It seems there is hope after all
I teach 8th Grade Religious Education at my parish, and we just started up classes again after the summer break. The first lesson is about signs and symbols in the Catholic Church. Art and music are a large part of this lesson. So I like to take the opportunity to expose the kids to some kinds of sacred music that they have probably never heard before.
So we compared three different kinds of music. First was the music we have in our parish right now. If you are a Catholic who lives in the USA, you probably know what this is like. I'm not going to say it's bad, exactly, but so much of it it just not very...appropriate to the liturgy. It does not serve the function that sacred music is supposed to serve, in my opinion.
So I played them some Gregorian Chant. And lastly I played them the Kyrie from Beethoven's Mass in C. When they had heard it all, I took a poll to see which was the favorite. Having grown up with the kind of music we have in our parish now, and apparently being conditioned to find all music without electric guitars lame, I was expecting them not to like the new music I played for them at all.
But there was only one who prefered the music in our parish. About 1/3 liked the Gregorian Chant best, and the other 2/3 liked the Beethoven best. Some of them seemed quite captivated by it while it was playing. I even had a request to hear some sacred music by Mozart.
It was so nice to get this kind of reaction from 13-year-olds.
So we compared three different kinds of music. First was the music we have in our parish right now. If you are a Catholic who lives in the USA, you probably know what this is like. I'm not going to say it's bad, exactly, but so much of it it just not very...appropriate to the liturgy. It does not serve the function that sacred music is supposed to serve, in my opinion.
So I played them some Gregorian Chant. And lastly I played them the Kyrie from Beethoven's Mass in C. When they had heard it all, I took a poll to see which was the favorite. Having grown up with the kind of music we have in our parish now, and apparently being conditioned to find all music without electric guitars lame, I was expecting them not to like the new music I played for them at all.
But there was only one who prefered the music in our parish. About 1/3 liked the Gregorian Chant best, and the other 2/3 liked the Beethoven best. Some of them seemed quite captivated by it while it was playing. I even had a request to hear some sacred music by Mozart.
It was so nice to get this kind of reaction from 13-year-olds.
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