Without Comment

(Update -- severely truncated as I have been told the site running the interview may be touchy about their copyrights)
http://gvcatholicmusicfeatures.blogspot.com/2008/07/grapevine-talks-to-dan-schutte.html

[A] former member of the St. Louis Jesuits shares his thoughts on the spiritual life, music, and the never-ending debate on liturgical music. ...

We had a chance to catch up with Dan [Schutte] and talk about his spiritual life and the many fruitful years of music ministry which include the recent release of his latest album, God’s Holy Gifts.
GV: Talk about your faith journey, where it began, where you're at now, and how are you continuing to enrich your faith.
DS: ..... The core of my faith, I suppose, is that God is real for me [?....oh, and "?" is just punctuation, it doesn't count as a comment] and that I’ve always been, as far back as I can remember, in relationship with him.
...... My faith, as well as my music, has been influenced by how I learned to contemplate the Scripture as a young Jesuit.
[okay, not a comment, a question -- was he a Jesuit, young or otherwise? I thought I had read somewhere that he never had become] .....
GV: "Handmaid of Heaven" seems to be an ecumenical take on "Immaculate Mary." Was this your intention, and do you strive to reach non-Catholic Christians with your music?
DS: While my intent in writing “Handmaid of Heaven” was not to make “Immaculate Mary” more ecumenical, I think that’s one of the results of my adaptation. The “regal” images of Mary in the original text are ones that do not resonate with people as well as they probably once did. [emphasis mine] Most of us, unless we live in England, have no living experience of such images. And, as you imply by the question, many non-Catholics have difficulty with images that seem to make Mary god-like. For example, the line from the original text “You reign now in heaven with Jesus our king.” would make this hymn unusable in many non-Catholic communities. [an interjected quote from elsewhere, not a comment:
Ave Regina coelorum,
Ave Domina Angelorum:
Salve radix, salve porta,
Ex qua mundo lux est orta:
Gaude Virgo gloriosa,
Super omnes speciosa,
Vale, o valde decora,
Et pro nobis Christum exora.
......
GV: What is your opinion of the whole "traditional vs. contemporary" worship music debate? How do you answer those who feel your music is not appropriate in a Mass setting?
DS: Because some of my early pieces of music have been around for nearly forty years (“Sing a New Song,” “You Are Near,” “All My Days”), there are people who call my music “traditional.” A friend of mine, a parish music director, tells the story of a lady who came to hear wanted to plan the music for her own funeral liturgy. The lady began by saying that she wanted the music to be traditional, not contemporary. My friend assumed she, therefore, wanted pieces like “How Great Thou Art” and “Amazing Grace.” [this was not a Catholic funeral?] “Oh my no!” the lady responded. “I want music like “Here I Am, Lord” and “On Eagle’s Wings” for my funeral. So what is “traditional” and what is “contemporary” is understood quite differently by people.
I suspect your question has more to do with what one might call the “style wars” that many communities are experiencing. It is a judgment about what kind of music is appropriate for use at worship. It would be important for someone to articulate why exactly they don’t think my music, or music in the style I write, is not appropriate. [would it? important to whom?] Many times, when you try to get them explain, the answer comes down to a matter of personal taste. [and the other times?] They don’t like my music. They like what I’ll call the more classical “church” music, like plainchant, or Palestrina, or Proulx.
.....music must stand the test of time. How many years? It would seem that forty years is a rather significant amount of time. [LOL, literally ]And over the centuries, both people of faith have used a variety of styles to express their faith and Church leadership has never “christened” just one kind of music. People are different and find different styles of music help them to pray. I myself find I can pray with many different styles and my music over the years reflects that. I suspect the people who are so critical of my music judge it by how they heard it sung in church. There are many elements of “classical” music in my compositions and I’ve used plainchant melodies in my music. It is simply not appropriate to say that the only kind of music should be used for worship, or even more, to impose the style that I prefer for prayer on everyone. [does that mean, if say, a certain percentage of people find that Here, I Am Lord makes their very teeth itch, it should not be used? If so, I'll go along with that -- are is he really saying that if people don't like THE MUSIC THE CHURCH ACTUALLY CALLS FOR IN AUTHORITATIVE DOCUMENTS shouldn't be "imposed" on those who wish to, um... impose, say, Here I am Lord on their listeners?]
GV: Your concert events often involve a workshop on liturgy and music. What is the purpose of these workshops [$$ ooops, sorry, my fingers are possessed...] and what message are you trying to get across?
DS: The workshops that I present are directed at people who are involved in the planning, preparation and leadership of worship. This would, of course, include musicians, but not just musicians. The choices one makes in preparing worship or the manner in which one performs a role during liturgy makes a difference in how well it can support the prayer of a community. To make good choices, and to perform a role of leadership well, one must understand the structure of and dynamic of the ritual. In the Roman Catholic world, and many mainline Protestant denominations, that mostly means understanding the rites of the Eucharist. In my presentations I certainly draw on my forty years of experience as a composer and parish music director, but I base much of what I teach on the liturgical documents of the Church. For instance, the Roman Catholics bishops of the United States recently published a document titled Sing to the Lord that is directed to musicians. The document contains so much wisdom and understanding of what the Eucharist is about and how music plays a role in it. The bishops reaffirm the guiding principle first presented by the Second Vatican Council that the primary goal of worship is the full, conscious, active participation of those gathered. [okay, I admit, this is a comment: "liturgists" may say it, Piero Marini may have said it, http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2003/documents/ns_lit_doc_20031204_40-concilium_en.html, "Sing to the Lord my imply it by leaving out the beginning of a sentence from Sacrosanctum Concilium, workshop "facilitators" may say it, you can say it until you are blue in the face, but the Second Vatican Council did NOT say FCAP was the primary goal of worship, or rather the goal of liturgy, as is most often erroneously claimed; it said "EffCap," (as I've read the concept dubbed and fetishized,) was to be the aim of restoration of, and promotion of the Liturgy, that is, of any of the contemplated changes made to the Liturgy, or ways of explaining the Liturgy, and methods of bringing the Liturgy to the Faithful . Not of Liturgy itself.The goal of Liturgy itself? worship of the Triune God is the primary aim/purpose/goal of Liturgy. And sanctification of the worshippers the second. The goal of worship? IT IS ITS OWN END.] So at my workshops we discuss how musicians can best work toward this end.