Showing posts with label Liturgical music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liturgical music. Show all posts

Wednesday, 19 March 2014

“But I Can't Sing It”: What of Liturgical Music?

By Edmund Lo, S.J.

(Image: www.classicfm.com )

How do we “participate” in liturgical music?

This is a question that I have been pondering recently. As some of you know, I have been singing in a chant-polyphonic choir for more than a year. Our repertoire would often have songs that are practically “unsingable” for the congregation during mass. These include Gregorian chant tones and complicated polyphonic pieces, sometimes in Latin. I often wonder how the congregation feels about them. Do they find it prayerful? Do they treat it more like a musical performance? Or are they completely tuned out because they cannot sing along with it?