In previous statements I have said that the recent body of “folk music” that has been introduced at, or composed for, Mass is too often not pure as folk music.

On the contrary, it is watered-down folk music that imitates music produced in the secular world under the influence of American pop commercialism.

Evidence of cheap worldly influence is that this church music can use for accompaniment nothing more than a soft rock beat for everything. (I use the word “cheap” in a very literal sense with regard to music. I mean that no money is being spent to have better music.)

The point of this writing will be that it is much more desirable to have no music at all at Mass than to have a Mass with music marked by the worldly commercialism I have described elsewhere.

The Second Vatican Council called for the liturgy set in the languages of the nations and the “music of the people” at Mass. The term folk music is synonymous with “music of the people.”

In the current practice of music in the Church in America, the musical categories of Masses are: folk or guitar mass, traditional or choir mass, Hispanic Mass with Hispanic music or Mass with no music. Choir Mass is the most likely to have traditional hymns, chant or great serious music included, and guitar Mass is the most likely to have newly written pieces and pieces accompanied by the soft rock beat. Spanish Mass has lately become pop influenced and it also may have plenty of the soft rock beat or it may acquire fiesta-like music, including the fast waltz and the polka. (I have discussed Spanish-Mass music in a previous article.) There is also the possibility of having a Latin Mass with Gregorian chant and very traditional hymns — but these are comparatively rare — and I will hold these exempt from the discussion that follows.

The musical content of each category seems to shift, and certain musical numbers can move between them as they become more and more known by parishioners. The divisions between choir Mass and guitar Mass are increasingly blurred, mostly in favor of popular numbers found at guitar Mass.

Regardless of the blurring of borderlines between the above categories, it would be well to ask a question: Which of the above possibilities, in regard to church music, is most compatible with the spirit and mission of the Gospels: to have fine art music at Mass (chant, great old hymns, music by the great composers), to have very genuine and good folk music, to have no music at Mass, or to have weak music marked by worldly commercialism at Mass?

Of the choices presented by this question, only one is clearly not in the spirit of the Gospels: weak music marked by worldly commercialism. To have no music at Mass is far better.

There is much to be said these days in favor of leaving it out. The Catholic world has always placed a value on silence and the ability to meditate so that one may “have ears to hear.” It is often said that the Mass is prayer. And yet today there are many souls, aware of beauty in the arts, who are distracted from prayer and alienated by what they understand to be weak or inappropriate music at Mass.

They can no longer trust that choir Mass will be a haven for them — because the borders have been blurred and they will likely be disturbed at choir Mass, too.

We ought to remember that, in a Mass with no musicians, there is still musicality. When the priest intones any part of the Mass, music is present. Moreover, poetry itself has music in it, and to the extent that the liturgy is poetic or even quasi-poetic, it possesses a sublime music of language — poetry.

With no music at Mass, the parish takes on two virtues — poverty and humility.

Perhaps a Mass without music has the effect of a humble admission of the real situation in the church: that there is no money to spend on music, everything that is done has become cheap — requiring no exceptional training or accomplishment — and so it is better to be humble and admit this.

Such a realistic and humble attitude admits that, these days, it is better for a significant number of people to have the noble experience of the liturgy alone — without music — than to have weak music as a distraction.

Webster Young is a

classical music composer.

WebsterYoungLinks.com.