It has come to my attention that on Sunday 31 May of this year – Pentecost Sunday – that the Pope's Mass in Rome will be an orchestral setting of a Mass by Franz Joseph Haydn. Now so may say that we should not care what the Roman Catholics do, but I do care very much.
How often do we as Lutherans present a Sunday worship service with genuinely special music? I am not talking about lessons and carols commonly done during Advent or Christmas nor hymn festivals – both which are valuable and good. Nor am I devaluing the quality of the music performed in weekly anthems or voluntaries. However, what I am really talking about is a choral Mass or a cantata, something substantial musically which can link us to our theo-musical background as Christians. So many of the works of Bach, Buxtehude and the like are seen by some as too hard for the parish choir to perform. A mass by Palestrina or Haydn suffer the same fate. Why is this? Why can't we have good music in the Church? The reality is that we can, even if it is hard. See – if the Pope asks for good music, he gets good music. So too can we in the parish, we only have to ask for it.
Ask yourself what is the quality of music you want in your parish. I do believe that we all want the best for God and so we want the best music. If we give good musicians in the parish the power to give God good music and we do demand it of them, we are on the path to better music. It won't happen overnight, but can we not strive to someday have a Bach cantata performed once a month or a choral setting of the Mass sung a all the festivals of the year? I think it can. I comes back to us giving the power to good musicians and demanding good music.
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