Sacred Song: The Road Ahead

Guest Editorial by Michael Shackleton – Church musicians, like the rest of the musical world this year, are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart, who composed magnificent sacred music that ever since has raised the heart in solemn acts of public worship and even in private prayer.

Many of Mozart s settings of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, for instance, have hardly been equalled. They were, along with Gregorian chant, very much part of the cultural life of Europe in the 18th century. The liturgical language was Latin, and music, liturgy and language tended to blend into one seamless whole.

Since those times, the Church has replaced the old liturgy with the new and Latin has given way to the vernacular. In consequence, sacred music in Latin has taken a back seat. Attempts to set Latin chants to English or other languages usually do not succeed because the metric stress of the translated words cannot be matched with the melody. There is some fine contemporary liturgical music available but this is frequently untried because of lack of resources or interest or because of the mistaken belief that the new emphasis on congregational singing has rendered the traditional church choir redundant.

In its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the Second Vatican Council reaffirmed that the liturgy is given a nobler form when sacred rites are solemnised in song with both ministers and people taking their own respective parts. It did not, nor did any subsequent Vatican directive, seek to downplay the importance of a well schooled choir during liturgical celebrations.

Monsignor Giuseppe Liberto, the director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, remarked in 2002 that a new emphasis should be placed on the importance of liturgical music that involves all worshippers at the celebration. Everyone should not be singing the same thing, he insisted, but according to the ministry of each: the president of the assembly, the deacon, the psalmist, the choir and the congregation.

For all that, the importance of balancing musical judgment, pastoral judgment and liturgical judgment deserves more serious study. There are surely many Catholics with musical talent and knowledge in a wide variety of parishes. These should be invited to come forward and advise liturgical authorities in a true spirit of worship.

Perhaps it is because some parishes use recorded music that real musicians are put off offering their expertise. Recorded music can dampen peoples enthusiasm for authentic liturgical singing.

For us in South Africa in particular there is a long journey ahead. Too many parishes use unsuitable hymns at Mass. Vatican II’s encouragement of adapting worship to indigenous cultures,is being cautiously implemented and cannot immediately be applied across the board. Much more discussion and experimentation seem indicated.

It will take time and patience to combine satisfactorily what is good in the old and the new. Mgr Liberto expressed it this way: Perhaps we should follow the advice of the parable of the wheat and the darnel. Let them grow together, because the time of the harvest has not yet come. But in the meantime, lets discern.