Sacred Sound and Social Change by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Published: 2017-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

EXPERIENCING A MUSICAL REFORMATION

Immediately after Vatican II, Catholics were inundated with change. A rigid, inflexible, impersonal tradition suddenly adopted a pastoral orientation, with the result that people were caught up in the pragmatics of how-to, what-to, and when-to do what had never been done before. Music bore the brunt of the changes. Latin gave way to the vernacular language, liturgical chant and classical polyphony were replaced by congregational song, musical leadership shifted in many instances from the professional to the inexperienced, and good will replaced credentials when it came to the dynamics of implementing the spirit of Vatican II. Some communities of faith flourished. Others were devastated by a sense of loss and a feeling of having been betrayed. Hundreds of years of musical tradition were replaced by unfamiliar pieces and by a new set of musical values. Participation, not aesthetics, was the criterion by which one measured failure or success. Relevance, not longevity, was a primary principle informing musical selection. Local adaptation, not universality, guided the development of repertory. Individuals charged with helping the congregation find its voice asked a different set of questions, such as, Will it work?—not, Will it last?

Rites were revised to recover ancient forms that predated centuries of accretion. Ritual books were rewritten; rubrics, simplified; rules, changed. New ministries were identified and established, among these, the ministry of music. Choirs moved from the edge to the center. Women not only participated in the liturgical choir but in some cases directed it. Cantors led musically illiterate assemblies into some semblance of congregational response. Slowly repertories began to grow and, even more slowly, to become familiar.

Toward the end of this period of intense reform, further experimentation of a systemic nature was officially discouraged. Innovations were more carefully channeled to enhance, and not restructure, existing liturgical forms, and music was once again at the service of the designated rites.

For professional musicians the period of reform was a time of personal crisis, as all that they held precious seemed to be threatened with extinction. Talent, training, and years of experience were suddenly insufficient for the job. Instead, amateur musicians with folk-style songs, guitars, and enthusiastic support groups enabled an immediate realization of the council’s key liturgical principle: active participation. Their less formal style and repertory encouraged people to get involved, and the sound they brought with them left a permanent mark. Eventually, however, the professionally trained again took charge of the musical agenda, and as they did so, they made friends with the participatory people’s song and pushed it to new possibilities, adding genres of their own. Vocal and instrumental arrangements gave the vernacular sound a well-deserved legitimacy. Compositions proliferated, reflecting a variety of styles and forms for the congregation and the choir. Songbooks featuring individual composers, anthologies of contemporary songs, psalm settings with seasonal antiphons, and revised hymnals for congregational use are among the scores of publications that have been produced in the postconciliar years.

Yet not all are satisfied. Liturgist Mark Searle says: “The reason that Catholic congregations

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