Music in Our Liturgy, Part 8

by Fr. Julius

Music in our Liturgy Part VIII

Musical Instruments for the liturgy

Dear parishioners,

Thank you for your patience with me and for your understanding as I exercised my teaching ministry on the subject of music in our liturgy. I took the time to address some of the major issues because I thought it was a subject too important to be rushed. As everything that has a beginning must come to an end, I would like to bring this series to an end. This does not suggest that I exhausted all the Church teaches on the subject matter. Our parish will continue to apply the learnings from the richness of the Church’s repertoire to our practice here at St. Thérèse, Little Flower, taking into account our context and circumstances. This week I want to address the question of musical instruments for the liturgy.

Scripture admonishes us to make a joyful noise unto the Lord (Psalm 100). All through the Old Testament we find instances where the people praised God with all the skills at their disposal, and with various musical instruments - the harp, horn, trumpet, cymbals, and so on. For me, and I assume, for many, "joyful" has a range of meanings. However, since our focus is the liturgy, which is not the private property of any individual, but the Church's official worship, it seems helpful to state that the liturgy is governed by certain precepts and principles. The question then is, what musical instruments are or should be permitted within the liturgy? The teaching of the Church from Tra le Sollecitudini (1903) until modern times is consistent: the human voice is the primary instrument for music in the liturgy. It is the people raising their voices in unison in praise to God. Musical instruments only serve to sustain this singing and do not replace or drown it. This is why the Church encourages us to sing the Mass. Here at St. Thérèse, we are doing well. I see lots of people actually take up their hymnal and join in the singing during Mass. My hope is that everyone would actually do this, regardless of whether they think they have great singing voices or not, or whether it is their favorite music or not.

After the human voice, the Pipe Organ has been identified by the Church as the privileged instrument for the Roman liturgy. It is the closest to the human voice, and helps to sustain singing. It is the instrument most able to render the various emotions of the gathered assembly. Although privileged, the pipe organ is not the only permissible instrument. This is why some other instruments that are not particularly reserved for profane use, can be admissible into the liturgy. They have to be sacred, or can be made so. And they would, of course, require the permission of the Local Ordinary to be admitted into the liturgy. The closer an instrument is to the pipe organ in its sound, the more fit is for use in the liturgy. The piano and certain wind instruments fall within this category. Because of its original association with secular music performance, instruments like the guitars were not mentioned in any of the official Church documents. However contemporary practice of using these instruments in the liturgy probably began after the Second Vatican Council, perhaps in the 70s. They are permissible for use to the extent that they are not disruptive but enhance the worship of the community. The rule of thumb in the use of any musical instruments in the liturgy must always be to preserve and enhance the decorum of the liturgy. We must take care that the praise of God, in the most excellent form of prayer the Church has, does not degenerate into a cacophony of uncoordinated noise. This is why proper training and discipline must be exercised in the use of these instruments at Mass. While we cannot admit just any instrument simply for the sake of it, I personally have nothing against the use of any other instruments; I actually encourage them, as long as the decorum proper to the liturgy is respected. Music is a handmaid of, and at the service of the liturgy, and not the other way around. The priority must always be the sanctity of the liturgy.

One of the challenges of our music at our parish can be attributed to the fact that we have just one musical instrument – the piano. Although the piano has come to be accepted in the liturgy, and we have been fortunate to have musicians with expertise and training to play this instrument very well, it lacks the ability to sustain the human voice as the organ. Musical pieces set for an organ do not play well with a piano. In the same vein, music set to be played by multiple instruments does not often have the same output intended by the composers when played by a single musician on a piano. We are limited in our song selections because some music is written to be played on an organ, and the piano does not do justice to such music. We must also acknowledge the challenge posed by the acoustics in our church. I learned recently from a sound expert that human bodies absorb sound, and so does carpet. On the other hand, tiles reflect sound, and enable singers to hear one another. The nature of our church makes it difficult for sound to be reflected, which makes singing a little difficult to reverberate throughout the church. Although we have spent some money working on our sound system to improve its output, we still hear from parishioners that they have difficulty hearing what is said or sung. We are presently working on our sound system again, this time, with different professionals. Please pray for better outcomes. And if God has blessed you and you are able to donate an organ or contribute towards the parish acquiring one for a cheap price (around $75,000), please let me know.

May Jesus bless you, and may Our Lady protect you!

Fr. Julius