Liturgical music or music in the liturgy?Daniel Martín SalvadorMusic must reinforce the Word".Caring for music, the Pontifical Institute of Sacred MusicAt the Easter Vigil we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and with it our liberation from sin and death. The Jewish people at Passover relive each year the "memorial" of the night of the passage of the Lord (passover) who frees them from the slavery of Pharaoh. The Catholic liturgy in the so-called "mother of all vigils" takes us through the Old Testament reading of the wonders that God has done for his people since the beginning of time: first the creation, then the sacrifice that God asks Abraham for his son, and then the passage of the people of Israel through the Red Sea on bare feet.
The text of the book of Exodus narrates how "on that day the Lord saved Israel from the power of Egypt, ... Israel saw the mighty hand which the Lord had stretched out against the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord, and believed in the Lord and in Moses his servant". Whoever listens to this proclamation on the holy night can relive the emotion of these events as they were experienced by the Hebrew people: no less than we contemplate the Red Sea opening up to form two walls of water on both sides and we perceive the roar of the Egyptian chariots coming closer and closer. The rabbinical tradition explains that in the celebration of Pesach "the person is obliged to see himself as if he were coming out of Egypt" (Mishnah Pesachim, 116b).
Encourage a sense of "memorial".
In order to give continuity and meaning to what is proclaimed, the Catholic liturgy suggests that in this celebration we do not conclude the reading of the book of Exodus by saying "Word of God", but that we directly join our voices to those of the Hebrew people with the Psalm. "Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord: I will sing to the Lord, glorious is his victory, horses and chariots he has thrown into the sea. My strength is the Lord, He was my salvation. He is my God: I will praise him; the God of my fathers: I will exalt him" (Exodus 15, 1-2).
The Jews continue to relive every year that Passage of the Lord, the Passover. And with this song they call for God's help because they understand that it is not about a God of the past but of the present. The Catholic tradition considers the meaning of "memorial" as something more than reliving the events of the past through readings, but rather that in the liturgical celebration these events are made present and actual in a certain way (Cfr. Catechism, 1363).
Music and song contribute effectively to this sense of memorial because they have the quality of expressing this inner desire. This communicative quality of music goes beyond the mere presentation of an idea with more or less beauty; it summons the feelings that accompany what is said. St. Augustine considered that music has been granted by God to men to modulate rightly the memory of great things. This is therefore one of the main reasons why the Liturgy sings.
Music and its role in tradition
Music and song are present in Sacred Scripture around circumstances as diverse as harvests and grape harvests (Ezra 9, 2; 16, 10, Jeremiah 31, 4-5), in the marches (Numbers 10, 35-36, 2 Chronicles 20, 21), in reunions (Judges 11, 34-35, Lucas 15, 25), in moments of jubilation (Exodus 15). We know how king David danced before the Ark of God with wooden instruments, zithers, lyres, drums, sistrums and cymbals (2 Samuel 6, 5); and he himself composed and determined the rules for emphasizing the love song of Song of Solomon or the 150 praises of the Psalter, through hymns, supplications, thanksgivings, imprecations, etc.
The proper character of song is to enhance what the words express; to open a greater channel of affection to show what is intended. In the Gospel, the Lord reveals its meaning when he explains that that generation "they resemble children sitting in the square, shouting to others: 'We have played the flute and you have not danced, we have sung lamentations and you have not cried"". (Lucas 7, 31). Many times we are not open to communication, even if we listen, because we keep our affections closed.
The Lord's disciples maintained the tradition of singing the psalms and poems of the people of Israel; even up to the time before the Passion after the Last Supper (Marcos 14, 26) we know that they sang together. Paul and Silas were so ingrained in this custom that in the prison of Philippi the songs sprang spontaneously from their hearts (Facts 16, 25); moreover, we know that the apostle exhorts the Colossians to sing together (Colossians 3, 16), as well as to those in Corinth (1 Corinthians 14, 26), and those of Ephesus (Ephesians 5, 19). Various testimonies insist on this particularity of the life of the Christian faithful in the second century, as Pliny the Younger testifies in a letter to Caesar in which he says "who used to assemble on set days before dawn to sing a hymn to Christ as to God." (Epistle 10, 96, 7).
Uniting everyday life with eternity
Through the song, the expression of what the words say is emphasized and memories and significant events are brought to life. When the Jews sing the song of Moses or the song of the Babylonian captivity, they express their desire for liberation through the God who is going to save them. They thus express that need that demands at the same time the manifestation of a definitive canticle. This longing is expressed for Christians in the eternal song that St. John narrates in the ApocalypseHe who day and night sings without pause before the throne of the Lamb: "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty; He who was and is and is to come." (Apocalypse 4, 9).
The Constitution of the Second Vatican Council Sacrosanctum Concilium (hereinafter SC) explains that the Liturgy is the means by which the ".exercisesThe Liturgy has the meaning of "the work of our Redemption, especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist" (SC 2). Thus, the Liturgy has the sense of a passage, a bridge, a door through which the divine action is made present in the world. It manifests in some way that eternal song before the throne of the Lamb; the praise that the whole creation makes to its Creator through the only sacrifice that is offered. "unblemished from sunrise to sunset." (Eucharistic Prayer III).
Those who celebrate the Liturgy unite in some way Heaven with earth, eternity with daily life; for the Christian desires that every action be carried out in union with the work of Redemption. This song of praise of the Apocalypse is the expression of the eternal celebration, which, as the liturgy explains, helps us to manifest the mystery of Christ in our lives (SC 2). This supposes understanding the Eucharist from a full sense in which there is continuity between what we celebrate and what we live; the joy of having sung the praise of God is present throughout our day.
Sense of music and singing
The arts in general, and especially music, have been a natural channel for the expression of man's intimate feelings; even in a simple song our inner state of joy, sadness, loneliness, enthusiasm, serenity, tranquility, etc. is manifested in a more direct way. Sometimes in western culture we make use of We use the arts to express in an excellent way an idea, a concept or a story; or we make use of their quality to ennoble or enhance an object or action. Certainly they fulfill this mission, but what is proper of the arts is the capacity to show us intimate affections: pain, tenderness, passion, ...; all that that supposes an amplification to the proper value of the word.
Singing renders the liturgy its best service when it offers what the liturgy intends: to express prayer more delicately, to foster the unanimity of prayer, or to enrich the solemn expression of the celebration (cf. SC 112).
Expression of love
To deal with liturgy is necessarily to introduce us to the language of God who is love. Song proceeds from love and manifests the joy of the beloved; hence its ineffable character because so often what can be said demands that other, more exalted way of saying. Ratzinger says in his work The spirit of the Liturgy that singing and music in the Church are like a "...".charisma"A new language that proceeds from the Spirit. In the song takes place the "sober drunkenness"The art of faith because it surpasses all the possibilities of mere rationality. This is the quality proper to art that seeks to express the greatness of God.
Just as an image of Christ made by human hands presents the Word of God, so chant is meant to be like the ineffable voice of divine glory. Hence, both the painter and the liturgical chanter, says Crispino Valenciano, render a service in the manner of "....hagiographers"which seek to reveal the marvelous sense of the divine presence. For this reason, song is meaningful when it contributes to the purpose of the liturgical words and actions, which are the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful (cf. Catechism 1157). From these considerations, we can deduce the importance of taking care to adequately carry out this ministry - like any other - at the service of the liturgy.
Encourages active participation
Participation in the life of the Lord, in his glorious redemption-what we do in the liturgy-is conditioned in part by the disposition of the soul. For this reason, a conscious and active participation is to be favored; to put the soul in harmony with the voice in order to collaborate with divine grace (SC 11). Music and singing accompany feasts and celebrations in many cultures (at victories, games, anniversaries, banquets, etc.); they are part of the tradition of Christian celebration.
The natural character of its expression is an external manifestation that accompanies those special moments, both intimate and solemn, formal and informal. Thus the liturgy with song expresses what is believed and lived; and signifies what it manifests.
The elevation to the sacred and the sense of solemnity
The liturgy tries to offer that exceptional quality of transcending the everyday by bringing us closer to the eternal, to that which is ineffable and inaudible, but in which God has allowed us to participate. This dimension therefore demands an effort of every expression: architecture, painting, sculpture, stained glass, vestments, sacred vessels, every arrangement and of course music. It requires that "the human be ordered and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation, and the present to the future city we seek." (SC 2).
The character of the solemn for the Church has had in the past a sense of magnificence, but today it does not follow so much that itinerary that sometimes can be confused with ostentation. The liturgy needs a divinizing aesthetic, a transforming leap from poetic dynamics to the sacred. The efficacy of this performance contributes to what the function demands (to sing Kyrie eleison for example), that innate quality that somehow makes him or her a sacramentum / mysterion. Music, as well as any sacred art, by its specific mission can contribute to introduce us to the mystery of God; to bring us closer to that sacred presence by which God orders Moses: "take off your shoes, because the place where you are standing is sacred ground" (Exodus, 3, 5).
Eschatological tension of the liturgy
The liturgical celebration necessarily manifests the provisional character of what still awaits full fulfillment at the end of time with the coming of Christ. This is what we say in the acclamation to the Memorial: "We proclaim your death, we proclaim your resurrection, come Lord Jesus!"; "every time we eat of this bread and drink of this cup, we proclaim your death, Lord, until you come again.". The song and the music try to express precisely what the Eucharist is: anticipation of heavenly glory (Cfr. Catechism 1402). This character allows us to live in the world, but perceiving the glimpses of the eternal dwelling. What St. Thomas Aquinas says of the Eucharist is made manifest, that it is a "pledge of eternal life".
Romano Guardini distinguished between devotional images and supernatural or liturgical images. In synthesis, he explained that just as the former represent our feelings, with which God identifies himself; the others, the liturgical ones, show rather God's way of being to which we should aspire. Music and song favor both tensions that shape the Christian life.
Adequacy of chant and liturgical music
It is very convenient to adapt the faculties of men to what is being celebrated, but without necessarily lowering the expression of what is being celebrated. The Catechism points out that the harmony of the signs (song, music, words and actions) is all the more expressive and fruitful the more it is expressed in the cultural richness proper to the people of God who are celebrating. Singing and music must participate in this cultural richness and contribute very favorably to elevating the spirit. Evidently, sacred music does so because it is part of the celebration in which all of man's expressive capacity is at the service of God's great work in the memorial of his mysteries.
The long musical tradition of the Church has been able to emphasize the elements that respond to this quality that must be present in the liturgical music (St. Pius X in Tra Sollecitudine ). Perhaps the problem of our time is the distance between culture and the common sacred expression, the scarce formation or Christian education in the highest of the arts. This distance often requires liturgical expression to descend to the popular or sometimes vulgar. This aspect, which is essential for the Liturgy, has suffered a strong deterioration in recent times.
Pope Francis, faced with the dynamics of divergence between different sensibilities about a ritual form, points to the care of the liturgy, to rediscover its beauty and to live the truth and the strength of the Christian celebration (Desiderio desideravit, 16). To this end, he insists on the importance of liturgical formation, which is "the primary and necessary source from which the faithful must drink the truly Christian spirit" (SC 14).
Priest and Doctor of Theology
