Benedict's musical revolution

Malcolm Moore, in The Telegraph, writes, "The Pope is considering a dramatic overhaul of the Vatican in order to force a return to traditional sacred music."

The Pope has recently replaced the director of pontifical liturgical celebrations, Archbishop Piero Marini, with a man closer to his heart, Mgr Guido Marini. It is now thought he may replace the head of the Sistine Chapel choir, Giuseppe Liberto.

The International Church Music Review recently criticised the choir, saying: "The singers wanted to overshout each other, they were frequently out of tune, the sound uneven, the conducting without any artistic power, the organ and organ playing like in a second-rank country parish church."

Mgr Valentin Miserachs Grau, the director of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, which trains church musicians, said that there had been serious "deviations" in the performance of sacred music.

"How far we are from the true spirit of sacred music. How can we stand it that such a wave of inconsistent, arrogant and ridiculous profanities have so easily gained a stamp of approval in our celebrations?" he said.

He added that a pontifical office could correct the abuses, and would be "opportune". He said: "Due to general ignorance, especially in sectors of the clergy, there exists music which is devoid of sanctity, true art and universality."

Mgr Grau said that Gregorian chant was the "cardinal point" of liturgical music and that traditional music "should become again the living soul of the assembly".

In The Spirit of the Liturgy, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger had this to say about sacred music:

In the West, in the form of Gregorian chant, the inherited tradition of psalm-singing was developed to a new sublimity and purity, which set a permanent standard for sacred music, music for the liturgy of the Church. Polyphony developed in the late Middle Ages, and then instruments came back into divine worship--quite rightly, too, because, as we have seen, the Church not only continues the synagogue, but also takes up, in the light of Christ's Pasch, the reality represented by the Temple. Two new factors are thus at work in Church music. Artistic freedom increasingly asserts its rights, even in the liturgy. Church music and secular music are now each influenced by the other. This is particularly clear in the case of the so-called "parody Masses", in which the text of the Mass was set to a theme or melody that came from secular music, with the result that anyone hearing it might think he was listening to the latest "hit". It is clear that these opportunities for artistic creativity and the adoption of secular tunes brought danger with them. Music was no longer developing out of prayer, but, with the new demand for artistic autonomy, was now heading away from the liturgy; it was becoming an end in itself, opening the door to new, very different ways of feeling and of experiencing the world. Music was alienating the liturgy from its true nature.

And:

Whether it is Bach or Mozart that we hear in church, we have a sense in either case of what gloria Dei, the glory of God, means. The mystery of infinite beauty is there and enables us to experience the presence of God more truly and vividly than in many sermons. But there are already signs of danger to come. Subjective experience and passion are still held in check by the order of the musical universe, reflecting as it does the order of the divine creation itself. But there is already the threat of invasion by the virtuoso mentality, the vanity of technique, which is no longer the servant of the whole but wants to push itself to the fore. During the nineteenth century, the century of self-emancipating subjectivity, this led in many places to the obscuring of the sacred by the operatic. The dangers that had forced the Council of Trent to intervene were back again. In similar fashion, Pope Pius X tried to remove the operatic element from the liturgy and declared Gregorian chant and the great polyphony of the age of the Catholic Reformation (of which Palestrina was the outstanding representative) to be the standard for liturgical music. A clear distinction was made between liturgical music and religious music in general, just as visual art in the liturgy has to conform to different standards from those employed in religious art in general. Art in the liturgy has a very specific responsibility, and precisely as such does it serve as a wellspring of culture, which in the final analysis owes its existence to cult. (The Spirit of the Liturgy, pp 146-7)

• "The Spirit of the Liturgy" website
• Music and Liturgy | From The Spirit of the Liturgy
• Cardinal Ratzinger on Liturgical Music | Michael J. Miller (Homiletic & Pastoral Review)

Comments

[Mark Brumley]

Don't get me started.

[dad29]

The Vatican choir was a chest-thumping bunch LONG before Liberto.

In fact, it's likely that they caused a number of people to flee Catholicism. Their 'singing' technique has always been (in my 40+ yeaer memory) "Bellow" and "Bellow Louder."

[Jackson]

"[T]he virtuoso mentality, the vanity of technique...." Oh, so much there! I'm currently heavily immersed in Bach. Last night, for example, I watched a performance on DVD of his St. Matthew's Passion. Absolutely, unequivocally sublime music. The very height of music in every way. So I have very mixed feelings about what the Holy Father says here. I must admit that, yes, the compositional virtuosity here is indeed distracting, and there's no doubt that this work is heavily operatic. At the same time, it points to the heights as it should. The technique is in the service of God. Yet it's so wonderful that one can't help thinking throughout, "How did a mere man write this?" Yes, mixed feelings.

[Ed Peters]

Don't get me started. Vatican choral music, esp. at Christmas (when, you know, only about a billion people are watching) has been terrible for years. I'd prefer to see it improved, but I'd be satisfied just to see them go away.

[padraighh]

I think what is meant by operatic in this context is the overly sentimental
kind of music at the tail end of the romantic period with its empahasis on highly trained voices. I must admit that I personaly love operatic music, though it has no real place in liturgy. There are on the other hand some great
romantic composers such as Cesar Frank (esp. Panis Angelicus), Rachmaninov (Vespers, Liturgy of St. John), shows that tasteful liturgical music can be composed in every age.

[padraighh]

That's Franck and Rachmaninoff

[Steve Cianca]

It is important to remember that in the context of the divine liturgy, music should never call attention to itself. This explains why music, which in the concert hall might be a powerful or even religious experience, doesn't always work well in a liturgical setting. The function of music in the liturgy is to focus our attention on what is happening at the altar. The Mass does not need a soundtrack, nor is it a stage for a performance. Too often the music played at Masses today distracts from the liturgy or mires it in the temporal.

A good part of the problem is that contemporary Catholics confuse the Mass with Protestant worship and praise services. These are two entirely different things. Music that works for one, doesn't necessarily work for the other. A good start would be to put the liturgical musicians back in the choir loft, where they belong. Perhaps we should take a cue from the Orthodox and restrict liturgical music to the human voice.

[Jackson]

You've nailed it: creeping Protestantism.

[Mark Brumley]

We should make some distinctions here. "Praise and worship" music is not, per se, Protestant. There are plenty of Protestants who despise it and plenty of Catholics who love it.

The point is, that this is not liturgical music but contemporary music with spiritual themes. There is nothing wrong with that, in its proper setting, but it is not liturgical music.

[Salome]

I have a recording of various Vatican choirs in around 1903. If you think it's bad now, you should have heard them then!

[Carl Olson]

We should make some distinctions here. "Praise and worship" music is not, per se, Protestant.

Exactly. The many hours of Evangelical "praise and worship" that I heard growing up and attending Bible college was usually far, far better—musically, lyrically, performance-wise—than the relatively few hours of Catholic "praise and worship" that I've heard. Having said that, I wouldn't want to hear either at a Mass. And I'm thankful that I never have to worry about hearing any of it at Divine Liturgy.

It is important to remember that in the context of the divine liturgy, music should never call attention to itself.

Very true. Unfortunately, it is now commonplace to think—due, in part, because of how pop/rock music has shaped perceptions—that music is all about performance. As much as I like jazz and some pop/rock, I don't want to ever hear it at Mass.