Make Church Music Great Again

Mr Holdsworth discusses Church music. I agree it needs to be made great again. It is the only thing that upsets me about Mass at St Wenceslaus. The preaching is Catholic, the Mass is celebrated reverently and according to the rubrics. There are no acolettes or blue haired EMHCs, but the music! 90% of the time its syrupy, unsingable 1970s and '80s 'music' of questionable orthodoxy, or it's reasonably orthodox, but of protestant origin.

His introduction, again, a loose transcript:

The debate about what is appropriate for music at Sunday worship has raged for decades and as it has, many people and communities have adopted novelties and new approaches without waiting for it to be resolved. Since I’m not a theologian or a liturgist, I don’t think I can break new ground in that aspect of the debate, but I do think I can provide some insight using an analogy that speaks to something I do have some experience in which is filmmaking. Some filmmakers will start exploring the question of musical accompaniment for their films before they even begin to shoot or edit the film. Music is so significant in setting the tone and pace of a film that it needs to align with the vision for the film from the very beginning. It can make or break the effectiveness of a film’s ability to capture the emotional investment of an audience. When it comes to Sunday worship, we should be choosing and composing music that is appropriate and reflective of what’s happening in front of us; which begs the question: what is happening? Well, Sunday worship is about growing in our faith by hearing the word of God and then by commemorating and recreating the Lord’s supper. The last supper was this moment in history in which Jesus fused the profound meaning of the sacrifice of the Passover lamb with the sacrifice of his own life which would release not just a people from slavery, but the entire world from sin and death. This is arguably the most important moment in all of human history as Jesus establishes this ritual that signifies the incredibly heartrending sacrifice that he would make. This is the drama that unfolds for us on Sunday. With that in mind, can we ask ourselves what kind of music should accompany this drama? If I was trying to capture the essence of this drama like a filmmaker, I would use music is stirring, troubling, epic, and intensely spiritual. It should be anything but light hearted and trivial. So if you’re a music leader or a song writer, let’s aim higher. Let’s produce music that is worthy of the drama that unfolds for us every Sunday.