Not sure if this is the correct subforum to put this in.

At the Christmas day Mass at the local FSSP parish, the organist played the Gospel song called, "Go Tell it on the Mountain," at the end of Mass, when the Last Gospel was being read. I was appalled, and I'm thinking about sending an email to the music director to complain. Is this a dumb idea?

Maybe I'm ever-reacting, but it doesn't seem appropriate to play gospel songs at a TLM, especially at Christmas. I suppose I should be grateful that it was not sung by the choir, since they had the day off. It was only played on the organ. But still.

 :really-mad2:

I should have mentioned that it was not the Midnight Mass, but the mid-day Mass on Christmas day. Though for all I know the choir may have sung it at the Midnight Mass, which I didn't attend. Who knows.

Maybe you better because next will be amazing grace and how great thou art.  

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. Amazing Grace is like the Protestant national anthem, and the Novus Ordo parishes just love it. Yuk. I think I will send an email.

One of the lesser problems with indult Masses is that the organist probably plays for both TLM and NO. It's sometimes quite difficult for your average layperson (most organists have no special training) to know what is acceptable and what is not and it's even more confusing when you play for different sorts of Masses.

That being said, "Go Tell it on the Mountain" isn't exactly in the grey area. I would send them a note, but don't be mean. : )

Well, I sent an email, and received a reply. The music director had already spoken with the organist about it. The organist is recently from the Novus Ordo, and isn't aware yet of how things work at a TLM. I assume that the organist played the gospel song without asking permission. Or something like that.

Quote from: Meg

Not sure if this is the correct subforum to put this in.

At the Christmas day Mass at the local FSSP parish, the organist played the Gospel song called, "Go Tell it on the Mountain," at the end of Mass, when the Last Gospel was being read. I was appalled, and I'm thinking about sending an email to the music director to complain. Is this a dumb idea?

Maybe I'm ever-reacting, but it doesn't seem appropriate to play gospel songs at a TLM, especially at Christmas. I suppose I should be grateful that it was not sung by the choir, since they had the day off. It was only played on the organ. But still.

 :really-mad2:

It's a Christmas hymn playing as the recessional at a Christmas Mass. Your average American parish pre-Vatican II would've likely done the same thing.

 :roll-laugh2: :roll-laugh1:

John Wesley Work, Jr. the man who gave the United States the Negro spiritual song "Go Tell It On the Mountain" was a black college professor and choir director and a collector of slave memorabilia.  His work was collecting as many Negro spirituals as he could to promote Black appreciation and history.  Since he was born in the decades just after the cινιℓ ωαr, this was very personal.  Peter, Paul, and Mary took the hymn, changed the lyrics around, and used it to promote Civil Rights in the 1960s.  I first heard it as a child in Liberty Baptist Church, the old country church that was started by my maternal grandfather's ancestors.  A Catholic Hymn it is not and unless you grew up in the Kumbaya Catholic Church of the 1960's, I doubt it was played at Christmas.