After TLM Mass : Why the dark composition ?

[Acolyte]

A friend of mine finally went to mass with me. Not always, but sometimes the last piece of music the organist plays is a very dark/erie sounding composition. That day the organist played one and my friend described it as creepy.

So what's going on ? I need to explain to him why the organist plays such.

[diaduit]

Same for one diocesan tlm I go to here in Ireland, my kids think its an intro to a horror film....

[Acolyte]

He was already freaked out by our full skeletal remains of St Bonosa and St Magnus, each in a glass reliquary under the side altars. Then the spooky organ lol

[diaduit]

He was already freaked out by our full skeletal remains of St Bonosa and St Magnus, each in a glass reliquary under the side altars. Then the spooky organ lol

I know, trying to explain to a non believer why we break up bones and keep blood of holy saints to pass around is a hard one to get passed.

[Greg]

One day I want them to play this after Mass.

[kayla_veronica]

Do you know what the song is or who the composer is? Do you know who selects the music, or have the ability to ask that person why it was chosen?

[The Curt Jester]

I have been accused of playing music that's a little dark (although it was framed in different words).  In my case, it was because I was playing modal music which is unfamiliar to most people's ears.  A lot of the creepy-sounding music that I have heard organists play has been improvisations on chant or compositions based on the modes.  Not all of them are creepy, of course, but it will depend on the mode and the composer.  Actually, these days almost anything in the minor key will be deemed to be dark, sad, or mysterious. 

[Acolyte]

Do you know what the song is or who the composer is? Do you know who selects the music, or have the ability to ask that person why it was chosen?

I can ask the music director. She is the organist.

[Daniel]

Could it be (at least partly) because of the sound of the organ in general? Many non-music people such as myself tend to associate it with Dracula.

[Greg]

Or Doctor Phibes.

[The Harlequin King]

Catholicism is so intertwined with Gothic horror in American culture that the two are indistinguishable in many people's imaginations. What seems normal to me might appear to look like an exotic death cult to someone who's used to sanitized forms of Christianity (or even someone whose only notion of Catholicism is big-box suburban Novus Ordo parishes).

In terms of music, Curt Jester explained it well. Modal music with minor keys is the basis of Gregorian chant and pre-Enlightenment music in general, and enjoyed a resurgence with many of the more Catholic composers of organ music in France in the late 19th/early 20th centuries; works that many traditionally-leaning Catholic organists today love.

The Toccata from the Suite Gothique by Léon Boëllmann is a great postlude for Latin Masses:

[Acolyte]

Catholicism is so intertwined with Gothic horror in American culture that the two are indistinguishable in many people's imaginations. What seems normal to me might appear to look like an exotic death cult to someone who's used to sanitized forms of Christianity (or even someone whose only notion of Catholicism is big-box suburban Novus Ordo parishes).

In terms of music, Curt Jester explained it well. Modal music with minor keys is the basis of Gregorian chant and pre-Enlightenment music in general, and enjoyed a resurgence with many of the more Catholic composers of organ music in France in the late 19th/early 20th centuries; works that many traditionally-leaning Catholic organists today love.

The Toccata from the Suite Gothique by Léon Boëllmann is a great postlude for Latin Masses:

Thanks for that example. I'm pretty sure that one has been used by our organist in the past.

I don't particularly dislike those compositions.  I was just curious if they had a liturgical significance.