By Christopher B. Warner
(Catholic
World Report) At the
beginning of this 50th anniversary year of Vatican II, Benedict XVI called for
a renewed, authentic reading and implementation of the council documents. After
suffering through many decades of vulgar, saccharine Church music, it is
encouraging to note a rise of musicians who are serious about authentic reform
of sacred worship.
The recent Sacred Liturgy Conference in Rome was a great
success, and there is a spirit of joyful, liturgical rejuvenation among the
youth. Today’s composers are considering many facets of sacred music theory and
history as they strive for the renewal of theocentric orthodoxy in liturgical
worship. A brief look at the last 50 years in light of the early Church
Fathers’ teachings provides a surprisingly relevant breath of fresh air.
Most
Catholics are all too familiar with the folk music “reforms” to liturgical
music of the 1970s and ’80s. Adopting secular music and the spirit of the age,
untutored youth began setting music to pop-style rhythms and melodies, usually
with acoustic guitar accompaniment. This style of liturgical music became
immensely popular, spread rapidly, and was taken up by prolific composers such
as Marty Haugen and David Haas. Michael Matheson Miller of the Acton Institute
refers to this liturgical Candyland as the “suburban rite.” The problem with
this music, noted by more than one critic, is that it is filled with fuzzy
doctrine and the spirit of the sexual revolution: “peace,” “love,” and bad
style.
On the
other hand, many remember the Grammy-award winning CD Chant, which
hit the music market in 1994 and became an overnight sensation. Chant,
sung by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos, appealed to
traditional Christians and New-Age listeners alike. It was considered the
perfect antidote to a stressful, workaholic world exacerbated by paltry pop
music. The perennial qualities of plainchant became self-evident to the
listener of these recordings. But for the monks, plainchant was more than a
musical expression that they appreciated and polished like curators of a
museum; it was essential to their life of prayer. The monks explained in the
jewel-case insert forChant how they had become physically ill,
suffering fatigue and exhaustion, while experimenting with post-Vatican II
music for the Divine Office. The sentimental emotion of pop and folk melodies
was not sustainable over a seven-hour worship day.
Sacrosanctum
Concilium, the
Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, noted
that, in addition to recent pontiffs, the early Fathers of the Church also
illuminate the function of sacred music. A deeper reading of the Fathers,
beloved by Pope Emeritus Benedict, can assist us in liturgical renewal.
St. Basil
the Great and charismatic music
Far from
being distant and “out of touch,” the words of the Fathers are quite
down-to-earth and often humorous. St. Basil the Great, for example, wrote that
sacred music must both appeal to the people and trick them
into worshipping God:
For when the Holy Spirit saw that
mankind was ill-inclined toward virtue and that we were heedless of the
righteous life because of our inclination to pleasure, what did he do? He
blended the delight of melody with doctrine in order that, through the
pleasantness and softness of the sound, we might unawares receive what was
useful in the words according to the practice of wise physicians who, when they
give the more bitter drafts to the sick, often smear the rim of the cup with
honey. For this purpose, these harmonious melodies of the psalms have been
designed for us, that those who are of boyish age or wholly youthful in their
character, while in appearance they sing, may in reality be educating their
souls.
In other
words, music must be joyful and beautiful so that people will learn their Faith
and want to come and worship God in church. Conversely, St. John Maximovitch
said, “The psalms and the hymns that simply gratify the ear but do not inspire
somebody to pray are not acceptable.” In fact, that is the main point, as St.
Basil goes on to say that liturgical music must always be a work of prayer and
worship because liturgy is an imitation of heavenly glory and praise.
One
controversial genre that seems to fit Basil’s category of “doctrine disguised
for the youth” is charismatic worship music. Orthodox in its theology, this
music is certainly focused on the worship of God. Whereas “suburban rite” music
tends to focus on holding hands in church and singing “a new church into
being,” charismatic music is oriented toward praise and worship. The most
legitimate critique of charismatic music seems to be that while it is effective
in luring youth out of the rock music culture into the culture of life, it also
seems to be an adolescent response to God that is not sustainable, but this
obstacle to spiritual growth is surmountable. It is common experience that as
serious Christians mature they develop a natural appetite for plainchant and
sacred polyphony.
Let us,
however, be clear that the Fathers were not friendly to popular music and
secular culture. The guardians of early Christianity were very particular about
both the content and style of sacred music because they lived in a secular
culture hostile to Christian morals. Church music was primarily the product of
Jewish synagogue worship which prayerfully developed with Christian usage into
practices that were fitting for liturgical worship.
What the
Church Fathers said about pop music
The Greek
philosophers set the foundation for Christian music theory. Plato and Aristotle
recognized that all music has a distinctly moral character. In Aristotle’s
theory, music imitates the states of the soul—anger, gentleness, temperance,
etc. He taught that good music has a good effect on man’s character, while bad
music has a bad effect. The second-century Greek musicologists Cleonides and Aristides
Quintilianus recognized that certain music possessed a soothing character which
was particularly fitting for hymns and praise, and that it led the soul to
harmony with God.
On the
other hand, early Christian writers consistently attacked pagan, instrumental
music (ancient pop music) because of its inseparable connection to pagan
ceremony and lewd customs. John Chrysostom called musical instruments, dancing,
and obscene songs “the devil’s garbage.” The Fathers were particularly
concerned with the sexual immorality which accompanied the popular music scene
of the early centuries A.D. From their writings one gets a glimpse of vulgar
culture during this time, not unlike our post-modern culture today. The three
most frequently referenced venues of crass pagan music criticized by the
Fathers were the theater, wedding receptions, and drinking parties.
The
theater was full of cultic pagan references and characters, but the primary
fault of the theater was its sexually offensive content. Wedding receptions
were occasions for singing coarse marriage songs and carousing. A common
feature of late-night banquet parties was the young female lyre player who
played alluring music which inevitably led to sexual sin among the
participants. Tatian (c.180 A.D.) was one of the first to write a polemic
against such immodesty. In his letter to a Greek acquaintance he refers to the
archetype of such a musician: “And this Sappho is a lewd, lovesick female who
sins to her own licentiousness, whereas all our women are chaste, and the
maidens at their distaffs sing of godly things more earnestly than that girl of
yours.” Pseudo-Basil and his contemporaries drew a similar connection between
seductive music, drinking parties, and sexual license.
Polemics
like this raise the question of whether or not popular styles of music are an
appropriate accompaniment to prayer in the liturgy. On a certain level, pop
styles may appeal to many people, but are they naturally oriented toward
God? The Fathers deemed these music styles “guilty” by association and our
own post-modern pop is hardly better. Folk music is by definition focused on
the affairs of people, while rock music quite effectively arouses erotic
passions. As Elvis Presley once said, “The beat of rock n’ roll is sex”—not
exactly appropriate for divine liturgy. Yet unfortunately, not all Christian
composers have successfully avoided the mistake of incorporating intrusive,
base, pop music styles into liturgical prayer.
Sacramentum
Caritatis, ars musica, and the “New Song”
As Pope
Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote in his letter Sacramentum Caritatis (2007),
“The introduction of musical genres which fail to respect the meaning of the
liturgy should be avoided” (42). Ecclesial music composers of the future will
safeguard orthodox worship through a thorough study of and fidelity to the
ancient traditions of music that have organically and prayerfully developed
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
As much
as they despised popular Greek music, the Fathers simultaneously acknowledged
classical music as an important academic discipline. Pythagoras, Plato, and
Aristotle had worked out a scheme for education which became solidified by
Martianus Capella (fifth century). The seven classical liberal arts included
the study of music (ars musica). Ars musica was a
mathematical discipline that was measurable. Music theory gave structure to
this art: the philosophy of mathematical function as well as character
formation. The Church wholeheartedly adopted this plan of education.
As in
earlier times, secular music theory can continue to help Christians better
understand their own music tradition and articulate it to a contemporary
audience. In a culture in which classical training in music is often no longer
valued, contemporary Christians would do well to revive ars musica as
a discipline of our own educational tradition. The future of authentic
Christian worship lies in the legitimate preservation and interpretation of its
musical traditions passed on from generation to generation.
St.
Clement of Alexandria was one who saw great value in gleaning whatever is good,
true, or useful from the secular, Greek intellectual tradition. Clement was a
proponent of integrating Greek philosophy and musical study into Christian
catechesis, yet he believed that Christians must carefully select ideas and
examples which are in tune with Christian truth: “He who culls what is
necessary [from Greek studies] for the benefit of the catechumens… need not
abstain from the love of learning... But by no means ought he to linger over
these, except in so far as there is benefit from them, so that having taken
this and secured it he can return homewards to the true philosophy.”
A theme
in Clement of Alexandria’s work, Protrepticus, is that Christ,
the “New Song,” orders the music of the cosmos according to a new harmony.
Clement tells us that the enemies of this new harmony are those pagan musicians
who are “deceivers, corrupting human life under the pretext of music, possessed
by a kind of artful sorcery for purposes of destruction, outrageous in
celebrating their orgies, deifying misfortune, the first to lead men by the
hand to idols… and by means of their songs and incantations to subject to the
most dire servitude the noble freedom of those who lived as citizens under
heaven.” Christ, on the other hand, has brought new order to the universe by
becoming man: “The Lord made man a beautiful instrument after his own image;
certainly [Christ] is himself an all harmonious instrument of God, well-tuned
and holy, the transcendental wisdom, the heavenly Word…”
Toward a
renewal of harmonious worship
In the
following passage Clement synthesizes the above teachings of the Fathers by
making a beautiful distinction between well-ordered and disordered music: “Now
temperate harmonies are to be admitted, but the pliant harmonies are to be
driven as far as possible from our robust minds. These, through their sinuous
strains, instruct one in weakness and lead to ribaldry, but the grave and
temperate melodies bid farewell to the arrogance of drunkenness. Chromatic harmonies,
then, are to be left to ‘colorless’ carousals and to the florid and
meretricious music.”
Clement
makes clear that there is more to sacred music than sacred lyrics. The melodies
and harmonies themselves are either conducive to worship or not. According to
this criterion, it seems clear that most pop music is not conducive to
liturgical worship. On the other hand, we know from music history that some
popular music melodies of ancient times were adapted to fit sacred lyrics—a
tradition that has persisted up until the modern day. By the end of the fourth
century, pagan hymn music was being “baptized” and integrated into ecclesial
prayers. One example of this is a pagan hymn called the “Nemesis Hymn of
Mesomedes” (c. 130 A.D.) which was incorporated into a Kyrie in
Gregorian tone seven. Yet, there was something unique, glorious, and inspiring
about that melody that was capable of lending itself to worship. The Irish folk
tune that accompanies “Be Thou My Vision” is a modern example of a well-ordered
adaptation.
Sacrosanctum
Concilium gave
clear guidelines for composers of new sacred music. It
affirmed that Christian countries which share the great body of sacred music,
with roots in the early Church, are not locked into a static canon of
liturgical music. The sacred music tradition is a living icon of Christ who is
ever ancient, ever new:
“Composers, filled with the
Christian spirit, should feel that their vocation is to cultivate sacred
music and increase its store of treasures. Let
them produce compositions which have the qualities proper to genuine
sacred music…The texts intended to be sung must always be in
conformity with Catholic doctrine…”
Benedict’s
call for liturgical renewal is timely and there are young musicians in the
Church who are eagerly preparing themselves to answer this vocational call. The
teachings of the Fathers offer much-needed inspiration and direction. Threats
to the post-modern Church are very similar to those of the third century:
anti-Christian sentiment, secularism, and sexual licentiousness.
Sacrosanctum
Concilium and
Sacramentum Caritatis clearly state that the way forward for the
development of Christian music must include a dedicated study of traditional
Church music as well as a sustained effort to teach this music to the faithful
for liturgical worship. At the same time, new Church music must be composed—not
by ill-formed neophytes with guitars—but by mature, prayerful, classically
trained musicians who have been mentored in plainchant and sacred polyphony and
are living the full sacramental life of the Church. Certainly, it would behoove
Christian music composers to pay close attention to the warnings and
encouragements of the early Fathers, who also lived in a secular pagan society.
Their wisdom, far from being irrelevant, is surprisingly germane.
(This article
first appeared in Catholic World Report, September 12, 2013)
