Catholic Mass Music

I did mention a few posts ago that I thought some of the music at the PAPAL Mass in Washington sounded like it belonged in a nightclub.  Some have commented that the music at that Mass reflected the diversity of liturgical music at American Catholic Masses.  Since I nearly always attend Mass at my own Catholic Church I thought hmmmm, maybe my knowledge of American liturgical music is limited.

Yesterday, I attended Mass in a different city.  The music was led by a clearly very talented pianist playing a Steinway grand piano.   Much of the music was good music and clearly focused toward the Lord.  But there was something troubling about it.  There was a lot of jazzed up, improv-type embellishment to the melody.  It was actually very lovely.  But it did not feel reverent.  I can appreciate a lot of different kinds of music.  It was not that this music was not my cup of tea.  It did have a sound that seemed more typical for a nightclub than a church.  Had someone jumped up and done a tap dance or a soft shoe kind of dance routine in front of the altar, it would not have seemed MUSICALLY inappropriate with this kind of music as the backdrop.  That's the problem.  

Although it was pretty music, and even though the lyrics were reverent and directed toward God, it somehow seemed to trivialize what was happening at the Mass.  The gravity, the enormous beauty, the unfathomable miracle that occurs in the Mass requires music that is similarly serious.  I think that seriousness can be expressed in different styles of music.  I am not one that thinks reverence can't be expressed with a guitar.  But if the effect of the music is more that your toes feel like tapping than that your soul is turned lovingly toward your creator, then, in my opinion, the purpose of the music in that liturgy has been lost.