or, kwitcher bellyachin'!
Not the largest crowd, but a small group of folks over at Open Book are complaining about having "The King of Glory" sung at Mass yesterday. For those with short memories, or reading this in archives many years hence, it was Christ the King Sunday.
Real comments:
- It's not supposed to sound like folk music. It's supposed to sound like Christian lyrics to an Israeli dance tune.
- Actually - that IS what "folk music" is. But, this particular song just feels poorly contrived. Kind of like someone drawing a picture of an elephant without ever having seen one, only going on a handful of descriptions of others.
- ... what I can't stand about King of Glory and its ilk is that it sounds like Frankenfolk - folk music cooked up in a music lab, seemingly alive but devoid of any connection to any true vivifying principle. Folk music without the folk.
- However, its lyrics do seem to have a fundamental problem. Sorry. Many songs have problems with directionality: to whom are we singing? ... In The King of Glory, we are sort of role-playing the parts of Jews of the time of Christ. I'm not sure we should do that ...
What on earth is a vivifying principle, if not honoring and using ancient words, concepts and forms to write new songs to praise God?
There were also folks saying that the Colbert dance number now disqualified the song. I think this is more wishful thinking than scruples.
Response I posted:
Hey folks, sometimes, when the volunteer musician's repertoire is limited, it's The King of Glory or ignore the feast day musically. Not saying that it's the way it oughta be, but it might be the way it is.
The King of Glory Comes has always reminded me of one of the Psalm of Ascents, sung by the excited crowds as they journeyed to the temple in Jerusalem. Fr. Jabusch says he based the song on a Israeli folk song he learned while studying in Israel. IMHO, it fits into the Psalm tradition, as we do a call and response among ourselves describing the God Whom we are assembling to worship.I think Colbert's little dance number shouldn't automatically disqualify this song, any more than the gorgeous music used while Michael Corleone exacts his revenge in The Godfather disqualifies it from use elsewhere.
Maybe I'm tired of the musical version of Monday morning quarterbacking. Opinions?
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3 comments:
you OUGHT to be tired of the monday morning quarterbacking. is it an Israeli tune? yes. is it Israeli music? no, not when sung at a Catholic church by non-Isrealis. but sheesh. if you want that, fly to frikkin Israel!
people have no idea how much depth goes into any authentic style of music. even someone with a PhD in music would have to study Israeli music for a minimum of 3 years before they could make "the king of glory" SOUND authentic. and believe me(!), it would still NOT BE authentic.
(although i prefer chant) i, for one, have always thought "the king of glory" to be in the top 10% of songs at the "folk mass".
so there's showing you some love, Elizabeth of Cayce ;)
This weekend at our mass in Fayetteville, NC, we sang King of Glory. I must say, it didn't sound isreali. It didn't sound folksy. It was what we like to refer to as a "joyful noise." This is because our choir is lacking in talented vocalists. But we had guitars, and a piano and we sang our little hearts out.
It is amusing that people spend so much time analyzing the songs. I'm not sure who these people are, but to them I say: you are complaining about the choice of song when you have good music to listen to. If you prefer other music, join the choir and make suggestions. Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy. Trust me, when you leave someplace that has actual worship worthy music for someplace that doesn't, you'll care much less about the selection and much more about whether or not any two members of the group seemed to be singing the same melody.
"Lift up your voices!"
The music at St. Mary's in Greenville was incredible. Full chamber orchestra (including timpani) in the choir loft. It was really, really worshipful.
That said...I kinda like "The King of Glory Comes." (But if you're going to do it, please do it with a guitar...somehow I don't think that song would fly with, say, a pipe organ.)
I don't let myself read comments on music posts anymore. I've found they've become a near occasion to uncharity for me because I can't stand all the quarterbacking, as you say.
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