Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix continues
his series of articles on sacred music in the Catholic Sun, with this piece on the history of liturgical music.
This is a bishop who understands the importance of “singing
the Mass”!
Here are a few excerpts; read the rest here.
Singing the Mass
Part Two: A short history of liturgical music
By
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted | Jan. 19, 2012 | The Catholic Sun
In
the first part of this series on sacred music, I described the meaning of
sacred music, the music of the Church's sacred liturgy, as distinct from
"religious music." In this second installment, I shall explore, from
a historical perspective, the Church's role in guiding and promoting authentic
sacred music for more fruitful participation in the Sacred Mysteries by the
clergy and lay faithful alike.
The Second Vatican Council proclaimed that "the musical
tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater
even than that of any other art" (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 112). This led
the Council fathers to decree that "the treasure of sacred music is to be
preserved and fostered with great care" (ibid, 114).
Sacred music in Judaism before Christ
… The Church inherited the Psalms of the Old Testament as
her basic prayer and hymn book for worship. With these sacred texts she also
adopted the mode of singing that had been established during the development of
the psalms: a way of articulated singing with a strong reference to a text,
with or without instrumental accompaniment, which German historian Martin
Hengel has called "sprechgesang," "sung-speech."
… Sung with respect to and during sacrifice in the Temple in
Jerusalem, the early Jewish Christians assumed this tradition into the
sacrifice of the eucharistic liturgy.
Sacred music in the early Church
After Pentecost, …[a] dramatic struggle ensued between, on
one hand, openness to new cultural forms and, on the other, what was
irrevocably part of Christian faith.
For the first time, the Church had to preserve her sacred
music, and then foster it. Although early Greek-style songs quickly became part
of the Church's life (e.g., the prologue of John and the Philippians hymn,
2:5-11), this new music was so tightly linked to dangerous gnostic beliefs that
the Church decided to prohibit its use. This temporary pruning of the Church's
sacred music to the traditional form of the Psalms led to previously
unimaginable creativity: Gregorian chant — for the first millennium — and then,
gradually, polyphony and hymns arose...
Preserving, fostering through the centuries
...St. Gregory the Great (the saint from whom "Gregorian
chant" takes its name) collected and systematized the Church's chant
tradition in the 6th century and it spread and developed in the West throughout
the first millennium. Gregorian chant was sometimes enhanced by the
organ in the eighth or ninth centuries and with a single or with multiple
vocal harmonies (e.g. polyphony) beginning in the 10th century. The development
of polyphony carried on throughout the beginning of the second millennium,
producing music of a highly sophisticated and ornate style…
The task for today
On June 24, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI attended a concert of
sacred music, after which he said: "An authentic renewal of sacred music
can only happen in the wake of the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian
chant and sacred polyphony. For this reason, in the field of music as well as
in the areas of other art forms, the Ecclesial Community has always encouraged
and supported people in search of new forms of expression without denying the
past, the history of the human spirit which is also a history of its dialogue
with God."
The authentic renewal of sacred music is not a question of
merely copying the past, but even less is it one of ignoring it. Rather, it is
one of preserving the past and fostering new forms grown organically from it.
This is a truly great and essential task, entrusted in a particular way to
pastors and sacred artists…
Read the rest here.
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