Saturday, December 17, 2005

McCain Torture Ban Spells End of Haugen Haas Music


The Curt Jester says, file this under wishful thinking. I agree. The headline from the original Plato's Stepchild article reads,

McCain Torture Ban Spells End of Haugen Haas Music

Would that it were true! For those of you not immediately familiar with Haugen Haas music, they have written such theological gems as "Gather us in" and "We Remember"--songs that are nearly impossible to sing in an average church setting and have quite iffy theology to begin with. Someone once told me that those musicless Masses said at the crack of dawn are called "musicians' Masses". The sort of music written by Haugen and Haas is the reason why.

The Society for a Moratorium on the Music of Marty Haugen and David Haas has some funny parodies such as this one:

We Remember (after Marty Haugen)

CHORUS:

We remember how we used to sing great hymns,
And we're still hoping we'll sing them all again.
'Cause all we hear at Mass is drivel
Written by
Marty Haugen's pals.
We remember the hymns we used to sing.


and this one:

Gather Us In

Here in this church the choir is droning;
"Gather Us In" is our entrance song.
Chanted this slow, it sounds more like groaning;
I notice no one is singing along.
"Gather Us In" is sung every Sunday;
"Gather Us In" is sung every Mass.
Give us a break and sing something different,
"Gather Us In" gets old really fast.

7 comments:

The Village Idiot said...

My favorite was always the Thanksgiving version- though its long enough to make you cringe even though its only a humorous parody. I always hate when the choir sings all of the verses instead of stopping when the priest gets to his seat. This is only the firs part: though you've probably seen it yourself on thier website.

"Here in this place, our family's meeting -
Grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts -
Getting in place for dinnertime seating,
And to my mother they're chanting these chants:

"Gather them in, the turkey and stuffing,
Gather them in, the gravy and ham!
And don't forget that Thanksgiving dinner
Just ain't complete without cranberry jam!"

Staying in Balance said...

Yeah, they have quite a few funny parodies on that site!

Matthew said...

I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas early.

God Bless

Staying in Balance said...

Thanks, Moneybags. You too!

Anonymous said...

When you talk about Domestic Issues there is practically no difference between McCain and Rodham-Clinton.


McCain is a liberal "Republican" and while Rodham-Clinton is a liberal since she needs to be seen as less liberal she will hold back on promoting many liberal policies to retain hold of the center.

In this respect, McCain might even be more liberal because he will purposely promote liberal policies to get supporters while Rodham-Clinton will hold back fearing she would lose support.

But the real difference between the two is in foriegn policy. Rodham-Clinton was part of the well it may have been ill-advised the nonethelesss successful attacks on Serbia.

McCain on the otherhand, is noted for being a fighter pliot in Nam who when captured betrayed fellow prisoners to increase his own comfort.

I believe that Rodham-Clinton knows how to fight. She was probably one of those woman whose first response when offended by a male was a kick to the groin. I for one wouldn't want to be anywhere near her when she is on the warpath.

Extreme times call for extreme measures. If it becomes a choice between McCain and Rodham-Clinton then I will be among the first to open up a local chapter of Republicans for Rodham. With the the slogan being "if you were bin Laden, who would you want to be up your ass/".

Staying in Balance said...

Well, personally, I don't trust Hillary as far as I can throw her. But, the "McCain" reference in the title was borrowed from Plato's Stepchild blog merely as a way to introduce another ranting post about the sad state of music in the Church today.

Anonymous said...

Wow!! talk about your snoobery.

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"Slavery ended in medieval Europe only because the church extended its sacraments to all slaves and then managed to impose a ban on the enslavement of Christians (and of Jews). Within the context of medieval Europe, that prohibition was effectively a rule of universal abolition. "— Rodney Stark

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