[The following essay by William Mahrt is drawn from comments delivered during and following the Consultation on a Revision of Music in Catholic Worship, sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Committee on the Liturgy, Subcommittee on Music in the Liturgy, October Chicago, Illinois, October 9, 2006.]
I thank the members of the Subcommittee on Music of the USCCB Committee on Liturgy for asking our views of the document, for holding the consultation, and for receiving supporting statements. I attend the consultation as President of the Church Music Association of America, and I think I represent its views in general, but my recommendations are my own. I have directed a church choir, specializing in Gregorian chant and classical polyphony, for over forty years, and I am as well professor of musicology at Stanford University.
There are many aspects of Music in Catholic Worship that need revision. The purposes of music should be stated clearly; I would say that there are two overriding purposes: to make the liturgy more beautiful and to emphasize its sacred character.
To accomplish these purposes, the statements about the aesthetic judgment need re-emphasis. A principal problem today is that the quality of the music--not just the texts--is mediocre; it fulfills what then Cardinal Ratzinger called utility music, concluding that utility music is useless. Only music that is truly beautiful should have a place in the liturgy.
FULL ESSAY
