SACRED MUSIC. - Belgian journal of religious music, founded in 1882 at Ghent (Gand) by Fr. J. Van Damme, as the Bulletin de la Société de St Grégoire, with the subtitle Revue de chant d'église et de musique religieuse, soon transferred to Namur, then to Mechelen, where the editorial office still resides. It is published under the direction of the Benedictine abbey of Mont-César at Leuven.
Its official and predominant language had always been French; but from its resumption after the Second World War (1946), predominance was given to Dutch. Distinguished writers collaborated on it, with studies on sacred music in general, on sacred chant, Gregorian and polyphonic, on instruments and in particular the organ, with articles on musical pedagogy, etc.; among them worthy of particular mention are, in the earliest phase (of Namur), Cardinal Mercier, Fr. De Santi, P. Wagner, D. Johner, etc., while, from the beginning of the more recent phase (of Mechelen) one finds other distinguished scholars, such as Gastoué, Tirabassi, E. Tinel, Vyvermann, Van Doorslaer, E. Closson, Van Nuffel, etc.
A monthly periodical, M. s., founded in 1940, which is published at Pietropolis (Brazil) in Portuguese, contains articles on musical formation, in the vocal, organizational and liturgical field.
Other journals with this name were founded by F. Witt at Regensburg (1868), by Abbot Amelli at Milan (1874), by A. Kunc at Toulouse, but they are today extinct. Luisa Cervelli;