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“As a manifestation of the human spirit,” said John Paul II in 1988, “music performs a function which is noble, unique, and irreplaceable. When it is truly beautiful and inspired, it speaks to us more than all the other arts of goodness, virtue, peace, of matters holy and divine. For good reason it has always been, and it will always be, an essential part of the liturgy” (December 23, 1988).

Concerning sanctity, for music to be sacred means it is not the ordinary, not the every-day. It is set aside for the purpose of glorifying God and edifying and sanctifying the faithful. It must therefore exclude all that is not suitable for the temple — all that is ordinary, every-day or profane, not only in itself, but also in the manner in which it is performed. The sacred words of the Liturgy call for a sonic vesture that is equally sacred. Sacredness, then, is more than individual piety; it is an objective reality.

Concerning goodness of form, the Latin speaks of bonitate formarum, “goodness of forms”: this refers to the tendency of sacred music to synthesize diverse ritual elements into a unity, to draw together a succession of liturgical actions into a coherent whole, and to serve a range of sacred expressions. Excellence of forms also serves to differentiate those elements, to distinguish the various functions of liturgical chants by revealing their unique character. Each chant of the various Gregorian genres presents a masterly adaptation of the text to its specific liturgical purpose. No wonder the Church has consistently proposed chant as the paradigm of sacred music.

Sacred music must be true art, says Pope Pius, “otherwise it will be impossible for it to exercise on the minds of those who listen to it that efficacy which the Church aims at obtaining in admitting into her liturgy the art of musical sounds.” Beauty is what holds truth and goodness to their task. To paraphrase Hans Urs von Balthasar, without beauty, the truth does not persuade, goodness does not compel (The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, I: 19). Beauty, as expressed in the Church’s liturgy, synthesizes diverse elements into a unified whole: truth, goodness, and the human impulse to worship.

Concerning universality, sacred music is supra-national, equally accessible to people of diverse cultures. The Church does admit local indigenous forms into her worship, but these must be subordinated to the general characteristics of the received tradition. By insisting on the continuous use of her musical treasures, especially chant, the Church ensures her members grow up hearing this sacred musical language and receive it naturally as a part of the liturgy.

In his general audience of February 26, 2003, Pope John Paul called on musicians to “make an examination of conscience so that the beauty of music and hymnody will return once again to the liturgy. They should purify worship from ugliness of style, from distasteful forms of expression, from uninspired musical texts which are not worthy of the great act that is being celebrated.”

Throughout the 20th century, this fact was reiterated in official Church teaching on sacred music. Sacrosanctum Concilium affirms it, as does the General Instruction on the Roman Missal. As Pope John Paul II said, quoting Pope Pius X, “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.” Pope Benedict XVI agrees: “An authentic updating of sacred music can take place only in the lineage of the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony.”

Chant is the one music that we inherit from the ancient Church fathers. It is not a “style” but the music of the Mass itself. It is sung in unison, which makes it a perfect expression of unity. It illuminates and gives expressiveness to the sacred texts, but it does not alter them. It musically expresses the heart of the Church and thus exists across and outside time.

Five main streams of inherited material flow together into the chant, and within the melodic classifications of the chant they remain formally distinguishable from each other to this day. These include Jewish solo psalmody, whose basic model is preserved in the Invitatory, the Responsories, and the Tract; the monastic choir psalmody of the Divine Office; the ancient art of depicting faith in song; the ancient cantillation of the priests and lectors in the tones of orations and readings; and the popular elements of various kinds in the acclamations, doxologies, and simple hymns and antiphons.

The melodic material in Gregorian chant derived from such diverse sources has nonetheless acquired one spirit: it is the Christian spirit, with its new desire to express something which lends its living breath to these melodies. The result is the Roman chant, the cantilena Romana.

The term Gregorian chant comes from its early association with Pope St. Gregory the Great (6th century). According to 8th century tradition, Pope Gregory was inspired by the Holy Ghost to codify the chant of the Roman Rite. The consensus today, based on extant documents, is that the Gregorian melodies developed in the 8th and 9th centuries from a synthesis of Roman chant and Gallican practice, as promoted by the Carolingian rulers in Francia. In making Roman techniques their own, the Frankish cantors “inaugurated a long period of musical creativity, the fruits of which may be found in the extant notated music of the late 9th, 10th and 11th centuries” (S. Rankin). By the 12th and 13th centuries, Gregorian chant had become the standard song of the Western Church.

The Council’s directive culminated a long process of reflection and legislation regarding sacred music that began with Tra le sollecitudini. Pope Pius X sought to diminish the role of the secular theatrical style that had come to typify sacred music in the 19th century, which tended to “correspond badly to the requirements of true liturgical music” (§6). He instead called for an increased use of chant, which much better expresses the meaning and form which tradition has given individual parts of the liturgy (§10).

The Council drew on the teachings of Pope Pius, and sought to continue the restoration that he had begun by calling for the completion of a critical edition of chant. For these reasons, Church musicians greeted the reform of the liturgy with great enthusiasm.

But within three years of the Council, the 1965 “transitional Missal” appeared to deemphasize Latin in the Ordinary parts of the Mass. Some liturgical activists used the Council’s provision for more use of the vernacular to promote the virtual exclusion of Latin. The revised Missal (1969) was promulgated at a time of theological confusion and cultural upheaval that depreciated all things traditional. Conflicting visions of liturgical worship and undisciplined experimentation disrupted the implementation of the new Missal. All of this led to the near extinction of Latin chant in favor of vernacular hymnody.

The revised Graduale Romanum, the Church’s official book of chant for the Mass, was published in 1974. During the intervening period the rise of popular and pseudo-folk music at Mass drastically disrupted the restoration of sacred music begun by Pope Pius and endorsed by the Council. Whatever opportunity there might have been to increase the role of chant was lost.

But today, signs of restoration are all around us, as younger Catholics, led by a new generation of priests, are rediscovering the Church’s treasury of sacred music and reintroducing it into parish worship.

Other forms of plainsong do not have to be in Latin, and most vernacular languages can be used in chantlike styles. Indeed, it can be useful and feasible to chant some liturgical texts in the vernacular. But such a project has limits. Chant adaptation requires changing familiar words to fit the music, or modifying the music to fit vernacular texts. One might question the usefulness of such an exercise. The purpose of liturgy is not purely pedagogical, else the entire liturgy could be written in the style of a newspaper article.

The purpose of sacred liturgy is far deeper and more complex: it is to draw us out of time and place so that we might more clearly perceive eternal mysteries. The liturgy is not primarily a teaching session but rather “an encounter between Christ and the Church… The preparation of hearts is the joint work of the Holy Spirit and the assembly, especially of its ministers. The grace of the Holy Spirit seeks to awaken faith, conversion of heart, and adherence to the Father’s will” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1097–8). The relative remoteness and changelessness of the Latin language, especially when united to the chant with its purity of form, helps to realize this encounter by leading us away from the ordinary and toward the transcendent.

The “golden age” of sacred polyphony lasted from about 1400 until 1650, but composers of later eras continued to favor the contrapuntal style, especially when writing for the church.

For hundreds of years, parishes around the world have fostered choirs and promoted choral singing. To ensure the preservation of the Church’s treasury of sacred music, the Council insisted that choirs “must be diligently developed” (¶114). While professionals can greatly enhance performances of sacred polyphony, nothing prevents amateurs from singing this music, and even directing it, if necessary. It can be hard work, and demands more of performers and listeners than popular styles. But only the best is good enough for the God we worship.

The call for active participation in singing long predates the Council. In Tra le sollecitudini, Pope Pius X commends the active participation of the people in the public and solemn prayer of the Church. In his Encyclical on Sacred Liturgy, Mediator Dei (1947), Pope Pius XII praises congregational singing of liturgical chant as a means to “foster and promote the people’s piety and intimate union with Christ” (¶106).

Some have read the Church’s teaching on participation to mean: the people sing as much as possible. Any music that the congregation does not or cannot sing is thereby excluded from liturgical use. This interpretation has been specifically rejected by all Popes for a century. Indeed, the post-conciliar Musicam sacram legislates in favor of permitting a full choral Ordinary, while the current General Instruction on the Roman Missal specifically names parts of the Mass that may be sung by the choir alone. Conscientious and diligent church musicians must not allow themselves to be misled by a one-sided misinterpretation of the conciliar texts.

In fact, the full choral Sanctus is used in weekly celebrations of the modern Roman Rite in Rome and in parishes and cathedrals in the United States, England, and Canada. Seeking to clarify the issue, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote: “Does it not do us good, before we set off into the center of the mystery, to encounter a short time of filled silence in which the choir calms us interiorly, leading each one of us into silent prayer and thus into a union that can occur only on the inside? …The choral Sanctus has its justification even after the Second Vatican Council.”

The Introit chant is the normative ideal for what is commonly known as the processional hymn (sometimes called the gathering song). The Gradual, which follows the first reading, is now almost always replaced by the Responsorial Psalm from the Lectionary. The Alleluia, with its verse, immediately precedes the Gospel reading; it is replaced by the Tract in the penitential season of Lent. The Offertory is not just the act of presenting and preparing the gifts, but is a chant prescribed for the Mass of the day, even though the text is not given in the Roman Missal. The Communion chant is likewise prescribed for the Mass of the day.

Ideally, all five Propers are sung in their Gregorian settings, but realistically this is not always possible. Latin and vernacular hymns may quite licitly replace the Introit, Offertory, and Communion chants, and simpler responsorial forms may replace the Gradual and Alleluia chants. Singing the full chant Propers requires careful planning and patient rehearsal over the course of many years.

Such discrepancies have made it difficult for many people to discern the Church’s authentic teaching. The authority of these American documents remains debatable, as neither was passed by or even voted on by the full body of the U.S. Bishops. In October 2006, the committee met to consider revisions to these documents in light of the Instruction from the Congregation for Divine Worship, Liturgiam authenticam (2001).

In any case, the above-mentioned documents have been superseded by Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship, released by the USCCB in 2007. Although this document too does not possess the inherent authority of an instruction or encyclical issued by the Pope or by one of the Roman Congregations, it nevertheless helpfully emphasizes some of the same points we have reviewed in this pamphlet.

Sing to the Lord notes that seminarians and priests should be familiar with celebrating the liturgy in Latin and with Gregorian chant (nn. 20, 23, 65) and that this chant, being “uniquely the Church’s own music,” deserves “pride of place in liturgical services” (n. 72). The document goes on to say: “Chant is a living connection with our forebears in the faith, the traditional music of the Roman rite, a sign of communion with the universal Church, a bond of unity across cultures, a means for diverse communities to participate together in song, and a summons to contemplative participation in the Liturgy” (ibid.). Interestingly, the document tacitly admits that the Second Vatican Council’s request that “the faithful be able to sing parts of the Ordinary together in Latin” has not been fulfilled: “In many worshiping communities in the United States, fulfilling this directive will mean introducing Latin chant to worshipers who perhaps have not sung it before. While prudence, pastoral sensitivity, and reasonable time for progress are encouraged to achieve this end, every effort in this regard is laudable and highly encouraged” (n. 74). The document specifies: “Each worshiping community in the United States, including all age groups and all ethnic groups, should, at a minimum, learn Kyrie XVI, Sanctus XVIII, and Agnus Dei XVIII, all of which are typically included in congregational worship aids. More difficult chants, such as Gloria VIII and settings of the Credo and Pater Noster, might be learned after the easier chants have been mastered” (n. 75, emphasis added).

All this amounts to a strong reaffirmation of the importance of the chant in the Roman liturgy.

In 2006, when he blessed the new instrument at the Alte Kapelle in Regensburg, Pope Benedict XVI remarked, “The organ has always been considered, and rightly so, the king of musical instruments, because it takes up all the sounds of creation… and gives resonance to the fullness of human sentiments, from joy to sadness, from praise to lamentation. By transcending the merely human sphere, as all music of quality does, it evokes the divine. The organ’s great range of timbre, from piano through to a thundering fortissimo, makes it an instrument superior to all others. It is capable of echoing and expressing all the experiences of human life. The manifold possibilities of the organ in some way remind us of the immensity and the magnificence of God.”

The Gregorian Missal provides a full selection of Ordinary chants, and all the Latin Propers for Sundays and greater feasts. It includes English translations of the chants and prayers, as well as references for the three-year cycle of Scripture readings.

Musicians also might want to own the 1974 Graduale Romanum, which contains the Proper chants for the entire Church year. They will also need an authoritative guide to liturgical rubrics, such as one by Msgr. Peter Elliott. Those using the traditional Roman Rite (1962 Missal) will need an older edition of the Graduale or the Liber Usualis. A reprint of the 1961 Liber is available from Biretta Books.

MusicaSacra.com has numerous chant resources for free download, including a complete set of communion antiphons with Psalm verses, and the 1961 and 1974 editions of the Graduale Romanum.

In the meantime, the schola can find other opportunities to perform chant, including Benediction services and visits to hospitals or homes for the aged. In all of this, prayer and charity toward others are essential. Sometimes the pastor is open to the idea and sometimes he is not, but he is far more likely to be welcoming to a schola that is already serving the parish community. Slow and systematic work, done cheerfully and with attention to quality, will accomplish far more in the long run than rash protests and demands.

A bibliography of literature on sacred music would be too vast to include here. But the musician should read official documents related to Church music as listed at MusicaSacra.com and join the CMAA to receive the quarterly journal Sacred Music, also at MusicaSacra.com.

The CMAA is a non-profit organization (501c3) and very much welcomes your support.