Last night, I watched an Easter Vigil Mass online. It was held at a church I used to attend in the '80s, so I was curious to see how they'd handle hymns. I had assumed the congregation would stand, and an organist would accompany them as they sang hymns. That was how hymns were sung when I was in the congregation.
Instead, trained musicians sang and sometimes played various instruments for more modern-sounding hymns. I was fine with that. The congregation still got to join in during the choruses, and it gave Mass a dimension it didn't used to have. Why not have a trumpeter when the occasion calls for it? Why not have a guitarist strum along when it's appropriate? Why not have professional singers belt hymns tastefully?
