Lnmu»icAL
305
LrruBaxoAL
^p has buflt itself up and has deliberately held itself
aloof from every other form of worship; it has its own
sacrifice its own altar, its own ntes^ and is directed in
all things bv the sovereign authonty of the Church.
Hence it follows that no music, no matter how much it
be employed in other worships that are not Catholic.
tioL (M ttiat ajCddtlnt, eVer be looked on by us as sacred
flzid liturgical. We iaeet at times witn indlvlduali
Who remind us of the music of the Hebrews, and quote
" Fmlae him tdth sound of trumpet: praise him with
pealteiy and nill^i Praise him with timbrel and
choir: praise him with striiigs and organs. Praise
biin dnnigh sounding cymbals: praise him on cymbals
ex joy:" and who seek by so domg to justify all sorts
of ioyousness in church (chants, instrumental music
aila d^ex^inA noises), even going so far as to plead
"omnia spiritiis laudet Dominum" as though that
verse should excuse all ilild everything their individual
-'spirit" suggested, no matter how tiovel and unusual.
If such a criterion were to be admitted, there &te many
other elements of Hebrew worship we should have to
accept, but which the Church rejected long ago as un-
suited to the sacrifice of the New Testament and to the
spirit of the New Law (cf. St. Thomas, II-II, Q. xci, a.
2| ad 4^^°^) . The same remarks apply to the music used
in Protestant worship. No matter how serious and
solemn, even though it belongs to the style of music the
Church recognises as sacred and liturgical, it ought
never be used as a pattern or model, at lea;jt exclu-
sively for the sacred music of the Catholic Church.
The warm and solemn dignity of Catholic worship has
tidthiilg id common with the pallid friizidity of Protes-
tant services. Hence our choice ought to be always
Abd solely guided by the specific nature of Catholic wor-
ship, and by the rules laid down by the Fathers, the
councils, the con^gatlons, and the pope, and which
have been epitomized in that admirable code of sacrerl
music, the M otu Proprio " of Pius X.
(3) Finally, the phrase "Catholic worship" must here be ti^en in its fonnal quality of public worship, the worship of a society or social organism, imposed by Divine Law and subject to one supreme authority which, by Divinely acquired right, regulates it, guards it, and through lawfully appointed ministers exercises it to the honour of God and the w^elfare of the com- munity. This is what is known as " liturgical wor- ship", so styled from the liturgy of the Church. The Uturgy has been aptly defined as " that worship which the Catholic Church, through its legitimate ministers acting in accordance with well-established rules, pul> licly exercises in rendering due homage to God". From this it is clear that the acts and prayers p(>r- Jormed by the faithful to satisfy their private devotion do not form part of liturgical worship, even when per- formed by the faithful in a body, whether in public or in a place of public worship, and whether conducted by a priest or otherwise. Such devotions not being omoiaJly legislated for, do not form part of the public worship of the Church as a social organ ism . Any one can see the diiTerenoe between a body of the faithful going in procession to visit a famous shrine of the Madonna. and the Uturgical processions of the Rogation Days ana of Corpus Christ:. Such popular functions are not only tolerated, but blessed and fostered by the Church authorities, as of immense spiritual benefit to the faith- ful, even though not sanctioned as liturgical, and are generally known as extra-liturgical functions. The principu are the Devotion of the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, the Three Hours Agony, the Hour of the Desolata, the Hour of the Blcssecf Sacrament, the Month of Mary, the novenas in preparation for the more solemn feasts, and the like. Wliat has been said goes to prove that sacred music may fitly be de- scribed as music in the service of the liturgy, and that saCTed music and liturgical music are one and the same thing. Pius X has a<imiral:)ly stated the relation be- tween the liturgy of the C'hurch and the music it em- IX.— 20
ploys: " It serves to increase the decor et splendor of the
ecclesiastical ceremonies '*, not as something accidental
that may or may not be present, such as the decora^
tions of the building, the display of lights, the numbei
of ministers, but "as an integrant part of the solemn
liturgy ", so much so that these liturgical functions
cannot take place if the chant l^e lacking. Further,
" since the main office of sacred music is to clothe with
fitting melody the liturgical text propounded for the
understanding at the people, so its chief aim is to give
greater weight to the text, so that thereby the faithful
may be more easily moved to devotion, and dispose
themselves better to receive the fruits of grace wiiich
flow from the celebration of the sacred mysteries "
("Motu Proprio," 1,1).
From this teaching it follows: (a) That no music can rightly Ixj considered as liturgical, which is not de- manded by the liturgical function^ or which is not an in- tegrant part thereof, but which is only admitt-ed as a discretionary addition to fill in, if we may use theex* pression, the silent inter\'als of the liturgy where no appointed text is prescribed to be sung, t Jnder this head would come the motets which the " Motu Proprio (III, 8) permits to be sung after the Offertory and the Benedictus. • Now, seeing tliat those chants are exe- cuted during the solemn liturigy, it follows that they ought to possess all the qualities of sacred music so as to be in keeping with the rest of the sacred function^ (b) Among the various elements admitted in sacred music, the most strictly liturgical is that which more directly than any other unites itself with the sacred text and seems more indispensable than any <7ther# The playing of the organ by way of prelude or during intervals can only he called liturgical in a ver>' wide sense, since it is by no means necessary, nor docs it form an integrant part of the liturgy, nor does it accompany any chanted t-ext. But a chant accom-
Eanied by organ and instruments may very properly e known as liturgical. Organ and instnunertts aro permitted, however, only to support the chant, and can never by themselves be considered as an integrattt part of the liturgical act. As a matter of fact, theif introduction is comparatively recent, and they are still excluded from papal functions. Vocal music gener- ally is the most, correct style of liturgical music, since it alone has always Iwen recognized as the proper music of the Church; it alone enters into direct touch with the meaning of the liturgical text, clothes that text with melody, and exi)ounas it to the understand- ing of the people. Now, since vocal music may be either renderca plain or polyphonic, tnie Uturgical music, music altogether indispensable in the celebra- tion of the solemnliturgy , is the plain chant, and there- fore, in the Catholic Church, the Gregorian chant* Lastly, since Gregorian is the solemn chant pro- scribed for the cclel.)niut and his assistants, so that it is never lawful to substitute for it a mclodv different in composition from those laid down in the liturgical books of the Church, it follows that Gregorian is the sole chant, the chant par excellence of the Roman Church, as laid down in the "Motu Proprio" (II. 'A)^ It contains in the highest dcgrcK> the finalities Pope Pius has enumerated as characteristic of sacred mu- sic: true art; holiness; universality; hence he has pro- posed Gregorian chant as the supreme type of sacred music, justifying the following general law: The more a comix)sition resembles Gregorian in tone, inspira- tion, and the impression it leaves, the nearer it comes t^> l)eing sacred and liturgical ; the more? it differs from it, the less worthy is it to be employed in the church. Since Gregorian is the liturgical chant par excellence of the Roman Church, it is erjuiilly true that the chant handed down by tradition in other Ciiurches is en- titled to l)e considered as truly liturgical; for instance, the Ambrosian chant in the Ainbrosian Church, the Mozarabic in the Mozarabic Church, and the Greek in the Greek Church.
