From the bulletin of February 28
One of the earliest things Pope St. Pius X wrote as pope was a document on the music at Mass, titled Tra Le Sollecitudini, published on November 22, 1903. As he puts it, he is writing this letter because he “deemed it expedient to point out briefly the principles regulating sacred music in the functions of public worship, and to gather together in a general survey the principal prescriptions of the Church against the more common abuses in this subject.” This kind of letter is what’s called a Motu Propio. A good while back, we discussed the different kinds of documents and it’s worth recalling now that a Motu Propio tends to focus more on Church Law and practice than on doctrine itself, so what they say can often be changed. Still,, because these documents often tell us how to practice what we believe, they often tell us a lot about exactly what we believe.
To start off, Pope Pius X lays out general principles for music in the liturgy. The first principle is that the music, like the liturgy itself should serve the purpose of “the glory of God and the sanctification and edification of the faithful.” Because of this, the music needs to have “sanctity and goodness of form.” In other words, it should be holy and beautiful. One way we can identify music that meets this standard is that it “will spontaneously produce the final quality of universality.” Truly good sacred music tends to transcend a single culture and even language – think of the Ave Maria or many works by Palestrina – to be recognized as good by any reasonable person who hears it, despite cultural differences.
The holiness of the music is shown not just in the words, but in the way it is performed. Since the liturgy is meant to be a moment of contact with heaven and eternity, music at the liturgy should not be just like music on secular radio or at concerts. While there is a legitimate diversity across cultures, the goal of the Church and her liturgy in every culture is to transcend a single time and place. Ideally, this means that sacred music from another culture, even if it’s not something we’re used to, should still give the impression of being good and sacred. By way of example, the pope points to Gregorian Chant. This style of music is unique because it was created and handed down by the Church herself and not by any particular culture, which enables it to transcend these limits more easily. Some of the most famous pieces of music in existence are Gregorian Chant, in part because their sacred quality gives them ability to transcend cultural limits. The Ave Maria, the Salve Regina, Ubi Caritas, Parce Domine, and Tantum Ergo are musical pieces most of you have heard and some of you know. If not in their original form, you’ve definitely heard things inspired by and based upon them. They may not be the most entertaining pieces of music, but no one with any maturity would deny that they are beautiful and prayerful.
In fact, Pope Pius goes so far as to say “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.” This standard continues to be applied today. While many people think the Second Vatican Council got rid of this, the opposite is true, as we’ll see when we get to those documents later on. This is the reason that even today, the Missal (the book we use for Mass) uses a version of English chant for the basic responses of the Mass. It is the reason we continue to use plainchant versions of the responses here at St. John’s. They are not fully Gregorian Chant, but they are similar to and inspired by it, following this guidelines given by Pope St. Pius X.
There are of course other factors to consider in sacred music and this document does address these, as we’ll see next week.
In Christ,
-Fr. Albert