The use of Sacred music during holy mass

[johnlex]

Today we are being bombarded with many non-catholic songs which aim is to lift up the body, thereby killing the soul which attains a perfect relationship with God during the holy sacrifice of the mass. If a pop musician sings releases a today, tomorrow it is repeated in the mass. This is a great abuse witnessed today in the church that needs serious attention. music used during mass must be theologically tested by the music commission in each diocese. nobody has the right to introduce any defiled or fetish song during holy mass. There is a difference between a song sang in the parish hall and the one used during mass. i urge everyone to use only catholic prayers and hymns which are tested and trusted. These songs made the saints. think of the -Adore Te- composed by st Thomas Aquinas, this song lifts up the soul to heavenly Ecstasy. If these modern songs makes one a saint in the near future, then we will know

 

[bpbasilphx]

think of the -Adore Te- composed by st Thomas Aquinas, this song lifts up the soul to heavenly Ecstasy.

**Speaking as a musician and monk, I can assure you that musical notes of themselves have no theological significance.

And while I like the hymn Adoro te, St. Thomas did NOT compose the tune for it. He wrote the words.**

 

[LilyM]

think of the -Adore Te- composed by st Thomas Aquinas, this song lifts up the soul to heavenly Ecstasy.

**Speaking as a musician and monk, I can assure you that musical notes of themselves have no theological significance.

And while I like the hymn Adoro te, St. Thomas did NOT compose the tune for it. He wrote the words.**

Exactamundo - just as St Thomas similarly composed the words for the ‘Pange Lingua’ - the tune of which is … an old Roman army marching song.

I’m sure, soldiers being the same in all times and places, the original lyrics (for the marching song) were then, as many soldiers’ marching songs are now, filthy. Definitely not something to ‘lift up the spirit’, yet St Thomas took that filthy old marching song and turned it into something absolutely glorious.

You know, don’t you, that December 25 was deliberately chosen as the date of Christmas because it was a Roman pagan feast - the birth of their sun-god. Which of course became the feast of the birth of the Sun of Rightousness, the Sun of Justice - in other words the SON of God, Christ. In fact, if memory serves, in Croatian and similar languages, Christmas is still named ‘Bozhich’ after that old sun-god!

It’s an enduring and common trait of Catholicism - and Christianity - that it takes features of the cultures it encounters, be they filthy old marching songs or feasts of the pagan Gods, and purifies them and turns them to God’s glory. Remember St Paul cleverly using the Greeks’ worship of an ‘unknown God’ and stating that OUR God was THAT God? Indeed all things turn to good for those who love God. :getholy:

 

[maurin]

Today we are being bombarded with many non-catholic songs which aim is to lift up the body, thereby killing the soul which attains a perfect relationship with God during the holy sacrifice of the mass. If a pop musician sings releases a today, tomorrow it is repeated in the mass. This is a great abuse witnessed today in the church that needs serious attention. music used during mass must be theologically tested by the music commission in each diocese. nobody has the right to introduce any defiled or fetish song during holy mass. There is a difference between a song sang in the parish hall and the one used during mass. i urge everyone to use only catholic prayers and hymns which are tested and trusted. These songs made the saints. think of the -Adore Te- composed by st Thomas Aquinas, this song lifts up the soul to heavenly Ecstasy. If these modern songs makes one a saint in the near future, then we will know

I agree with many things that you have posted, johnlex. It is clear that the CHurch, although not excluding other sacred forms of music in the Liturgy, clearly desires these other forms used to conform with certain ideals, some of which you have expressed well above:

From “Jubilate Deo”: all the faithful should know at least some Latin and Gregorian chants, such as, for example, the Gloria, the Credo , the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei.

From “Sacrosanctum Concilium, 116”: The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman Liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.

From 2002 GIRM, 41: All other things being equal, Gregorian chant holds pride of place because it is proper to the Roman Liturgy. Other types of sacred music, in particular polyphony, are in no way excluded, provided that they correspond to the spirit of liturgical actions and that they foster the participation of all the faithful.

“Chirograph”, 12. JPII: 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 savor the Gregorian melodic form, the molre sacred and liturgical it becomes; and the more out of harmony it is with that supreme model, the less owrthy it is of the temple.”

“Sacramentum Caritatis”, 42: Finally, while respecting various styles and different and highly praiseworthy traditions, I desire, in accordance with the request advanced by the Synod Fathers, that Gregorian chant be suitably esteemed and employed as the chant proper to the Roman liturgy.

(This Rock magazine, October 2008; Mary Ann Carr Wilson)

 

[Geremia]

You should read Pope Pius X’s motu proprio on sacred music “Tra le Sollecitudini.”

 

[benedictgal]

If I may add, there are other statements that Pope Benedict XVI made (both as Supreme Pontiff and as the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) that bear repeating:

Spirit of the Liturgy:

Modern so-called “classical” music has maneuvered itself, with some exceptions, into an elitist ghetto, which only specialists may enter – and even they do so with what may sometimes be mixed feelings. The music of the masses has broken loose from this and treads a very different path.

On the one hand, there is pop music, which is certainly no longer supported by the people in the ancient sense (populus). It is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as a cult of the banal. “Rock”, on the other hand, is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe. The music of the Holy Spirit’s sober inebriation seems to have little chance when self has become a prison, the mind is a shackle, and breaking out from both appears as a true promise of redemption that can be tasted at least for a few moments.

This seems to go hand-in-hand with the observations made in the OP.

Now, here is what he says in Sacramentum Caritatis:

Liturgical song

1. In the ars celebrandi, liturgical song has a pre-eminent place. (126) Saint Augustine rightly says in a famous sermon that “the new man sings a new song. Singing is an expression of joy and, if we consider the matter, an expression of love” (127). The People of God assembled for the liturgy sings the praises of God. In the course of her two-thousand-year history, the Church has created, and still creates, music and songs which represent a rich patrimony of faith and love. This heritage must not be lost. ***Certainly as far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that one song is as good as another. Generic improvisation or the introduction of musical genres which fail to respect the meaning of the liturgy should be avoided. As an element of the liturgy, song should be well integrated into the overall celebration (128). Consequently everything – texts, music, execution – ought to correspond to the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, the structure of the rite and the liturgical seasons (129). ***Finally, while respecting various styles and different and highly praiseworthy traditions, I desire, in accordance with the request advanced by the Synod Fathers, that Gregorian chant be suitably esteemed and employed (130) as the chant proper to the Roman liturgy (131).

Even though an earlier post quoted this section, it didn’t include what I believe to be the crucial statement, which I highlighted in bold.

In his second book, “A New Song for the Lord”, the former Cardinal Ratzinger writes:

While some maintain that in principle any kind of music can be used in a worship service15, others point to the deeper and essential relationships between certain vital activities and forms of musical expression which are fitting and appropriate to them: "I am convinced that there is also a type of music particularly appropriate (or, as the case may be, inappropriate) … for man’s encounter with the mystery of faith…"16 And as a matter of fact, music meant to serve the Christian liturgy must be appropriate and fitting for the Logos. which means, concretely: such music must be meaningfully related to the Word in which the Logos has found utterance.

**Even in its purely instrumental form, such music cannot disengage itself from the inner direction or orientation of this word which opens up an infinite space but also draws certain boundaries and establishes criteria of distinction. In its essence, such music must be different from a music which is meant to lead the listener into rhythmic ecstasy, or stupefied torpor, sensual arousal or the dissolution of the Ego **in Nirvanato mention but a few of the attitudes which are possible. Saint Cyprian has a fine observation in this connection, in his commentary on the Lord’s Prayer:

But let our speech and petition when we pray be under discipline, observing quietness and modesty. Let us consider that we are standing in God’s sight (sub conspectu Dei). We must please the divine eyes both with the habit of body and with the measure of voice. For as it is characteristic of a shameless man to be noisy with his cries, so on the other hand, is it fitting to the modest man to pray with moderated petitions… And when we meet together with the brethren in one place, and celebrate divine sacrifices with God’s priest, we ought to be mindful … not to throw abroad our prayers indiscriminately, with unsubdued voices, nor to cast to God with tumultuous wordiness a petition that ought to be commended to God by modesty … for God … need not be clamorously reminded… 17

It goes without saying that this interior standard of a music appropriate to the Logos must be related to life in this world: it must introduce men into the fellowship of Christ as fellow suppliants at prayer here and now, in this era and in a specific location. It must be accessible to them while at the same time leading them onwards in the direction which the divine liturgy itself formulates with unsurpassable brevity at the beginning of the Canon: sursum corda – lift up your hearts! Lift up the heart meaning the inner man, the totality of the self, to the heights of God Himself, to the sublimity which is God and which in Christ touches the earth, drawing it with and upwards toward itself.

I hope that these offerings will be of some help.