Sunday, November 20, 2011
FRENCH FOLK MUSIC AND JAZZ PIANIST AT PAPAL MASS IN BENIN, WEST AFRICA, YIKES!
I wasn't able to watch the Mass with Pope Benedict this morning in Benin, West Africa until the very end. After the blessing and dismissal the recessional song began with a soloist and a pianist leading the music and singing. It sounded to me like a French Folk Song, if there is such a thing and the pianist improvised on the music as the pianist progressed in an "American jazz" sort of way! I'm not kidding! Guess who else was singing? NO ONE! It was a solo performance by a soloist on a microphone in French for the recessional at an African Mass.
I would have thought that the Africans if given the opportunity to sing something of their culture at that time would have been heard on our side of the Atlantic! But no, the French colonial influence on them (from the 1960's evidently)took away what could have been a rather exuberant experience. I didn't see any other aspect of the Mass, so it might have been more African than French 1960's Colonial than what the recessional was.
But it just confirms what I already know from my Georgian experience of being a priest for over 31 years. When contemporary music is sung or led, the only ones actually singing are the soloists and their cohort and everyone else is just idly listening. No one participates except interiorly; but most of this stuff is not for contemplation!
What is your experience with contemporary music or folk music and folk groups that lead it during Mass--is it music that people embrace and sing well or simply tune in?
I know in our traditional hymn and music parts of the Mass, people seem more engaged and sing what is sung. Am I wrong?