Liturgical music

Liturgical music originated as a part of religious

ceremony, and includes a number of traditions, both
ancient and modern. Liturgical music is well known as a
part of Catholic Mass, the Anglican Holy Communion
service (or Eucharist) and Evensong, the Lutheran
Divine Service, the Orthodox liturgy and other
Christian services including the Divine Office. Such
ceremonial music in the Judeo-Christian tradition can
be traced back to both the Temple in Jerusalem and
synagogue worship of the Hebrews.
The qualities that create the distinctive character of
liturgical music are based on the notion that liturgical
music is conceived and composed according to the
norms and needs of the various historic liturgies of
particular denominations.

Roman Catholic church music

Musical notation in a 14th-century English Missal

Two pages of a psalter in Baeza Cathedral

Monteverdi's Missa da cappella a sei voci; Kyrie

The interest taken by the Catholic Church in music is

shown not only by practitioners, but also by numerous
enactments and regulations calculated to foster
music worthy of Divine service.[1] Contemporary
Catholic official church policy is expressed in the
documents of the Second Vatican Council
Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the
Sacred Liturgy promulgated by Pope Paul VI on
December 4, 1963 (items 112–121); and most
particularly Musicam sacram, the Instruction on Music
In The Liturgy from the Sacred Congregation for Rites,
on March 5, 1967.

While there have been historic disputes within the

church where elaborate music has been under
criticism, there are many period works by Orlandus de
Lassus, Allegri, Vittoria, where the most elaborate
means of expression are employed in liturgical music,
but which, nevertheless, conform to every liturgical
requirement while seeming to be spontaneous
outpourings of adoring hearts (cf. contrapuntal or
polyphonic music). Besides plain chant and the
polyphonic style, the Catholic Church also permits
homophonic or figured compositions with or without
instrumental accompaniment, written either in
ecclesiastical modes, or the modern major or minor
keys. Gregorian chant is warmly recommended by the
Catholic Church, as both polyphonic music and modern
unison music for the assembly.[1]

Prior to the Second Vatican Council, according to the

motu proprio of Pius X (November 22, 1903), the
following were the general guiding principles of the
Church: "Sacred music should possess, in the highest
degree, the qualities proper to the liturgy, or more
precisely, sanctity and purity of form from which its
other character of universality spontaneously springs.
It must be holy, and must therefore exclude all
profanity, not only from itself but also from the
manner in which it is presented by those who execute
it. It must be true art, for otherwise it cannot exercise
on the minds of the hearers that influence which the
Church meditates when she welcomes into her liturgy
the art of music. But it must also be universal, in the
sense that, while every nation is permitted to admit
into its ecclesiastical compositions those special
forms which may be said to constitute its native
music, still these forms must be subordinated in such a
manner to the general characteristics of sacred
music, that no one of any nation may receive an
impression other than good on hearing them.".[1] This
was expanded upon by Pope Pius XII in his motu
proprio Musicae sacrae.[2]

See also
Liturgy
Ephrem the Syrian
Contemporary Catholic liturgical music
Church music
Christian music
Religious music

References
1.  One or more of the preceding sentences
incorporates text from a publication now in the
 public domain: Gietmann, Gerhard (1911).
"Ecclesiastical Music" . In Herbermann, Charles
(ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. 10. New York:
Robert Appleton. Retrieved 2007-05-17.
2. Musicae sacrae

Further reading
Wilson-Dickson, Andrew (2003). The Story of
Christian Music: An Illustrated Guide to All the
Major Traditions of Music in Worship. Oxford: Lion.
ISBN 978-0-7459-5119-5.
Blanc, Aurélie, and Olivia Robinson. "The Huy Nativity
from the Seventeenth to the Twenty-First
Century: Translation, Play-Back, and Pray-Back".
Medieval English Theatre 40 (2019): 66–97.
External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to

Church music.

Anglican church music

Antiochian Orthodox liturgical music
Carpatho Rusyn Liturgical Music
Catholic liturgical music at St Meinrad Archabbey
Jewish liturgical music
Latter Day Saint church music
The Church Music Association of America
Pope Benedict XVI on liturgical music
The Royal School of Church Music
Syriac church music
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