Music at Mass Review: Sept 18, 2011

At Parish A today. Today’s music featured a strong challenge to my ‘can I sing this at Mass’ rules: Because You Are My Shepherd, an execrable ditty by a Christopher Walker, who. according to his own web site, is an internationally known composer, conductor and expert on liturgical music. Right. OK, then, I guess.

Using the Orthometer’s criteria, this song gets an HL (Hella Lame) for the sentiments expressed in the refrain, the goofy music, and the forced scansion of the verses,  which alone means one with any trace of musical, liturgical or artistic sense will not chose this song for Mass – but the question for the jury: does it also get an H (heretical)? Because that would mean that, in the unfortunate event that one is subjected to this tune at Mass, one must refrain from singing it. To make it even harder, almost all of the song is a not too bad paraphrase of Psalm 23 – only the refrain triggers my ‘shields up!’ response on the Heretical issue. Here ya go:

1. Because the Lord is my shepherd,
I have ev’ry thing I need.
He lets me rest in the meadow and leads me
to the quiet streams.
He restores my soul and he leads me
in the paths that are right:

Refrain
Lord, you are my shepherd,
you are my friend.
I want to follow you always,
just to follow my friend.