I once heard a priest suggest that music was the third rail of the parish life, that is you just don't want to touch it. The conversation was regarding a priest coming into a new parish.
It's an interesting dilemma, Catholics and our music. Traditional hymnody, praise & worship, folk mass, chant - is there a best practice?
Full disclosure, I direct the "traditional" choir at our parish and have been the lead singer in our parish praise & worship band. I have experienced P&W Mass, P&W Adoration, Chant Adoration, directed and sung old school polyphony, as well as contemporary choral arrangements.
You know what, there is definitely room for all types of music in our church, but (and you knew there was a but coming right?) I firmly believe that there are particular styles of music for different occasions. I have never been comfortable with praise & worship music-full on pop band style- during the Mass, meaning for the Mass settings, and music between the opening prayer and the closing prayer. To me the style of the music is just too secular for Mass. As prelude or opening/recessional sure, but not during the Mass proper. I like the music, and frankly the lyrics of today's Christian pop are generally more God centered than the I/Me/Mine garbage written for our hymnals in the 70's-90's. Another place I like P&W is for adoration/holy hours especially when there is a large crowd present. Adoration can be an emotional experience, and a lot of P&W music lends itself to that emotion.
On the flip side however, experiencing a holy hour with Latin chant really lends a much more meditative quality to the experience, perfect for those times when you know it will a smaller or a more somber crowd (Holy hour for the Holy Innocents as an example). And that's not to say the old school stuff can't be emotional. I mean check out this version of Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus or Palestrina's Sicut Cervis (Psalm 42 As the deer longs...). Though you may not know the translation, the music takes you to a heavenly place. There is a need in our worship for this ethereal style that is not found in the vast majority of hymnals today.
OK enough of that third rail for now. Maybe next time we can talk about the current state of Hymnody in our missals!
We'll see you on the road!