If you’re interested in musicianship, aural skills, and ear training, most of the practice you do probably revolves around listening to sounds. Whether you use individual notes, chords, rhythmic parts, complex timbres, or practise active listening in real music, you probably spend your training time listening. As well you should!
But perhaps we’re forgetting a complementary part of developing our ears for music?
Claude Debussy said that music is in the space between the notes, and it’s important to remember that silence can be just as important as music.
Silent Adoration
In the midst of a week filled with all kinds of exciting music, most of it new to me, I went for the first time to an “adoration of the blessed sacrament” service. Though I was raised Catholic, this is a part of the Catholic tradition I’d never really come into contact with before. The service started with some prayers spoken together, the sacrament was presented at the altar, and then for the rest of about an hour we simply knelt and prayed. In silence.
This was a marked change from the rest of the services during the week which were lively, musical and generally full of youthful exuberance. We simply knelt, and prayed, in silence.
That’s not to say that the world was silent around us.
This is part three in a series of posts on music in the Catholic Church. Part one covered my background and experience of Church music growing up and part two looked at the modern “happy clappy” style of church music.
Last time I was fairly critical of the upbeat poppy style of church music which sometimes seems like the only alternative to dirge-like traditional hymns, acknowledging that it’s a style of music which certainly appeals to some people but just doesn’t jibe well with my notion of what music should bring to the mass.
I wanted to add a corollary to that, however, which will then lead on some more positive posts on musical options in the modern church.
Everything in moderation
On the pilgrimage I took part in this summer there was a terrific music group, organised by one of the nuns who was with us (who, I might add, were a far cry from the black-and-white picture of a nun you might have in your head! Another eye-opening part of the trip for me…)
They led the music at the Westminster group services we had during the week. Some of these were masses in local churches, others were simple informal gatherings for prayer. The music was guitar led, with various simple rhythmic ‘shaker’ instruments among other members of the group. If you’ve read my previous post, you won’t be surprised to hear I was slightly apprehensive to see what the music would be like!
I recently had the opportunity to attend the enormous World Youth Day event in Madrid: a gathering of 1.5 million young Catholics from all over the world, joining together to express their faith, celebrate their religion and show support for the church and its leader, Pope Benedict XVI.
Despite the coverage in the UK media focusing mainly on the few thousand protestors, the city was absolutely dominated by positive youthful energy and exuberance, and it was truly a wonderful thing to be a part of. I loved seeing the city alive and loud, and people sharing and interacting in a way you never get on the streets of London. Such a spirit of joy and friendliness in people, with all their defenses down. To a born-and-bred Londoner like myself, accustomed to the buttoned-up “every man for himself” attitude so prevalent in big cities, it was a strikingly different and uplifting atmosphere.
Did you notice I said loud?
The occupation of Madrid was not a quiet, respectful, peaceful one. Far from it! The streets and public transport of central Madrid were alive in conversation and greetings (¡Hola!), but even more so with song and chant, in a huge variety of languages.
My name's Christopher Sutton and this is my personal blog. You can learn more about me