to believe or not to believe

annie dillard writes in FOR THE TIME BEING-

An English journalist, observing the Sisters of Charity in Calcutta, reasoned: "Either life is always and in all circumstances sacred, or intrinsically of no account; it is inconceivable that it should be in some cases the one, and in some the other."

i begin this post with this quote as a response to my viewing last night of a three part program aired by PBS...i watched the last installment

jonathan miller is a thinker and writer whom i have come to respect over the years
he hosted this program and to my sense
used it as a milieux for his serious expression of atheism
the program was sponsored by
the Humanist Fund
and other organizations which promote the human program

without going into the details of the program
and in fact i only viewed the final show
i can say that it was a rather typical modern argument
against the rise of christian fundamentalism (and religious fundametalism in general) and
an "apology" for the "enlightened" thought which came out of
19th century europe
based as it were
on the thinking of thomas paine jeremy bentham sigmund freud
percy bysshe shelley
but finding it's fullest expression in the "positivist" thought of france
with auguste comte' as the primary prophet

i am trying to focus my thoughts here

i will focus on the "ideas" stated by jonathan miller
and not so much on the various strands of atheism
which arose and did much to form the cultural malais of the 20th century

miller stated more than once
that he felt no need to believe in a god
he has nodding respect for the lithuanian jewish heritage
of his family
but is content to accept that this life is all there is
and when it is over that is all there is

at one point
in an effort to display some
gentleness in the world of humanist ethics
he visits a hospice and has a chat with
a clear minded elderly woman
who is obviously waiting out her last days on earth
in their conversation
he evokes from her her wish to see herself
as a young girl again
and she maintains a hope that the ecstacy of death
will give her that wish
she submitted to the interview on the condition that her face
not be shown

at another point toward the end of the show
miller confesses that he has some mild anxiety
related to the fear of mental anguish
which might be a part of the death process

but through it all he maintains that
darwins' theory of natural selection
and the description of the evolutionary process
have all but debunked the notions of a divine intelligence
and a "design" in the known natural world
and therefore notions like "fear of god"
"humility before god" "reverence for god"
"awe before god" are nonsensical at best

he has a brief chat with richard dawkins
and with the irish philosopher brian mcginn

thus it is... the humanist doctrine proposes
that accepting the "non-existence" of god
carries with it the obligation to state a whole new
set of principles
including an ethical program and a moral philosophy
with which to deal with social life as we have it
in our world today--
--there is no such thing as the immortal soul
so the problem is confined to matters relating to
the given immediate existence of every human at any given point in time

my sense is always that this then amounts to
a "management program"
using the tools of science and primarily the human sciences
to attend to the many problems ensuing from the
fact of human life in it's many and varied expression in our world

i will state emphatically--
the freedom sought naturally by the human mind
is impossible to attian without giving oneself over to the
discipline of faith
it is a discipline of accepting mercy

another argument miller states more than once
has to do with the historical atrocities stemming from religion
which is more than enough in his and his colleagues minds alive and dead
to completely compromise the energy given over to
a life in faith

he gives little mention to the atrocities
stemming from the rise of atheism the fullblown expressions of last century
hitler's 8 million
lenin and stalin's 20 million
mao tse tung's 50 million
the ransacking and burning of religious houses
all over france and england and germany
and the million's anihilated by abortion in our time
(of course it would be argued that this practice has
given everyone else more room.)

little seems to be understood about the
cultural gifts bestowed upon humanity
by the countless souls devoted to works of faith
from medical care to art to libraries to education for all
and social reform movements to boot ( st francis for instance...
dorothy day....st ignatius of loyola...mother theresa of calcutta)

what do i want to say...in an effort to sum up and counter this position?

for a sceintist and a thinker
my sense is that miller falls short of wisdom
he appears to me to be a victim of the english utilitarian ethos
of decency and common sense
as values sufficient for life
wisdom (in this context) is the accumulaton of knowledge within the
objective efforts of science
one's thinking then is limited to the inspiration from the "facts"

and i would further argue that he conveyed no sympathy
for the efforts to create beauty to give expression to the movements of the heart
nor do many of his cohorts such as dawkins
cristopher hitchins sam harris and the like

to put the "human" at the center of all consideration
is to face continual disappointment

it is as if to say
"who needs bach's solo cello sonatas...we have the work of michael jackson!"

the other aspect that makes me uncomfortable in a world evermore designed
by the humanist ethos is the usurpation of religious intuition by psychology

we are surrounded by the endless babble of people presuming to know human
behaviour and the subtleties of mind and heart
"who needs confession when you can hear oprah winfrey everyday?"
"why bother with prayer...dr phil will address your every need?"
"you've got a problem...there's a self help book or twenty on the shelf for you!"

what most boggles the mind for me
is the ignorance expressed in the apparently
comprehensive remarks of these new humanist thinkers

they are conversant with darwin and freud
but they know precious little of st augustine
they betray no knowledge of thomas aquinas and the
lively tradition which continues into our own day
the philosophical dialectic between faith and reason
where faith can utilize the dictates of reason
reason can be energized by the challenges of faith
they seem to know nothing of jacques maritain
of henri de lubac
of romano guardini
of karol woytila
of hans urs von balthasar
of pierre teilhard de chardin
of joseph marechal
of karl rahner

it is a simple digging in of the philosophical heals
it is a simple "no"
which more or less does away with the considerations of
metaphysics
and thereby must be considered a narrow
and constricting epistemology-
man's intellect sufficient unto itself

it is an ignorance of insights into "mind"
more or less begun by aristotle
--a most useful legacy of thought
which includes a rather honest expression
of humility in the face of the unknown

it seems then that annie dillard hits upon
an essential question
(and i realize belatedly that she is making this case throughout her whole book)
how are we to perceive the human person...be she
deformed...retarded...near death...morally derelict...insane?

either she is a sacred expression of god
or she is intrinsically of no account

how are you going to chose your side?

my ultimate argument tonite has to do with
practicality--
given the stakes
to view the earth with the wonder of a child
seeing a flower for the first time
seems a terrible thing to lose

any science which compromises the "wonder" inherent in everything
from the striations of rock in a cliff
to the markings of a butterfly wing
seems to me a vicious crime

i've thought more than once that it is remarkable
how some give themselves over so readily to
the doctrines of darwin
and this really amounts to an act of faith
no one has witnessed evolution
or natural selection for that matter
this is not a mechanism we can observe
(much damage has come about by attempting
to force the issue of natural selection)
we presume now that it happens all the time
but we do not "see" it
a few scientists have been involved in the "genome"
project and we all seem to be so convinced that
this is the truth happening for us
we give ourselves over in faith
(have you ever seen DNA?)
some do
i do not

and to view human life as anything but sacred
is to give into the arrogance of human manipulation
and manipulation of the natural world
of which it would seem we've encountered enough
in the last century alone
to give us pause

i intend to give my next 5 posts over to the stating
and discussing of the 5 proofs for the existence of god
of my immortal mentor the angelic doctor

a poem by thomas mcgrath

an interesting cyberdiversion

while trying to use the web to learn more about
thomas mcgrath
i happened upon an FBI file site
so i opened that
and immediatly my computer siezed up
so i shut the whole thing down

what follows is a poem by thomas mcgrath
called:
JIG TUNE: NOT FOR LOVE

I am interested in this poem
for the simple reason that i have set it to music
and it strikes me as
lyrics for a social awareness folk song
and it does what it does rather perfectly

Where are you going? asked Manny the Mayor.
What are you doing? asked President Jane.
I'll bet you're a bastard, said Daniel that Deacon;
We'll put you away where you'll never be seen.

There won't be no pardon, said Manny the Murderer.
There won't be no stay, said Tommygun Jane.
Said Daniel McBedlam, You won't go no farther;
My father won't even declare you insane.

For a Madman's Way, intoned Manny the Magnate.
The Public Good, shouted Editor Jane.
I think he's a Commie, cried Danny O'Garrote;
If he won't do murder, I'll call it a crime.

It's not a long drop. sang Manny the Hangman.
The rope will stop you, crooned Juryman Jane.
In a box long and black, chanted Danny Le Flack,
We'll suit you warm to keep out the rain.

All flesh is grass, sighed Manny the Mourner.
The handsome young man, wept Sob-sister Jane.
R.I.P., prayed Capital Daniel;
If he were alive we could kill him again.

I'll simply say that the poet
called forth some extraordinary powers of irony
to bring home the point
that capital punishment
is essentially hypocritical.

If Thomas Mcgrath is still living
in North Dakota
he is 91 yrs old

he aroused the warped mind of j edgar hoover at some point

a sure indication that his favor is in heaven

i will sing the song with relish
when i next perform it

a musical moment in time

for at least the last ten years
my friend chris kachian and i
have gotten together at some point
in the summer to do some serious being
and we have every summer
played a theme and variation
on the little ditty

gee it's great to be outing
gee it's great to be scouting
running jumping biking playing
ain't it great to be outing

i think it is his creation

to the point now where it has become
thematic of our ritual
the ritual of friendship
marked by a little nonesense verse
which we state and interpret
with every bit as much
creativity as any jazz ensemble
or an actual composer
working with the form of "theme and variation"

when chris dropped me off at the airport
tuesday night
i had some sadness
coming back to an uncertain situation
after having made a dreamlike venture
into the place and with the people i have come to know
in central minnesota

by the time i got to gate G20 where my flight was
to begin
i was tired and anxious
but my guitar was on my back and
i no sooner noted that the only sound
in the place was the din of the voices
people sitting and waiting for flights
and the occasional public address
announcing flights
and warning us of unsafe activity
than i thought
i'm going to play some music here

so i pulled out my faithful loprinzi
and played six or seven tunes
just loud enough to enter into the sound of the voices
not overwhelm them
but then a silence ensued
people closest to me started to listen
so there was a buffer
a young woman probably college age
gave me constant eyeball encouragement

and i just let the twang of the guitar
and my voice carry out into the room

a young man sitting right before me
stood and bowed as the little concert ended
a gesture of remarkable honor
the young woman came up to me with brilliant face
and shook my hand and declared that it was wonderful
as i stood in line waiting to board
a young man who looked fairly shy
conjured up the courage to come right up to me
and stuttered but was able finally to say
that was amazing you really play that thing
it's a twelve string... right?
no just a sixer...i said

i figure i was caught on camera

but it was spontaneous folk music

and i was payed for my work
by a few fellow pilgrims who took note

play where ever you can, transform the world
with live music

thinking with annie dillard

in her book
for the time being
which i read some 8 years ago
and again in the past month
annie dillard makes some judgements
which are in line with her method of inquiry
and i think worthy of some response

this is not to say that the two "sentences"
which i will entertain here
are the essence of her book
it is more in keeping with the notion
that these are two ideas that struck me
and somehow i feel compelled to speak
as if to read the book is in fact a sort of discussion
which it is
any book which stimulates thought
can be understood as conversation
between one mind and another
one having been set into a form and printed
the other more free
or perhaps the book is but a part of the
mind of the writer
and the one reading converses with
the focus of the mind that wrote

dillard makes an assessment of
a 20th century school of what might be called
spiritual philosophy "the whitehead school"
i suspect she is alluding to the principle
of "process" as a system of on going analysis
applicable to any discipline

while never actually becoming a catholic
alfred lord whitehead's theological interest leaned in that direction
perhaps if he had taken aristotle more seriously
that he did plato
his mind could have more easily grasped
the reasonable philosophy upon which
catholic thinking is based

at any rate ms dillard
makes the statement after
critically assessing some of the theological
thinking which arose in the wake of whiteheads' work
she states:
...subjecting our partial knowledge of god
to the rigors of philosophical inquiry is, i think,
an absurd, if well-meaning exercise. (p.167 Vintage edition 1999)

in the context of her critique of the whitehead school
where process of "becoming" as an idea for cognitive practice
determines and compromises everything except what
any one person may or may not be discovering
i can see her point

but to make a blatant statement which implicates
all of metaphysics stemming from thomas aquinas
is a serious proposal
i am inclined to think that she proabably did not
extend this sort of critique to the work of
Gregory of Nyssa or Basil the Great
or Irenaeus of Lyon
or Augustine of Hippo
or certainly not Thomas Aquinas - the angelic doctor
all of whom utilized philosphical categories
in arriving at their statements about faith

one of the insidious misapprehensions of our day
is the ignorant use of the concept metaphysics
to mean anything pertaining to spiritual inquiry
be it buddhist meditation yoga
primitive natural religions or para-normal experience

the truth is there are means
and very rational means
by which the mind can articulate the experience
of thinking about god
logic and rational inquiry
can assist the mind in coming to a clearer
awareness of the ONE we seek

it merely takes the notion that
human intelligence is the principle
by which we are most likened to
the DIVINE INTELLIGENCE
and therefor

to think philosophically
is to be entertaining freedom
in a manner consistent with what we can know
about the freedom of god

we owe it to ourselves and to others
to be clear minded and reasonable
about faith
skepticism is a highly rational logical
well argued position
the rhetoric of faith needs to be moreso
and i believe when one appreciates
all the thinking and writing that has gone into
the "apologetics" of christianity
that which has endured through the centuries
we cannot easily dismiss
the mind's journey to god

the other statement in question
i respond to with more interest

on page 169
dillard begins a chapter which can be taken
as a summary of her thinking up to that point
she is finding a bit of humor in the term
"spiritual path"
and her assessment here is her astonishment
that there are people who forsake everything
to "seek god"
but she is hard pressed to understand this as a path
in any way but a humorous sense
and i think here she is using irony to its most poignant effect
in a world filled with people who either are defined by the
need to survive on a daily and drudgerous basis
or seek to make of life an experiential carnival
there are these other souls who are motivated by a
seeking after something they can hardly explain
even the word god seems but a stopgap measure
in the rhetoric of faith for the bewildered pilgrim
these are the ones she says:
....they have left behind the early doubt
that this feckless prospecting in the dark for the unseen
is a reasonable way to pass one's life.

here she touches on a question that has arisen
in theological circles for centuries
and has been the issue of either clear acceptance
or at least partial skepticism

is man possessed naturally of the desire to know god?
henri de lubac in his seminal work
the problem of the supernatural
falls clearly in the affirmative camp

if we regard god as the creator of man
and the "instigator" of human intelligence
then it follows quite naturally that the object
par excellence of that very intelligence
is the source of it's creation

the remaining question then becomes
why some are given over so readily
to the determinations of faith
and others live life as if they can't be bothered?

skepticism is a via negativa

walking helena

what follows is a poem
by a friend from way back
we were in 4th grade together
we graduated from the same high school
and the same college

i've been asking him about this poem
for a few years now

it came today via cyberespace

i type it out lovingly
as if i have nothing better to do

i suspect the reference to ed lahey
is geographically constrained
to montana


WALKING HELENA: On Hearing Ed Lahey Proclaimed Our Finest Living Poet
(For Lee at Fifty, a fair daughter of Kathleen ni Houlihan)

Wives hate poets on long grey afternoons
With no grass mowed or gardens tended
And the only ground broken in the heart.

Dust dancing in shafts of light
Above the kitchen table
Mixing with the steam of coffee cups
And mugs of tea laced with spirits
A slight ripple across the surface
From the tremor of nerves washed clean.

Words passed back and forth
Hard and fast
Occasional jarring shards of silence
As images settled
Breathing light into the space between.

Eyes gleaming
Blood running high in Irish cheeks
Specks of brownies lodged in beards and teeth
Words unlabelled
Making nothing happen at an alarming rate.

Wives hate poets alive with words
And pride and blood-cracked eyes
Crying for ghost horses and broken down miners
Breaking rocks colored and alive with peacock screams.

As dusk descends on supper smells
And hungry children circle among the words
Tossed back and forth
Breath tinged with whiskey and cigarettes
A rage of sound softer than the evening news.

Wives hate poets who spend the night
Beneath quilts on couches
Snoring words past remembering
To children in the morning on their way to school
The breath and adventure of miners' muck
And picks and hard steel rails running into darkness.

Leo Ward
September 2005


it's a poem one could live with for awhile
i will restrain from comment
as i tend to believe we place to much emphasis
on such things as commentary in our day

the metaphysical conundrum

we are back to the old dichotomy of being and doing

what is meant by this?

why consider being at all?

what we do is who we are?

are you prepared to live by that statement?


i am not

a pervert or a murderer is acting out of some
very distorted emotional and mental principles

i think it is safe to say that

the actions of either are not directed to anything good
other than perhaps a mometary rush of pleasure
or something like it

i would contend that authentic pleasure carries with it
something enduring something deep
moral corruption is fed
by the impossibility of satisfaction

someone stuck in a miserable job with no chance of
escape is doing only doing
chances are the mind of the person is preoccupied with
the thought that life is somewhere else
life is passing him by
is troubled with questions of being
who am i?
how did i get to this point?
what is the meaning of life?
do i know myself?

i am thinking of the protaganist
in evan s. connell's book "diary of a rapist"

crisis plays a role in bringing around the
questions of meaning
now this statement can be interpreted
by degrees of extremes
some crises are more poignant than others
the crisis of ethnicide for the armenians
or the jews
must be regarded as more extreme
than the broken heart of a teenager

for the jews of the 20th century
there has been a definite coming to terms
with personal religious and national identity
and perhaps the new formation
in the post ww2 world has done something
by way of forcing the issue of being in the world
being that is defined by either a deeper sense of
religious identity or an escape into a practiced negligence
as offered by the humanist world of our day
or something in between

a broken heart however is a different matter
one's personal identity is assaulted
one is forced to enter the dimension of darkness
where one once found meaning now only pain exists
pain and loss
in order to successfully negotiate beyond the turmoil
a person must face the question
is the meaning of my life to be determined by one other person?
the crisis seems to be
"my being was somehow deeply acknowledged by another
i was affirmed and this gave me a tangible connection with meaning
in the world"
now this connection is no longer viable
does that mean that meaning is impossible too?
sadly some never get beyond this

illness can have a similar determination
when we are ill we are reduced to a self awareness
that is defined by the illness
my being is ill!
to grow beyond the effects of illness then
is a way of renewing one's true sense of being
perhaps we don't say it
but to acknowledge a return to good health
is a way of saying
my being is of utmost importance
what i do is secondary

the only real tragedy in the world
is that individual persons
are not granted the acknowledgement of being
it is the source of all narrative
all narrative worth the telling

the philosophical crux is the crux of knowing
doing and being
those three epistemological elements
do come together
in the creation of art
in the act of prayer
in the generation of love between two people
in the pursuit of intellectual goals
in the simple amusement of reading

in the crisis
we are moved to be
or not to be

that is the question

what is folk music

in these days of blurred genres
these days of infinite artistic fusion
when it hardly serves any purpose whatsoever
to regard anything as purely jazz
or rock or folk or even classical
what with nigel kennedy on the loose
what purpose might it serve to attempt to
clarify a definition of folk music?

i truly believe it serves music excitement to a certain degree
for artists to incorporate style and sentiment
from more than one music genre
i think of the intense harvesting in the late 19th and early 20th
century when classical composers were exploring the folk idioms
of their own nations
we think of bartok and copeland and dvorak and gershwin and scriabin
and vaughn williams

i think also of my friend chris kachian
who has added some excitement to
the performance of baroque music
by utilizing ideas in cadenzas
deriving from the blues
something noteworthy for classical guitar performance

but the question perplexes me
what can we call folk music today?

if theyz all folks
then theyz playin folks music, ain't they?
some then would regard hiphop as folk music
and others the urban grunge sound

i wish to make a few distinctions

in my definition of folk music
the creator and performer
have no intention of carrying the music
beyond the immediate source of inspiration
perhaps the back porch
or the kitchen
whereas hiphop artists are by and large
vying for some sort of notoriety
the music of simple origins
(of which admittedly there may be almost none)
is content in it's own locale

amos asch spent countless hours
travelling and recording people who
were perhaps known in their town or county
but spent little or no energy
aspiring for broader recognition

i am thus calling for a music
that is unpretentious in its conception
as well as its performance
music that may be recorded at some point
but does not set out to be involved in the
popular idiom of commercial recording

is this too idealistic?
i think not

music is meant to happen
it is meant to happen in the home
in the neighborhood
in the community
we are now too attached to the stage
of the recording studio
somehow we have come to the notion
that that is where music must happen

it is the contention of this writer
that we would discover something vital
and a wellspring of creativity
were we to limit our horizon
to the immediate surroundings of our lives

make music where you are
refuse to be recorded
refuse amplification
(unless absolutely impossible)
infuse everyday life with live music in the flesh
refuse the world of recorded sound
keep it away from your ears
the only real purpose of a recording is the preserve
something of value
and 90% of recorded music is destined to be forgotten
in a matter of time short time

i will here admit
that if john coltrane had not been recorded
had charlie parker not been recorded
had mississippi john hurt not been recorded
had joni mitchell not been recorded
had stan rogers not been recorded
my musical awareness would have been impoverished
but i listen to those masters
as a student listening to the teacher

music must strive to be deep
innocent
and beautiful
the humility of the folk musician will be
in this day and age
the attitude the eschews all manner of conveyance
beyond the immediate making of music

so is it fair then to say that
bruce springsteens' treatment of the
pete seeger songbook on CD
is a bastardization of something not meant
for that sort of venue?
(i suspect that there will be folks
who hear songs they would not listen to otherwise
and that is extending the importance of the music
but i suspect as well
that the understanding and appreciation becomes for the most part
superficial at best)

i say...yes it is a bastardization

bruce would do better simply to
play the music
for people when they gather at his house
or on the street corner
in amboy or newark

folk music must avoid the spectacle at all costs

monks chanting on stage

the tantric sect of
gyuto tibetan monks
those who follow the dalai lama
chanted for an hour or so
on the stage of crowder hall
in tucson on saturday night

an interesting event
i was forced to realize that
i am interpreting much of what i see
in the public performance realm
in terms of the thesis of guy de bord
in "the society of the spectacle"

his thesis: "what was once experienced as
reality is now to be perceived only as spectacle"
is a poignant critique of the way we go about
accessing entertainment
and even "spirituality" these days

i sat next to a woman who had paid
$40 to experience this "show"
i had the benefit of a free ticket

at one point i explained to 'kathy' that
i am a benedictine monk
and that the whole affair seemed a little strange
to me because i could not imagine
chanting the way we do in the monastery
on stage
she countered with something to the effect-
"considering the state of affairs the world is in
it is important that we get the experience of chanting out
in the open"

i guess she is referring there to the need for people to
get in touch with something spiritual
i was hard pressed to explain that the mode of prayer
characteristic to benedictine monasteries is
determined by time and place
and to take it out of those structural determinants
would be absurd at best
even while benedict expects the monks
to pray when they are not in the monastery

now it is true that the monks of tibet are in exile
and there is this sort of mission trip they are on
to bring awareness of the life of these monasteries
to the world
and they have the encouragement and blessing of dalai lama himself
and the money they "earn" goes to the eventual
creation of a monastic complex in northern california

so i sat there for over an hour
with a 15 minute break
and experienced the chant
the deep moaning incoherent chant
all worked out fairly clearly in ensemble voice
with cymbal horns drums
and the garb was elaborate by any standards

the very word "tantric" refers to a
a method of making the words of sanskrit (or other buddhist texts)
"hidden" or secret

during the question and answer period
i was intrigued with the monks who
were breaking down the set
rolling up the rugs
gathering the pillows
and curiously
removing the mini-microphones
from their heads the drums the horns

i will admit to the value of bringing something
that would otherwise be hidden
to the sense awareness of people who know nothing
of the culture of tibetan buddhism

so there was music religion
monastic practice all on display
and we were of the actuality of it all
only superficially introduced
for we know practically nothing of these people

and we will not be able ever to enter into the
form of chanting that they spend years
learning

whereas benedictine chanting
even gregorian chant is rather accessible
by comparison

there is always the effort to make
the liturgy of the church
open and worthy of participation
by just about anyone
although one would have to admit
there have ben times when
the liturgical world of christian monks
was a hidden affair
and in some cases it still is that
foir instance eastern orthodox monasteries
carry on a liturgical practice that is
quite complicated and
would be difficult to learn by anyone
other than one devoted to the life
there too it would be a bit absurd to try to
take it to the stage

there is a certain truth to be acknowledged
about liturgy place and time

but then i think of the description given by
annie dillard about teilhard de chardin sj
and his mass on the table of the world
offering all the joy and toil and turmoil
of humanity in prayer
when the elements for Mass are not available

when it comes to worship
it is always in imperfect effort

in my prayer i do not seek so much enlightenment
although it comes on occasion
i seek to know god

the degree to which that is possible
may be substance for another post

music and social ideology

read a great article this morning
concerning the plight of
music in the american roman catholic church
the magazine the american catholic report
a magazine published by joseph fessio sj

the context of the article has to do
with the observation that since the
second vatican council
there has been a diminishing set of values
which have worked to lessen the efficacy
of music in catholic ritual

the "folk" inspired music which had the benefit
of being derived from the movement of popular
culture in the 60's 70's and 80's
and the awarenes of ethnic folk culture
in the effort to extend the mission of the church
to those who are deprived of many of the cultural benefits
of the west
brought about a collection of musical styles
which lack the force of perseverence
in anything other than the wills of those
who propogate this music

it is
by and large
music that should never have been published

while it is "accessible"
it is at the same time comprised of the same musical
elements as that of the popular medium
known on radio MTV and now the downloading craze

as so often happens when social change comes about
the new takes precedence over the tried and true

the author of the article refers to what he calls
the "democratization" of liturgy
which more or less militates against the notion
that the most knowledgeable the most talented
the sense of the elite in music
are at best a relative concepts
and often shunned in the modern parish

let it be said
that only one who has meditated
on the high value
the transcendental value of beauty
is capable of discerning the
appropriate music for solemn ritual
the Mass while being for everyone
is to be conducted with the highest possible standards
and that suggests that professional
and seriousminded musicians will determine the
music appropriate to an occasion

what the writer did not say
what he did not allude to
was the fact that in a classical sense
the word "musician" had an
at least three leveled principle of comprehension

boethius
as has been stated previously
held out the highest level of musician -"hood"
to those who are capable of musical discourse
in a philosophical manner
this might even preclude the ability to play an instrument

in the mind of boethius
one could be a great musician
and have literally very little to do with
the making of music
but is of a mind intent on thinking about
and discussing how music works
and in what manner it works best
and why some forms of music are
perhaps good for a party
but not good for a sacred ritual

the appreciation for sacred music goes beyond the
concept of mere attraction
for one might not be inclined at all
to go out and purchase music heard at a Mass
but one very well might be moved to return
to the space where the music was offered
to incline once again to the purpose for that music
whether the music is present or not

this does not exclude the music of worship
which may have some connection to ethnic
expression
oftentimes music derived from ethnic expression
can be very close to the patterns of recitation
known and understood in church culture from the beginning
one thinks of the typical "call and response" patterns of
music found in much of africa

this corresponds to the antiphonal structure
of the use of psalms and canticles in worship
whereby a cantor leads with the text and
the congregation responds with a simple chanted
sentence form which is thematically coherent

again
psalmos
the twanging of the strings with fingers
the primary texts for vocal worship in
the ritual of roman catholicism
are the psalms
we must begin again there

now
isn't this interesting