SIR,-The Warden of Grey
friars sets a poser to many Catholics when he deplores what he describes as the " satisfied acceptance of the ghastly rub bish which in this country goes under the name of church music," also the indifferent attitude towards the making of " some kind of noise . . . so often found in our churches."
Personally, within the last 25 years, I have found plainsong being followed (with varying degrees of efficiency) in most of the churches I have visited in the South and West of England. There are several I could name that have changed over from their former old-style harmonised singing to unison plainsong.
Having been a chorister for over half a century, and visited many places, I can speak with experience of past and present music in our churches. While agreeing that some of the Mass settings sung for generations did not conform to liturgical standards, there was much in this old-style music that was reverent, tuneful, and for festival occasions truly joyful.
These factors, to which easy music, correctly composed for small choirs, contributed, made the singing beloved by our older generation, as it did by their parents. Moreover such variety kept interest in the singing alive, and young Catholics eager to join our choirs, whereas today the younger generation seem content with one low Mass as their Sunday worship, leaving the middle-aged and the elderly to form the small congregations we get in the evenings.
Charles Winter