Is it sacrilegious to use Latin prayers as lyrics in the songs you make?

[aj44]

Hello. I am a musician who writes and makes my own songs. I am wondering is it sacrilegious to use Latin prayers (i.e. the Pater Noster) as lyrics in a song I have made.

 

[benedictgal]

Hello. I am a musician who writes and makes my own songs. I am wondering is it sacrilegious to use Latin prayers (i.e. the Pater Noster) as lyrics in a song I have made.

No. The Pater Noster, the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina have all been set to music. Now, if you’re going to put a pop beat or a rock or jazz tone to it, then there might be some problems.

 

[Flopfoot]

Even if you put it to such a style of music I don’t think there would be a problem as long as no one used it in Mass, right?

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Depends on the context of the song.

I recall a female singing rock group a few years ago, who recorded a song which went something like;

Kyrie eleison means I love you.

Kyrie eleison means I want you.

It was a dumb song but they played it often on the radio. I think it came out in the 80s.

Jim

 

[joeybaggz]

Hello. I am a musician who writes and makes my own songs. I am wondering is it sacrilegious to use Latin prayers (i.e. the Pater Noster) as lyrics in a song I have made.

Depends on the context. A song faithful to Catholic teaching that hopes to inspire using the lyrics you describe would certainly be OK.

If the song is to to sacreligious and recorded by someone like Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols, or Madonna in one of her shows where she figuratively spits on Catholic belief, that’s a different kettle of fish.
In the end though, as an artist, it’s your call.

 

[benedictgal]

Even if you put it to such a style of music I don’t think there would be a problem as long as no one used it in Mass, right?

During the last WYD in Cologne, some brilliant songrwriter decided to set the parts of the Mass in Latin so some New Age music (for lack of a better word) that included bongo drums, guitars, keyboards, drums and some other awful things. The look on Pope Benedict’s face said it all. That’s why the setting for the Sydney WYD Mass is more along the lines of the Church’s tradition instead of INXS or Enya (which is what the music in Cologne sounded like–imagine putting those two into a blender, not a very palapable combination).

Oddly enough, the founder of the WYD movement expressed some serious concerns about sacred music. This is what Pope John Paul II had to say back in 2003 in his Chirograph on Sacred Music:

I have also stressed the need to “purify worship from ugliness of style, from distasteful forms of expression, from uninspired musical texts which are not worthy of the great act that is being celebrated”[10], to guarantee dignity and excellence to liturgical compositions.

In this perspective, in the light of the Magisterium of St Pius X and my other Predecessors and taking into account in particular the pronouncements of the Second Vatican Council, I would like to re-propose several fundamental principles for this important sector of the life of the Church, with the intention of ensuring that liturgical music corresponds ever more closely to its specific function.

1. In continuity with the teachings of St Pius X and the Second Vatican Council, it is necessary first of all to emphasize that music destined for sacred rites must have holiness as its reference point: indeed, “sacred music increases in holiness to the degree that it is intimately linked with liturgical action”[11]. For this very reason, “***not all without distinction that is outside the temple (profanum) is fit to cross its threshold”, ***my venerable Predecessor Paul VI wisely said, commenting on a Decree of the Council of Trent[12]. And he explained that "if music - instrumental and vocal - does not possess at the same time the sense of prayer, dignity and beauty, it precludes the entry into the sphere of the sacred and the religious"[13]. Today, moreover, the meaning of the category “sacred music” has been broadened to include repertoires that cannot be part of the celebration without violating the spirit and norms of the Liturgy itself.

 

[aj44]

I was thinking about incorporating the Pater Noster as the lyrics to an acoustic song that I made up. Cheers for all your advice!

 

[Sarabande]

Hello. I am a musician who writes and makes my own songs. I am wondering is it sacrilegious to use Latin prayers (i.e. the Pater Noster) as lyrics in a song I have made.

Are you setting the words as a religious song to be used either in mass or in other settings? I personally know a few classical composers and aspiring composers who set Latin text to their own compositions for either their own pleasure or for use at mass. The pieces are usually a capella in 4-part harmony.

I think if you are wanting to set the Pater Noster for religious reasons, there is nothing wrong with it.

There are literally hundreds of settings to various Latin texts throughout the centuries. Think of the multitudes of settings for the “Ave Maria” or even the various parts of the mass like the Sanctus, Agnus Dei, etc.

 

[bpbasilphx]

During the early middle ages the same tune would be sung to Latin lyrics in church, French lyrics in court, and played on instrumests–and maybe sped up–for dancing.

If it was ok in the middle ages, is it wrong now?

 

[Sarabande]

During the early middle ages the same tune would be sung to Latin lyrics in church, French lyrics in court, and played on instrumests–and maybe sped up–for dancing.

If it was ok in the middle ages, is it wrong now?

You must be talking about when polyphony was first making its way into church music, as you didn’t give an example of a tune from that time period. As we know Western Art Music composition rules, etc. came out of the perfecting and development of music, originating from chant in Europe.

Originally, because of how the polyphonic music was stylistically performed - usually by troubadours and much different from how we hear polyphony in church throughout the subsequent centuries and today - it was not sanctioned by the Church and actually was banned by a couple of Popes. Sometimes it was because of how the music was written (certain tri-tones, for instance, were considered the “Devil’s Chord”) and most of the time it was because of how it was performed stylistically, some believing that it brought on the carnal passions of human beings. So, in essence that was wrong back then.

It wasn’t until Guillame de Machaut in the 1300s, who was a well-known composer of sacred and secular styles of music, did polyphonic music for mass officially become sanctioned. He composed the music and made it stylistically appropriate for mass and thus came the separation between the secular and sacred styles. We have literally tons of cds from the medieval and renaissance periods and I have performed both secular and sacred compositions in concert and in church. The styles are fairly distinct. And composers throughout the centuries have been doing this. They would take a popular melody, refine it and turn it into something that would be appropriate for sacred use - so much so that you sometimes would not recognize it.