Singing Lessons
Robert A. Skeris
Neither the legitimate liturgist nor the competent choral director
takes any great pleasure in noting that since the '60s a
fundamental transformation has affected the celebration and
concept of the liturgy. This change has tragically damaged our
sacred music. The job of recovery, the step that will get us
singing again, begins with our understanding of sacred liturgy.
The Mass is the very core of the Catholic liturgy, the supremely
important expression of the Church's faith. It is clear that a
skewed concept of the Mass that fails to do justice to its essence
will in due time harm the believer's piety and undermine the faith
of communicants. Sacred music is a necessary and integral part of
the solemn liturgy. Since form is an inner expression of the
spiritual reality in the Mass, music too will be affected by any
shift of emphasis regarding the form of the Divine Liturgy.
In 1990 John Paul II told the Brazilian bishops, "Legitimate and
necessary concern for current realities in the concrete lives of
the people cannot make us forget the true nature of the liturgical
actions. It is clear that the Mass is not the time to celebrate
human dignity or purely terrestrial claims or hopes. It is rather
the sacrifice which renders Christ really present in the
sacrament."
Even more pointed are the words addressed by the Holy Father to
our own American prelates gathered in Chicago in 1979: "Let us
always recall that the validity of all liturgical development and
the effectiveness of every liturgical sign presupposes the great
principle that the Catholic liturgy is theocentric, and that it is
above all 'the worship of divine majesty' in union with Jesus
Christ."
It is a fact that every liturgical celebration, "because it is an
action of Christ the Priest and of His Body, which is the Church,"
is a sacred action surpassing all others. Hence liturgical music,
including that provided for the congregation, must be holy. As
Pius X phrased it, sacred music must be "free from all that is
profane, both in itself and in the method of performance."
It is a fact that liturgical music is an integral part of the
liturgy itself, not merely a means to assist or enrich worship. It
is worship itself, like color to a sunset, like thought to the
mind. Sacred music is not like prayer; it is prayer. Sacred music
raises the mind and heart to God, and not only to our neighbor.
The Mass and the Sacred
<Agere sequitur esse>-a thing acts as it is. If the Mass is indeed
a sacrifice, then logically one of its integral and necessary
parts will be sacred music. But if a social gathering or a
fraternal meal is actually being celebrated, then very different
music will be appropriate: a "polka Mass," for instance, or the
sacropop purveyed by the church music industry of the day.
And let no one be deceived by the growing doubt affecting the very
concept of the sacred. Many believe that the term "profane" is
quite out of date. Thus, the opposite horn of the dilemma, the
sacred, has lost its importance, has been secularized, and so
rendered indistinguishable from its opposite.
There are men and there are things; there are persons and there
are objects. There are also principalities and powers; there are
thrones and dominations. Theologians and moralists are familiar
with virtues and vices; philosophers know qualities and modes of
being. But what is sacred music? What does sacred mean?
Philosophers, anthropologists, and sociologists would probably
agree with Rudolf Otto that the sacred involves the expression and
attestation of reverence for something deserving respect and
veneration. The conviction underlying this universal human
attitude is that there exist certain pre-eminent times and places
distinguished from normal life due to their exceptional dignity.
Josef Pieper has reminded us that such dignity quite rightly
demands from men special forms of respect because certain specific
objects, spaces, times, and actions are ordered to the divine
sphere. Thus we can comprehend the boundary separating the sacred
from the profane. Profane simply means the unexceptional, that
which belongs to the realm of the normal, the average, the
everyday.
A "preeminently sacred action," then, will be simply the
accomplishment of an action, performed by a community in a
nonordinary way. Let us be very precise: We are speaking here of
celebrating the eucharistic mysteries during which there occurs
the Exceptional <par excellence>-God's physical presence among men
under the forms of bread and wine. Nothing could be more obvious
to a man of faith than to act differently within such a
circumscribed context, differently than he acts, for instance, on
the tennis courts or at the supermarket. One speaks a language
that is obviously human, yet different-in delivery, in style, in
diction and grammar, in vocabulary.
What of the sacred music, which forms an integral part of this
sacred action? What must its distinctive characteristics be? Will
it sound, for example, like ordinary, everyday pop music to which
more or less pious texts have been joined? Will it sound like
common, everyday entertainment music? Like a more or less
inconspicuous background accompaniment for toothpaste commercials?
Choosing a Hymnal
The pastoral question is simply put: How does one start singing
again? No one doubts that there is a recurrent need to satisfy a
present and urgent demand. Though many churchmen purchase wisely
but perhaps not well, they all too often can justly point out,
especially today, that there is little of value to buy. Pastors
are kicking hard at the earth, attempting to gain momentum.
These pastoral ministers are not about to remain passive. They
have caught the fever, and this is one fever they will not starve;
they feed it with any food at hand. Much of this is informal
music, music that makes people feel "warm and cuddly." The
informed observer who some years ago noted that a steady diet of
such music can be compared to a steady diet of sugar-coated cereal
for a youngster was quite correct in foreseeing the deleterious
effects that have followed.
If the pastor is clear as to what he is about and arranges his
priorities accordingly, then a singing congregation can become a
reality.
Such a pastor will pay the living wage necessary to support the
qualified professional personnel who are required. He will see to
providing an adequate musical instrument (such as a pipe organ) to
sustain the song of choir and congregation. Also, he will try his
best to become the singing celebrant whose contribution is
essential to the dignified and worthy celebration of the sacred
liturgy. And if he has a school within his jurisdiction, the
pastor will insist upon an adequate program of music instruction
designed to develop the basic skills of music for children and
adults.
Finally, the pastor will provide for his flock suitable aids for
musical participation. Chief among these is a good parish hymnal.
These hymnals do, in fact, still exist! Thomas Day's 1990 autopsy
on the triumph of bad taste in Catholic culture-<Why Catholics
Don't Sing>-proffered some good advice in this respect. A goodly
number of reliable experts would agree with Day that among the
best hymnals available today are <Worship III>, for example, or
the <Collegeville Hymnal>. And one hears with satisfaction that
the great noble lion of the newer Catholic hymnals in the United
States, <Hymns, Psalms and Spiritual Canticles>, may soon be
reprinted by a reputable college press. That would be a very
positive step in the right direction, for this book, which
contains all the music for any service that a normal parish would
need, has one great advantage: The homogeneous style of its
contents makes for instant learning of new musical settings.
The problem with many of the other products on the market today is
simply that they reflect the invasion of the Church by the current
popular culture. The dismaying result in most instances is that
the Church, instead of penetrating and transforming the culture of
the modern world, has itself been transformed into a reflection
and often a representation of the antitranscendental milieu of
that culture.
Another strong influence upon the pastoral judgment of a parish
priest who attempts the rebirth of song is the currently
fashionable wave of ecumenism and multiculturalism, influences
that often are believed to justify the use of hymns strongly
associated with traditions alien to our Catholic religious and
cultural heritage. A hymn is intended to be the prayerful response
of the singing congregation to the words and wonderful works of
God. It is a question here of the authenticity of religious
expression. Hymns with vaguely religious (if not outright
erroneous) or noncommittal texts and songs that are textually or
melodically sentimental cannot contribute to the healthy
edification and formation of a community.
Plainly, since any truly living church music is continually
developing, it is situated in the midst of all the tensions of a
given age. As liturgical art, church music is obliged to conform
to ecclesiastical law. But to construct artificial polarities
here, between legalistic order and a dynamic church music,
demanded by the alleged needs of the day, would be to forsake the
foundation of a music rooted in liturgical experience. What is in
fact the pastoral value of the shoddy, the profane, the third-
rate?
It is not the music in itself that determines the distinction
between sacred and profane, but rather its expression and the soil
in which it develops, along with its interpretation or
signification in the act of being received by the congregation-in
short, its associations. It is not sufficient if the music merely
serves as an expression of the community's (perhaps secular) life.
For the future, we are faced with the agony of educating talented
musicians, composers, and conductors-as well as priests and
people. This present time is late spring, yet surely seminal; the
harvest, a realist must admit, is in the future. But the present
is no time to stand idle. Books have been written, courses are
being offered, techniques and tools are already available. This
eleventh hour must be filled, not with noise, but with study,
teaching, and carefully wrought performance-all governed by the
pastoral good sense, which recognizes degrees of participation
that reflect the limits and the possibilities of a given
situation.
Our final cadence is therefore a hopeful one, even though
contemporary church history, which studies the recent past, cannot
escape the conclusion that the efforts made thus far toward
realizing the intentions of the last Council have not produced the
benefits envisioned by that sacred synod. A perceptible change
will come about only through greater willingness toward interior
conversion that leads to a new and more profound reflection on the
spiritual level. Without this precondition, any new evangelization
will experience the same fate as the Council. The true path to
real change is indicated by the Apostle to the Gentiles: "Do not
be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of
your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is
good and acceptable and perfect."
The Christian Epimetheus therefore says, "Say not the struggle
availeth naught." The soul of all culture is and will remain the
culture of the soul. And that way lies our hope, which is the last
gift from Pandora's box.
REV. ROBERT A. SKERIS, a sometime professor of liturgy in the
Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, is chairman of the
Theology Department at Christendom College in Front Royal,
Virginia.
This article was taken from the September 1996 issue of "Crisis"
magazine. To subscribe please write: Box 1006, Notre Dame, IN
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