The Spirit of Gregorian Chant - Church Music Association of America

INTRODUCTION 13
Latin text, which acts not only as melodic generator and model
of constructive form, 1 but which, in the intimacy of this union,
at times reverses the role and yields to the exigencies of the melody.
^Whether it be performed in the church, school or concert hall,
it still remains liturgically spiritual music in the character of its
sentiment; nor has it reason for existence, properly speaking, other
than its association with the liturgical text.
Now there is another spiritual music to which every folk, as
well as every artist, have their right; this music is free in character
and sentiment of other than a general religion; it may be subjective in
character and expression, in that one may not only use any language
which he wishes, but in like manner the composer is unrestricted in
his interpretation of the text. Consequently, a composition in this
sphere may become a musical expression of a subjective nature
which verges even on a worldly expression, for it gives all play
to the composer.
Liturgically spiritual music, on the contrary, is bound to the
Church in composition, and its freedom from all else arises out
of its sole function of serving the liturgy. 2
So, if either composer or singer feels a certain constraint in
the composing or rendering of liturgical chant, which seems to
throw a shadow on his freedom, he must remember that his art
in the Church is only a serving one 3 —the means to an end—which
(end is not self. It must surely have been with a like sentiment
that the composers of the early songs of the Church went about
their work in the writing of such beautiful, often sublime, melodies.
We quote now Pius X, who so clearly defines the attributes
proper to liturgical music in his Encyclical Motu Proprio of 1903:
"Sacred music, being a complementary part of the solemn
liturgy, participates in the general scope of the liturgy, which is
the glory of God and the sanctification and edification of the faithful.
It contributes to the decorum and the splendour of the ec
clesiastical ceremonies, and since its principal office is to clothe
with suitable melody the liturgical text proposed for the under'
i Ref., Ch. III. *Einf.,Einl. » Ibid.