Evangelical protestants have all the best tunes! No doubt about it! From Charles Wesley and the Methodists, through "Amazing Grace" and "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross", (anything by Isaac Watts, really), right up to today and the beautiful Vineyard and Hillsong tunes.

Must be something about assurance of salvation causes the heart to sing . Anybody care to argue ?

Stephen, how much sacred music from the Catholic Tradition do you know? There's a lot of good stuff there as well.

Check out Sacred Music Preserved
- http://www.sacred-music.org/

Sacred Music Preserved offers streaming audio of great sacred, inspirational and gospel music mostly from the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. SMP audio works for dial-up and broadband listeners, and the audio player you already use will probably work just fine. SMP is streaming only, no MP3 downloads - sorry!
- from the web site

Lots of good stuff there, for sure.

How much does anyone know?

These hymns (and some of the modern songs) have entered the collective consciousness in such a powerful way, so that "Amazing Grace" for example has become a standard in bars and clubs and so forth throughout the world, even topping the charts in the early 70s. Right enough, there was that singing French nun who had a hit with her acoustic guitar and a couple of tra la las.

Just kidding here! My ears are open to all sorts - Catholic, Protestant, Outer Mongolian shamanic throat singing! I love a bit of Hindustani raga in the evening. You just can't really sing along with it.

Gregorian chants (hear it in a monastery if you can!). Johan Sebastian Bach. Chants of the Orthodox church. Some of the divinely beautiful music of contemporary composer Arvo P�rt...

True sacred music seems to transcend denomination.

Ah, might I add the Qawwali (Sufi devotional music) of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan � one of the greatest male singers of sacred music of the 20th century.

And he wasn�t even Christian! So much for denomination.
God did not build the fences that we perceive.

Yes! to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Also the Sabri Brothers, wild glorious Qawwali stars!

And check out the English composer John Tavener, very much influenced by his Orthodox spirituality. They sang "Song to Athene" at Princess Diana's funeral. Wonderful.

I think the point I was trying to make was that evangelical music has had more impact on popular imagination, perhaps because of the nature of evangelicalism. Although I suppose the religious music of Bach and guys like that was just as popular in its time.

A few classical Catholic sacred music:

Gregorian chant, as HP has noted:

Also . . .
Holy God We Praise Thy Name
All Creatures of Our God and King
What Wondrous Love is This
Praise the Lord from Whom All Blessings Flow
Crown Him With Many Crowns
O Sacred Head Surrounded
Faith of Our Fathers
Jesus Christ is Risen Today
Alleluia, Sing to Jesus
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Come Holy Ghost
O God of Loveliness
Jesus Thou Art Coming
Panis Angelecus
Soul of My Savior
Salve Regina
Ave Maria (numerous)
Hail Queen of Heaven
All Glory Laud and Honor
- and many more
- see http://www.homestead.com/MidiHymns/MidiIndex.html for midi renditions. I'm sure you'll recognize some of these. I find they still stir the soul to praise and adoration.

I also like many of the post-Vatican II artists:
- Dameans, St. Louis Jesuits, Michael Joncas, Marty Haugen, David Haas, Jeanne Cotter, Rory Cooney, for example.

Okay Phil, point taken . Actually, I didn't know some of these have Catholic origin. "Crown Him with Many Crowns" is a surprise. I've been singing that since I was a kid, and if some of the Brethern churches I was brought up in knew of its Catholic roots there would be hell to pay .

Obviously, pieces like Ave Maria and Panis Angelicus have as much popular appeal as any of the evangelical hymns I mentioned. Amazing Grace vs Ave Maria would be quite a sing song ding dong .

Keep on singing, shalom!

Stephen.

- BTW I once saw some footage of Pavarotti singing Panis Angelicus with his father in Rome. Beautiful! Pavarotti senior had quite a voice too!

quote:

Originally posted by Stephen:
...I think the point I was trying to make was that evangelical music has had more impact on popular imagination...

Popular imagination? Heaven forbid!

quote:

Originally posted by Stephen:
[qb] . . .Keep on singing, shalom!
[/qb]

Amen, brother Stephen.

I think I agree with you Stephen, all these other artists and songs might stir the hearts of older believers, but the songs of Protestantism, especially evangelical/charismatic type protestantism are certainly the crowd drawers throughout the world. imo of course

My all time favorite is "I Am The Bread of Life". Not sure though if it was written by a Catholic. All I know is that we sang it at prayer meeeting years ago, and it is still sung sometimes at Mass for the Communion hymn. Just something about that song really stirs my soul.

Katy

Generally, traditional Catholic hymns were addressed TO and ABOUT God, in a spirit of praise, worship and intercession.

Generally, Protestant hymns have seemed to be about what God has done for me/us, and so they're somewhat evangelical, in spirit. They intend to give witness as much as to worship -- maybe more. Amazing Grace is a prime example of this.

Since Vatican II, a lot of Catholic hymns have taken to the first person role, speaking not TO God, but AS God. "I Am the Bread of Life" is a good example. So are hymns like "Be Not Afraid" and "On Eagle's Wings." The congregation sings God's words, emphasizing that they, the community, are an embodiment of divine presence. It could also be construed as something of a meditation on these words, only you can see the shift from the traditional approach. "I Am the Bread of Life" (a beautiful hymn indeed) has replaced "Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All" as a commonly sung Communion hymn.

Why Catholics Can't Sing addresses this shift, and the author isn't much in favor of it. It's a fun read, however . . . will certainly provoke reflection.

quote:

"Liturgical post-modernism," according to Day, has resulted in noisy and forced participation from the laity, and encourages a church-wide narcissism that is a serious threat to individuals as well as the institution. No mere nay-sayer, Day makes positive suggestions for nurturing the latent vitality he perceives in the American Catholic community. This is an informative, insightful and entertaining critique.

The reader comments are all over the place, and fun to read, as well.

There's been a distinct move towards a direct worship of God in the songs of evangelical churches which springs from the charismatic movement but is filtering into mainstream evangelicalism. Songs like "Shout to the Lord", "Jesus, We Enthrone You", "Majesty" have become standards. They feel like psalms of praise and borrow heavily from the phraseology of the Book of Psalms, and are very condusive to worship.

For reasons I won't go into, I find myslf in an evangelical church which is struggling to enter the 21st century. The music is played by two old women at an organ and piano and they don't quite have a feel for the modern songs. At the weekend, however, I found myself leading(?) the worship with my guitar and everyone seemed to enjoy it. The move towards a more direct worship of God is pretty important. I would love to see a shift in emphasis away from the what-God-has-done-for-me, rather narrow view of salvation expounded by evangelicals, to a fuller, rounder, more complete experience of God and His Presence - communion with God, union with the Saviour, true and living fellowship - and I think worship, where one is immersed in the Presence and Glory of God, is key to this.

Again I hear your "move towards a direct worship of God in the songs of evanglical churches which springs from the charismatic movement". I attend a vineyard church, and I LOVE the intimate worship that happens through the singing of Love songs to God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The focus has definetely shifted from songs about what God has done too who God is and who we are in relation to Him and how much we Love Him.

I think the Hillsongs type music still emphasizes the "what God has done for us" and this style doesn't really produce the same kind of intimate worship and connection as the other.