Sacred Music
Musicam Sacram
Vatican II
SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL
MUSICAM SACRAM
INSTRUCTION ON MUSIC IN THE LITURGY
5 March, 1967
Gregorian chant belongs in the Catholic liturgy today. The Vatican II document,
states that "the Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy; therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services."
(sec. 116).
5 March, 1967
Pope Pius XII
POPE PIUS XII
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XII
ON SACRED MUSIC
TO OUR VENERABLE BRETHREN, THE PATRIARCHS, PRIMATES,
ARCHBISHOPS, BISHIOPS, AND OTHER LOCAL ORDINARIES
IN PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLIC SEE
December 25 1955
“41. First of all the chants and sacred music which are immediately joined with the Church’s liturgical worship should be conducive to the lofty end for which they are intended. This music – as our predecessor Pius X has already wisely warned us – “must possess proper liturgical qualities, primarily holiness and goodness of form; from which its other note, universality, is derived.”[18]
42. It must be holy. It must not allow within itself anything that savors of the profane nor allow any such thing to slip into the melodies in which it is expressed. The Gregorian chant which has been used in the Church over the course of so many centuries, and which may be called, as it were, its patrimony, is gloriously outstanding for this holiness.”
"The aim and final end of all music
should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul."
-Johann Sebastian Bach
Pope Pius XII
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XII
ON THE SACRED LITURGY
TO THE VENERABLE BRETHREN, THE PATRIARCHS, PRIMATES,
ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS, AND OTHER ORDINARIES
IN PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLIC SEE
November 20 1947
Pope St. Pius X
MOTU PROPRIO
TRA LE SOLLICITUDE
DE SUMO PONTIPIO
PIO X
ABOUT MUSIC SACRA
November 22 1903
“Nothing should have place, therefore, in the temple calculated to disturb or even merely to diminish the piety and devotion of the faithful, nothing that may give reasonable cause for disgust or scandal, nothing, above all, which directly offends the decorum and sanctity of the sacred functions and is thus unworthy of the House of Prayer and of the Majesty of God.”
Pope St. Pius X
Sacrosanctum Concilium on Sacred Music A talk by Dom Cassian Folosm
Sacred Congregation for Rites
DE MUSICA SACRA ET LITURGIA
September 3, 1958
“As everyone realizes, sacred music and sacred liturgy are so naturally inter-woven that laws cannot be made for the one without affecting the other. Indeed in the papal documents, and the decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Rites we find materials common to both sacred music, and sacred liturgy.“
'Long before he assumed the petrine office, Benedict XVI wrote on the important role occupied by sacred music and Gregorian chant in the life of the Church and its power to orient a person to an encounter with the divine. He has spoken of the connection between music and theology and the implications of this connection for the liturgical life of the Church. Moreover, the emphasis on beauty as a path to God was a core theme in his writings and speeches. This volume of twelve essays … explores the ideas advanced in Benedict XVI’s writings on liturgical music … A specialised volume with some interesting papers by experts in sacred music, liturgy, and theology, the book offers a valuable array of perspectives on Benedict XVI’s writings on sacred music and its significance within the liturgy',
Aidan O'Boyle, The Furrow (July/August 2013).