Church Music – by John Donovan

By John Donovan, Music Director at Holy Rosary Shrine

Church music comes in four forms:

  • Liturgical Music
  • Hymns
  • Religious Music, and
  • Instrumental Music.

LITURGICAL MUSIC

This is a setting of the words of Scripture, usually the Psalms or the Psalms to be used to accompany the Mass in the forms of the Propers, the Introit, the Offertory, and the Communion. This includes musical settings of the Ordinary of the Mass which includes the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei.

For the first centuries of the Church, liturgical music was sung in unison, one melody, no harmony, by choirs and congregations without any instrumental accompaniment. Instruments were not used because the Church regarded the human voice as the only appropriate instrument to praise God, as many loud and raucous instruments were used in pagan worship and entertainment. Remnants of this early discomfort of instrumental music can be found in the forbidding of instrumental music in the Triduum liturgy from the Gloria on Holy Thursday to the Gloria at the Easter Vigil. The Orthodox churches still do not allow instruments; everything is sung a capella.

By the 9th century, simple organs made their appearance in the large cathedrals and they were eventually permitted because the organ makes music by pushing air through pipes, much in the same way humans make music when they sing. However, for a very long time the organ could only be used to support the singing of liturgical music.

HYMNS

The second type of church music is hymn singing. HYMNS. What is a hymn? It is a rhymed poem written for congregational singing, which primarily praises God in a way that describes Him in concise objective theological terms and emphasizes the reverence due to God from his flock. Hymns are about our collective beliefs and not personal feelings. While they may express Scriptural ideas, Hymns are man made.

Before the Second Vatican Council hymn singing was forbidden in the Catholic church at the sung Mass, the high Mass or the solemn pontifical Mass. Latin was the only language allowed and the music had to be settings of Scripture found in the Propers, or the ordinary of the Mass. There were only four times hymns were used. These were rhymed Latin poems called sequences. There was one at Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Our Lady of Sorrows, and the Requiem Mass. These Latin hymns were to be used to accompany the Gospel procession.

Catholics were allowed to sing four hymns,either in the vernacular or in Latin at the low Mass, which was the common worship experience of most Catholics. Curiously at the low Mass Catholics could not sing liturgical music. The propers or the ordinary of the Mass could not be sung by the congregation. Because most hymns were Protestant creations Catholics made their own hymns usually for use at extra liturgical devotions such as Novenas

RELIGIOUS MUSIC

This is usually very sentimental, describing our intimate relationship with God in a very personal way. It reflects the composer’s personal piety and personal vision of who God is and how He relates to us. It may contain Scriptural ideas. The objective beliefs of the Church are usually not emphasized in religious music. A lot of so-called Christian praise music is religious music but not liturgical music.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

This is the last category. While the Church holds the organ in highest esteem, because the organ imitates the human voice, she does permit the use of other instruments provided they are not emblematic of secular, inappropriate music used in entertainment. For example, Pope Pius X banned the use of the piano at Mass because it was the secular entertainment instrument par excellence. According to the Church, except for Lent, the organ may be played as a solo instrument that is without any singing at the beginning of Mass, the Offertory, the Communion, and the Recessional. During Lent the organ may only be used to support singing. The use of instruments other than the organ needs to receive permission from the bishop. Bishops rarely concern themselves with this. Since the Council we have seen a wide variety of instruments used at Mass.