Music

MUSIC. - The philosophical concept of music, which among the ancients had a predominantly ethical character and among the moderns falls within the vast framework of aesthetics, can be expressed, apart from contingent particularities of time and place, by giving music first of all a religious value, and then a highly educational purpose (cf. Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃᵉ, q. 91, a. 2).

In the whole body of theories prior to the advent of Christianity, the aesthetics of music found no significant development except in the Greek world. Among the Hebrews, in fact, just as philosophy had no great place, so too it was with the theory of music, for which they willingly preferred instead the practice of that art. Among the Greeks, on the contrary, both the practice and the theory of music were cultivated, and both were later inherited by the Christian world. For the Greek philosophers music had a threefold value: religious, moral and therapeutic. As regards the first interpretation, mention must be made of those thinkers who, following in the footsteps of the Egyptians and Assyrians as well as of the Hebrews, held the teaching of music to be a mission reserved to priests: among them are Plutarch, Plato and, in the Roman world, Censorinus, Quintilian, Horace, etc.; as regards the second, one may again cite the authors of the first current, Plutarch and Plato, to whom Aristotle, Aristoxenus and others are added; for Aristotle there was a division of the musical modes according to the psychic effect produced by them and, consequently, a threefold ethos: enervating, exciting, calming. In the group, finally, of thinkers who attributed a therapeutic value to music, one may recall those who move in the wake of Aristotelian catharsis, by which music had a soothing efficacy: among them is again Plato, who in the Charmides affirms that the cure of the body began with the cure of the diseases of the soul, then Theophrastus, who suggested treating sciatica with music in the Phrygian mode, and then again Plutarch, who relates the case of Thales of Crete who freed Sparta from the plague by means of music.

From the very first rise of the Christian era, as will be seen further on, music had a particular importance in the life of the Church, and sacred chant gradually acquired an independent position, while still preserving notable elements derived from Hebrew, Greek, Gnostic melodies, etc., and a liturgical functionality that made it the praying soul of the rite. For almost the whole of the first millennium, Christian liturgical chant, in its various aspects, deriving from rich and ancient traditions of Ambrosian, Gallican, Mozarabic and Byzantine chant, remained rigidly monodic, even if some hint suggests, in the Schola cantorum of Rome or elsewhere, a beginning of polyphony. Codified by St. Gregory the Great (v.), Latin chant spread throughout the West, thus constituting the substratum of all music, the primary source from which the European art of sounds drew for several centuries. On the web, in fact, of Gregorian melodies, the first uncertain polyphonies were woven around the year 1000, and on their rich thematic background the grandiose architectures of Palestrinian polyphony were built in the 16th century.

In considering the formation of this vital sap, no small importance attaches to the conceptual position of the musical problem, which arises, before being an aesthetic problem, as an ethical-social problem, or else with a mystical-ascetic character. In the thought of the first Fathers of the Church, music, insofar as it is an echo of a pagan world in dissolution, is harshly condemned, while the rise of chant as homage to God, in the Christian temple, meets with the greatest favor and encouragement. The Fathers, grafting their conception onto the ethical current of the Greek thinkers (Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Aristoxenus, the Stoics and Eclectics) and onto the mystical current of the school of Alexandria (Philo the Hebrew, Plotinus), attributed to chant that ethical-religious function which was to continue throughout the whole Middle Ages, to flow at last into that doctrine of modal ethos which pushes down to the present day the distant and not entirely dormant offshoots of ancient thought. At the end of the first millennium, characterized by monody and homophony, in which liturgical expression held sway over the art of music, there follows (in the 9th-16th centuries) the era of polyphony which, having first announced itself as heterophony (9th-14th centuries), with laws not yet well defined, then unfolds in the superb lines of true vocal polyphony, whose flowering, predominantly sacred, with the forms of the mass and the motet, but also secular with the madrigal, is due to the Flemish, Roman and Venetian schools (15th-16th centuries). Immediately after the year 1000 another important aspect must be noted in the history of musical manifestations, namely the rise, with the formation of national or "vernacular" languages from the Latin stock, of new musical forms of a popular and secular character which take on developments and features differing from country to country. It will be the Ars nova, with the rondeau, the virelai and the ballade in France, with the madrigal, the ballata and the caccia in Italy, all forms of genuine secular inspiration and agile polyphonic texture, that will graft itself onto the stock of the Ars antiqua, eminently liturgical, which had produced conductus, clausulae and organa with Leoninus and Perotinus, masters of the cathedral of Paris. In the same way as the "Romance" languages in relation to their mother tongue Latin, there branched off from the stock of Gregorian chant the derived forms, akin in a certain sense to a musical "vernacular," of tropes, sequences, the sacred drama, etc.: the troubadours and trouvères flourished in France, the Minnesänger and Meistersinger in Germany (the former with less, the latter with greater technical and formal derivation from Gregorian chant): languages which have a common source of life, but which already speak new idioms and set out along new paths toward new goals. On the threshold of 1600, after a new style had been heralded by the prevalence of the upper voice, monody prevails, but it no longer has the pure melodic linearity of Greek or Gregorian chant, because it is imbued with a whole centuries-old harmonic experience: of the connective tissue of polyphony there now remains only a harmonic background, stratified in the instrumental accompaniment, whence it is called accompanied monody, with the rise of typical forms such as the aria, the cantata, melodrama, the oratorio. In the 18th century the new forms, especially the instrumental ones, the sonata and the symphony, take on new developments and characters, while the forms already existing are transformed through the Romantic current to assume down to the present day aspects ever renewing in time and in the various countries.

The development of musical aesthetic thought after the year 1000 can be briefly summarized in a few main directions. In Humanism there is a revival of philosophical fervor in the renewed interest in the ancient treatise writers, disinterred and translated, and in the Renaissance the influence of ancient thought manifests itself in a flowering of writings which, starting from mathematical and astrological suggestions, through the problems of the philosophy of nature, bring music closer to a greater rigor of experimental investigation; through the natural-psychological conception (Leibniz) which leads music from arithmetic to the world of the absolute will (Schopenhauer), the aesthetic theory of music elaborates, in the 18th century, that "doctrine of the affections" ("Affektenlehre") which, through the pre-Romantic period, arrives at an evaluation of feeling that unites in its different phases the thought of all the philosophers of Romanticism. In the nineteenth century, after Romanticism, there came the positivist reaction of a scientific character, and finally, in the twentieth century, criticism and aesthetics set out upon positions that are still in full development.

Luisa Cervelli

I. HEBREW MUSIC.

The Hebrew music of the biblical period has not been handed down through musical texts or theoretical works, as happened for Hellenic music. The nature of primitive Hebrew music is deduced: a) from the character of the reproducing instruments used in the Temple of Jerusalem and in religious and secular festivals; b) from present-day Oriental music, Semitic or not; c) from the melodies collected in the Jewish communities of the East (Yemen, Babylonia, Syria), of Europe (Italy, France, Poland, the Germanic countries and the Low Countries) and of North Africa.

I. PRIMITIVE RELIGIOUS MUSIC

1. The similarity of Hebrew instruments to those of the other ancient Eastern peoples makes the assimilation of Hebrew music to Eastern music in general partly legitimate. From the Bible itself the use of various instruments is known. String instruments: the nēbhel, or great harp; the himōr, or harp of smaller size, with fewer strings, which was the instrument of David. Wind instruments: the lōphār, which produced few sounds (tonic, fifth, octave) and did not allow melodies to be played. It was heard from a great distance and served as a signal to convoke the people; it was reputed to scatter the enemy gods in battles. In the era of the second Temple it was made from the horn of a goat or a ram. At the beginnings of the Christian era another instrument of appeal would be added: the maghrēphāh, a kind of very powerful panpipe. The silver trumpets were played by the priests and not by the Levites, the true musicians of the Temple. For the dedication of the Temple, Solomon gathered 120 silver trumpets. The large flute and the small flute are represented by the ḳālīl and the 'āghābh; the double flute by the 'ālāmōth. The drum, the timpani and the cymbals represent the category of percussion instruments, used especially in joyous festivities, religious or profane; they were obligatory in religious dances. After the destruction of the second Temple, the instrumental art fell into oblivion. The vocal tradition, on the other hand, was preserved in the synagogues.

2. The comparison of the traditionally preserved Hebrew melodies with the Eastern melodies still in use today among Muslim peoples or in the Greek, Jacobite, Nestorian or Maronite Christian confessions confirms the similarity of the musical systems with respect to the following points: a) the manner of composing is analogous; freedom and originality in the creation of new melodies consists above all in knowing how to dispose differently the small motifs that already exist and to embellish them. A category of motifs combined together is called a mode; modulation causes a motif of a determined mode to pass into another. b) Freedom of rhythm exists in melodies of a sacred character; they are treated as ornamented recitatives. In the songs that accompany a dance the music receives a metric framework suggested by the poetic text sung. Eastern music shrinks from sustaining a note that is not embellished. c) The tonal system admits quarter tones; one can have 24 degrees in an octave; but among the 4 principal scales two are diatonic and similar to the Greek Phrygian and Dorian scales. d) Harmony is totally unknown to the Easterners: aesthetic pleasure resides for them (as for the Hindus) in hearing a pure melody and its ornaments. The instrumental accompaniment, when it exists, repeats the melody itself, perhaps with its own embellishments. e) The popular character of Eastern music is revealed by the brevity of the musical phrases, by the frequency of refrains and by the simplicity of melodic invention. f) Finally, Eastern music was not written, but was learned by heart and transmitted orally. The Jews attempted to fix the traditional modes in writing; the result was the transcription of the Bible according to a complete system of accents and mnemonic signs in the 9th century A.D. The melodic intervals are not transcribed one by one, but suggested stenographically; the same for variations of tempo and intensity. These signs are known under the name of tē'āmīm or nēghīnōth ("notes", "tones").

3. Each of the Sacred Books used in the liturgical service had its own characteristic formulas. Thus, the Pentateuch, the Prophets, the Psalms, the Lamentations, Job, Ruth, Esther, etc., each had their special "mode". The expressive value of this mode, not to be confused with a scale, is in relation to the content of the part of Sacred Scripture for which it is destined. Thus the mode of the Pentateuch expresses dignity, elevation of spirit. Although minor, the mode of the Prophets, sung on a scale equal to the Greek Phrygian (1st Gregorian mode), is pervaded with hope and tenderness. The influence of the surrounding culture is recognized in the variants of one and the same mode. The mode of Esther offers an example of transformation due to local circumstances. Originally the book of Esther was read in the Phrygian or Dorian scale with very few inflections. The German Jews ('āhēnāzīm) saw in the story of Mordecai an occasion to manifest their bitterness against the persecutors; little by little the primitive form of the biblical reading was enriched with emphatic formulas. Alongside the melodies for the readings there existed another group of prayer songs, with text taken from Sacred Scripture. In the Talmudic period many prayers were composed by the rabbis; biblical examples, however, inspired content and form; these prayers, which remained in use, are classified into various groups: songs of adoration, praise, petition, penance, lamentation, hymns.

II. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN HEBREW MUSIC AND GREGORIAN CHANT

Musicologists who have studied the origins of Gregorian chant have not questioned the dependence of early Christian liturgical chant on Hebrew chant. Gastoué does not hesitate to call Jesus Christ the First Cantor of the Church, and indeed the Gospel relates two circumstances in which the Lord sang Hebrew melodies: for the reading of the prophecy of Isaiah in the synagogue of Nazareth and for the celebration of the last Passover of the Old Testament with the singing of the psalms of the great Hallel (v.). The structure of some liturgical hour, in part identical in the Christian and in the Jewish liturgy, allows us to suppose that some Hebrew musical passage as well was used by the first Christians of Palestine and then transmitted to posterity. It has been supposed that some element of the Easter Graduale Haec dies is of ancient Hebrew provenance. But the coincidence of 5 Gregorian podatuses with a similar Hebrew musical sign is not a decisive argument (cf. A. Gastoué, p. 79).

The comparison of traditional Hebrew melodies in Idelsohn's collection ought to yield clearer results. The mode of the Pentateuch would be found again in certain formulas of the Gregorian 3rd mode (e.g., in the Kyrie 111 Deus sempiterne). The material coincidence of certain notes does not prove a direct influence: the identity of certain modal scales in Hebrew music and in Hellenic and Gregorian ones is enough to explain the melodic resemblance. The fact that the ornate melodies of the Kyrie do not appear until after the 6th century invites us not to accept easily other identifications made by Idelsohn himself, the undisputed specialist in Hebrew music. With this reservation premised, one may note: psalmodic formulas such as that of the 2nd tone rather similar to psalmodic motifs of the Sephardic tradition (Jews expelled from Spain in 1492); recitatives of the Lamentations according to the Babylonian Hebrew tradition resembling certain Lamentations of the Latin Church. Some formulas of the Gregorian 4th mode (ant. Quid faciam) present a marked affinity with the Abhillah mode of the Talmudic period, in the traditions of Yemen, Syria and the Sephardim: in the Gregorian 5th mode the Invitatory of Easter and Pentecost may be compared with melodies of the Ashkenazi synagogue, which link back to Yemen; the hymn Itte Confessor, in its 1st verse (Lib. Usualis, Tournai 1950, p. 1177) echoes an Ashkenazi chant. But a new reservation imposes itself here: it is almost a matter of imitation, and no longer merely of material resemblance of a few notes; but it is not known in which direction the hardly deniable influence occurred: the hymn existed at the end of the 7th century; yet the date of the Hebrew chant of the Germanic tradition is not known!

Material resemblance does not reveal whether an influence occurred and in which direction. The hymn Gloria Laus, sung on Palm Sunday, presents points in common with a secular Arab chant; but it is impossible to know whether the Arab melody existed when Theodulf, bishop of Orléans, composed it, and whether he had heard it. The resemblance is recognized by some even between the intonation of the Sanctus (XVII of the Vatican edition) and a chant of adoration (called 'Alēna), very widespread in the period of the Crusades.

The influence exercised by Hebrew chant on Christian liturgical music is recognized in a generic manner in certain very ancient forms of psalmodic chant, and especially in the responsorial form. The Psalter was the prayer book of the Church as it was of the Temple and the synagogue, and traces are found in the Gregorian repertory of the three ways in which the singing of the soloist was answered: a) the soloist sings the first half-verse of the psalm, which is then repeated by the assembly after each psalmodic verse; b) the cantor performs each verse in its entirety, of which the people repeat only the last part; c) the cantor, called presentor as in the West in the Middle Ages, divides the verses into short phrases, which all can then repeat without error; this last system was used especially for the teaching of the Bible to the young.

Certain other elements of Roman liturgical chant may be of ancient Hebrew provenance: the procedure of centonic composition, that is, the art of using pre-existing formulas to make new compositions from them, almost musical mosaics in which the originality lies in knowing how to stitch together and ornament already-known phrases; but this procedure is not proper to the synagogue: it belongs also in a certain way to Hellenic music, in which the formulas were called nōmoi.

Two characteristics of Oriental music have passed into Christian music: the use of melismas on the final syllable of a phrase or phrase-member or word, and the absence of long sustained notes; the voice never stays still and, if it must stay on one and the same sound, it lightens it with repercussions or trills or passing notes, etc.

The permanence in the liturgical chant of all the Churches of Hebrew words is testimony to the original dependence of the Christian liturgy on the liturgy of the Temple and of the synagogues; but it is not possible to say that the musical motifs on which the words Amen, Alleluia, Osanna are sung, nor even the melodies set to the letters 'āleph, bēth, gimel, etc. of the Lamentations, are of Hebrew origin. On the other hand, it is worth paying attention to the rhythmic diversity that individualizes every music. For example, Hebrew religious music ignores entirely, primitively, measured rhythm; the chant of the most ancient Latin Christian hymns — the hymns of St. Ambrose — are of metric rhythm with 12 beats to each verse. Hebrew religious music was of free rhythm, and Gregorian melodies on commatic texts are also of free rhythm; but the difference is great between the one and the other, given that in the latter the primary time-unit is indivisible, in the former it is divisible.

III. EVOLUTIONS OF HEBREW MUSIC FROM THE MIDDLE AGES UP TO THE 20TH CENTURY

The expansion of the repertoire of Hebrew religious music up to the 7th century had taken place with the greatest respect for the ancient formulas. The blossoming of a properly Western music — from the flowering of tropes and sequences to the emergence of polyphony — placed the Hebrew tradition in Europe face to face with new currents, to which it long resisted. It is true that infiltrations of ecclesiastical and secular themes are recognizable in some cases; more certain is that the tonal system is transformed, losing intervals smaller than a semitone, seeking to give a major character to motifs previously known in minor mode form. But a great part of the traditional melodies is saved through the work of the ḥazzān. This presentor of the Israelite community, from being a beadle in origins, raised himself to the function of reader and cantor, assistant to the priest. With the passage of time his liturgical function did not always suffice for him; sometimes he lent himself to giving secular concerts, to the great indignation of the rabbis. His vocal ability explains his prestige and influence, such, at times, as to obtain from the members of the community what was denied to the rabbi.

In the 1500s a new era seems to open for Hebrew music with the rise of new tendencies of Jewish musicians in Italy; they cultivate above all madrigalistic music. The most famous, Salomone Rossi (d. 1628), writes not only Sinfonie e gagliarde but also Salmi e preghiere for several voices. A new edition was made by S. Naumbourg and by V. d'Indy (Paris 1877). The novelty is precisely the introduction of polyphony into the Hebrew cult. Leone da Modena triumphs over the oppositions of the traditional rabbis; choirs are founded at Ferrara, Venice, Mantua, Padua, Casale Monferrato. But all too soon the Austrian invasion, with the taking of Mantua in 1630, cuts short this first attempt at adapting Hebrew musical culture to the evolution of art. In 1724-27 Benedetto Marcello would go to the great synagogue of Venice to hear there the ancient melodies newly taken up. In reality, among the themes (about 12) that Marcello took from Hebrew chant for his 50 psalms, only one can be said to be truly traditional, and only in the German synagogues (Šāphēt kol hā-'āres, p. 167).

To explain the resumption of modernization of Hebrew music in the last century, one must recall the great fermentation of ideas in Europe in the second half of the 18th century. Many Israelites felt the ideal of emancipation propagated under the names of liberty and equality. For them everything that distinguished the Jews from their Italian, German, French, etc. fellow citizens had to be abandoned. In the temple built by Jacobson at Seesen in Westphalia (1810), hymns modeled on Protestant chorales replace the old Hebrew chants; the Bible is read without modulations of voice; a music inspired by the classics of the 18th century is entrusted to a choir; the organ also makes its appearance. In 1817 an ultra-reformed temple would be erected at Hamburg; in 1842 another at Berlin. Collections of chants would be published by Goldberg and Freudenthal in 1843, by Rosenstein in 1849, the Hamburg Hymnbook in 1845. But it is curious to note that the composers called for this reform were in the majority Christians.

A reform would also be accomplished in the Orthodox Synagogue, but through the work of Jewish musicians. The first in order of date, the one who would have a decisive influence, is Salomon Sulzer (1804-90). He was cantor of the Vienna community in 1825. He founded an excellent choir; he wrote hymns and polyphonic compositions; he followed the example of Israel Lovy, who at Paris, in 1822, had repudiated the three-voice choir (treble voice, bass and hazzān, that is tenor) and introduced the four parts. If classical harmony and style are at the basis of Sulzer's compositions, he nonetheless intuits the general character of the traditional musical language; he returns to the brevity of the ancient phrase; he clothes the melody with dignity and seriousness, which was lacking in many compositions called religious in the 18th century. Sulzer's great popularity in the Israelite circles of the time is explained by the power and flexibility of his tenor voice, but also by his firm stance against the invasion of the German manner, and herein lies the great difference from the other reform movement headed by the Hamburg temple. Together with and after Sulzer some names shine in Germany and in France: Maier Kohn, Samuel Naumburg, Hirsh Weintraub, Israel Japhet. The most illustrious was Louis Lewandovski, born in German Poland in 1823 and died at Berlin in 1894.

He understood the importance of the assembly's participation in the liturgical chant; he knew how to develop in an original manner themes of an ancient flavor, admitting also elements of German or Slavic folklore; the collection that he gave after many years of waiting had the great merit of offering a complete repertoire for all the assemblies of the year. The Qól rimāh, which appeared in 1871, supplanted in many places the Šir Şijjôn of Sulzer, published in 1840-65. The freshness of the style, which often recalls the German Lied, the reminiscences of the chants performed in eastern Germany by the hazzānîm, the vocal writing accessible without an extraordinary technical preparation, the skill with which the organ accompaniment part (not obligatory) is treated, have assured Lewandovski's religious musical work a lasting success. In his ideas, however, there was germinating a tendency that one day or another would push the moderate reform onto the same road as the musical reform, which for its part softened its intransigence to the point of reintroducing the readings in the traditional manner. He had not only repudiated the notion that the religious music of the dispersed people of Israel should be of weeping and sorrow, but he underwent the influence of Sulzer, who had studied much and had had performed, after his youthful years, at the Academy of Music of Berlin, where he won a composition prize at 16! Now in Sulzer the forms of Catholic religious chant are recognizable enough for a good Israelite to notice them, although a Christian cannot claim them as his own. Lewandovski in the very preface to the Qól rimāh expressed the opinion that the choral parts of the chant could be created by non-Jews with non-Jewish melodic material: this was the starting point of Jacobson and of the Hamburg temple.

1. Collections of chants: A. Baer, Ba'al tēphilāh, Gotburg

1877; J. and M. Cremicu, Zémiróth Jisrá'el, Chants hébraïques, Marseille 1885; P. Consolo, Sepher širš Jisrá'el, Libre dei canti d'Israele, Florence 1891; M. Gaster, Sa'ar haš-lāmajīm (Spanish and Portuguese Hebrew chants), London 1904; A. Z. Idelson, The source of Hebrew-oriental melodies, 6 vols., Leipzig 1914 (it should be noted that in 1918 a Catholic priest and scholar, Roschenstein, a sincere friend of the Jews, was among the first to attempt to collect the traditional modes). The introductions to the collections of chants are an appreciable contribution to the historical and scientific knowledge of Hebrew music - 2. Literature. One must wait until the middle of the 19th century to have studies of value on Hebrew music: there was no Jewish theorist in the biblical period, nor after. Important material is found in the Responsa of the rabbis from the 8th century onward regarding questions of chant. The first historian of music who seeks to trace a sensible outline of the evolution of Hebrew music is Forkel (d. 1801). a) Journals: Liturgische Zeitung; Der Jüdische Cantor (Bromberg); Die Österreichische ungarische Cantoren Zeitung; Die Höchener (Vienna); Das hamburger Familienblatt, etc. - b) Authors: F.J.David, La musique chez les Juifs, essai de critique et d'histoire, Paris 1873; F. Cohn, The rise and development of Jewish music, London 1888; E. Birnbaum, Jüdische Musiker am Hofe von Mantua von 1512 bis 1628, Vienna 1893; E. Breslau, Sind originale Synagogueund Volksmelodica bei den Juden geschichtlich nachweisbar?, Leipzig 1898; A. Friedman, Lebensbilder berühmter Cantoren, 3 vols., Berlin 1918-27. Among Catholic authors: O. Fleischer, Neumentudieu, Berlin 1897, chaps. 1-2; D. Parisot, Rapport sur une mission scientifique en Turquie d'Asie, Paris 1899; A. Gastoux, Les origines du chant romain, ibid. 1907, chap. 1; P. Wagner, Einführung in die gregorianischen Melodie, I, Leipzig 1910, chap. 1; III, ibid. 1921, pp. 240, 367; H. Berl, Das Judentum in der Musik, Berlin and Leipzig 1926.

Pietro Thomas

II. SACRED AND RELIGIOUS MUSIC.

I. HISTORICAL NOTES

The Hebrew custom of accompanying singing with the exercise of worship passed almost intact to the first Christians. Indeed, from the very rise of Christianity there are references to singing in the Acts of the Apostles, in the Epistles of St. Paul, and in the early ecclesiastical writers.

But it was in the patristic era that music established itself as an integral part of Catholic worship.

If on the one hand the Fathers of the Church, the Pontiffs, and the Councils took their stand against pagan music, on the other hand they insisted, with advice, instructions, and even didactic treatises, on the use of sacred song not only in the exercise of public worship but also in private worship. The richest and oldest musical heritage of Christian civilization is contained in Gregorian chant, so named after the Pontiff St. Gregory the Great (590-604). Gregorian chant is therefore the whole body of vocal music that flourished within the Church from its origins until the Humanist era, when polyphony arose.

This chant, therefore, while it constitutes the bridge between ancient and modern music, is the true source of all European music, sacred and secular: and it is to the merit of the Catholic Church to have welcomed, preserved, and composed into an artistic synthesis the scattered elements of ancient music.

Although Gregorian chant is essentially monodic, nevertheless from the 8th and 9th centuries onward certain melodies began to be adorned with a second part.

Thus either a note held at the upper fifth was superimposed on the line of the Gregorian chant, or it was accompanied with parallel fourths and octaves: this procedure was called organum (v.) because it was akin to the instrumental accompaniment of the ancients. A less elementary procedure was discant (v.), where the principal Gregorian chant is accompanied by a second, more animated melody. The first form that arises from this combination is the motet (v.); a related form is the conductus (v.), where all the voices are of free invention. Other procedures used by the English were the Gymel (twin song), which consisted in accompanying the principal chant with an interval of a third, and the bordone or continuous low note, over which two melodic parts were performed. But with counterpoint, the most daring procedures in combining voices are reached. The basis of counterpoint (punctum contra punctum) is imitation, that is, the reproduction of a melodic design made by a se-

from V. Leroquair, Les livres d'Heurs mss. de la Bibliotheque nationale, Paris 1917, pl. 23
MUSIC - Angels teaching music to the Child Jesus. Book of Hours made for a member of the Berthier family of Troyes (15th century) - Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. lat. 924, f. 241.

second voice at a greater or lesser distance of one or more measures. To a second voice a third is added, and a fourth, up to 18 real and 36 nominal.

Famous masters of counterpoint were Johannes Ockeghem, from whose school Josquin des Prez emerged, Heinrich Isaac, Arcadelt, Johannes Tinctoris, Philippe de Monte, Adrian Willaert. But the greatest of all the masters of the Flemish school is Orlando di Lasso (v.). A place of fundamental importance in the history of polyphony was held by the Pontifical Chapel (v.), whose singers and masters, who formed the Roman school, attained perfection in the art of music for several voices.

The prince of the Roman school was Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (v.). His predecessors were: Costanzo Festa and Giovanni Animuccia; his contemporaries: the two Nanino, Giovanni Maria and Giovanni Bernardino; then came Felice and Giovanni Francesco Anerio, Ruggero Giovannelli, Francesco Suriano, Luca Marenzio, Gregorio Allegri, Francesco Foggia; the Spaniards Cristóbal de Morales and Tomás Luis de Victoria of Ávila. In the Venetian school shine the names of Gioseffo Zarlino, of the two Gabrielis: Andrea and Giovanni. Polyphony developed not only in the vocal genre, but also in the instrumental one; especially of the instrument proper to the Church, which is the organ (v.).

Just as from the trunk of Gregorian chant polyphony and popular religious song germinated, so from this both the Protestant Reformation drew excellent advantage with the chorale on texts in the vernacular, and the Catholic Reformation with the spiritual lauds.

From further progress and new orientations arose the opera or "drama for music" of both profane and sacred character. The first melodrama of sacred character was the Rappresentazione di anima e corpo by Emilio de' Cavalieri. Alongside opera appears the oratorio, which preserves an essential polyphonic form, into which monodic parts are grafted. These new developments of sacred extra-liturgical music exercised a harmful influence on liturgical music, which came gradually to lose the hieratic spirituality of Gregorian chant and the severe monumentality of classical polyphony. Even externally the signs of this degeneration are found: the choir, which previously had a truly and genuinely liturgical function and was therefore composed of clerics and was situated in the presbytery, is formed of secular singers and even of women, and supported, besides by the organ, by instruments. In the liturgical functions, to Latin, the official language of the Church, the vernacular is joined, always to a greater extent.

The cause of such decadence is perhaps to be sought in the fact that the distinction between sacred music (liturgical and extra-liturgical) and religious music was not kept clear. It is, moreover, not infrequent that even today these terms are used indiscriminately. In reality sacred (Catholic) music is the musical interpretation of the rites, forms and prayers of the Catholic cult; and although it is only vocal, instrumental organ music is nevertheless also admitted. And since in the cult there are sacred liturgical and extra-liturgical functions, so likewise sacred music will be liturgical and extra-liturgical according to whether it musically interprets the one or the other, following the established norms. Whoever violates these norms writes anti-liturgical sacred music, even if he intends to musically interpret rites, formulas and prayers of the Catholic cult.

The genres of sacred music are Gregorian and popular chant, the classical polyphony of modern music. The forms of liturgical music are principally the Mass in its fixed and variable parts and the psalmody in its various elements (psalm, antiphon, hymn, versicle). The forms of extra-liturgical music are choral compositions of various kinds, which interpret texts in Latin or in the vernacular referring to the various sacred extra-liturgical functions. The instrumental part of the liturgical and extra-liturgical part, besides the accompaniment of the vocal music, unfolds in pieces of various form and denomination destined to connect the different moments of the liturgical or extra-liturgical action.

Religious music, on the other hand, is the free vocal and instrumental interpretation of individual or collective religious feeling: such are oratorios, cantatas, sacred symphonies, Passions, etc. In this respect anti-liturgical music can also be qualified as religious even if, while not responding to the spirit and needs of the Catholic cult, it musically expresses truly religious sentiments. Thus, the monumental Mass in B minor by J. S. Bach is without doubt a profoundly religious work, while it cannot be called liturgical music inasmuch as, among other things, by its vast proportions it greatly exceeds in amplitude the liturgical function that it intends to interpret. Likewise the markedly dramatic spirit of the Missa solemnis of L. van Beethoven and of the Requiem Mass of G. Verdi places these works among religious music, but not among liturgical music.

II. THE CHURCH AND SACRED MUSIC

It should not be a cause for wonder that ecclesiastical authority exercises a normative power over sacred music, since this is an integral part of Catholic worship, the regulation of which is obviously the exclusive competence of the Holy See. It must be made clear, however, that ecclesiastical authority does not impose aesthetic canons on sacred composers; but, while leaving them freedom of choice in technical and artistic means, it indicates to them what the animating spirit and the functional characteristics of their works must be, to which those works must correspond for the decorous conduct of Catholic worship. General and particular prescriptions on sacred music are found from the very beginnings of the life of the Church. Passing over, for the sake of brevity, the very numerous dispositions of synods and councils, we shall limit ourselves to recalling the most important pontifical documents on the matter. There are few references to the prescriptions of the first pontiffs on sacred music; noteworthy, on the other hand, after the great reform of St. Gregory the Great, is the severe letter of Leo IV which ordered, under penalty of excommunication, Honoratus, perhaps abbot of Farfa, to adhere to the Gregorian tradition of sacred chant. But a fundamental document on the matter is the apostolic constitution Docta Sanctorum Patrum of John XXII, issued in 1324-25 against certain abuses that had infiltrated sacred music through the indiscriminate use of the new procedures of the musical technique of the time. In this constitution the Pontiff lays down the two principles on which the entire legislation on sacred music rests. First of all he requires that the music to be performed in worship not only not be in conflict with the spirit of the liturgy, but sustain and increase it. Furthermore he admits into sacred music the innovations that time brings to the musical language, provided that they do not depart entirely from ecclesiastical tradition. These principles are fully realized in classical polyphony, and therefore the Council of Trent on 17 Sept. 1562 (session XXII de Reform.), did not prohibit or censure this form of sacred music, but limited itself to prescribing that those pieces of music be banished from churches which, whether for organ or for chant, contained lascivious or impure elements. Also important is the apostolic constitution Piae sollicitudinis studia issued for Rome on 23 Apr. 1657 by Alexander VII, who prescribes under penalty of excommunication and fines that the liturgical text to be set to music be none other than that prescribed and approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites. The Alexandrine Constitution was then supplemented by two subsequent ordinances of the Vicariate of Rome of 30 July 1665 and of 20 Aug. 1692.

On the occasion of the Jubilee of 1750 Benedict XIV issued on 19 Feb. 1749 the encyclical Annus qui, in which, recalling with great erudition for Rome the previous pontifical prescriptions, he added particular norms on the use of instruments in Church. The Benedictine encyclical too was supplemented by the edicts of the Vicariate of Rome of 4 March 1749 and of 1756. Energetic was the action of reform of sacred music in Rome during the 19th century. On 20 Dec. 1824 Cardinal Vicar Placido Zurla published an edict "On divine worship and on respect for the Church" with particular norms for sacred music, later reconfirmed by Cardinal Odescalchi with his notification of 31 Jan. 1835.

Under Gregory XVI Gaspare Spontini prepared a vast project for the reform of sacred music which was then used by Cardinal Vicar Costantino Patrizi in his edicts of 16 Aug. 1842 and of 18 Nov. 1856. But also outside Rome, in Italy and in the other Catholic nations, a vast movement for the reform of sacred music took shape through conciliar and synodal prescriptions of great theoretical and practical importance. Thus on the occasion of the Vatican Council Cardinal Riario Sforza, archbishop of Naples, together with the suffragan bishops, proposed severe penalties against ecclesiastics who neglected to learn Gregorian chant. Likewise the German bishops, assembled in Rome for the same Council, asked that a Pious Association be established for Germany, after the model of the Roman Congregation of St. Cecilia for the implementation of the reform of sacred music. This Pius IX granted with the apostolic constitution Multum ad movendos animos of 16 Dec. 1870.

These Cecilian Associations, which immediately spread also to other nations, have a most important part in the legislation on sacred music, inasmuch as they brought to light the existing abuses, also pointing out the appropriate remedies, and prepared the ground for an organic reform. It was in fact in consequence of the wishes expressed at the Italian Catholic Congress held in Naples in 1883 that the Sacred Congregation of Rites issued on 25 Sept. 1884 a complete Ordinatio quoad sacram musicam followed by another less fortunate one of 7 July 1894. With the blessed Pius X the legislation on sacred music — even before the Codex iuris canonici — finds its wise and solicitous codifier; in the same year of his election he issued the motu proprio Inter pastoralis officii sollicitudines which he himself defines as the juridical Code of sacred music. The CIC (can. 1262), after recalling the general principle established by the Council of Trent, refers to the particular liturgical laws on sacred music. Pius XI then, following the celebrations in honor of Guido d'Arezzo held in Rome and the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the motu proprio of Pius X, almost responding to the wishes that had reached him, on 20 Dec. 1928, with the apostolic constitution Divini cultus sanctitatem, gave precise practical norms concerning the implementation of the pontifical prescriptions on sacred music. Finally Pius XII, in the encyclical Mediator Dei of 20 Nov. 1947, while he recalled and reconfirmed the previous prescriptions of Pius X and Pius XI on sacred music, laid down wise principles on popular religious song and on contemporary sacred music.

III. ECCLESIASTICAL LEGISLATION

1) It is solely the prerogative of the Holy See to regulate the liturgy and sacred music (can. 1257; CA, beginning, D. 1134: for abbreviations see bibl.).

2) The liturgical laws on sacred music bind everyone, and the norms established for liturgical music must in themselves be observed also for extra-liturgical music, unless they are prescriptions which by their very content refer only to liturgical music (RR no. 30).

3) Against transgressors of the laws, the local Ordinaries may inflict the canonical penalties, in accordance with cann. 2378; 2222; 2291 no. 10, 12° of the CIC.

4) Sacred music, as an integral part of the solemn liturgy, must possess in the highest degree the qualities proper to the sacred liturgy, namely holiness and goodness of form, excluding all profanity not only in itself but also in the manner in which it is performed. It must be true art, since otherwise it cannot have upon the soul of the listener that efficacy which the Church intends to obtain. But it must be universal in this sense, that, while admitting in church compositions those particular forms which constitute in a certain way the specific character of the music of each nation, these must nevertheless be so subordinated to the general characteristics of sacred music that no one of another nation, on hearing them, should experience an unpleasant impression (MP no. 2).

5) Since these qualities are found in the highest degree in Gregorian chant, a composition for church is the more sacred and liturgical the more in inspiration and movement it approaches the Gregorian melody; and the less it is worthy of the temple the more it departs from it.

6) The ancient traditional Gregorian chant must therefore be restored extensively in the functions of worship and in the use of the people, so that the faithful may take a more active part in the ecclesiastical office (MP no. 3).

7) The Gregorian chant which must be performed in every church is that restored to the fidelity of the ancient codices and which has been proposed by the Church in the typical Vatican edition (CA IV).

8) The printing of Gregorian chant in modern notation is permitted provided that the danger be carefully eliminated that the order of the notes and neums be in any way displaced (D. 4166 ad VII).

9) Editions enriched with rhythmic signs are permitted, provided that the original text is not altered (D. 4178-4529).

10) The classical polyphony proper to the most solemn functions of the Church, such as those of the Pontifical Chapel (MP no. 4), must also be used in the solemn functions celebrated by a cardinal.

11) Modern music is also admitted in church, when it offers compositions of such goodness, seriousness and gravity that they are not only in no way unworthy of the liturgical functions, but must contribute to the splendor of the sacred rites, to the elevation of souls and at the same time to true devotion (MP no. 5; LE no. 188).

They must therefore contain nothing profane, nor reminiscences of theatrical motifs, nor even be fashioned in their external forms upon the movement of profane pieces.

They must have nothing unbecoming to the holiness of the place, nor derive from a vain search for extraordinary and unusual effects (MP no. 5; LE no. 188).

12) Modern works of sacred music destined for worship must be approved by the diocesan Commission for sacred music; unless they have already been approved by the Association of St. Cecilia or of St. Gregory (RR. 19). Neither authors nor publishers may demand any fee for the performance in liturgical functions of works of sacred music (Instr. of the Sacred Congregation of the Council of 25 Feb. 1932: AAS, 24 [1932], p. 72 ff., can. 1160).

13) The proper language of the Roman Church is Latin; therefore in liturgical functions any singing in the vernacular is forbidden (MP no. 7). Likewise, in the solemn procession with the Most Blessed Sacrament, songs in the vernacular alternated with the liturgical hymns are not permitted (D. no. 3975 ad V). The contrary custom, if it has been introduced in some place, must be eliminated (D. 3827 ad I; 3113 ad I; 3230; 3994 ad I; Ordin. SRC of 1884 art. 3; Ordin. SRC of 1894 art. 7).

14) It is permitted to sing approved texts in the vernacular: 1° in Low Masses, provided they are not properly liturgical texts, which must not be sung except in Latin (D. no. 4235 ad VII-VIII; 3880). 2° Before the Most Blessed Sacrament exposed, provided it is not the Te Deum or other liturgical prayers, which must not be sung except in Latin (D. 3537 ad III, 4237 ad VII; 4268 ad X). 3° After the eucharistic blessing (D. 2698; 2791 ad II).

15) Since for every liturgical function the texts in music and the order in which they must be presented are determined, it is not lawful either to confuse this order, or to change the prescribed texts for others of one's own choosing, or to omit them entirely or even only in part, except as provided in art. 38 (MP no. 8; D. 3624 ad IX).

16) The liturgical text must be sung as it stands in the books, without alteration or postponement of words, without undue repetitions, without breaking its syllables, and always in a manner intelligible to the faithful who listen (MP no. 9).

17) It is an abuse to be eliminated, the custom according to which the canons and the mansionaries assigned to the choir, in conventual Masses and in the pontifical Masses themselves, neither sing nor recite in a low voice the parts of the Mass, but leave everything to the organist (D. 3786).

18) In the singing of the Passio the text of the Gospel cannot be sung by the organist, even if he be a minor cleric or subdeacon (D. 3110 ad X).

19) The priest who celebrates the conventual Mass, in which the choir is bound to sing the Credo, cannot continue in the celebration during the time in which the said Credo is sung by the choir (D. 1936, 2242).

20) After the singing of the Offertory, it is permitted to occupy the remaining time until the Preface with the performance of some motet on words approved by the Church (MP no. 8).

21) During the Elevation of the Host and of the Chalice, as also during the blessing with the Most Blessed Sacrament, the singers must be silent and remain in adoration (D. 3827; 2464; 27-22 ad III; 3058 ad II, 3530 ad II).

22) The Benedictus must be sung after the Elevation; it is then permitted to perform a eucharistic motet until the Pater noster.

23) The psalms must be sung by the choir and by the canons themselves, the beneficed and others of the Chapter, in tone and in Gregorian chant with gravity and decorum in such a way that their words are intelligible to all (Caerem Episc., Lib. I, c. I, no. 8; 521).

24) In particular in the psalmody attention must be paid both to the precision of the tones with their own middle and final cadences, and finally to the full concord of the declamation of the psalm verses and of the strophes of the hymns (C. A. III).

25) The antiphons at Vespers must be intoned both by the bishop and by the canon, by the canon senior after the dignity or by the master of the school or by him to whom it falls according to custom (2216 ad III). If singers cannot be had, the Lamentations and the Lessons of the 2nd and 3rd Nocturn must be sung by the canons, beginning with the youngest (379).

26) Where there is the custom and the number of choristers is insufficient, it is lawful that some verses, while they are simply recited in choir, be supplied by the organ.

27) Sacred music must preserve its choral character at least for the most part (MP 12); nevertheless the solo voice is not entirely excluded, which must never predominate, but have the character of a simple hint and melodic suggestion, being closely bound to the rest of the composition in the form of a choir (MP 12). Since the singing must always take first place, the organ and the instruments must simply sustain it and never oppress it (MP 16). It is not permitted to prefix long preludes to the singing or to interrupt it with intermezzo pieces (MP 17).

28) The individual parts of the Mass and of the Office must also musically preserve that harmony and that form which ecclesiastical tradition has given them and which is very well expressed in Gregorian chant. Different, therefore, is the manner of composing an Introit, a Gradual, an antiphon, a psalm, a hymn, a Gloria in excelsis, etc. (MP 10).

29) In particular, the following norms are to be observed: 1. The Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, etc. of the Mass must each maintain the unity of composition proper to the text. It is therefore not lawful to compose them in separate pieces, such that each of these pieces forms a complete musical composition and as such may be detached from the rest and replaced with another (MP 11, letter a). 2. The Gloria and the Credo, moreover, according to the Gregorian tradition must be relatively brief (MP 22). 3. In the office of Vespers, Gregorian chant must ordinarily be used for the psalmody (MP 11, b). The so-called concerted psalms remain always excluded and forbidden (MP 11, b). In the hymns of the Church the traditional form is to be preserved. The antiphons of Vespers must ordinarily be presented with their proper Gregorian melody (MP 11, d). If, however, in some particular case they are sung in music, they must never have either the form of a concert melody or the breadth of a motet or a cantata (MP 11, d).

30) In every choir, whether of canons or of religious, a competent person is to be elected as cantor or choir director, who, while watching over the observance of the liturgical rules and of choral singing, corrects in practice the defects of individuals and of the entire choir (CA IV).

31) The true and genuine ecclesiastical tradition of sacred music is that: 1. the entire assembly of the faithful joins in song to the liturgical functions, performing those parts of the text that are assigned to them; 2. a special Schola cantorum alternates with the people and presents the other parts of the text that are richer in melody and more especially reserved to it (MP 3, 12, 27; RR 1).

32) Church singers, even if secular, properly take the place of the ecclesiastical choir and exercise in church a true liturgical office (MP 12, 13).

33) Men of proven piety and upright life must be part of the church chapel, who by their devout and modest demeanor during the liturgical functions show themselves worthy of the holy office they exercise (MP 14). It is forbidden for heretics, schismatics and Jews to sing in Catholic churches (cf. Collect. S. Congr. de Prop. Fide, n. 1845, 1851). It is forbidden for choir directors and organists and for singers to be members of associations alien to the Catholic Church and to render service in heterodox churches or chapels, or for musical performances that in any way may amount to a vilification of religion or morals, or even merely be unbecoming to the office of church singer (RR 66).

34) It is fitting that the singers, while singing in church, wear the cassock and the surplice (MP 14); if, however, for lack of clerics, they are employed in the choir, they may not use copes (D. 38 ad IV).

35) It is desirable that the choir loft not be situated over the entrance door of the church, but on the side of the altar, where the Sacred Mysteries are celebrated (Ordin. SRC a 1884, art. 40). If, moreover, the singers find themselves in choir lofts too exposed to the eyes of the public, these are to be protected by grilles (MP 14, see also n. 5283).

36) In processions, the singers dressed in surplice must walk after the Cross, ahead of the canons or in a place pleasing to the bishop (Caerem Episc., I, c. 2, n. 4; 931; 948).

37) When the high voices of sopranos or contraltos are to be used, these must be supported by boys, according to the most ancient custom of the Church (MP 13). Therefore schools of boy singers are to be established not only at cathedrals, but also at lesser and parish churches, and they are to be educated in singing by the choir directors (CA VI).

38) Women may not sing in the sacred functions, except insofar as they form part of or represent the people (RR 12). Nevertheless the diocesan Ordinary may permit girls and women, from the pews assigned to them in church, to sing the parts of the Mass and of the Office, or, outside the strictly liturgical functions, the hymns and popular songs; provided that: they do not distinguish themselves from the rest of the people; save for the separation of men from women, where this praiseworthy custom is preserved. Where choral office is held, the singing of women alone is not admitted, except for a grave cause to be recognized by the Ordinary with the due precautions to avoid any disorder (D. 4210 ad II).

39) Religious women, who are permitted, in accordance with their constitutions or the liturgical laws or with the license of the local Ordinary, to sing in their own church or public oratory, are to sing from a place where they cannot be seen by the people. Nevertheless it is forbidden for religious women and their pupils to sing with a solo voice, and they are exhorted that in Masses and at Vespers they prefer the Gregorian melodies, performed if possible by the internal Community (RR 12). Never, however, is it permitted for religious women and their pupils, even if these form part of a pious association, to accompany with song the solemn cardinalitial functions (D. 4404). Religious women may not sing the part of the crowd in the Passio in solemn Masses celebrated in their churches (D. 2169).

40) In the playing of the organ, that mixture of sacred and profane must be avoided which, through the initiative of builders on the one hand, and through the musical audacities of certain organists on the other, is threatening the purity of the mission that the organ is destined to fulfill in church (CA, VIII). Therefore it is not lawful to add to the organ the so-called "tubular bells" and profane instruments (D. 4344), nor to use gramophone records in divine worship (SRC 25 Sept. 1939). The designs for the restoration or purchase of new organs, both as regards the technical and the artistic aspect, as well as for the position and construction of the choir lofts, must be submitted to the diocesan Commission for sacred music (RR 332). Where it is not possible to have a pipe organ, the use of the harmonium is permitted. When, moreover, women sing in church, it is permitted that the harmonium be placed among them to accompany their singing, played by one of them.

41) The electrophonic organ and the so-called auto-organ may be introduced into church only with the consent of the local Ordinary (SRC 15 July 1949; 27 Febr. 1948, n. 1917/48).

42) The task of the organ in the sacred functions is to accompany the singing or to play when the voices are silent (MP 18; CA VIII), and its sound must not only be produced according to the proper nature of that instrument, but must partake of all the qualities proper to truly sacred music (MP 18).

43) The church organ may be played: 1. on all Sundays and feasts of the year; 2. at the entrance and exit of a bishop who celebrates or merely assists at Mass (ibid., n. 3); 3. at the entrance into church of an apostolic legate, of a cardinal or of an archbishop or bishop, until these pray and the Mass begins, and at their exit (ibid., n. 4); 4. at the beginning of Matins, which is celebrated solemnly on the greater feasts, and likewise of Vespers (ibid., n. 5); 5. to accompany Gregorian or polyphonic chant, except in the liturgical functions of Holy Week and at the intonations of the celebrant (4267; 4287, MP n. 12 [4009]); 6. in the read Mass, at those times when the priest does not recite the prayers aloud, or does not read the Gospel.

44) The sound of the organ is forbidden in church during the seasons of Advent and Lent unless it is a question of: 1) the Third Sunday of Advent ("Gaudete") and the Fourth of Lent ("Laetare"), both at Mass and at Vespers, but not at the other canonical hours (2245); 2) Holy Thursday at the Gloria in excelsis, for a short time after the intonation, and also, according to custom, until the end; but not for the whole duration of the Mass, notwithstanding any contrary custom (D. 3515 ad IV; 4067 ad VI; 35-37 ad VII); 3) the exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament in the afternoon of Holy Thursday or in the morning of Good Friday, during which it may be tolerated that, where an ancient custom exists, motets be sung with organ accompaniment (3804 ad II); 4) Holy Saturday at the Gloria in excelsis Deo (Caerem Episc., book I, c. 28, n. 2); 5) days on which it is necessary to celebrate solemnly and with joy pro re gravi and for a public cause of the Church (Caerem Episc., ibid.; 235 ad XII; 3922); as on the days of St. Matthew, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Gregory the Great, St. Joseph, the Annunciation and the like (Caerem Episc., l. I, c. 28, n. 2; 3448 ad IX); 6) the First Communion of children (3448); 7) votive Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which are celebrated solemnly on Saturday, and likewise the litanies of the Blessed Virgin Mary which are sung after Vespers (2424 ad IV); 8) in the month of March for devotion to St. Joseph (3448 ad XI); in the offices of the dead; while in sung requiem Masses it is only permitted to accompany the singing (Caerem Episc., l. I, c. 28, n. 13; 4243); in the singing of the Praefatio and the Pater noster, as well as in the other accents and liturgical recitatives of the celebrant and the ministers; in the votive Mass of the Passion (with violet color) which in some places is customarily celebrated during the year on Friday (3922, 4, n. 2); in the Matins of Tenebrae; during the singing of the Passio, the Lamentations, the Responsories, the Miserere, and the other liturgical parts; nor can the use of the harmonium and of other string instruments, or of the harmonium alone, be tolerated, notwithstanding an ancient custom (3804 ad II; 4044 ad I; 4156 ad II).

45) No instrument, however excellent and perfect, can surpass the human voice in expressing the sentiments of the soul, especially when the soul uses it to raise praises and prayers to God (CA VII); therefore singing with instrumental accompaniment is by no means regarded by the Church as a more perfect form of music and more suited to sacred functions (CS VII); hence, more than instruments, it is the human voice itself that must resound in sacred places: that is, the voice of the clergy, of the singers, of the people (CA VIII).

46) In addition to organ accompaniment (MP 15), in some particular case, in the due terms and with the appropriate regards, string instruments (violins, violas, cellos and double basses) may also be admitted in addition to the organ, but always with the permission of the Ordinary (MP 15; Caerem Episc., l. I, c. 28, n. 11).

47) The use of the piano in church is forbidden, as is that of noisy or light instruments. Only in some special case, with the consent of the Ordinary, will it be permitted to admit into church a limited selection, proportionate to the setting, of wind instruments, provided that the composition and the accompaniment to be performed are in a grave style, suitable and in all respects similar to that proper to the organ (MP 20).

48) It is rigorously forbidden for musical bands to play in church (MP 20), but in processions outside the church their use may be permitted by the Ordinary, provided that they in no way perform profane pieces. It would be desirable that on such occasions the musical performance be restricted to accompanying some spiritual canticle in Latin or the vernacular, proposed by the singers or by the pious congregations taking part in the procession (MP 21).

49) Since sacred music is a part of the liturgy and its humble handmaid, it is to be condemned as a most grave abuse that in ecclesiastical functions the liturgy appears secondary and almost at the service of the music (MP 23).

50) It is not lawful, for the sake of discussing the singing or the playing, to make the priest wait at the altar longer than the liturgical ceremony requires. The Sanctus of the Mass, according to ecclesiastical prescriptions, must be completed before the Elevation, and therefore the celebrant too must at this point have regard for the singers (MP 22).

51) For the exact execution of the pontifical prescriptions on sacred music, bishops must establish in their dioceses: 1) a special commission of persons competent in matters of sacred music, to which is entrusted the task of supervising the music that is being performed in their churches; nor should they see only that the music is good in itself, but that it corresponds to the abilities of the singers and is always well performed (MP 24); 2) the Association of St. Cecilia or of St. Gregory, according to the Statutes approved by the competent ecclesiastical authority (Pius IX, apostolic constitution Multum ad movendos animos, 20 Dec. 1870; Pius XII, apostolic letter E certo ben nota lo zelo, 2 June 1951).

Fiorenzo Romita