worship is no longer seen as us bowing down the colonial imperialist and assuming that their way of doing things is just better. It’s just a case of our cultural exposure.

Music is one of the key components in liturgical worship and identity. It is, of course, important to address the needs of the other vernacular groups, but that comes with a whole separate set of issues that will be covered later in this series.

A lot of arguments have been against the more ‘traditional’ music in the liturgy; that it’s “not applicable in our country and that people’s participation is the key”…participation being interpreted as people being able sing along to everything….never mind if the lyrics are poorly written or the tune saccharine and insipid.

This isn’t so much a criticism of any particular style or form as it is a criticism of lyrical and musical substance. The fact of the matter is that beauty is not always in the eye of the beholder. Some things are just poorly written. There is very good Catholic music, both modern and traditional that can be used, but mediocrity is allowed to creep into worship in the name of accessibility. Time is not taken to examine or explain what participate actually means at Mass. Not enough value is placed on having well executed music with sound theological lyrics in the church. We forget that the congregation does musically participate in the ordinaries, acclamations and responses, yet the music at mass is not deemed a “success” unless the congregation sings along to the hymns.

Variety is not valued and churches are addicted to the standard five-hymn formula. There is no psalmody other than the responsorial psalm, no choral music, no singing of the Propers, no chant. Plenty of local sacred music is being composed, but no one is collecting these resources and transcribing them.There is no official vetting process to see if compositions are suitable for use in the local church, no local commissions for composers to encourage their talent, no real forum for people to share their knowledge, ideas and works.

For too many years, the excuse has been “The people are not ready”. It’s time to give the congregation more credit. How do we bridge this gap? When will they be ready? Is one ever ready for a change in approach? Is it possible, or more importantly, necessary to keep everyone happy? Is it fair to deny a generation’s worth of music based on propriety in the liturgy? Is it fair to deny those who prefer a more traditional approach, or those who prefer to attend a choral liturgy, any access to it in the name of accessibility to the majority?

While I do have my opinions, I do not claim to have all the answers. I ask these questions because I think they warrant thought, critical examination, and most importantly, wide discussion.

The local church needs to change the way we approach music in the liturgy. It is not enough to just tell musicians what is the ‘right’ way and ‘wrong’ way. Conversations must happen to discuss what is suitable and why. Documents on sacred music must be read and understood, not because we have to follow every single instruction from it, but to learn what the Church requires from us and why, and to find a way to contextualize this. These issues need to be looked at more critically, and should be discoursed meaningfully instead of being argued about or avoided. Decisions should be based on liturgical knowledge and examination of local culture.

While we understand and respect the role of the clergy and the office that they hold, the only way to really progress in finding a musical identity in our liturgy is for more clergy involvement in the catechesis of the musicians and just as importantly, of their congregation. This requires more catechesis and discussion among the clergy themselves, regarding music in the liturgy. We live in a digital age where people have access to information at their fingertips, and are taking the initiative to self educate and explore. An inadvertent result would be the people getting their catechesis from overseas sources without understanding how to implement these resources locally. The second consequence is that lay people are becoming more advanced in their liturgical knowledge because they are up to date with the scholarship and resources available online.

Another important point to consider is that the Roman Catholic Church in Malaysia inherited foreign traditions. Therefore, it is very difficult to build a musical and liturgical identity of our own, if we completely reject the forms that were given to us and dismiss perfectly valid and treasured ways of worship such as chant and choral music. There is great value in inculturation in the liturgy, but any inculturated process has to be a natural gesture from the language, rites and symbols of that native culture, and not something that is contrived for the sake of being unique or to reject the Roman culture because it is not ours.

Some people would argue against the suggested approaches that have been laid out, saying that not all local people are equipped to read the documents critically or evaluate the situations and culture and make decisions based on these evaluations. To those people, I would say: dumbing it down is never the answer. We just have to read the local news to see what that is doing to our country.

-- If you have any questions with regards to music in church please feel free to send your questions to the Archdiocesan Liturgical Commission at [email protected]