Sharing some tips from Prof. Jennifer Donelson-Nowika, founding director of the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music, and pointing you to some helpful resources
Hi, Roseanne! The choice of sacred music is an issue that applies to
more than just Catholicism. For example, I have heard straight-up
African-American gospel music in Jewish religious services and also
religious texts sung to the tune of popular songs -- Leonard Cohen's
"Hallelujah" tune has been trending lately.
Anyway, my only suggestion for you, based on my study of music history,
is to check out the Medieval masses based on "L'Homme Armé," which was a
popular song at the time, about a highwayman (talk about "bad people
doing bad things"!). Per Wikipdeia, "over 40 separate compositions
entitled Missa L'homme armé survive from the period." Using popular
songs in sacred music is way older than Vatican II.
I replied:
Dear Cousin-in-Law,
Thanks for your comments, from a Ph.D. in Music, no less. I'm delighted you are reading my Substack articles.
L’Homme Armé must have a catchy melody. It sure caught the attention of 40+ composers, and it looks like composing Masses using that tune became a kind of fad.
The issue I’m discussing in this article is not that popular tunes are being used in sacred music.
It is an issue in other articles I’ve written, when the dumbed-down sometimes even heretical hymns used at most Masses after Vatican II were set to dumbed-down melodies. And hymns, often banal ones, replaced the singing of the actual words of the Mass. I wrote about that in "Propers of the Mass vs. The Five Hymn Sandwich" here: https://roseannetsullivan.substack.com/p/propers-of-the-mass-vs-the-four-hymn
Did you ever hear that a lot of traditional musicians have made a lot of fun of one Mass setting written after Vatican II that sounds a lot like the music for My Little Pony? Here's a link to a post about it.
BTW, I was amused when I saw a video one time showing the secular songs that Handel reused the melodies from in his Messiah. The secular song was played next to the song from the oratorio, and the identity of the tunes was undeniable.
My discussion in this article is about how to help get the kind of music into your local Masses that the Church teaches is fitting for the liturgy.
From email Jun 8, 2025, at 12:47 PM:
Hi, Roseanne! The choice of sacred music is an issue that applies to
more than just Catholicism. For example, I have heard straight-up
African-American gospel music in Jewish religious services and also
religious texts sung to the tune of popular songs -- Leonard Cohen's
"Hallelujah" tune has been trending lately.
Anyway, my only suggestion for you, based on my study of music history,
is to check out the Medieval masses based on "L'Homme Armé," which was a
popular song at the time, about a highwayman (talk about "bad people
doing bad things"!). Per Wikipdeia, "over 40 separate compositions
entitled Missa L'homme armé survive from the period." Using popular
songs in sacred music is way older than Vatican II.
I replied:
Dear Cousin-in-Law,
Thanks for your comments, from a Ph.D. in Music, no less. I'm delighted you are reading my Substack articles.
L’Homme Armé must have a catchy melody. It sure caught the attention of 40+ composers, and it looks like composing Masses using that tune became a kind of fad.
The issue I’m discussing in this article is not that popular tunes are being used in sacred music.
It is an issue in other articles I’ve written, when the dumbed-down sometimes even heretical hymns used at most Masses after Vatican II were set to dumbed-down melodies. And hymns, often banal ones, replaced the singing of the actual words of the Mass. I wrote about that in "Propers of the Mass vs. The Five Hymn Sandwich" here: https://roseannetsullivan.substack.com/p/propers-of-the-mass-vs-the-four-hymn
Did you ever hear that a lot of traditional musicians have made a lot of fun of one Mass setting written after Vatican II that sounds a lot like the music for My Little Pony? Here's a link to a post about it.
https://www.ccwatershed.org/2014/08/27/dan-schutte-mass-of-christ-the-savior-2/
BTW, I was amused when I saw a video one time showing the secular songs that Handel reused the melodies from in his Messiah. The secular song was played next to the song from the oratorio, and the identity of the tunes was undeniable.
My discussion in this article is about how to help get the kind of music into your local Masses that the Church teaches is fitting for the liturgy.
Thanks for writing. It’s good to hear from you.