A hymn a friend of mine heard endlessly as a child in the FSSPX.... I have never heard it sung in a church and by the grace of God never will. The Ordinariate community here in Fort Worth sings high brow hymns with occasional insight, elevated language, and festive relevance out of The English Hymnal. Growing up in the typical Pauline liturgical setting, I was exposed to barn-burning, up tempo classics like Let Us Build the City of God and Lord of the Dance. I dreaded Immaculate Mary until I heard the far superior British version, which may well be my favorite vernacular hymn. The St. Gregory Society, where I attended Mass in Connecticut, never sang hymns. It was a blissful hour of plainsong bookended by thunderous organ preludes and postludes.
Hymns are a uniquely Western interest. Yes, the Greek and other Eastern Churches have them in their traditions, but they occupy a minor place liturgically if at all—unless one counts the Akathist for feasts, a thirty minute "hymn." Protestant and modern-Roman hymns are generally bosh: saccharine sentimentality which appeals to emotions, familiarity, and melodic memory. Lost are deeper ideas of beauty, meaning, and encounter with the Divine. Liturgical hymns, such as those of the Office, conclude with a Doxology, a contrast to hymns inspired after secular music's alternation of verses with a chorus. More popular hymns imitated the secular musical pattern rather than the liturgical one. Any English hymn will follow this pattern, but the pattern is not necessarily a Protestant one. Even great Christmas hymns from the 15th century like Resonet in laudibus exchanges verses with the chorus Gaudete, gaudete Christus natus hodie....
What makes a hymn good? What makes a hymn liturgically suitable? At its heart I have always favored the St. Gregory Society's hymnless approach. I love the hymns the Ordinariate church sings, but what criteria separate those pieces from the devotionalist hymns the FSSP sings or the Gather hymnal doggerel of the common parish?
Holy God We Praise Thy Name seems to me to be one of the most popular hymns sung in typical Trad communities... I too grew up with it. But I have come to dislike that style...
ReplyDeleteI tend to think of these hymns as "mostly harmless." They can be easily ignored when roused at the end of a Mass. The tune at least is rarely grating, unlike the jesuitical ditties of the last generation.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite hymn is "Christ is made the sure foundation." For those of you who use the "traditional" breviary this should remind you of Alto ex Olympi vertice.
ReplyDeleteI think the only two that annoy me and are still used are the aforementioned "Holy God We Praise Thy Name" and the horribly cheesy and sentimental "Faith of Our Fathers" (which, interestingly, I never heard sung in the SSPX but is very popular in the FSSP).
ReplyDeleteI've never had the displeasure of hearing the worst of the 19th and 20th century songs in church. The many Sacred Heart hymns have fallen out of widespread use, the "Hymn to St. Pius X" never really caught on (it was written in the 1980's), and no traddies sing "God bless our Pope! The Great! The Good!" anymore (gee, I wonder why).
This book (courtesy of the Angelus press, the imprimatur of Richard Williamson, and the money of traditionalist communities of both regular and irregular standing) is chock full of hymns nobody has sung since the 1950's.
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The Angelus Press hymnal is still a vast improvement over the S. Basil hymnal; they did make a decent effort to expand an actual liturgical reportoire, not to mention rendering chants in chant notation as they should be.
DeleteCuriously enough, the FSSP church in Dallas has many copies of both the Angelus Press and the St. Basil hymnal.
DeleteLOB, as does Mater Ecclesiae here in Berlin, NJ.
Delete"Bring Flowr's of the Fairest" for some Paschaltide torture.
ReplyDeleteThe Ordinariate community in Baltimore, Mount Calvary, has traditionally sung four hymns - opening (after Asperges), Come Holy Spirit (after Gospel), an offertory hymn, and a closing hymn - all from the 1940 Hymnal. Otherwise, the ordinary is sung (usually Healey Willan), and two motets are done at the offertory and at communion. Needless to say, if one must have hymns, 1940 beats most of what you'll find in the pews at most Catholic parishes both musically and lyrically, to put it mildly.
ReplyDeleteSacred music is not what it could be even in most traditional communities, as I think we all agree. There are exceptions, of course, if not enough of them. The biggest problem, to my mind, is that we do not sing the Mass,, or when we do, we do not sing it particularly well. I would just as soon do without hymns, and not just for the reason you give: Protestant and modern-Roman hymns are generally bosh: saccharine sentimentality which appeals to emotions, familiarity, and melodic memory. And, let us not forget, often of dubious orthodoxy.