This is music that expresses and bears the liturgical text, action or gesture. Sacred music might be choral, or even the kind of music that may not have anything to do with the rite at all. Well, it is certainly music that comes from the liturgy, but it s probably more appropriate in the concert hall. But these are big issues that people are debating. That s something that the liturgical theologians and musicians are really going to have to pay attention to in years to come because it s becoming a politicized kind of issue as well.
Some music is probably more performance-oriented than liturgical.
Some music, however, is much more of a different kind of performance orientation, namely a solo piece or music that really has no relationship to the liturgical act or event itself. This can become problematic. There s no particular culture that is necessarily more religious or holy than another, so the question really becomes the development of criteria for making selections. The third challenge is another toughie, and that is the whole multicultural concept. You have various ritual aspects being present in one church taken over by another.