SACRED MUSIC Volume 139, Number 1 Spring 2012 EDITORIALS Background Music | William Mahrt 3 Academic Programs of the CMAA| Jennifer Donelson 6 ARTICLES Ut mens nostra concordet voci nostræ: Sacred Music and Actual Participation in the Liturgy | Dom Alcuin Reid, O.S.B. 8 The Propers of the Mass: Then and Now | Fr. Mark Daniel Kirby, O.S.B. 34 Singing the Mass | Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted 40 REPERTORY Gregorian Chant and the Rosary | William Mahrt 49 Architectural Design in Lasso’s Prophetiae Sibyllarum | Stephen Sieck 53 REVIEW The Vatican II Hymnal | Susan Treacy 65 COMMENTARY Why Won’t They Sing | Mary Jane Ballou 67 The Entrance to Mass | Jeffrey Tucker 70 SACRED MUSIC Formed as a continuation of Caecilia, published by the Society of St. Caecilia since 1874, and The Catholic Choirmaster, published by the Society of St. Gregory of America since 1915. Published quarterly by the Church Music Association of America since its inception in 1965. Offi ce of Publication: 12421 New Point Drive, Richmond, VA 23233. E-mail: [email protected]; Website: www.musicasacra.com Editor: William Mahrt Managing Editor: Jeffrey Tucker Associate Managing Editor: Jennifer Donelson Editorial Assistant: David Sullivan Editor-at-Large: Kurt Poterack Typesetting: Judy Thommesen Membership & Circulation: 12421 New Point Drive, Richmond, VA 23233 CHURCH MUSIC ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA Offi cers and Board of Directors President: William Mahrt Vice-President: Horst Buchholz Secretary: Janet Gorbitz Treasurer: William Stoops Chaplain: Rev. Father Robert Pasley Director of Publications: Jeffrey Tucker Director of Programs: Arlene Oost-Zinner Directors: David Hughes, Susan Treacy, Edward Schaefer Directors Emeriti: Rev. Father Ralph S. March, S.O.Cist.; Kurt Poterack; Scott Turkington, Paul F. Salamunovich; Calvert Shenk †; Very Rev. Monsignor Richard J. Schuler †; Rev. Father Robert Skeris Membership in the Church Music Association of America includes a subscription to the quarterly journal Sacred Music. Membership is $48.00 annually. Parish membership is $200 for six copies of each issue. Single copies are $10.00. Send requests and changes of address to Sacred Music, 12421 New Point Drive, Richmond, VA 23233. Make checks payable to the Church Music Association of America. Online membership: www.musicasacra.com. Sacred Music archives for the years 1974 to the present are available online as www. musicasacra.com/archives. Caecilia archives for most issues of the years 1932– 37 and 1953–65 are available at www.musicasacra.com/caecilia. LC Control Number: sf 86092056 Sacred Music is indexed in the Catholic Periodical and Literature Index, Music Index, Music Article Guide, and Arts and Humanities Index. © Copyright by Church Music Association of America, 2012, under Creative Commons attribution license 3.0. Sacred Music is published quarterly for $48.00 per year by the Church Music Association of America. Periodicals postage paid at Richmond, VA and at additional mailing offi cies. USPS number 474-960. Postmaster: Send ad- dress changes to SACRED MUSIC, 12421 New Point Drive, Richmond, VA 23233. EDITORIALS By William Mahrt Background Music The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. Sacrosanctum Concilium, ¶112. The treasure of sacred music is to be preserved and fostered with great care. ¶114. Gregorian chant . should be given fi rst place in liturgical services. ¶116. eaders of Sacred Music need not be reminded that the Second Vatican Coun- cil strongly supported the use of excellent music in the liturgy. In recent years, there have been encouraging developments in the use of better music, including the treasury of sacred music. Moreover, these days it is possible to view on television important liturgical ceremonies, which at least on oc- casion show a growth in the sense for the need for beautiful music in the liturgy. One rarely hears the sacro-pop music of the recent past on these oc- R casions; indeed, Gregorian chant and classical polyphony are beginning to play a signifi cant role. We are the benefi ciaries of such broadcasts, for many of us, being busy Sunday mornings, rarely have the opportunity of hearing liturgies other than our own. Th ose announcing the broadcasts, however, do not seem to share our interest in the excel- lence of the music of the liturgy, particularly at communion time. Th ey talk during the entire communion, ranging over topics sometimes irrelevant to the liturgy at hand; occasionally they make mention of the music, but do not give the listeners the opportunity to hear it, for they keep talking. Th us for the viewers, they have made the communion music nothing more than background music. Th is is an issue for which much education needs to be done, for it pervades our secular culture, and sometimes aff ects the practice of sacred music as well. It must be ac- knowledged that a recent broadcast, of the installation of the Archbishop of Denver, had no commentator or announcer at all, nor was one needed. Our culture is saturated with mediocre music, much of which serves, whether intention- ally or by neglect on the part of listeners, as background music. We hear it in stores; the radio often puts out music we do not listen to. One hears on religious radio stations the recitation of prayers, or even the reading of the Gospel, accompanied by repetitious synthesized music of no character whatsoever, as if the words of the Gospel were not suffi cient or the prayer not compelling enough. On the other hand, more rarely a beautiful piece of sacred music, by Tallis William Mahrt is editor of Sacred Music and president of the CMAA. [email protected] 3 Sacred Music Volume 139, Number 1 Spring 2012 or Monteverdi, is used as a background, for instance, for the recitation of the rosary. In this case, the music competes with the prayer; the listener’s attention is drawn to music that was composed to be listened to, and the rosary may well become the background for the music. Thus a principle: music is to be listened to and heard. It is not just to set a mood, but to provide an element of beauty that conveys the importance of the context in which it is performed; this presumes the performance of a work in such fashion that it can be compre- hended and understood. In this context, it makes little sense to play music while a prayer is being recited. It would be unthinkable to recite poetry as a background for the recitation of a prayer, or even for the performance of a piece of music. Rather, for the liturgy, the synthesis of text and music in Gregorian chant and in classical polyphony presents a suitable use of music integrated with a text. “He who sings well, prays twice,” an epithet sometimes attributed to St. Augustine, points to the synthesis of prayer and music. This is so important that liturgical law prohibits the use of recordings in the liturgy, with a precise rationale: music is an act of worship on the part of the singer; a record is not a person and cannot worship. Even the chants of the priest may not be accompanied. Why? Is it because the accompani- ment might risk compromising the clarity of what he sings, the integrity of his melody plus text? What about music without text, particularly organ music? Is it background music? If it is, then the choice of repertory will Music is to be listened to and heard. be very different than if it is to be heard as music. Organ music can serve func- tions similar to those of chant: 1) Processional—it can provide a rhythmic accompaniment to the motion of a procession, simi- lar to an introit, while at the same time adding an element of beauty and transcendence to the proceeding; this is not background music, but rather a music which forms an integral part of the rite, complementing the liturgical action with commensurable music. 2) Meditational—it can be the means of recollection, meditation, similar to a gradual, and that meditation is ide- ally the result of the perception of the beauty of the music and its signifi cance. Improvisation upon a plainsong or a hymn-tune, when these are already known by the congregation, can add an implicitly textual component to the beauty, since the perception of a tune often brings intuitively a recognition of the text; and since it is clothed in a beautiful garment of harmony and counterpoint, the signifi cance of the text is enhanced. This happens when there is an acute perception of the elements of the music. This is particularly important in considering the organ prelude, played before Mass. I would propose that the functions of such music could be several: to convey to those coming into the church that this is a sacred place; music that is in an unmistakably sacred style func- tions like incense—once you get a whiff of it, you know you are in church—once you hear 4 Spring 2012 Volume 139, Number 1 Sacred Music the tone of the organ playing in a recognizably sacred style, the sacredness of the place be- comes obvious; to create a sense of recollection that sets aside the disturbances of the day and prepares the soul in a spirit of quiet for the most important act of the day; to convey a sense of anticipation of what is about to be celebrated, again the week’s focal point, the temporal equivalent of the axis mundi. In the face of this, music that is played in church has to establish that it has a different purpose. This can be established by playing in styles which convey the necessity of listening to them.