LITURGICAL MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
There are approximately 32 dioceses maintaining liturgical church music commissions; regulations; or providing facilities for learning the principles of liturgical music at the present time. We know of the following and there may be others:
California -- Los Angeles, San Francisco, Monterey,Fresno.
New Jersey -- Newark.
Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh.
Missouri -- St. Louis.
Illinois -- Peoria, Iowa, Dubuque.
Wisconsin -- Milwaukee, Green Bay, La Crosse.
Montana -- Helena.
Louisiana -- Lafayette, New Orleans.
Indiana -- Indianapolis.
New York -- Albany, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester.
West Virginia -- Wheeling.
Minnesota -- St. Paul, Crookston.
Ohio--Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus.
Iowa -- Des Moines.
Mississippi -- Natchez.
Washington -- Seattle.
Montana -- Great Falls.
Maine -- Portland.
Kansas -- Wichita.
The above dioceses do not include those offering summer courses only. In each of
these 32 dioceses there is one Priest or layman whose assignment is the planning and supervision of liturgical music activities throughout the year.
Yet of the 32 dioceses listed above not more than eight have really aggressive
church music commissions actually working out a comprehensive plan for the improvement of conditions (i.e. actually supervising conditions, and holding regular choirmasters meetings). A few years ago there were not eight such dioceses. Now at least progress is being made. If in the coming year 1938 out of the 32 listed above a few more join the aggressive list the march of progress will continue. If more dioceses join the above named 32, by at least recognizing that there is a permanent place in the administrative side of church work, for liturgical music the Motu Proprio of 1903 win become proportionately more closely observed.
Comment: it is frequently observed that Catholic liturgical music was in a sad state before the Second Vatican II, and so therefore it is quite unfair and unbalanced to contrast the current shabby situation with an idealized version of the past. Fair enough.
But there are two considerations: first, the direction of change (at least before World War II) indicated progress, and, second, the very definition of what constituted progress was not in dispute among competent people: it meant Gregorian chant and polyphonic music. This was the goal and there was no question about it. A diocesan commission dedicated to music would be dedicated to that ideal.
Today, the very creation of such a commission would cause a fight to break out. But in some ways, that too is progress, since thirty years ago there would have been no dispute about what such a commission would seek: the gutting of the treasury of sacred music and its replacement by what we know all too well. I have no doubt that the people working and writing for Caecilia in 1937 could not have imagined such a future. It would have been inconceivable.
In a similar way, very few people in 1980 who were working for a universal imposition of pop music in place of real liturgical music could imagine the growing movement for musica sacra today.
Times change and the status quo, whether good or bad, is always made vulnerable by the unknown future. Print this post
