In a recent article, Sacred Music. An Appeal To Restore Hearing To the Deaf, the Italian Catholic journalist, Sandro Magister, writes of criticism by musicians and musician-scholars of the loss of tradition in the liturgical music in the Roman Catholic Church: “This disdain for Gregorian chant and traditional repertoires is one sign of a much bigger problem, that of disdain for Tradition.” There is much more of interest in the article and much of the underlying criticism apparently comes from professional musicians with serious knowledge of theology and philosophy—at least one is a theologian as well as a choral director. Much of the criticism applies also to art and architecture, as Magister notes though claiming—probably correctly—that the issue of music is most important.
I’m fully supportive of these criticisms. Sometimes, I’ll put the hymnal back into its slot because of songs not worth the breath. In some of these hymnals, the best quality music is either traditional Catholic music—including those in the Roman Gradual and sometimes fresh settings of those chants—or else hymns from other Christian traditions, Methodist or Lutheran or African slave spirituals. And I will say there are times when music in a secular style might be good, especially in the beginning (entrance into) the liturgy and the ending (exit from) of holy worship. I also believe the Protestant traditions of hymn-sings (outside of the Mass) can be very useful in helping even sacramental Christians to better worship God.
My problem with this article, and many others by supporters of the Western Christian tradition, is on the emphasis. Magister and the critics he’s writing about know that the Western Church was a “maker and arbiter of culture,” not just a lifeless treasure-store of some sort. I know that many traditionalist church (and synagogue) musicians strive to add to the tradition, or at least support those who do so strive. I’m sure Magister and the musicians mentioned in his article would agree that the tradition itself is alive and open to taking in what is good and beautiful and true in each age and adding to the store which it dynamically protects and nurtures and is. Unfortunately, this more complete view can get lost in commenting about an age where you have to search hard to find what is good and beautiful and true in the new—and the number of such new and worthwhile works can be low. And many traditionalists, especially those outside music, seem to have lost interest in the search so far as I can tell, perhaps because of the difficulty of finding something new which might plausibly become part of the tradition.
Those who strive for such new and worthwhile works don’t seem to include the musicians who write for the hymnals now found in American Catholic parishes but some of the culturally conservative NPR classical music programs have provided a good screening. In my experience, the Minnesota Public Radio is particularly competent at finding and broadcasting good new choral music, much of it in one Christian tradition or another, though some is secular. After all, even Bach used the cantata form to glorify coffee.
All those who appreciate the wisdom of our Western Christian traditions and wish to publicly advocate for retaining what is good and beautiful and true in those traditions, should be careful to actively remember and actively say that this world and all it contains, including the pilgrim Body of Christ, is yet subject to the evolutionary and developmental forces the Creator set into play. They serve His purposes, including His main purpose in this world of nurturing that Body of Christ which was revealed to us in the life and death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, music is a part of human life, part of that Body of Christ; music surely fulfills one of God’s secondary purposes, being part of what is good and beautiful and true.