I just lost my lunch all over my desk watching the Youtube promo for this “Alma Mater” release of “Music from the Vatican,” voiced-over by Pope Benedict.
They keep saying “it works, it just works,” but I suppose that what they mean is that it will work if they make a ton of cash on the business, which is their purpose. Wow, the Vatican has discovered the marketing folks on Nashville’s Music Row.
News flash to the Vatican: Music Row is going out of business. And I’m so pleased that Christian music marketing, which is the gift my folks—the evangelicals—have given to the world, has now infected the Vatican and even features a pope (who actually spends twenty minutes a day playing Mozart and Beethoven and who really knows something about music) doing voice-overs.
OK, boys, if you’re not interested in just cash, if this really is a ministry of the Church, then release the whole thing for free over the web. Or for a down load of a penny.
Yeah right. Ka-chink, ka-chunk goes the cash-register. They won’t do it. I just lost what was left of my lunch again. This is stuff I really hate.
Guess you noticed.
October 14th, 2009 | 7:40 pm
If the “Evangelicals” can make a fortune marketing music (not filthy lucre?) why not the Holy See?
October 14th, 2009 | 9:25 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Christine Krantz, Tek Loong Lee. Tek Loong Lee said: Music | Vatican Music » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog: News flash to the Vatican: .. http://bit.ly/Dxdcy | Read More… [...]
October 14th, 2009 | 9:48 pm
If an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi may be permitted to attempt to bring peace to warring Christian factions, our Sages say clearly in the Talmud that “If there is no bread, there is no Torah”.
Adapting this to the modern idiom, we get “If a person, or an institution, does not have sufficient funds to operate effectively, its mission will perish”.
In other words, if the money earned (in combination, of course, with donations) is crucial to an important part of the Vatican’s mission, and if it is earned and disbursed honestly and fairly, then this may be a good thing.
I’m sure that there must be Evangelicals who earn and use modest but crucial sums for their missions through some commercial means-perhaps selling books or music.
Perhaps that is also not a bad thing.
Rabbi Chaim Frazer
October 14th, 2009 | 11:14 pm
Yeah right. Ka-chink, ka-chunk goes the cash-register.
Hey! Maybe they’ll use that extra money to feed the poor some good food which won’t turn stomachs!
Something to think about! :)
October 15th, 2009 | 4:13 am
[...] Vatican Music » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog Categories: music Tags: christian, evangelicals, folks, gift, going-out, music, [...]
October 15th, 2009 | 8:17 am
Thank you, Rabbi Chaim Frazer, for your wise words which provide relief from the unnecessary nastiness of Michael Linton. Perhaps persons whose taste fails them are not found only in the Vatican.
October 15th, 2009 | 10:59 am
Having found the youtube video on the net, I must say I am not sure why Michael Linton had such an intense reaction. No doubt there are dangers inherent in marketing ventures such as this. In order to judge what those dangers are in this case, and how great they are, one would like to know what the financial arrangements actually are. Perhaps providing the readers of this blog some detailed information about that would allow for some intelligent reflection and discussion.
October 15th, 2009 | 6:06 pm
I agree with Mr. Barr. From the little I have read, at least a portion of the profits are going to charity. The overall impression given by a lot of the news coverage, one of the Pope jaunting down to a recording studio to make a record, is a false one. The Pope’s “voiceover” was lifted from Vatican Radio archives. Also, there is no such person as “the Vatican”. That term is often used in an effort to imply papal approbation for words and acts that lack it. There are probably people and entities for and against this project within “the Vatican” (if they even notice it at all). Anyway, I doubt the details are as sordid as Mr. Linton seems to assume.
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