Milwaukee Catholic Herald

NAPM convention held in Milwaukee

No right, wrong in liturgical music's style, says Fr. Joncas

By Amy Guckeen
Special to the Catholic Herald

MILWAUKEE — It can cause noses to wrinkle in disgust or it can create an environment more conducive to worship. Some pieces remind happy couples of their wedding day, others bring tears to one’s eye at the recollection of a funeral Mass. It is a vital, necessary, and integral part of the Mass. It is the music.

While music can enhance or detract from a prayerful experience for one person, musicians are finding it impossible to make everyone happy, for a full-fledged style war is occurring in the Catholic Church.

“I believe any style of music may potentially bear the weight of mystery unless proven wrong in practice,” said Fr. J. Michael Joncas in a plenum address on style differences to those attending the National Pastoral Musicians Conference June 29.

Fr. Joncas stressed to the crowd that despite people’s different opinions on style — whether they prefer the more traditional hymns or contemporary songs — there is no right or wrong answer to which style is better. Rather, it is more about the words than how a musician is to sing it.

“We spend most of our time worrying about the tones we produce, not grappling with the texts we sing,” said Fr. Joncas, an associate professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. “People will ask questions about the texts we sing, not about the notes we sing. You have got to look at the words. Was I captivated by the music or by what the music was singing about?”

Fr. Joncas, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis, noted that these differences in opinion are not a new thing, but rather have been around for hundreds of years, back to the time of Thomas Aquinas. Nor was it about whether or not to chant a song or to use a contemporary setting, but whether music in itself should be used or not.

“The praise of the voice is necessary to arouse devotion towards God,” said Fr. Joncas, quoting Aquinas.

While the church has appeared to have come to an agreement that music is a necessary and integral part of the Mass, the style disagreement has continued and will continue. But Fr. Joncas pointed out some main ideas that all styles should follow.

“The basis for liking or disliking a particular style of music depends on so much,” he said.

This liking or disliking can vary from person to person, through their own musical tastes and past experiences with music in the Mass. A parish must find out through experience what its parishioners prefer.

“Through experience, we will find out which form actually leads our parish into common prayer,” said Fr. Joncas.

Music can either detract or lead people into a deeper form of prayer in the Mass, therefore the choice of musical style for any particular parish is very important, he noted.

These differences in musical style, he said, are very apparent in churches across the United States. While some parishes prefer to sit and quietly sing along with the hymns, others find themselves moving their entire body and clapping along to the beat, praising with their whole body and mind. In a parish that is used to clapping and loudly singing, it would not be appropriate to sing a more reserved selection of music.

Fr. Joncas said that there will always be a disagreement about style.

Rather than fight about whether traditional or contemporary pieces are more appropriate, music directors and parishes across the country should be more concerned about the text, and about the prayer.