The restoration of Sacred Music

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CatholicNerd,

Thanks for the information on your diocese. Maybe you can help me with some music history in the church. I know the eastern church has always sung the liturgy. I am assuming initially the west did also, but have no idea when it became mainly a spoken liturgy except for the sung high mass. Do you know anything about that history?

One thought that has always occured to me is that all music comes, at least initially, from within the culture itself. I am not that well versed in the early history of Gregorian chant, but know that in the eastern churches the chants seem to come from the (possibly early) local culture with the ‘flavor’ so to speak of that culture. Am I far off on this?

I see this pattern (if I am correct) continuing through the history of the western church. What may be now considered ‘sacred’ came in fact from the common culture (or high culture if that be the case) of the era. (Just as maybe Latin, which was the common-vulgar- language of the people, eventually became the ‘high church’ language so to speak).

My next question is really sincere; do you know of any music in the history of the church as you know it at this time, that came from anything other than the culture of the time? In other words, music is not divinely revealed or drops from the sky as sacred music—although am sure many a composer truly has felt that way 🙂

I am not at all implying there is not music we can call sacred or that is more proper for liturgy than another. I am sincerely interested in music history (am not a musician and have never had a chance to study that) and how it relates to the church’s liturgy. Thanks for your help 🙂
 
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CatholicNerd:
I was a Lutheran for many, many years and I know consubstantiation when I see it… Most of the traditional hymns either have their Latin text removed entirely, or have been shortened to two or three verses, while modernist **** gets six or seven verses… Somebody at OCP’s got an agenda.
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I don’t know whether the folks at OCP have an agenda or not. You might be right. It does seem that they have a bunch of professional “hymn writers” of various faiths writing music for the most sacred part of the Catholic liturgy with the goal of getting paid. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised if their music is pedestrian, their lyrics uninspiring and their theology inconsistent with Catholic teaching.

OCP’s main agenda seems to be getting their music royalties for OCP composers. :twocents:

I’ve taken to reading the lyrics before mass and praying to myself during the hymns that I just can’t bring myself to sing. A cop out, I guess, but I’m tired of complaining. :banghead:
 
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Dolly:
CatholicNerd,

Thanks for the information on your diocese. Maybe you can help me with some music history in the church. I know the eastern church has always sung the liturgy. I am assuming initially the west did also, but have no idea when it became mainly a spoken liturgy except for the sung high mass. Do you know anything about that history?
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Hehe. I’m no musicologist (yet!!!), but I feel that the key to clearing up all kinds of misconceptions about Catholic liturgical music is to look at the history of its development. I’ll address your post in chunks, starting with the chunk I have quoted above. Catholic and Orthodox Chant, be it Old Roman, Gregorian, Ambrosian, Galican, Mozarabic, Byzantine, Ruthenian, Moscow, or what have you… all stems from Jewish liturgical music, which, at least according to Scripture, comes on the scene with King David.

Up until the time of the First Temple, the Shofar and Trumpets were blown during the sacrifices, but these were priestly functions only. It is in the story of the Ark of the Covenant being moved to Jerusalem that we see music being used as an integral part of the worship of the people (in fact, the word Liturgy means “work of the people” but I’ll get to that later). It is after this event that there was an explosion, so to speak, of liturgical music. In second Chronicles, Chapter 20 we read of Jehosephat using Levite singers to lead the army into battle and head up a victory procession into Jerusalem. Temple music, similar to that of Jerusalem, may have existed in other centers of worship such as Beth El and Dan, or even in less important “high places.” We know that the Psalms were sung, but unfortunately there was no written notation so we have no idea as to what they sounded like.

Moving forward a few years… it is known from rabbinical writings that in the Second Temple there was a choir of at least twelve Levites, but more were permitted. The psalms were the main hymns and were sung antiphonally and responsorially. It is believed that each day had a different psalm. We know also that the Temple had an orchestra of sorts. As intruiging as Jewish liturgical music is, it’s not really what you wanted to know about! Suffice it to say that this is the situation that Christ and the Apostles were born into, and Jewish liturgical music heavily influenced the music of the early Church.
 
To continue… We know that Christianity was spread to much of the Roman Empire by the Apostles, but until the Edict of Milan, it was an underground religion, facing many persecutions at the hands of Jewish leaders and bloodthirsty Romans alike. With the issuance of the Edict of Milan, worship began to take on an understanding of having a missionary and proclamation role to fulfill that it had not had before. All of this resulted in a more literal understanding of the “do” in Christ’s words “Do this in remembrance of Me.” The result was a greater focus on action and ceremony within worship.

These enhancements in act and ceremony manifested in a variety of ways. The Church had always worshiped in homes, but during times of toleration, it began taking over secular buildings, and converting them for Christian worship. The new public places of worship were larger, and there was amplification of the service over what had been celebrated in earlier times. Clerical vestments began to appear. The use of chanting and hymnody, having their basis in Jewish worship, became more highly developed in this more public worship and proclamation. There was a heightened sense of drama, with entrances, processions, and censing, also built upon Old Testament worship. It appears that the earliest example we have of uniquely Christian music composed in classical Greek meter is a work of Clement of Alexandria.

The adoption of the eight modes of Greek music allowed Byzantine music to develop and convey specific feeling (such as sorrow or joy) that could correspond with the liturgical cycle. During this same period, some of the greatest composers in the history of the Eastern Church created glorious music and contributed new musical forms to the Church. The Church honored these composers, such as Ephraim the Syrian, Andrew of Crete, Joseph the Hymnographer, Kosmas the Poet, John Damascene, and Romanos the Melode, by enrolling them among the saints.

At some point, perhaps as early as the fourth century, unique local forms of liturgical chant began to develop in the West. During the next three centuries, chant forms developed in southern Italy, northern Italy, Gaul and Spain, apart from Rome itself. By the time of the liturgical and musical reforms under Charlemagne in the late eighth century, a variety of different chant forms had developed in the West. Among Charlemagne’s goals was a uniform liturgical rite, including the Roman chant that he admired. The result was a collection of chants of the Latin rite that has long been known as Gregorian chant. This became the standard liturgical chant of the Latin rite, as other chant forms were eventually abolished in its favor.
 
Now, as for your question, it depends on what kind of Mass was being celebrated. The Western Roman Empire was much bigger and far less centralized than the Eastern Empire. In areas where the bishops presided, Pontifical High Masses were held with singing , but these required a lot of people and could not be held everywhere. There were Masses with simple chants, and there were Masses that were simply spoken by a priest and a server. Unfortunately, I haven’t got dates for you. This is where I have to throw up my hands and say “I’m only 19 and I’m a freshman in college! Ask me in 8 years…”
 
“I see this pattern (if I am correct) continuing through the history of the western church. What may be now considered ‘sacred’ came in fact from the common culture (or high culture if that be the case) of the era. (Just as maybe Latin, which was the common-vulgar- language of the people, eventually became the ‘high church’ language so to speak)”
I’d like to address that part of your post now. As you are probably aware, the Church became the driving force behind the unification and recivilization of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. While it is true that early Western chant was influenced by Greek musical modes, and Jewish modes before that, Gregorian Chant eventually developed its own distinct system. Music for many years was based upon the Gregorian modes, INCLUDING secular music. Polyphonic music developed in monasteries and convents, and antiphonal singing as we know it today developed in Venice and in Milan. It was Catholic musicians who influenced the development of the Baroque style and it was Catholic musicians who codified Western music and came up with the system of notation that we know today.

It was the PROTESTANT leaders who came up with the idea of incorporating “vulgar,” that is, music in the common tongue and style, into religious music. The Church, rightly, refused to make concessions, and at the Council of Trent it was delcared that Sacred Music was to consist of Gregorian Chant and Sacred Polyphony, in the style of Palestrina (things had been getting a little out of hand with pieces calling for 32 separate music voices…). Simple, sublime music. In later years, however, the Church began to make concessions, but only small ones. Remember that the same composers who wrote sacred music also wrote for the secular world. The Liturgical Music of Mozart, for example, is similar to the style of his secular music, but no vulgar texts were used. NEVER, until after Vatican II, was profane music allowed into liturgical functions. Note that it wasn’t ALLOWED. Had people actually followed that rule, Pope St. Pius X would never have had to issue his Encyclical on Sacred Music. Remember, our duty as Christians is to transform the world. We must have authentic Catholic music that will transform the music of our secular society, as all the great Catholic composers of ages past ensured, and we CANNOT have it the other way around. The purpose of the Church is to sanctify the world, not to conform to it.
 
CatholicNerd said:
115. Great importance is to be attached to the teaching and practice of music in seminaries, in the novitiates and houses of study of religious of both sexes, and also in other Catholic institutions and schools. To impart this instruction, teachers are to be carefully trained and put in charge of the teaching of sacred music. It is desirable also to found higher institutes of sacred music whenever this can be done. Composers and singers, especially boys, must also be given a genuine liturgical training.
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Emphasis in above quote from Sacrosanctum Concilium is mine…

Question: Does anyone know of any Catholic “higher institutes of sacred music” in the United States or North America as a whole, that have been established in response to this document, or even one that existed before this document? If so, can you give me a name or names, and where it/they is/are?

I ask, because one of the dreams I’ve been kicking around in my head recently is someday founding one of these higher institutes of sacred music. Of course, if a couple good ones already exist, I may find myself enrolling one of these days!

Blessings in Christ,
Tim
 
My home town parish published its own hymnal after having the same frustrations as you. They also have a schola choir. Anyway, the hymnal is now offered for sale to other parish. It is very popular.

St. Boniface is Lafayette, Indiana. (St. Boniface.org)

They are in their third printing and they are offering some used ones for $5 a piece (min 20 books).

Check out this link. You won’t be disappointed.

www.stboniface.org.hymnal
I encourage you to get at least one copy. Maybe as time goes on you will get to choose the music for the masses that you play at. You can make some worship aides using this great hymnal.
 
Ellen Marie:
Check out the thread on “praise and worship music at Mass.” Many people would like the education and opportunity to worship with the type of music that you describe. However, as a new Catholic, a little humility and gentleness toward the way that people at your parish already worship will go a long way toward your meeting your goals. As I stated in the other thread, some of this “horrible” music that you don’t care for developed my spiritual life in a way that organ music and traditional hymns would not have. We can be distracted from worship of God by the talent of the organist and majesty of the organ music or chant as well as by other types of music.

Ellen
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It doesn’t matter if he just converted. It doesn’t matter if he were an atheist. Anyone can tell you the music at 99.999% of Novus Ordo Masses is horrific, or at least no where near where it should be and has been in the past. You ought not lord over the fact that you have been a Catholic longer, espcially in such a situation as this wherein: 1) he knows much more than you do about music 2) the Faith does not change whether or not the music is edifying or correct 3) a person who has been Catholic for but a week could very certainly know more than a Catholic who has been since he was baptized in the crib–the amount of reading on the subject is what determines this, not how long you have been a Catholic.

I attend a Traditional Latin Mass and we have Gregorian chant for the Mass, which is the music of the Church, according to even Vatican II, which says it deserves “pride of place” in the Liturgy.
 
I’m a former choir director in my parish & I chose not to use a lot of the “newer” music, especially the music that had inclusive language or music that was written by liberal song writers. I do like Gregorian chant, but I don’t see how forcing this style of music on others in worship is meant to bulid up the body of Christ. I see chant much more useful in adoration or contemplative settings, not exactly adequate for every celebration of Holy Mass. Celebrations are supposed to be fun, our life in Christ is supposed to bring us joy. I know many find joy in chant, but not everyone is uplifted by it.
 
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St.Catherine:
My home town parish published its own hymnal after having the same frustrations as you. They also have a schola choir. Anyway, the hymnal is now offered for sale to other parish. It is very popular.

St. Boniface is Lafayette, Indiana. (St. Boniface.org)

They are in their third printing and they are offering some used ones for $5 a piece (min 20 books).

Check out this link. You won’t be disappointed.

www.stboniface.org.hymnal
I encourage you to get at least one copy. Maybe as time goes on you will get to choose the music for the masses that you play at. You can make some worship aides using this great hymnal.
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LOL! I like that–“no inclusive language” as a selling point! How much is this thing? Is it full piano music, or lead sheets, just melody or what?

Just looked at the contents–it has music for all that???
 
Put me down for one too.

My own musical nightmare:

A flyer was inserted into our bulletins this weekend. It was aimed primarily at those of us who don’t sing during the mass. It read in part:

“‘There are still people in the Roman Catholic Church, some of them ordained, who consider sacred music an ornament-a nice addition if you work it out but not all that important,’ Dominican Father Paul Philbert of the Southern Dominican Province said in an address July 8, 2004 to the eastern regional convention of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians in Philadelphia. But, the theologian said, ‘common song is the holy sign or sacrament of the redeemed people’s solidarity in the body of Christ’.”…
The flyer goes on to quote Philbert as saying “Much more is at issue here than esthetics(sic), it is not the beauty of the celebration so much as the truth of the sacrament that is our concern… Many Catholics are undercatechized and oversacramentalized, they approach the holy mysteries without really understanding the profound conversion of life they represent. In such cases, the sustained, wise, and judicious choice of texts of sacred song by music ministers is one of the best chances the church has to catechize an unaware complacent assembly.”

“Unaware and complacent assembly”? We’re not an assembly we are the Church Militant, get it right. I believe that it is actually many progressive minded music ministers who are unaware and complacent. When did the folk mass become the status quo? Where is this sacred music that Fr. Philbert speaks of? Is it the use of the Christian Pop Rock song “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High” as an offertory hymn? Is it found in the hymnals of the Oregon Catholic Press who seem to have a stranglehold on Church music in the United States? Is it found in the music played every Sunday that uses every instrument under the sun except for the organ which has dust on it that can be dated back to the Council of Trent? The felt banners and “Hi God!” series by Carey Landry was cute when I was in second grade, music ministry today seems to be the addition of a few more chords to the C-D-G progression of Landry’s.

NOTE TO “PROGRESSIVE” MUSIC MINISTERS: We’re not complacent, we’re annoyed. The toe tapping, guitar strumming, percussion driven music that you’re playing is as sacred as my “Guns and Roses” albums. We have a 1500 year old tradition of sacred music that you have chosen to ignore. We’re not unaware, if we were, we would join right in with the “Happy, happy, joy, joy” fare that is heard weekly. It is you, not we, who are undercatechized. If you spend some time learning about the sacred traditions of our faith you’d learn of our history and the beautiful music and poetry associated with it. Palestrina is not Italian Cuisine and Hildegard of Bingen is not a character in a Wagnerian epic. Until you become more aware of the sacred musical tradition and less complacent in your ignorance, you’ll know me by my silence.
 
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