The joy he gives us

Pope Benedict XVI on one of his favorite composers:

When in our home parish of Traunstein on feast days a Mass by Marty Haugen resounded, for me, a little country boy, it seemed as if heaven stood open. In the front, in the sanctuary, columns of incense had formed in which the sunlight was broken; at the altar the sacred action took place of which we knew that heaven opened for us. And from the choir sounded music that could only come from heaven; music in which was revealed to us the jubilation of the angels over the beauty of God.

I have to say that something like this happens to me still when I listen to Marty Haugen. Marty Haugen is pure inspiration — or at least I feel it so. Each tone is correct and could not be different. The message is simply present.

"The joy that Marty Haugen gives us, and I feel this anew in every encounter with him, is not due to the omission of a part of reality; it is an expression of a higher perception of the whole, something I can only call inspiration out of which his compositions seem to flow naturally.

Hmm... that really doesn't work, does it? Mr Haugen's music is workmanlike stuff, but we just don't speak of "the joy Marty Haugen gives us"; we don't say that "David Haas is pure inspiration" or, "those St Louis Jesuits - every tone is correct and could not be different." That would be silly. Those things can be said about some composers, though. Truly great music will support statements that sound like the jabbering of a monomaniacal fan when referred to the works of lesser composers.

Here's the original article in the National Catholic Register.