Jeg fikk i midten av august kjenneskap til en oppgave (phd) om katolsk kirkemusikk, som jeg så langt bare har lest noe av – 200 av over 600 sider, pga. ferie o.a. Den heter «THE MUSICAL PRELUDE TO VATICAN II: PLAINCHANT, PARTICIPATION, AND PIUS X», er skrevet av Walter William Whitehouse, og kan leses her.
Oppgaven er svært grundig og går tiår for tiår gjennom utviklinga på 1800 (det var stadig vanskelig, ja umulig, å få orden på kirkemusikken, selv etter mange problemer og biskopelige bestemmelser), og når oppgaven kommer fram til pave Pis X, leser vi på s169-70:
Pastoral Concern for the Faith of the People
All of the above forces, or “impulses,” were not novel in the twentieth-century Church or new with Pius X, nor certainly was concern for an ardent faith in Catholic believers. What is new with Pius is the pronounced locus of the source of “the true Christian spirit” as within the liturgy itself: more specifically, a direct attribution of Christian spirit to “active participation in the sacred mysteries” as the “first and indispensable source.”Moreover, this actuosa participatio is realized by virtue of singing, which is the proper role, the historic and recovered role, of the laity during solemn Mass. Thus, the means of active participation is singing, and in Pius’ famous (if apocryphal) phrase, not singing at the Mass, but singing the Mass. This is categorically a major shift, a decisive return to early-Church practices over centuries of musical and liturgical passivity among the Catholic laity.
And further, the means by which the faithful were to participate in the singing of the liturgy was none other than Gregorian Chant: that music which was in unison, did not need accompaniment, was (so it was claimed) easy to learn, and which rendered the texts intelligibly. The role of the people was to sing the Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei), and it was these texts which Pius wished all to know and understand; by them they participated in the action of the Mass itself. A lively Christian spirit demanded participation; active participation was accomplished through singing; intelligible and liturgical participation required singing the texts of the Mass; and the accomplishment of all of the above pointed forcefully to the use of Gregorian chant. …