Please direct me to Church documents that utilize the phrases “supreme model” and “permanent standard” with reference to Catholic liturgical music.
I don’t know about “permanent standard” as a quote, but here is “supreme model”, from 1903 and 2003. These are documents you’ve seen quoted here before.
From Pope St. Pius X’s 1903
Tra le Sollecitudini, nn. 3-4:These qualities are to be found, in the highest degree, in
Gregorian Chant, which is, consequently the Chant proper to the Roman Church, the only chant she has inherited from the ancient fathers, which she has jealously guarded for centuries in her liturgical codices, which she directly proposes to the faithful as her own, which she prescribes exclusively for some parts of the liturgy, and which the most recent studies have so happily restored to their integrity and purity.
On these grounds Gregorian Chant has always been regarded as the supreme model for sacred music, so that it is fully legitimate to lay down the following rule: the more closely a composition for church approaches in its movement, inspiration and savor the Gregorian form, the more sacred and liturgical it becomes; and the more out of harmony it is with that supreme model, the less worthy it is of the temple. …
Classic Polyphony agrees admirably with Gregorian Chant, the supreme model of all sacred music, and hence it has been found worthy of a place side by side with Gregorian Chant, in the more solemn functions of the Church, such as those of the Pontifical Chapel.
And then from Pope John Paul II’s 2003 Chirograph on the above document, nn. 7, 12:Among the musical expressions that correspond best with the qualities demanded by the notion of sacred music, especially liturgical music,
Gregorian chant has a special place. The Second Vatican Council recognized that “being specially suited to the Roman Liturgy” it should be given, other things being equal, pride of place in liturgical services sung in Latin. St Pius X pointed out that
the Church had “inherited it from the Fathers of the Church”, that she has “jealously guarded [it] for centuries in her liturgical codices” and still "proposes it to the faithful’’ as her own, considering it
“the supreme model of sacred music”. Thus, Gregorian chant continues also today to be an element of unity in the Roman Liturgy. …
With regard to compositions of liturgical music,
I make my own the “general rule” that St Pius X formulated in these words: “The more closely a composition for church approaches in its movement, inspiration and savour the
Gregorian melodic form, the more sacred and liturgical it becomes; and the more out of harmony it is with
that supreme model, the less worthy it is of the temple”. It is not, of course, a question of imitating Gregorian chant but rather of ensuring that new compositions are imbued with the same spirit that inspired and little by little came to shape it.
I would also point out that Pope St. Pius X had this intention when he wrote
TLS in 1903:We do therefore publish,
motu proprio and with certain knowledge, Our present Instruction to which,
as to a juridical code of sacred music (
quasi a codice giuridice della musica sacra),
We will with the fullness of Our Apostolic Authority that the force of law be given, and We do by Our present handwriting impose its
scrupulous observance on all.
