Insipidness

Last night, I wandered over to St. Matthew's Cathedral for their Sunday evening Mass. It's never my favorite, since that's their "contemporary music" Mass and I hate insipid Catholic music, especially when it's made worse by lack of thought and preparation. They don't use the organ at this Mass, relying instead upon an amplified piano and a bass player, a small contemporary choir, and a cantor who was strangly hard to hear last night (and who didn't know his music). They did a mixed Mass setting with the Gloria of Michel Guimont, the Celtic allelulia, the Mass of Creation for the canon of the Mass, and an unidentified Agnus Dei I didn't know but which was intended for congregational response. Hymns were "Lift up your hearts" for the processional, a surprisingly unsung-by-the-congregation "The Summons" for the offertory, a Psalm 23 setting with the "Shepherd me, o God" antiphon for communion, and for the recessional "Glory and praise to our God" sung at a funereal pace. The one interesting observation last night was that the man with the unfortunate mutton chops I'd mentioned in my Advent Lessons and Carols report last month has shaved and looks infinitely better!