Dear Editor,
I agree with Matt MacGregor (article on Music Resources in the August en) that music is an inherently emotional medium. But I was surprised by his recommending listening to two Requiem Masses. These are supposed to be for the benefit of a dead person, and the Bible teaches us that the destiny of a person is fixed at death, so there is no value in praying for a dead person. But is he able to listen to the music and forget about the words? I wonder what readers think about that?
And the same applies to specifically Roman Catholic songs such as Ave Maria and Ave Verum Corpus (which is about the communion bread being changed into the actual body of Christ). There are some very good tunes to these words, and I would agree with the words in parts of a Requiem Mass. But when we listen to such songs, can we separate the music from the words?
