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The Liturgical Music Answer Book helps parish liturgical music committees
study the liturgical music documents of the church, discover the appropriate ways
to choose music for the liturgy, and operate with confidence in their ministry
as liturgical musicians. The convenient question-and-answer format
makes this material quickly accessible to busy liturgical musicians.
From the basic, “Why do we sing at Mass?” to the practical,
“What is the best way to introduce a new song?” to the specific,
“Why are seat cushions bad for liturgical music?” — music committees will find
satisfying answers to their liturgical music questions. Make sure every music director,
song leader, and choir member gets a copy!
This book is also available as part of a special
"Answer Book" set of four books
Quantity discount pricing (each):
6-9 copies $9.95
10 – 19 copies $8.95
20 – 29 copies $6.95
30 – 49 copies $5.95
50+ copies $4.95
Table of Contents
Groundwork Questions
1. What is liturgical music?
2. Why did Vatican II emphasize that the people should be singing?
3. I have heard the terms “sacred music” and “liturgical music.”
Is there a difference?
The Music Ministry
4. What is the role of the cantor?
5. What is the role of the liturgical choir director?
6. What is the role of the choir?
7. What is the role of the organist?
8. Who leads the assembly in song—the organist (or pianist), the
choir director, or the cantor?
Basic Instruments of the Liturgy
9. Why is the organ the “primary instrument” in the liturgy? Or
is it?
10. Do we have to use the organ at all?
11. Nobody plays the organ in our parish. What should we do?
12. Which other instruments are appropriate to facilitate the
song of the assembly?
13. Can we use the piano to accompany hymns when we have no organist?
14. What kind of piano should the church have?
15. How can I help our committee purchase a new piano?
16. Sometimes the piano arrangement for a song or hymn is too
hard. I can make up my own accompaniment to music the assembly sings, can’t
I?
Implementing Liturgical Music
17. How can we get the assembly to sing well?
18. How does a liturgical music leader organize a parish repertoire?
19. I’ve heard there is a way to use hymn tunes with various texts.
How do I do that?
20. What is the best way to introduce a new hymn at Mass?
21. What is the best way to introduce a new song that is not a
hymn?
22. What parts of the Mass do we have to sing?
23. What does it mean that we should use the musical, liturgical,
and pastoral judgment to choose music for the liturgy?
24. Some of us think we can practice before Mass, but others say
we shouldn’t. What should musicians do before the Mass begins?
25. Is it appropriate for the cantor to ask the assembly to welcome
the priest, lectors, and communion ministers before the liturgy begins
or to invite the assembly to “... help me greet Father N. with our opening
hymn, N.?”
26. Sometimes the song or hymn we choose for a procession in the
liturgy goes longer than the procession. For example, should the gathering
song or hymn stop when the priest arrives at the chair?
27. What are the processions in the liturgy?
28. Should we sing the Lord Have Mercy?
29. Why do we sometimes say and sometimes sing the Gloria?
30. What do you do when you’ve planned to lead a sung Gloria but
during Mass Father forgets?
31. Why do we sing the psalm?
32. How should the psalm be sung?
33. We can’t understand the words of the responsorial psalm when
the cantor or choir sings. What can we do?
34. Do we have to sing the assigned responsorial psalm every Sunday?
35. Are we supposed to sing the Easter and Pentecost sequences?
36. Are we supposed to sing the Gospel verse every time we sing
the Gospel Alleluia?
37. Should we sing the prayers of the faithful?
38. Who sings the prayers of the faithful?
39. Do we have to sing the Holy at every Mass?
40. We want to do the latest setting of a sung eucharistic prayer.
How do we get the priest to sing?
41. How should we choose acclamations for the eucharistic prayer—the
Holy, memorial acclamation, and Amen?
42. Is it okay to teach a new Holy, memorial acclamation, and
Amen to the assembly by rote? We don’t have the new music in our hymnal.
43. Can a singer or choir group solo the Lord’s Prayer?
44. Why does our liturgy director want us to sing the Lamb of
God?
45. How should we sing the Lamb of God?
46. What is the communion rite?
47. How do musicians help the rites in the communion rite to connect?
48. The way we move from any one part of the liturgy can be either
graceful or jarring. How can I help the musicians and priests to understand
how the liturgy flows from one rite to the next?
49. At which point in the communion rite should the musicians
share in communion?
50. We quit scheduling vocal music during communion because the
people don’t sing anyway. We’ve been told that is wrong. Why?
51. Can we sing a Holy in Latin for a meditation piece after communion?
52. At the neighboring parish, there is no song for the people
to sing at the end of Mass. Isn’t that improper?
Questions from Choir Leaders and Members
53. I am a volunteer choir director and I want to learn more about
what is appropriate to do in the post-Vatican II liturgy. Where do I begin?
Are there any summer programs to form me for liturgical music?
54. Our new pastor and new music director are making us change
how we do music to “conform to the church documents on the liturgy.” How
can we prepare ourselves for a discussion with them?
55. I am a volunteer choir director. How can I get choir members
who tend to mumble to sing with clarity and confidence?
56. How can we get more people in the choir? We make announcements
but no one comes.
57. When can the choir sing without the assembly?
58. Why can’t we sing Christmas carols during Advent?
59. Is it all right to photocopy extra copies of music for the
choir, especially if our parish is “poor”?
60. Why does our choir director cringe when I call the people
in church “the audience”?
61. We want to turn up the sound system so everyone can hear us.
Can a music group ever have the sound system turned up too loud?
62. Our guitar player wrote lots of music for Mass. She put together
a hymn book of the words to all the songs she wrote, but why does the liturgy
director say we can’t use only her songs at Mass?
63. Why can’t our folk ensemble use popular songs we hear on the
radio or on the Gospel rock station during the Mass?
64. Why do the words of our hymns or songs have to be based on
Scripture or on the Mass texts?
65. As a choir member, how can I learn more about how to read
music?
66. We feel pressure to learn a new piece of music each week.
How can we overcome this pressure?
Questions from Pastors and Pastoral Leaders
67. What can I do to help form our parish musicians as ministers?
68. Should the choir or ensemble sing from the balcony or from
up front?
69. We don’t have hymnals. Is it legal to print just the words
of songs for the assembly?
70. When I schedule cantors, is it okay to schedule a different
person every week?
71. When the cantor is out of town, why can’t we skip having music
at Mass that day?
72. The people are complaining that our cantor sounds like an
opera singer and sings too high. What can I do?
73. Sometimes the music director chooses music I consider inappropriate.
How can I give feedback in a helpful manner?
74. We have a “guitar Mass,” an “organ and choir Mass,” and a
“piano Mass.” How can we celebrate our parish unity with three different
kinds of music?
75. How do we determine what is good music for children’s liturgies?
76. Why can’t our university choir sing choir songs during Mass?
77. Our renovation committee wants to replace our antique electric
organ and our spinet piano with a grand piano. Is this appropriate? Do
we need an organ anymore?
78. Why is it bad to carpet the church floor?
Paying Liturgical Music Directors
79. Why do we have to pay someone to do music for Mass? Why can’t
we use volunteers?
80. What does a liturgical music director do?
81. Our parish liturgy committee recommends that the parish hire
a full-time music director. What benefit is there in hiring a director?
82. How do we interview candidates for the position of director
of liturgical music?
83. Are there any guidelines for what to pay a liturgical music
director?
Questions from the Assembly
84. Who chooses the music for Sunday Mass—the organist, Father,
the choir director?
85. Why do we have to learn so much new music?
86. Why does our cantor make us learn a new psalm response every
week?
87. When our choir sings, we like them so much we just listen
to them. If we like the choir, why can’t we just listen?
88. Can’t we use a Marian hymn at every Mass?
89. Why does my neighbor’s parish sing different music from my
parish?
90. Do we have to sing at funerals?
91. Why don’t we sing Gregorian chant like on the popular tapes
and CDs?
92. Can we use pre-recorded music during the liturgy?
93. Protestant churches have prelude music before their services.
Is that a good idea for Catholics?
94. What ever happened to the silent Mass or low Mass?
Many Cultures, One Mass
95. Father and the musicians are making us sing Spanish songs
once in a while because some Spanish-speaking families moved into the parish.
Why can’t the Spanish-speaking people sing English songs with us?
96. What is inculturation in the liturgy?
97. What does inculturation have to do with liturgical music?
98. What is meant by cross-cultural music?
99. How can the liturgical musician plan a liturgy in which the
members of the assembly speak three or four different languages?
100. Why should we bother to do music of other cultures?
101. Can the liturgy and liturgical music really convert people?
Annotated Bibliography
Index
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