In our church, the whole congregation sings almost everything. The only exception is the occasional solo or choir performance. We don’t do that whole contemporary thing; just hymns.
I like the singing! I love most of the hymns. I’m often in the choir, but ours is defunct ATM because the two people competent to lead choirs moved to Argentina and Australia. I think everyone is afraid to take the job now, lest they too be sent off to the Southern hemisphere. Christmas is looming and we’ve got nothing, but at least that means the congregation gets to sing all the Christmas carols. I don’t like it when I’m not in the choir and they hog all the good carols.
Our organist is fantastic*, we have a great choir and everyone sings. Lemme tell you, when we sing Ode to Joy or How Great Thou Art, I’m pretty sure the Almighty hears it!
A few months ago, he started ripping Bach’s Tocatta and Fugue after Mass and my hair about stood on end. All three of my children had the big OMG face when they heard it. It was great.
Episcopal here. I love the singing. I (heh) hear ya Skammer. We did all eight verses of For All The Saints this past Sunday. Loved it! I’m told my voice is good. I say it’s not choir good but congregation good. I love it that we chant the Psalm and EvenSong is just a little slice o’ heaven to me.
I think there’s a happy medium. The GIRM (General Instruction of the Roman Missal) requires a certain amount of singing…I can’t remember everything, but I think the Psalm and the Gloria are supposed to be sung. And then there’s the Processional, the Recessional, and the Communion song…I’m good with that. Much more than that and it stretches things out a bit more than I like. It is fun to do to weekday mass where there’s no music at all and you’re out of there in 40 minutes, tops. But I like (good) music, it lends atmosphere to the proceedings.
What is the cheesy contemporary stuff that people are talking about?
This past summer I spent three weekends in a B&B in one of my favorite vacation spots. There is a church next door. Sunday mornings were awesome because I could hear the hymns.
My Anglo-Catholic parish is somewhat celebrated for its musical tradition, and it, along with our elevated liturgy, is one of our selling points, so to speak. Our (stipendiary) choir does the Gregorian chant propers according to the Liber Usualis, various mass settings (except the Gloria and Credo, which are sung by the congregation), and an anthem or motet or two. A few weeks ago, this last was an excellent performance of Monteverdi’s Beatus vir. The Epistle and Gospel lessons are chanted. Our organist has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on a number of occasions as well.
The congregation, though, doesn’t sing any of the above: our part is usually four hymns, from the Hymnal 1982, Willan’s Gloria (S-202), and a plainchant setting of the Creed. The hymn selection does veer toward the traditional, and sometimes it would be nice to sing, say, “Earth and All Stars” or the impossibly twee “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God.”
On the other hand, we sang all stanzas of “For All the Saints,” as many other Episcopalians did this All Saints, and all of “I Bind Unto Myself Today” every Trinity Sunday.
We also do Evensong & Benediction once monthly (except during the summer), other times the Daily Office is mostly said (I think, I haven’t been in a while).
I haven’t been to a church service in years for reasons that aren’t relevant here, and while there’s certainly a lot I don’t miss, music is something I do. Certainly, there were some bad songs that I could have done without, but some of the songs were enjoyable and some were very moving. Moreso, as a musician myself, I feel like music is very much the language of the heart and so it only makes sense to put worship and sacrement to music unless it adds little or noting but draws it out. I think it also helps remove the monotony. A lot of the service is repetitive, in that it’s done every week or for whole parts of a season or whatever, and it’s less monotonous to put it to music than to simply speak it.
Moreso, I’ve also attended a few Eastern Orthodox services (Bulgarian, Greek, and Russian) as well as Jewish services, and they sing almost everything. I have particularly fond memories of one of the Jewish services where the cantor had an absolutely gorgeous voice, and though I had no idea what she was singing about, since it was in Hebrew, I still felt like I had a bit of an understanding at a spiritual level. It might wear out if I went every week, but it was definitely great while I was there and really helped me feel like the presence of God was there rather than just everyone going through the motions with some ritual so they can get it done quickly and go do something else.
BTW It’s hard for me to understand the “giving a feeling of unity, purpose and faith” angle of church (or any) singing. I either am unified with these people, or I’m not. I’ve never understood how it’s useful to sing this out. I recognize the singing does give me that feeling–but its precisely because I know the singing gives me that feeling that I thoroughly and fundamentally distrust the singing. I’d feel the feeling whether the reality was there or not. It feels… kind of weirdly slimy and even deceptive to me. I know I can’t be the only one but I have never heard anyone else put it quite this way.
I don’t know which tradition you come from, but one of more Reformed complaints with respect to formal liturgy (and I think your remarks above could be applied to the whole fixed liturgy, not just singing) is that it is not spontaneous/heartfelt/what-have-you enough. What if, they ask, you’re just going through the motions?!?
I think the conventional Catholic/Orthodox/Anglican/Lutheran answer is that this is precisely right. One of the functions the liturgy serves is to inculcate the habit of worship and make it less dependent on the vicissitudes of how we feel at any given time. So, for instance, Morning and Evening Prayer doesn’t exist because there is anyone out there who is spontaneously worshipful every day, twice a day, but instead it exists a discipline of sorts.
When I went to church, the singing was always my favorite part. After it was over, it was all downhill from there. But then, I should point out I went to a black church and the myth is true: our choirs get down.
I’m sorry to have to do this to you, I really am. (BTW I can’t watch videos from the office; I hope that link works).
Sample lyrics: Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You
There is no greater thing.
You’re my all, You’re the best,
You’re my joy, my righteousness,
And I love You Lord.
You’re the best, Jesus! Thumbs up! There is no greater… thing!
I sometimes enjoy hearing OTHER people’s singing at church, but I don’t have a good voice and don’t like to sing myself (on my wedding video, I was noticeably lip-synching during hymns.)
Given my druthers, I’d attend a Mass with little or no singing.
I like music at Mass, but I also enjoy a Mass without. I used to attend daily Mass where there was no music, and it was very peaceful. And I like well-done music on Sundays, but I don’t want it to feel like a performance. I’m not expressing it well, but the liturgical feeling of communion with God is lost when you’re at a concert. Hard to explain, but I know it when I feel it.
