Yet another reason why I love the Canuck
Kasia July 6th, 2008
Warning: after reading this post, you may have a couple of frequently-played hymns ruined for you. Proceed at your own risk.
With a bit of help, I’m noticing that some of the liturgical music of the last fifty years or so bears a striking resemblance to some of its contemporaneous secular music. I don’t suppose that should be especially surprising, but it did surprise me. There you have it.
I was talking to a friend a few months ago and we got onto the subject of Haugen/Haas. (Neither of us is a fan.) He was explaining how H/H in some ways get a bad rap because what they replaced was actually worse, and gave me a chronology: the St. Louis Jesuits were better than what preceded them because they actually incorporated Scripture into their lyrics. H/H were better than the St. Louis Jesuits because some of their music actually could be played with conventional church instruments like organs. Et cetera.
I commented that while I don’t like most of H/H, there are a few songs that I don’t mind and even sort of like – not love, but like in small doses. Unfortunately, they get played so much that I still want to rip out my eyeballs and stuff them into my ears.
He asked which, and I named “Here I Am, Lord” as an example. He laughed, said “Do you want me to ruin it for you?” and when I agreed, began to sing, to the tune of the chorus:
“It’s THE sto-ry…of a love-ly LA-dy…”
And thus was “Here I Am, Lord” forever ruined for me, as once it was pointed out to me I could never un-hear how similar it was to the theme from The Brady Bunch. Kind of like once you’ve seen the guy hanging himself in the background of The Wizard of Oz – someone had to literally go point at the television screen to make me notice it – but almost twenty years later I still can’t see the scene without noticing it.
Well. The last two weeks of Mass were in different dioceses (Detroit and then London), and yet two different music ministers saw fit, two consecutive weeks, to play “Sing of the Lord’s Goodness”, which if I’d heard before I didn’t remember. It’s a bouncy, jazzy tune, a little tricky to sing both melodically and rhythmically, and it makes me want to shake my tushie right there in front of the Blessed Sacrament, which just can’t be a good thing. 
I know that David leapt for joy when the Ark was returned, but Scripture doesn’t say that he got down and boogied in front of the Holy of Holies…time and place, guys…
Anyway. If you are prepared to have another hymn ruined for you, start by going here and listening to the music (no lyrics) of “Sing of the Lord’s Goodness”. Then go here and listen to Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”.
They’re not the same, but they’re similar enough that I now have an inkling of why I find myself wanting to bop and boogie in church…
Actually the “hanging man” in the Wizard of Oz has been proven to be an ostrich (or was it an emu) which was on the film lot for another movie (I saw it on one of those movie legends sspecials).)
You can ruin just about any piece of music. For example, “Amazing Grace” & the “Our Father” can be sung to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun”. I figure God has a Sense of Humor!
Well, I’m relieved to hear that the “hanging man” isn’t really what it appears to be. I had heard it wasn’t, but had never heard what it actually *was*, which didn’t exactly help convince me…
I guess it’s not that hard to “ruin” a piece of music a la the Here I Am, Lord/Brady Bunch mash-up. But if Ernest Sands wasn’t intentionally lifting from Dave Brubeck, I’m pretty sure he was influenced by him…or else it was a STUNNING coincidence. And I’m not a big believer in coincidence. :-p
I love it when people ruin the happy-clappy music! Once I had an acquaintaince sing “Amazing Grace” to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme song… and it’s been stuck in my head ever since!
Haugen and Haas really get under my skin… I suppose mostly because Haas isn’t even Catholic and he’s sitting around writing Mass parts – how can he comprehend?? And the LYRICS… ick. So self-centered. I’m not usually a huge fan of chant, but a couple weeks at a typical Novus Ordo (where I live) and the one-hour drive to the TLM seems like 15 minutes!
-Alli (I’ve been lurking for about a month, figured I’d say hello)
Hi Alli – glad you de-lurked and spoke up!
I’m with you about the lyrics of H/H…the music varies from atrocious to decent, but the lyrics are pretty consistently banal. I remember reading something from a chorister whose daughter flat out refused to sing one of their songs because it kept talking ABOUT praising the Lord, but never actually DID it. :-p “Here I Am, Lord” isn’t that bad lyrically, but so far it seems to be the exception; and it’s vastly overplayed, at least at the Masses I attend, so it could be the best hymn ever and I’d still eventually see it as a torture device.
Personally, I love a reverently-celebrated Novus Ordo, no doubt in part because I like worshiping in my native language. (If we could only get a vernacular indult for the TLM…) But you’re right, it’s not easy to find one that lives up to what the Mass really is. Even if the priest is great, if the music is mediocre…well, you know…and vice versa.
My fiancé lives in a small city in southwestern Ontario. We have been to just about all the Catholic churches in town. Mercifully they just had a big personnel shift as of July 1 – they clustered parishes and closed one – but prior to the personnel shift, it had gotten to the point where I dreaded going to Mass anywhere in town. I’m cautiously optimistic that things may improve now…of course, there’s only six months left before the wedding, but I’ll take six months over nothing in a heartbeat.
As long as they don’t play too much Gershwin-esque music, I’m okay, usually. I am not a fan of Gershwin. Oh! And I LOVE all the Ode to Joys. I kinda understand the America the Beautiful and all because it’s Independence Day, but really, aren’t we the *catholic* church, and not the Church of the United States? But, I guess it does help to have people hear the songs in their entirety every once in a while to see the plentiful references to God, and to know that, despite popular secular opinion, we were founded as a city on a hill, one nation under God. However, as church-going Americans, it is a little like preaching to the choir. The televised sports would do well to play the entire song….
IMHO.
Ask Louis sometime about the McDonald’s Mass. No joke.
Also, I’d like to point out that I’m practically certain that Amazing Grace was written before House of the Rising Sun, whereas Haagen-Dazs were writing around the same time as the Brady Bunch was on the air, so the odds of “sampling” are more likely. (Of course, Vanilla Ice has cleverly debunked the myth of sampling for us, so clearly we are simply tin ears.)
And even though Amazing Grace is unrelentingly Protestant (it was written by one, after all) it is neither dumbed down nor egocentric.
OTOH, I ALWAYS refer to “Here I Am Lord” by its Protestant name: Our God is an Indecisive God. After all, how would he EVER know who to send, unless we pipe up?
TBS
I can honestly say that I’ve never heard Haugen/Haas or any of the other aforementioned banalities at my own parish. I remember hearing something with questionable lyrics just once, and I’m sure the organist/music directory was instructed never to play it again. It wasn’t quite as bad as “Sing a New Church,” but it was definitely Haugen/Haas-ish.
)
I haven’t attended a Novus Ordo Mass since our parish instituted its TLM. Lack of knowledge of Latin hasn’t been a problem at all, since the missals include Latin on the left, and English on the right. And there are only two hymns – processional and recessional. The rest of the Mass is chanted, and it’s lovely (and I’d say that even if I weren’t one of the cantors
Jaibee: I’m with you about the patriotic songs in church. I do appreciate the songs, and particularly the faith dimension of them, but “God Bless America” is just not a song I think I should sing at Mass – sorry. It’s about America first and God second, IMHO.
TBS: we’ve debated this before, and while I still think your title for “Here I Am, Lord” is funny, the fact remains that it’s rooted in Scripture – Isaiah, right? So if God and Isaiah actually had that conversation, why is it out of bounds for a hymn? It’s a little more “me-centered” than I like, in that it focuses a little more on the response than the call itself, but it’s far from the worst I’ve heard. In fact, compared to some, it’s downright okay!
DJ: I’ve heard a few ickies at your parish, but not many; and most of my gripes about music at your parish center less around the choice of songs than they do around the execution of said songs. By and large you guys do OK. The girl with the reedy little voice who always cantors and plays organ at First Friday Mass is competent. The one time she was gone – November, I think – was downright painful.
Clam, I couldn’t agree with you more re: execution of said songs. I stopped in for confession on Saturday morning while Mass with a Nigerian bishop was wrapping up in the church. I nearly had to confess how I felt about the cantor … seriously, they couldn’t find someone better to accompany a Mass celebrated by a visiting bishop?
Perhaps you shouldn’t visit for a TLM. We’re rather inexperienced in the difficult art of Gregorian chant, and I’d like to say that our performances have been at least passable, but I know there’ve been times when it’s been far worse than that.
DJ, I’d be the last one to criticize someone for not yet having mastered Gregorian chant!
And you know, for your parish’s size, you really don’t do badly. In fairness, I realize that my parish is much larger than yours, and thus has a larger talent pool from which to draw. That could account for why I’m a bit spoiled re: music.
Besides – you’ve got us beat all hollow with those prie-dieus at the front — I LOVE being able to kneel to receive the Eucharist!!!
Every parish has its strengths and its weaknesses.
Clam, I’ve knelt on the floor at your parish to receive from your former pastor. He didn’t seem to mind
You can’t say “tushie”. That’s a derivative of “tuchus”, which is All Rights Reserved, The International Learned Elders of Zionist Conspiracy. Use the Latin for buttcheeks (I forget what it is).
It’s “clunis”, but since we Cat’licks are children of Abraham too (take THAT, Zionists!), I reserve the right to say “tushie”.
I even reserve the right to call someone a “mensch”. How d’ya like them apples?