Sunday, 23 March 2014

Chuck out the chintz


With all the excitement (?) about a new Archbishop here in Liverpool diocese last week I almost missed a little snippet on the Bishops' Conference website reminding us that this coming Pentecost is the end of the period of grace allowing the old English translations for musical setting of the Mass to be used. From Pentecost all musical settings in English must conform to the new translation.  I'm sure those parishes who have been behind the times in moving over to these will be putting lots of effort into keeping up with the times and chucking out all those rather dowdy chintzy old 1970's melodies.
"The Bishops of England and Wales have fixed the end date of the transitional period for implementing music in the new translation of the Roman Missal which was introduced in 2011. As from Pentecost Sunday, 8 June 2014 only settings of the Ordinary of the Mass using the new translation are permitted to be sung at Mass. Settings using the previous translation or paraphrased texts may no longer be used in our parishes, schools and communities."

A quick search on You Tube will give you a great many examples. This one below is an example of settings which were not faithful even to the old translation!



After that you may need something more uplifting.  So the simplest thing is just to learn the Mass in its "proper" setting and then the words never change. This setting seems to have lasted for a few years.  Not chintzy at all - more noble simplicity!

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5 comments:

  1. Simon Platt23 March 2014 at 20:29

    Not a good analogy, Father.

    Chintz corresponds closely to tradition and to authenticity. Contrariwise, the deplorable fashion that is represented by Ikea and all its works will rightly be judged by posterity to be no more than a late 20th-century abbaration.

    I rather like chintz.

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  2. Fr Simon Henry24 March 2014 at 07:29

    I think you must be getting chintz confused with shabby-chic, that faded country house look, Simon! As you might imagine, I don't do much shopping at IKEA.

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  3. Simon Platt24 March 2014 at 18:45

    Not at all, Father. After all, who could possibly object to such beauty as this?

    http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=chintz

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  4. Clement26 March 2014 at 08:42

    So sad you contrasted the singing/music of youngsters with that of whoever it was. Unforgiveable!

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  5. Simon Platt29 March 2014 at 21:15

    Dear Clement,

    I think you'll find it is forgivable.

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