One of my kind readers has asked me to continue the article I wrote last week by describing and comparing the music we use in the liturgy in France. Please realise that my observations are limited to this diocese and to my conversations those who accompany and animate our worship.

Before the Council there was no tradition of congregational hymn singing, though unlike England, most parishes would have sung de Angelis on Sunday. I have come across something called le plainchant picard but I know next to nothing about it, and must talk to my neighbouring curé who is interested and knowledgeable. The tunes gathered by the English Hymnal from the french breviaries on the 17th and 18th centuries and which were popularly sung at Evensong by Anglo-Catholics are quite unknown here. Only the Easter hymn Chrétiens, chantons, which we know as Ye sons and daughters of the King has survived in the popular memory.

As in the UK, so here in France, the vernacular liturgy promoted after the Second Vatican Council led to a great outburst of composing of music for use with the liturgy. Much of it is mediocre. The Mass settings are often paraphrases of the texts. The music is an attempt to keep up with the secular music boom from the 1960’s on, and always has the feel of being several years ‘out-of-date’.

The music which came from the Community at Taizé apparently took some time to be accepted – “We can’t sing that, it’s Protestant”. But I wonder if it didn’t have some influence on the second generation of popular liturgical music in France. Much of the current stuff is being produced by the new Communities – Emmanuel, Chemin Neuf, Béatitudes … and is of rather better quality. There seems to me to be a real attempt to develop a style of music which is appropriate to Christian worship and is not a weak imitation of contemporary styles of popular music. Words are closer to biblical texts and reflect the new emphasis on worship and adoration often with time spent before the Blessed Sacrament.

Almost all French hymns are written with a rich, memorable, sometimes lively refrain to be sung by everyone together. The couplets or verses have a different feel and are to be rendered by a soloist or group of singers. I find the verses too high, and occasionally too difficult for the people,(if they try to join in) and therein lies the problem. In many parishes in this diocese the singing group, the chorale, has aged and dwindled in number. Accompanient on a cheap keyboard may be all that the parish can manage. What sounds splendid on You-Tube, cathedral accoutic, young voices, flute, clarinet, piano – may well sound less than beautiful in the village church at saint-roch-la-croix-blanche in deepest Picardie ….

I must admit that I miss the great tradition of English (and Welsh!) hymn singing, which over the centuries has been nourished too by the German hymn tradition, i.e. the chorales of JS Bach and others. The tunes are often rousing and lift hearts to praise and thanksgiving. The tradition of part singing with men’s voices supporting the tune inspires and lifts.

And what about the organ? Only one out of eleven of the churches in this little parish has a pipe organ – but what an organ. It was built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll in the 19th century, and for two years a young Belgian enthusiast used to come once a month to accompany Satuday evening Mass. How I longed to sing ‘At the Lamb’s high feast’ or ‘How shall I sing thy majesty’ . But the Widor or Guilmant after the Mass was tremendous!

Let us remember too, that generations in the English-speaking world learned their theology through hymns. I think of something as simple as Mrs Alexander’s ‘There is a greenhill’ which contains at least three approaches to the doctrine of the Atonement!

So while singing remains important in our French churches, there is perhaps need for a further evolution. The tradition needs to be raided, especially for ‘teaching’ hymns, with much more music taken and adapted from the centuries before the Second Vatican Council. And congregations need to be encouraged and aided to sing, without always relying on the chorale and the animateur (without whose enthusiastic, but sometimes misguided arm-waving, it seems impossible to celebrate a Mass here in France.)