[Part II]Music and liturgical populism: liturgical music and inculturation

With humble purpose in Part I, we trekked the path of objectivity rather than subjectivity. That’s arguing out what the Competent Authority of the Church says, not individual convictions, which are often immaterial in objective discussions, that which the author might also possess and which, when individually employed on a slippery slope, could breed anarchy.

Again, it may have to be said that compromising basic liturgical principles to entice Numbers for the pews is non-sustainable, but a cosmetic approach to fundamental challenges. Debatably, are we not in a more compromised liturgical era yet with a shrinking Catholic Population?

The fact is that merely, the Faithful do not want us to be like Others, nor do they want us to be blackmailed with artificial tags like modernists, conservatives, liberals, progressives, etc., they just want us to be Catholic. Thus, inasmuch as we can not pretend to be more Catholic than the Sacred Council of Vatican II, we can not also be more Protestant than the Protestants!

That being said, liturgical Inculturation is substantially different from adaptation or acculturation. In liturgical context especially, it was the seeming ambiguous nature and possible abuse of terms like ‘Adaptation’ as used by SC (37-40), that led to subsequent clarification of the intention as ‘Inculturation’ (cf. JP II, Slavorum Apostoli, 21; Discourse to the Pontifical Council for Culture Plenary Assembly, Jan. 17,1987, 5; Redemptoris Missio, 52), defined as an organic practice that is facilitated by the Church’s Competent Authority; the Apostolic See and the competent territorial bodies of bishops legitimately established: (cf. SC 22, 36, 40, 44-46; CIC Canon 838).

Obviously then, the substantial causes (cf. Part I, §1-6) of the necessary ongoing discourse are not a matter of Inculturation, but of the exercise of personal discretion at best.

At least in the Catholic Church, it is the same nominated Competent Authority that determines what sacred music (or song, as used interchangeably) is. Hence, absorbing to expand the musical intention of SC (cf. 112, 114–116, 118–119) that already embraced musical traditions like ours (cf. SC 119- Nnwomkorɔ, ‘highlife’, Agbadza, Bewaa, etc.), _Musicam Sacram (4) stated: ‘Sacred music is understood as that which, being created for the celebration of divine worship, is endowed with a certain holy sincerity of form.

The following come under the title of sacred music here: Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony in its various forms both ancient and modern, sacred music for the organ and other approved instruments, and sacred popular music, be it liturgical or simply religious.’ In the spectrum of liturgical music therefore, it is not enough to be content with the perceived ‘religiosity’ of a song, but also the necessary certain holy sincerity of form as discussed in Part I (cf. §12 and 16).

Consistent with biblical liturgical practices in worship of the Divine (cf. Ex. 25:18-22), it is that standardised character that basically defines liturgy; ‘The public worship which our Redeemer as Head of the Church renders to the Father, as well as the worship which the community of the faithful renders to its Founder, and through Him to the heavenly Father’ ( Mediator Dei, 20).

Therefore, even though the Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in liturgical matters and seeks to respect and foster the genius and talents of the various races and peoples (SC 37), while avoiding mechanical liturgies, exaggerations/minimalisms/abuses in the least possible space of discretion that (in)directly contravenes or threatens the spirit of the liturgy have ordinarily attracted historical discouragements from the Church.

For instance, St. Jerome is said to have cautioned the youth whose duty it is to recite the Office in church to not be ‘like play-actors, ease your throat and jaws with medicaments, and make the church resound with theatrical measures and airs’ ( Summa Teologica, 2a-2ae, q. 91, art. 2).

Commenting on St. Augustine’s ( Confess. x, 33) position on liturgical music, the Doctor Angelicus in the 13th century defended the caution of St. Jerome, saying: ‘Jerome does not absolutely condemn singing but reproves those who sing theatrically in church not in order to arouse devotion, but in order to show off, or to provoke pleasure’ ( Ibid ).

Liturgically expected then, ‘sacred music should consequently possess, in the highest degree, the qualities proper to the liturgy, and in particular sanctity and goodness of form, which will spontaneously produce the final quality of universality. It must be holy, and must, therefore, exclude all profanity not only in itself, but in the manner in which it is presented by those who execute it.

It must be true art, for otherwise it will be impossible for it to exercise on the minds of those who listen to it that efficacy which the Church aims at obtaining in admitting into her liturgy the art of musical sounds’ (Pius X, Tra Le Sollecitudini, 2).

At the service of the liturgy, therefore, profound humility is needed to lose ourselves to the Whole (cf. Jn. 3:30). ‘It should be borne in mind that the true solemnity of liturgical worship depends less on a more ornate form of singing and a more magnificent ceremonial than on its worthy and religious celebration, which takes into account the integrity of the liturgical celebration itself, and the performance of each of its parts according to their own particular nature’ ( Musicam Sacram, 11).

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Indeed, the liturgy is a celebration, but a sacred one, not casual! And inasmuch as the songs used are often a sign of the heart’s joy (cf. Acts 2:46-47), they also serve as a means to communicate with the divine, and a potent facilitator of the sense of sacredness.

Thus, if ‘he who sings prays twice’ (Eph 5:19; St. Augustine, En. in Ps. 72,1; PL 36, 914; cf. Col 3:16.), music in the liturgy can be said to be a ministry (cf. SC 112), that when well exercised gets to people like St. Augustine to confess: ‘How I wept, deeply moved by your hymns, songs, and the voices that echoed through your Church! What emotion I experienced in them!

Those sounds flowed into my ears distilling the truth in my heart. A feeling of devotion surged within me, and tears streamed down my face – tears that did me good.’ (St. Augustine, Conf. 9, 6, 14: PL 32, 769-770). Thus, all for ‘the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful’ (SC 112).

To be continued…