The Core of the Mass has never been changed, in 2000 years. It has been developmental. I Well remember that Pre-Vatican II, canon law prohibited any instrumentation except Organ, normally. Post Vatican II now permits Mozart Mass (Excerpts) like the profound Missa Brevis, etc.
Pope St. Pius X gladly admitted bow-ed instruments (violin, cello, etc.); and while the organ is the traditional musical instrument to be used in the liturgy,
the unadulterated human voice is the preferred musical mode!
And how many Ordinary Form Masses really use Mass settings by Mozart or any other classical composer? How often is polyphony heard in the Ordinary Form of Mass? Classical (or contemporary
classically-inspired) music is found primarily in those parishes which are committed to the “reform of the reform”, as it were: reclaiming Catholic tradition within the context of the liturgical reform
as Vatican II decreed it. Those parishes often celebrate Mass
ad orientem, with Latin used (at least for the ordinary parts); they have communion rails, altar boys in cassock and surplice, more than
two candles, and those on the altar even!
A major point is that the heavily researched Concilium of 1960’s did not discard or reject Traditional liturgy. It returned the Oldest forms, like congregation verbal cocelebration…
The congregation does not “concelebrate”. And the Consilium did shy away from the traditional liturgical practice of the Church, which is why maniples were made optional, and then the amice and cincture as well; that’s why there are now
13 EUCHARISTIC PRAYERS instead of
one; that’s why we don’t sing music inspired by the musical tradition of the Church – chant and polyphony – but rather music from the 60’s and 70’s, performed in styles and with instruments that are inappropriate for liturgical worship of God; that’s why the long-standing tradition of receiving on the tongue was no longer enforced; that’s why so many actions of the priest were omitted, and their symbolism demolished.
The Mass I go to on a regular basis (the Ordinary Form) is
not the Mass of the early Christians. We’re not facing east with our priest. We do not salute one another with a holy kiss. We’re not standing the whole time. We aren’t singing chants. We aren’t vigilant to ensure that non-Catholics don’t receive Holy Communion. (etc.)
The Extraordinary Form of the Mass isn’t the Mass of the early Christians either, but it is an organic development of that first liturgy. The Ordinary Form of the Mass is
not an organic development, but a hodge-podge pieced together. It is a Mass, true enough, but it is not an organic product, it is a new construction.