CHURCH MUSIC

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 7, 25 February 1925, Page 41

CHURCH MUSIC

It is gratifying to see the growing tendency and seeking of our choirs to be liturgical (says the Catholic Bulletin, St. Paid, U.S.A.). It will be a hallowing consummation, indeed, when a. parish at High Mass will sense its music as prayer. But how can that be unless the choir sings prayerfully? From the Rev. Francis Missia’s pamphlet on Church music vjt? quote the following apt words which every choir singer ought to know by heart. Others, too, at seasons of special programmes, may profitably make them the theme of some meditations: “A style of music distinguished by real artistic worth and beauty, by simplicity, by serene gravity, a style which insures that music shall keep its place in worship, and obscure neither sacred rite nor words of prayer and praise, will be best calculated to supply that aid to devotion which, while wo are in the flesh, we can not do without, and to lift up our minds and hearts by its revelation of God in the natural order to the more devout reception of supernatural truths. “Unfortunately, there are still some persons who labor under the delusion that the object of the Catholic choir is 'to entertain the congregation at one end of the church while the priest offers the sacrifice of the Mass at the other.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, the duties of the choir are so essential that no priest is allowed to celebrate High Mass or give Benediction without the co-operation of the choir. It is the exalted function of the

choir to sing the praises of God in the church, as the angels sing His praises in heaven. It is the office of the choir to represent the people and give voice to the priest at the altar who is especially ordained for the purpose. The first requisite of a truly Catholic choir is a spirit of docility to the laws of the Church. Her chants, her music, like her vestments and her ceremonies, are the subject of strict ecclesiastical laws. It is not a question of personal likes and' dislikes, but the propriety of divine worship. • “The venerable bards of the Old Testament often inscribed their Psalms: “Accord-, ing to the lilies.’ This obscure expression has a very deep meaning. The lily does not shine with the glowing colors of tropic flowers. Her garment is simple, yet of wondrous grace and charm. From the green sepals of the stem rises, harmonious in its proportions, and as white and dazzling as if it were woven of snow, the magnificent calyx, upon which the sun pours out its ; fragrant enamel. Its anthers reach out in; : longing to the light, and the golden ray sprinkles them with the saffron-yellow pollen, till they seem to be a case of glittering jewels. No wonder that in the depths of this chalice the dew of heaven gleams and sparkles with more than crystal clearness. “True Church music, too, spurns the sensuous coloring of passion. Her melodic texture is woven from the lily tones of chaste love, of blissful hope, of true and fiery faith; This it is that makes it a symbol of the favor of heaven, the chalice which holds the dew drops of Benediction.”