Recollection for SHC Parish Choir Groups

1
Recollection for
SHC Parish Choir Groups

• 
  Dr. Damian Lee
• 
  15th March, 2014

2
Overview

• Introduction - Choir and Church Music.
• Liturgical Music What part.
• Liturgical Music - How part.
• Why Liturgical Music?
• Appropriate Church Music and Instruments
  according to the teachings of the Church.
• Current State of Church Music Global/local.
• The way forward.

3
Introduction

• What is a Choir?
• The word 'choir' comes from the Greek word
  Choros', which simply means a group of singers.
• Musicologists trace the Greek chorus to the
  responsive singing of the Levites' choir at the
  Temple of Jerusalem.

4
1st Recorded Choir in Scripture

• The first organised choirs in Scripture can be
  found during King David's time, as recorded in
  the Books of Chronicles.
• God set apart the tribe of Levi to serve Him.
• 1 Chronicles tells of how King David appointed no
  less than four thousand Levites as singers and
  musicians.

5
1st Recorded Choir in Scripture

• These singers and musicians ministered day and
  night in the tabernacle and later in the temple .
• Choirs, with both men and women singers (Nehemiah
  767 2 Chronicles 3525), were organised for
  worship in the temple and were placed under the
  direction of able musicians (1 Chronicles 25).

6
Church Choir
Vs Secular Choir

• Taking cue from choirs in Biblical times, it is
  explicitly clear the role of choir in the Church
  is one of MINISTRY NOT PERFORMANCE !!
• This is the crucial difference between secular
  choirs and choirs that serve in the Church.

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Church Choir
Vs Secular Choir

• Choir members are first and foremost praising God
  with the gift of singing, which He has gracefully
  bestowed on them.
• This involves sacrifices of praise, which must
  come from willing and committed hearts.
• Choir members must have an ATTIDUTE of service,
  striving to give their very best to God.

8
What is Liturgical Sacred
Music?

• The question, "What is sacred music," put to the
  average Catholic, will more often than not elicit
  this answer - "sacred music is hymns.
• And in the live experience of most Catholics
  today, that is the extent of what they know to be
  sacred music.
• On Sunday, they sing four (4) hymns at Mass. In
  most parishes, is there anything else?

9
What makes Music Sacred?

• What makes Church music sacred ?
• What makes music art?- have the same basics.
• Involved in the vast area of musical training and
  education. Only the well trained musician can
  answer what makes a given piece of music art.
• There is a distinction between music within the
  temple (sacred) outside the temple (secular).
• Sacred Music Vol. 107, No. 3 (Fall 1980) Vol.
  112, No. 2 (Summer 1985).

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Musicam Sacram/
Sacred Music

• What is sacred music?
• It is the great treasury of music, written over
  the ages by the greatest composers for use in the
  sung liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church,
  beginning with the Gregorian melodies and
  continuing on through the polyphonic pieces of
  the middle ages and the renaissance, up to the
  orchestral settings of the last three centuries
  and into our own time. Sacred Music 1991 Msgr.
  Richard Schuler, Board of Directors of the Church
  Music Association of America.

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Musicam Sacram

• Many denied or unable to accept the existence of
  anything that could be called sacred, despite the
  opening words of the 1967 instruction, "Musicam
  sacram." - on Roman Catholic Sacred Music issued
  by the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship on
  March 5, 1967, II Vatican Council
• Sacred Music 1991 Msgr. Richard Schuler, Board
  of Directors of the Church Music Association of
  America.

12
Pope Pius XIIs encyclical,
"Musicae sacrae disciplina

• He beautifully summarized role of sacred music.
• Sacred music, though sometimes slowly and
  laboriously through the centuries has finally
  reached the heights from the simple and natural
  Gregorian modes, which are, moreover, quite
  perfect in their kind, to great and even
  magnificent works of art which not only human
  voices, but also the organ and other musical
  instruments embellish, adorn and amplify almost
  endlessly.

13
Pope Pius XIIs encyclical, "Musicae sacrae
disciplina

• Just as this progress in the art of music shows
  clearly how dear to the heart of the Church it
  was to make divine worship more resplendent and
  appealing to Christian peoples, so too it made
  clear why the Church also must, from time to
  time, impose a check lest its proper purposes be
  exceeded and lest, along with the true progress,
  an element profane and alien to divine worship
  creep into sacred music and corrupt it."

14
What is Liturgical music?

• Singing of texts that are in Liturgical books,
  especially those that are by nature to be sung.
• It is the singing of the Liturgy GIVEN us and not
  singing something we PUT in the Liturgy.
• Do we see the difference between singing AT
  Mass, and SINGING THE Mass? The Church
  emphasizes SINGING THE Mass rather than only
  singing AT Mass.

15
Why music in Liturgy?

• Sacrosanctum Concilium Constitution on the
  Sacred Liturgy, December 1963 II Vatican C
• 112. The musical tradition of the universal
  Church is a treasure of inestimable value,
  greater even than that of any other art. The main
  reason for this pre-eminence is that, as sacred
  song united to words, it forms a necessary or
  integral part of the solemn liturgy.

16
Why music in Liturgy?

• Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1157
• "Song and music fulfill their function all the
  more significantly when they are closely
  connected with the liturgical action," according
  to 3 principal criteria
• (1) beauty expressive of prayer,
• (2) the unanimous participation of the assembly
  at the designated moments,
• (3) the solemn character of the celebration.
• Resulting in the glory of God and the
  sanctification of the faithful.

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Appropriate Music according to the teachings of
the Church

• "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". - Second
  Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium 116
  (1963)

18
Appropriate Music according to the teachings of
the Church

• What type of music or signing should be used at
  Mass? (GIRM 41) The main place should be given,
  all things being equal, to Gregorian chant, as
  being proper to the Roman Liturgy. Other kinds of
  sacred music, in particular polyphony, are in no
  way excluded, provided that they correspond to
  the spirit of the liturgical action and that they
  foster the participation of all the faithful.

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What is
Gregorian Chant?

• A monophonic, or unison, Plainchant,
  unaccompanied sacred liturgical music of the
  Roman Catholic Church, developed in the 9th
  10th century in West Central Europe used to
  accompany the text of mass the canonical
  hours, or divine office.
• Church music sung as a single vocal line in free
  rhythm and a restricted scale (plainsong), in a
  style developed for the medieval Latin liturgy.

20
What is
Gregorian Chant?

• Gregorian chant is named after Pope St. Gregory I
  , during whose papacy (AD590604) it was
  collected and codified.
• Pope St. Gregory I has been credited with many
  things, including the writing, collecting, or
  compiling the body of plainchant in use at the
  time.

21
What is Gregorian Chant?

• Founding the first singing school (Schola
  Cantorum) in Rome to train singers for the
  church, organizing the church's annual cycle of
  liturgical readings.
• First establishing the church's authority over
  the secular rulers of Rome.

22
What is Gregorian Chant?

• Gregorian Chant has always been regarded as the
  supreme model for sacred music, so that it is
  fully legitimate to lay down the following rule
  the more closely a composition for church
  approaches in its movement, inspiration and savor
  the Gregorian form, the more sacred and
  liturgical it becomes and the more out of
  harmony it is with that supreme model, the less
  worthy it is of the temple.
• The ancient traditional Gregorian Chant must,
  therefore, in a large measure be restored to the
  functions of public worship, and the fact must be
  accepted by all that an ecclesiastical function
  loses none of its solemnity when accompanied by
  this music alone.
• Pope Pius X, Tra le Sollecitudini, 1903

23
Reminder from Pope Benedict on Gregorian Chant

• Finally, while respecting various styles and
  different and highly praiseworthy traditions, I
  desire, in accordance with the request advanced
  by the Synod Fathers, that Gregorian chant be
  suitably esteemed and employed as the chant
  proper to the Roman liturgy.
• Pope Benedict XVI,
• Sacramentum Caritatis, 2007

24
Appropriate Church Music

• Music that is entertaining is, by its nature and
  style, appealing and popular but it is not
  sacred music.
• Mariachi bands, kazoo groups, rock bands, and the
  like are definitely not "suited to the grandeur
  of the act being celebrated".

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Appropriate Music in Church

• If it sounds like a Broadway ballad, it belongs
  on Broadway, not the altar.
• If it sounds like a "golden oldie", sing it at
  home.
• If it stirs feelings of a non-sacred nature, it
  does not belong in a sacred place.
• If sounds like a rock group or a mariachi band,
  then it may be fine for entertainment at the
  parish picnic or in the gym, but not at Mass, and
  not in the temple wherein the Sacrifice of
  Calvary is re-presented. http//www.adoremus.org/1
  003Music.htmlsthash.GJCBJ3If.dpuf

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Appropriate Instruments

• For centuries, the pipe organ continued to be the
  one approved instrument for Catholic worship.
• Other instruments were used in music for
  concerts, music dramas, prayer services, feast
  day events the like. But for the Mass, only the
  organ was deemed sacred enough in nature.
  http//www.adoremus.org/1003Music.htmlsthash.GJCB
  J3If.dpuf. October 2003

27
Appropriate
Instruments

• Of course, through history, abuses crept in.
• In the liturgical reform at the beginning of the
  20th century, the pipe organ was once again
  re-affirmed as being the instrument most suitable
  for the Mass.
• Orchestral instruments -- woodwinds, brass,
  strings -- could be used, with the bishop's
  permission, for special occasions.
• http//www.adoremus.org/1003Music.htmlsthash.GJCB
  J3If.dpuf

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Appropriate Instruments

• If the instruments used to accompany
  congregational singing do not lead the faithful
  into fuller participation in the Sacrifice of the
  Mass, or a deeper sense of the sacred
• If instead they entertain us, or bring our hearts
  and minds into the world -- the mundane, secular,
  and sensual -- then how can they be suitable for
  the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?
  http//www.adoremus.org/1003Music.htmlsthash.GJCB
  J3If.dpuf

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Appropriate Instruments

• 1963's Constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum
  Concilium
• Other instruments may be admitted for use in
  divine worship.
• This may be done, however, only on condition that
  the instruments are suitable, or can be made
  suitable, for sacred use that they accord with
  the dignity of the temple, and that they truly
  contribute to the edification of the faithful.
  (120)

30
Current State of Church Music

• There is a gap between what the Church says about
  singing and is happening in parishes and
  cathedrals.
• Choirs, and the congregation have not been
  sufficiently trained or formed in who, what,
  and when we sing at Sunday Mass and solemnities.
• Sacred Music 1991 Msgr. Richard Schuler, Board
  of Directors of the Church Music Association of
  America.

31
Current State of Church Music Musicians in
Catholic Worship

• Music in most Catholic parishes today has strayed
  from the original intent of the Council Fathers,
  who stressed "active participation" of all the
  faithful. If the goal of music at Mass were to
  have a soloist or an entertainment group, we have
  succeeded rather well. If, however, the goal is
  the participation of the people in the pew in
  authentic worship through sacred music, we are
  failing.
• Part of the problem stems from the fact that
  music in Catholic parishes is seldom in the hands
  of well-trained liturgical musicians
• Lucy E. Carroll, D.M.A., is music director at the
  Carmelite monastery in Philadelphia, and is
  adjunct associate professor at Westminster Choir
  College, Princeton.

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Current State
of Church Music

• We have become used to secular tunes, secular
  instruments (piano, guitar, drums), secular
  performance practices as musical combos and
  performing soloists.
• All found their way into the liturgy, not
  enhancing its holiness but directly destroying
  the sacred quality that only truly sacred art can
  contribute to liturgical action.

33
Current State
of Church Music

• The vernacular has superceded the Latin language
  the guitar and piano have pushed aside the pipe
  organ.
• What is left of the treasury of sacred music for
  the parish liturgy? Four hymns!
• Sacred Music 1991 Msgr. Richard Schuler, Board
  of Directors of the Church Music Association of
  America.

34
Current Pastoral
situation

• The liturgy is the greatest teacher of the faith.
  
• Those who wished to change that faith understood
  that the changing of the liturgy (and its music)
  would result in the "protestantizing" of the
  Church.
• Sacred Music 1991 Msgr. Richard Schuler, Board
  of Directors of the Church Music Association of
  America.

35
The Role of the Choir

• A choir of voices or instruments has two roles in
  a Catholic Mass celebration.
• 1. To lead the congregation in song during "the
  designated moments" of the Mass, which are the
  following the Opening Hymn, the Gloria, the
  Psalm Response, the Alleluia, the Holy, Holy,
  Holy, the Memorial Acclamation, the Amen, the
  Lamb of God.
• HANDBOOK ON CHURCH MUSIC FOR CHOIRS, PRIESTS
  AND CATHOLIC FAITHFUL Rev. Peter Schineller, S.J.
  

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The Role
of the Choir

• The second role of a choir or organ or
  instruments is an offering to God of first-fruits
  of time and talents, and a ministry to the
  congregation seeking to provide appropriate music
  for prayer, reflection and meditation.
• HANDBOOK ON CHURCH MUSIC FOR CHOIRS, PRIESTS
  AND CATHOLIC FAITHFUL Rev. Peter Schineller, S.J.
  

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The Role of the Choir

• (GIRM 103 104)
• Among the faithful, the schola cantorum or choir
  exercises its own liturgical function, its place
  being to take care that the parts proper to it,
  in keeping with the different types of chant, are
  properly carried out becomingly and to foster the
  active participation of the faithful by means of
  the singing.
• What is said about the choir applies in a similar
  way to other musicians.

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The Role of the Choir

• Note that the whole body of the faithful should
  contribute. This is a most important principle,
  and one that is frequently not understood or
  followed.
• The choirs main function is to stir up, to lead
  and exemplify active participation and singing by
  each and every member of the assembly.
• The function of the choir is as a service to the
  larger community. It is NOT to replace the
  singing of the people.
• It is NOT primarily to sing for the people.

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The Role of the Choir

• Musicians fulfill an important and necessary
  function in the sacred Liturgy.
• Whether fully trained professionals or ardent
  amateurs (those who do it for love), all must
  remember that the purpose of the music is to
  implement the Liturgy, not to entertain the
  faithful or glorify themselves.
• The motto of all ought to be Not to us, Lord,
  but to your Name be all glory!

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Role of Choir
Pope Paul VI (1970)

• Pope explains, the choir is performing a service
  or ministry to the entire congregation (not a
  singing concert or performance for the
  congregation).
• A key purpose of the choir is to inspire everyone
  to sing, to arouse their desire to take part. By
  doing this, the celebration of Holy Mass will
  have solemnity, joy, and unity.

41
Role of Choir - as Ministry

• Church musician is first a disciple and then a
  minister.
• He or she is a minister, someone who shares
  faith, serves the community, and expresses the
  love of God and neighbor through music (USA
  Bishops, Liturgical Music Today, 64).
•  

42
Call for Self Appraisal

• Pope John Paul II called the Church to "an
  examination of conscience so that the beauty of
  music and song will return increasingly to the
  Liturgy".
• He said that "It is necessary to purify worship
  of deformations, of careless forms of expression
  of ill-prepared music and texts which are not
  suited to the grandeur of the act being
  celebrated". (Wednesday audience message,
  February 26, 2002 - in AB March 2003, p 12.)

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Defining Good Church Music

• Good church music therefore, depends upon a
  well trained informed choir, a prayerful
  singing congregation or assembly, a priest who
  presides, enjoys, participates, and leads some
  of the singing.
• The parish Sunday Mass should be so well done and
  sung that people, even from neighboring parishes,
  will want to come to our parish because of the
  beauty and prayerfulness because of the singing
  and celebration at our parish.

44
The Way Forward

• (GIRM 39) SPIRITUALITY OF SINGING AND PRAYING
• Besides musical formation, suitable liturgical
  and spiritual formation must also be given to the
  members of the choir, in such a way that the
  proper performance of their liturgical role will
  not only enhance the beauty of the celebration
  and be an excellent example for the faithful, but
  will bring spiritual benefit to the choir members
  themselves (Instruction on Music in the Liturgy
  24).

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Why sing?

• St. Augustine expressed it beautifully
  centuries ago
• He who sings well, prays twice.
• Singing adds celebration, solemnity to the
  liturgy. Song unites the people more closely,
  more fully with God and with one another.

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The Way Forward

• Vatican II, Constitution on the Liturgy
• PRINCIPLE OF ACTIVE PARTICIPATION BY ALL
•  Art. 114. The treasury of sacred music is to be
  preserved and fostered with great care.
• Choirs must be diligently promoted, especially in
  cathedral churches but bishops and other pastors
  of souls must be at pains to ensure that,
  whenever the sacred action is to be celebrated
  with song, the whole body of the faithful may be
  able to contribute that active participation
  which is rightly theirs

47
The Way Forward

• Its time for All of us realize the need to
  Unlearn , Relearn, Reclaim, Understand,
  Appreciate and Promote Sacred liturgical music.

48
The Way Forward

• If God has blessed you with the gift of singing
  and music give it as a living sacrifice to Him by
  joining this very special Ministry of Choral
  Music to lead and serve.
• "Each one, as a good manager of God's different
  gifts, must use for the good of others the
  special gift he has received from God" (1 Peter
  410).

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• THANK YOU