Hi Linda,

No, music does not have to be approved by the Magisterium or by anyone, but music should fall within certain guidelines and there is no law saying music must be written by men.

Write some good music!

Mary Ann

Hi Linda,

I have to comment on one of your questions and Mary Ann's reply because it falls into one of my pet peeves among some of the pastors in the Church.

Mary Ann said:
No, music does not have to be approved by the Magisterium or by anyone, but music should fall within certain guidelines . . .

While she is correct, my issue is more with whether new music will always fall within certain guidelines.

Take for example a song sung by the choir while communicants receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord. (Taste and See.)

The refrain to this song is: Taste and See, taste and see, the goodness of the Lord.

Paraphrasing what my colleague Eric has said in the past:

He also when on to point out the song is quoting Psalm 34:8,

"Taste and see that the LORD is good",

which many believe to be an allusion to the Eucharist.

While I agree with him, my concern deals more with the issue of the faithful receiving a balanced catechesis between:

• Sacramental doctrines of faith dealing with the senses: God physically communicating with us through our senses, and
• Sacramental doctrines of faith, where faith, has to come before, the senses.
  

In the culture we live in today, it's my opinion, that it's a lot tougher keeping the doctrines of faith, where faith, has to come before the senses, then those dealing with the senses themselves.

This can be a challenge for the Catholic in the pew, because for those Teachings that require faith, before our senses: our senses are always telling us one thing, but our faith is telling us another thing:

• We are receiving the real Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ our Lord when we receive either from the Blessed Cup of the altar or the consecrated Host of the altar.
  
  (Our senses are telling us it tastes like a wheat wafer or grape wine, but our faith tells us the Eucharist is His Risen Body or Precious Blood (the Real Presence of the Lord.)
  

For these type of teachings on the Eucharist we are always striving, and will always strive, to keep a high degree of, what I call, Eucharistic Faith in the Real Presence of the Lord.

For this reason, I am not very fond of that hymn because it focuses more on the senses when Eucharistic Faith calls on anything but the senses. I am happy that some pastors have seen this point view and have had the lead music director change the words from:

• Taste and See, taste and see, the goodness of the Lord. to
• Take and eat, take and eat, the goodness of the Lord.

There have been other previous times in history where incorrect words have been used. I forget where I heard the story, but someone told me that during the Arian heresy (one of the first major heresies of the Church), Arius, purposely put lyrics into the songs sung at Mass that would deny the divinity of Christ!

As long as the music you write falls within Catholic teaching, there is no problem, so as Mary Ann said,

Go and write some music!!

Mike

Hi Linda,

You wrote:
How come only music written by men is used?

This is not strictly true; songs such as:

• I Am The Bread of Life,
• Morning Has Broken, and
• Let There Be Peace on Earth

are all written by women, but you're right that disproportionately they are written by men. Much of today's music is written by a group of priests known as the St. Louis Jesuits. Their domination, perhaps together with a few other composers, of the music scene has not left much room for others. (I note in my hymn book that 80% of the music was written by the same 6-8 people.)

It may be that there aren't a lot of women hymn composers out there, for whatever reason. In any case, there is no formal restriction against women writing music. The key is getting parishes to use it, and publishers to publish it.

Eric

Hello Friend,

I am a music director for a Catholic Church and I think I can clarify some things for you. Generally, music does have to be approved, inasmuch as it is of a sacred character and appropriate for liturgy; sometimes there are instructions or guidelines issued from Rome and disseminated by the Bishops committee for Divine Worship.

Here is one of recent posting:

On August 8, 2008, Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Divine Worship, announced a new Vatican directive regarding the use of the name of God in the sacred liturgy. Specifically, the word Yahweh may no longer be used or pronounced in songs and prayers during liturgical celebrations.

This particular decree has to do with sensitivity to our Jewish friends who, for traditional reasons, consider it an abuse of the name of God to utter it, so songs with that Name in it will be modified. That is just one example of how the Vatican may be involved in impacting the local church.

The Priest of the local church usually has final say on what may or may not be included in the liturgies he leads where there is question of appropriateness.

Finally, there is an abundance of music from both men and women. Nowhere is there a restriction on the gender of the composer. If you have found a preponderance of male authored music, it is simply because men have dominated the profession for the greater part of history.

• Can you think of ten women classical composers in under a minute?

On the other hand, I bet you can think of ten or twenty male composers without difficulty.

Happily, more and more women have made their contributions to the sacred music collections and we enjoy using their music often.

Peace,

Bob Kirby