Liturgists and musicians are focusing in on the recent Revision of the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani or General Instruction on the Roman Missal (GIRM).
Here’s a nice nugget for you, taken from a summary on the USCCB site.
A re-emphasis on the privileged place of Gregorian chant as “more proper to the Roman liturgy” is included, though “other kinds of sacred music, polyphony in particular, are not in any way to be excluded, provided that they correspond with the spirit of the liturgical action and that they foster the participation of all the faithful.” (41)
Polyphony discussion is today.
Why Sacred Polyphony?
Why is the Michelangelo “Pieta” a masterpiece? Because it represents a pinnacle in sacred art. It’s inherently sacred art because of the subject. It’s inarguably beautiful. The same is to be said for sacred polyphony, generally music written in the 1500’s and 1600’s that has a sacred text, is modal and has a melody in each one of the voice parts.
“Modal” refers to the musical scale used in the piece. Most music today is written in a major or minor mode. Sacred Polyphony uses related scales that have a different sound quality than the major mode. In fact, sacred music was normally not written in the major mode – that was called the “Lascivious Mode” since many secular pieces were written in that mode.
A melody in each part is exactly the opposite of today’s hymn (homophonic music): melody on top with other voices singing accompaniment parts. With each choral voice having its own melody, there’s a flow that goes from start to finish that is not found in homophonic music.
I’m really boiling down the concepts here, but the bottom line is sacred polyphony is sacred because of the text and because the musical style is not found in secular music. It’s completely set apart of pop-tunes, folksy music, broadway, dance music of the Renaissance, etc. It was written for the Church, and continues to be relevant to the Church in the same way as the Sistine Chapel.
Why isn’t polyphony done more?
It’s hard. You need to really train an amateur choir or have a professional choir. Many of today’s music directors don’t have a formal education in choral singing or in sacred polyphony so they won’t touch it.
It’s in Latin. Lots of folks are still sour on Latin.
It doesn’t fit with the current style of liturgical music/worship – you can’t do Rory Cooney to start and throw in some Palestrina after communion. The parishes that are set on Cooney have a huge cultural gap to bridge in order to get to chant and polyphony.
It’s poo-pooed by people who think participation means every possible thing that can be sung needs to be sung by the entire assembly, no questions asked.
More another time on polyphony and chant.