Music: The Catholic Listener

A couple days ago at the Celebrate the Faith Homeschool Conference, I, and many of my comrades, listened to a talk about Music and the effect it has on the soul. 

One of the huge points of the talk was that there was "better" and "worse" music, in other words, not all music is equal. The speaker, Mr. P (for the sake of anonymity, although, technically, he's an adult and a public figure, so I doubt he would mind) was comparing different Genres of music. Classical, Heavy Metal, Alternative, 50s, 70s, the whole nine yards (or is it ten? I always forget). There was an experiment to "rank" so to speak, which genres were better for your mental Health. It went "Mozart, 70s, 50s, 90s alternative, and then Heavy Metal. According to the study, your mental health was improved by listening to Mozart, and was actually harmed by listening to all the other types. Now my question is, can a Catholic who cares about his/her mental health listen to these types of music??? (note the three question marks)

This is what I would respond. Yes.

Ok, I'm done. Not.

I think that there is good music in almost every genre, and by good I mean Good, Beautiful and True (note, this is an important concept to me). In the above mentioned talk, the point was made that there are three parts to music, Melody, Harmony and Rhythm. Now, the Melody of a song/piece/tune affects the Mind, while the Harmony affects the Emotions, and the Rhythm affects the Body, all of which are integral parts of the human person. That is the amazing thing about music is that it affects the whole person so Profoundly. However, there must be all these three things present to have a truly complete piece/song/tune. It need not be complicated, but if it is, it needs to be ordered. No chaos allowed. The melody must not be monotonous, the harmony must not be horrendous, the Rhythm must not be redundant (notice that all those words appear alliterative, but aren't) As long as a song has an interesting melody (which includes things like "riffs") and a sensical harmony (which includes instrumentation and how the chords progress etc.) and a rhythm that does not over come the melody and the harmony, then I would say that the song is Good, Beautiful and True, and that a Catholic can listen to it without fear for his/her soul, and indeed should be open to it.

--Paul

 

The Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker

We interrupt the great flow of Profound Posting to post concerning the great feast/optional memorial of St. Joseph the Worker. 

This feast was instituted by Pope Pius XII in 1955 on a very particular day, May 1st. If we look back on the history of "May 1sts", we find that a lot happened that day. I mean, both the Edinburgh-Northampton Treaty, in which England recognizes Scottish independence AND the Act of Union joining those two kingdoms into the Kingdom of Great Britain. Not that that's really relevant, but it's interesting. Later though, there are even more events that can be associated with the Feast under discussion. In 1834, the British colonies abolish slavery, in 1886 occurred the Haymakers Riots in Chicago which lead to the eight-hour workday. (Those of us who have read/watched North and South know that the same stuff was happening in England around he same time.) Finally, the Union Labor Life Insurance Company was founded in 1927 by the American Federation of Labor. All these things lead to an awareness of the importance of human labour, and Pope Pius decided there needed to be a feast, and because the Communists were sponsoring "May Day" Workers Celebrations, he thought that it would be a good idea to take May 1st. St. Joseph, being a manual labourer himself, was chosen.

Now, this is all very interesting, but to crown the king, or to frost the cake, or to skim the cream, although that might not mean what I mean, the feast of St. Joseph the worker falls on the first day of the Month of Mary. Wow.

I'm still thinking about Music: the Catholic Listener, and I hope you are too.

--Paul

Eastern/Western Divide

One of the things about the Knights of the Sacra Cor in "Waking Rose" is that they were obsessed with Martial Arts...but also loved European swords etc. This is one thing that sets them apart from a) a lot of people in the books b) a lot of real people and c) general humanity.

General humanity is...what's the word, almost tribal, Geographically as well as culturally. People tend to look down on "outsiders" or people who are "different", and we get that a lot in our Catholic "tribalism" as well. In the western world, with our Roman rite, etc., we tend to think that we can only associate or relate to western or Roman ideas and culture. The Sacra Cor guys turn that around, and especially Paul. They believe that eastern culture is not inconsistent with western ideas and vice versa. You can have a japanese katana and a scottish claymore hanging next to each other, or you can switch from aikido to broadswords in the same breath. The Chivalric ideals of the West are not opposed to the customs of the East. We Catholics have a lot to look back at in history. Saint Francis Xavier started his ministry in the orient by trying to "westernize" the Eastern Catholics. He later realized his mistakes, and learns that we need to integrate the culture into Catholicism to become truly "universal". Find the elements of the culture which are consistent with the Christian message, the Gospel, and you don't have to change anything. Another example is the Great Western Schism between the Orthodox and the Catholics. Both sides were rather "elitist". The church HAD to be either Western or Eastern, it couldn't be both.

The Sacra Cor guys seemed to realize this, and even though they didn't always agree on everything (some were pseudo-revolutionaries, which was commented on by Fish). We see this especially in The Midnight Dancers when Paul tells Colonel Durham that he doesn't believe in the whole Eastern Western divide, that there's good in both, and in particular, in the field of medicine. Paul was interested in acupuncture as well as Western methods. He would try to use both in his practice when he was a doctor.

Anyway, both the eastern and the western cultures contain persons who desire God and Eternal Life, and wherever you have that, you have a common goal.

Look forward to next post: Music: a Catholic Listener

--Paul

Abortion is Mean

First Post of the Sacra Cor Blog takes its name from Alex O'Donnell's T-shirt in "Waking Rose". It's a Black t-shirt, with white lettering (which is why the Blog looks like it does). The shirt is Blunt in message. "Abortion is Mean". Yes, it is. And why shouldn't we say it? Bluntness is not often used. I think it should be thought. Enough of this wishy-washiness. We can no longer say "Well, maybe it's something wrong in some cases, and in the mind, but really it's just this rule." It is Mean, and as Knights (and Ladies for all you female followers) we must defend the innocent and those weaker than ourselves.

Keep a look out for the next Post: Eastern/Western Divide

Paul