Church singing in Maltese

The main function of the liturgy is to organise the worship of God so that it brings the message to the people taking part in the celebration while uniting them in prayer.

Singing during Mass is one of the means used to achieve this aim. But singing happens in a community that has its particular culture and traditions. If singing does not take account of this fundamental characteristic of the congregation, or rather, of the people taking part in the celebration, it becomes a factor of disunity and alienation.

There are many beautiful songs for this festive season, the holy Christmas. Their rhythm and softness touches the depths of our hearts. That is why some of them have been translated in most languages. The Germans call it Stille Nacht, the English call it Silent Night, the Maltese call it O Lejl ta' Skiet. They all sing it to the same tune. But the words were changed so that the people could understand it, own it, and sing it, because they feel it.

The Germans sing it in German, the English sing it in English, and the Maltese... some of them think it sounds better in English. This happens because of lack of self-esteem and lack of identity with the Maltese language which is our mother tongue as much as German and English are the mother tongues of the Germans and the English.

It is good to open our doors to the world (of languages too) to overcome our insularity, but let us open our doors also to show to the world our heritage and which we want to share.

What happens if you are in a church where 100 per cent of the people attending are Maltese, and Maltese-speaking at that, and the congregation is regaled by the beautiful sound of a pipe organ and the fine voices of a baritone and a soprano and to top it all they sing their Christmas songs in English? There would be complete silence!

And that was not only because they were mesmerised by the voices. Because when you take the singing from the people to put it in the mouth of the experts you may be putting up a good performance but you are certainly disempowering and disowning the common people from taking part in a Sunday Mass for the people themselves.

There are other appropriate places or occasions where such singing could be performed, and the difference is exactly that: do you want a concert or a celebration? Do you want participation or admiration and silence? The parish priest must decide in favour of the people and against alienation.

Since the recognition of Maltese as our national language, the Maltese Church and the clergy have been shining beacons for the Maltese language in the liturgy, during their sermons and with the religious singing.

By keeping up the good effort we will only be doing ourselves a favour, upholding our national Maltese identity. And by adopting Maltese religious songs for our liturgy, we would be giving a voice to all the congregation, even to the illiterate.

You can imagine how people must have felt emerging from the village church where all the singing was in English. For me it might have been beautiful but it was also disgraceful, albeit unintentionally.

The same thing goes for the Christmas CD distributed in each home. Most of the songs and music were foreign and could have been easily replaced by very good, traditional or modern Maltese ones - considering they were intended for a Maltese audience.