Music and Religion/Philosophy
Music and Religion/Philosophy
In Mexico, the dominate religion is
Catholic Christianity, and growing up with Mexican parents I grew up going to a
very traditional Catholic Church in Downtown Greenville. It has very
high-ceiling, stained glass windows very typical catholic church. In the
Catholic church there is always a certain way that the Mass is held, and they’re
many types of songs that we sing during mass. A cantillation is a spoken singing;
it usually has a melody but sounds more like talking. We use it during prayers,
readings and proclamations. We also sing hymns and we use it as songs of
praise. At my church, we have a huge organ that sits on the balcony and sounds
so beautiful through out the church. It is very typical for a catholic church
to have some sort of organ or piano as the instrument of choice. We have a main
choir that stands by the organ and we can here them sing through the speakers
and the rest of the church follows.
When I was a junior in high school
we started going to a smaller catholic church, it was a new church and everyone
was talking about how much they loved the new priest at this new church. It was
not in a traditional catholic church building and the music was not very
traditional either. We would still sing the same lyrics but the rhythm and the
instruments they used were different. The beat was faster and it made you want
to dance, they took the sounds from Spanish music we already have and put the
lyrics traditional catholic hymns. I had never heard anything like it in my
entire life. They had a traditional piano but they added in drums and a guitar
so it sounded like a band almost. At first I was not sure how I felt about it
but the more I stood there the more it made me want to dance. I think I was
just so used to the very traditional hymns we would sing at my old church that
it took time to get used to but still very fun and different getting to hear
songs that you’ve heard your whole life in a new way.
My best friend from home is
Methodist and I’ve been to church with her a couple times and some of the hymns
that they sing sound similar to the ones we sing at my church. They have a
smaller choir and a piano but these songs were slower and easy to follow like
the catholic church hymns.
It's really cool that you were able to experience both the traditional catholic and non traditional sides of the religion. As I was growing up, we had very traditional hymns that we sung. As I became more involved in the music process, I started to do more nontraditional hymns. For yours, you just had a different beat, but I ended up changing songs completely. I think having a mix of both of them is important. I'm glad you had the experience!
ReplyDeleteI’ve never heard of a contemporary Catholic experience, but it sounds awesome. I’m glad you’re enjoying your new church; and thanks for sharing your experience through the traditional and non-traditional sides of Catholicism.
ReplyDeleteI also attended a Catholic church and the architecture that you explained was very similar to how my church was set up. I have to agree that once you’re used to hearing something being played a certain way, its hard to adjust to something different. I think it’s neat hearing that someone else had a similar experience to mine. Coming from a minority family it’s hard to find people who share commonalities.
ReplyDeleteI love the artwork in the video! That must have been interesting to compare the two different styles of services. I love the organ. And I agree; as soon as I started listening to the second style I felt like dancing too!
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