Missarum sollemnia is the title of the original German edition of Joseph A. Jungmann's magnum opus on the liturgy. Appearing around 1950, it was immediately translated into English and issued as The mass of the roman rite; its origins and development. It is an audacious work. Its purpose was to "assemble and evaluate the results of so many separate inquiries", that is, to catalogue and briefly criticize, as completely as possible, all the existing research, new and old, on the development of the mass--and do it in one book. Indeed, Jungmann himself hints that he might never have undertaken the work, except that the theological school where he had been teaching had been shut down by the Nazis, it looked like the war would be long, and he needed something to do.

The book is magnum enough that just reading it, all 1051 pages of small print, is audacious. But this is no dry, technical treatise. It is technical, yes, and I am pretty sure it has more footnote text than body text. But it is essentially a story, the story of our mass, deliberately crafted to be accessible to the general reader as well as useful to the specialist. The author says, "[T]his book is not meant to serve only for knowledge ... but it is intended for life, for a fuller grasp of that mystery [which is] the source and center of Christian piety."

This work has a fair amount of commentary on the music of the mass; and with two good indices, totaling 67 pages, the material is easy to find. But I think the greater value for a liturgical musician lies in acquiring, if one does not already have it, a good grounding in the historical development of that structure, that mystery of which music is an integral part, into which music must fit, which music must serve. In this time of liturgical turmoil, I found the book strangely comforting, with its accounts of one aberration after another that arose somewhere back in history and was in due time rectified. The work is also, of course, important as documentation of the state of liturgical thinking going into the Council, and subsequently into the Consilium. The traditionalist will find Jungmann on the wrong side of several current liturgical issues, but the work is no less valuable for that.

It takes some time to read these 1051 pages, divided into two volumes weighing a pound and a half each. For almost any liturgical musician, I think it time well spent. It certainly was for me.

"...Music is the soul of the word that becomes art. It most definitely disposes you to discovering and welcoming the beauty of God. For this reason, now more than ever the Church must learn to recover it"



Read the interview with Domenico Bartolucci

It is now widely acknowledged that Catholic music is in a period of transition toward recapturing a sense of the sacred through the use of Gregorian chant and polyphonic music and hymns that are stylistically compatible. If this trend hasn't yet reached your parish--most public Masses in the United States are still weighed down with the folk and pop styles of the 1970s--you might begin to see a change in the coming years.

The advocates of chant are newly energized. Workshops are giving the practical help that musicians need. Publishers are releasing how-to books, CDs, and song books that incorporate the chant tradition. Young composers are writing music in the polyphonic tradition. The official chant books of the Catholic Church are selling in venues that once only marketed its stylistic opposite. Statements coming from the Vatican are ever more explicit: chant must retake its pride of place.

The summer 2006 issue of Sacred Music explores the basis of some of these trends, particularly in the groundwork laid by John Paul II. Peter A. Kwasniewski pens a masterful and definitive account: "John Paul II on Sacred Music." This piece explores the whole of the late Pope's writings on the topic.

In a chirograph dated November 23, 2003, the feast of St. Cecilia, the late Holy Father drew the Church's attention to a major anniversary, one that might otherwise have passed unnoticed: the centenary of St. Pius X's motu proprio on sacred music, Tra le sollecitudini. Pope John Paul II's document was a forceful reminder that, in his words, "not all musical forms can be considered suitable for liturgical celebrations," and that music intended for the liturgy is appropriate for it only to the degree that it possesses the qualities praised by his predecessor—holiness, good artistic form, and universality—and when it remains in continuity with the great tradition of the past....

In the world of Catholic journalism, the publication of this document was duly noted as a significant gesture. Far from being the first time John Paul II had spoken about sacred music, however, it was the last of many such occasions during his long reign as the Successor of Peter. He spoke widely and confidently not only on the subject of liturgical music but also on the very art of music, an art form he viewed as pointing to the divine and beckoning man into a stance of awe before the cosmos and gratitude for the gift of existence.

The summer issue also contains additional articles: "Beyond Taste in Liturgical Music" by Shawn Tribe, and "Offertories With Unusual Endings" by William Mahrt. Books under review include: Papal Legislation on Sacred Music, by Msgr. Robert F. Hayburn; Guillaume de Machaut and Reims, by Anne Walters Robertson; The Shape of the Liturgy, by Dom Gregory Dix; Looking Again at Liturgy, Ed. By Dom Alcuin Reid; and Maudy Thursday, a recording by St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes. Music by Nicholas Wilton is also reviewed.

The documents section includes words by Francis Cardinal Arinze, the Synod Bishops from the XI Ordinary General Assembly, and a spirited commentary on the movement for Catholics to name their favorite "Songs that Makes a Difference."

Sacred Music is available for members of the CMAA. Join today and receive the Summer issue.

Msgr. Richard. J. Schuler's " A Chronicle of the Reform: Catholic Music in the 20th Century" now online.

[This release also available in PDF]

Washington, D.C. - After decades of diversion, the time for beautiful music in Catholic liturgy has arrived, declared the organizers of the annual Sacred Music Colloquium meeting in Washington, D.C., June 20-25, 2006.

The source of this music is the Catholic musical heritage, Gregorian chant in particular, that has been neglected for decades but which is currently undergoing a spectacular revival.

As Pope Benedict XVI said on the last day the Colloquium meeting: "An authentic updating of sacred music can take place only in the lineage of the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony."

Working toward this ideal, the Colloquium featured a world-class faculty, daily choir rehearsals, lectures on sacred music, and daily sung Masses with music from two millennia of Catholic faith. Its 85 participants included choral directors, parish priests, organists, and aspiring musicians of all ages who sing in Catholic choirs or hope to start new ones in the coming year.

Buoyed with a new sense of optimism, participants spent the week in rehearsals and teaching sessions singing the Gregorian chant attached to the Roman Rite, as well as exploring musical treasures from the polyphonic repertoire.

This was the 16th annual conference sponsored by the Center for Ward Method Studies of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music of Catholic University and the Church Music Association of America, as affiliated with the Consociato Internationalis Musicae Sacrae in Rome. This conference is designed to provide full immersion into this music, so that participants can become fully engaged in its special sound and place in the life of the Catholic Church.

The Colloquium's record-high attendance reflected new interest in reviving the traditional liturgical culture of the Roman Rite. Each day of the colloquium sang at Masses said according to the new rite, at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the chapel of Caldwell Hall, and the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land. (See the photo gallery here)

The final two liturgies were study in contrasting possibilities. One employed the fullness of the Gregorian repertoire, with the sung Ordinary and Propers from the Graduale Romanum. Another used a 19th-century Mass setting for choir and organ written by Josef Rheinberger, a harmonically rich piece that took on a special drama when presented alongside Gregorian chant. In this Mass, the Sanctus and Benedictus were sang as separate pieces before and after the consecration, a structure rarely employed today but one that has been suggested by Pope Benedict XVI.

Other music sung throughout the week included a Mass setting by Hans Hassler, motets by G.A. Palestrina, Martin de Rivaflecha, William Byrd, Orlando de Lassus, and a new piece by Calvert Shenk. A reading session of newly composed music was led by David Hughes of St. Catharine's in Pelham, New York.

The director of the polyphonic choir was Horst Buchholz, who is the principle organist and choirmaster at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Denver. The leader of the chant schola was Scott Turkington of St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Stamford, Connecticut.

Amy Zuberbueler of the Ward Center in San Antonio, Texas, led a class in the fundamentals of Gregorian chant, and gave a demonstration of the Ward method of chant instruction.

A lecture was also given by William Mahrt, a professor of music at Stanford University, the president of the Church Music Association of America, and editor of its quarterly journal Sacred Music, which is the oldest journal of music in the United States. His presentation focused on the musical structure of the Ordinary parts of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus), and how the musical structure of each is intended to elicit a precise sense of spiritual participation from the people and draw hearts to a higher understanding of the meaning of the prayers.

Music professor at CUA and past CMAA president Fr. Robert Skeris presented two lectures on the theology of sacred music. He addressed the tension within the documents applicable to music: on the one hand placing chant at the center of liturgical life and, on the other hand, permitting a range of experimentation in music that opened the floodgates to music unsuitable to the Catholic liturgy. He encouraged musicians to take upon themselves to breath new life into the traditional music of the church.

Compared with previous years, this colloquium put a strong emphasis on the singing of the Propers, the parts of the Mass that change week to week, from the official books. At most Masses, the Introit, Gradual, Offertory, and Communion chant were sung in Latin from books of the Solesmes monastery. These chants are essential for conveying the universality of the beauty of the liturgy, which is why they are integral to the rite itself.

In a parish setting, these parts of the Mass can be a difficult undertaking for a beginning choir. Substitute psalm settings in English are viable (if imperfect) replacements. How these can be used was discussed in a session led by Kurt Poterack of Christendom College, who based his talk on the 1967 instruction "Musicam Sacram." He also covered the many ways in which participation of the people becomes part of liturgy.

The organizers of the colloquium observed that the numbers of attendees is growing substantially each year, and they are expecting much larger numbers next year. This year was especially notable for its firmness of purpose--to teach, challenge, and inspire a new generation of Catholic musicians--and its bright outlook on the future of sacred music.

The dates for next year's conference, Colloquium XVII, are June 19-24, 2007, also in Washington, D.C. For more information and registration, see Musicasacra.com.

Pope Benedict XVI (then Ratzinger, in Milestones: Memoires: 1927-1977. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1998.) reflects on the his own impressions of the mysteries of the Catholic Liturgy growing up in 1920's Germany:

...It was becoming more and more clear to me that here I was encountering a reality that no one had simply thought up, a reality that no official authority or great individual had created. This mysterious fabric of texts and actions had grown from the faith of the Church over the centures. It bore the whole weight of history within itself, and yet, at the same time, it was much more than the product of human history. Every century had left its mark upon it. The introductory notes informed us about what came from the early Church, what from the Middle Ages, and what from modern times. Not everything was logical. Things sometimes got complicated, and it was not always easy to find one's way . But precisely this is what made the whole edifice wonderful, like one's own home. Naturally, the child I was then did not grasp every aspect of this, but I started down the road of the liturgy, and this became a continuous process of growth into a grand reality transcending all particular individuals and generations, a reality that became an occasion for me of ever-new amazement and discovery. The inexhaustaible reality of Catholic liturgy has accompanied me through all phases of life...

William Mahrt's masterful explanation of the intimate tie between chant and liturgy is now online in text format: "Gregorian Chant as a Paradigm of Sacred Music" (Sacred Music, Spring 2006)