HIS MORNING, I stumbled upon a frightening disclosure by a popular Catholic composer who shall remain nameless. He admitted in a public statement that his sacred music compositions were attempts to copy John Denver. He also confessed that he knew nothing about music theory and “just wanted to play my guitar at church.” Surely something like this will demoralize us, right? No, it won’t—let us remember that serious Catholics will always desire authentic, holy, dignified music. No matter how many people imitate John Denver on the guitar in our churches, legitimate composers like Palestrina and Victoria will always be cherished by serious people. Period. 1
When we discover people replacing the traditional Catholic music with poor imitations of John Denver, we must find the courage to say: “Not in my church.”
Let me demonstrate such love still exists:
The following beautiful piece by Lorenzo Perosi (d. 1956) was sung by participants of the 2017 Symposium, conducted by Dr. Horst Buchholz.
Sign up for Sacred Music Symposium 2018.
Don’t miss your opportunity to deepen your knowledge of authentic Roman Catholic music!
Come meet friendly Catholics who desire to worship Almighty God with dignified music!
NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:
1 For more on this, read about “the worm that dieth not” here and here.
