Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury [Connecticut]) 1903-1917, 1904-04-27
CATHOLIC
CHURCH music
No Changes Will Probably Be
Made For present---Diffic
ties i'm the Way Of the
GregOrian Chant.

GregOrian Chant.
In relation to the music of the Ro-
man Catholic churches the following
dispatch from Milwaukee, Wis, print
ed in the New York Sun of Sunday,
win have much interest locally:
mo changes will be made in the
music of American Catholic churches
for the present, according to the con-
illusions Of meeting of the archbish-
ops of the country, at Washington
this week.
archbishop Messmer OF Milwaukee
returned from the council to-day.
Nine of the fourteen nrchhishops of
the country attended and they decid-
ed that under present circumstances
it would be practically impossible to
enforce the decree OF Pope Plus X, or
dering q restoration OF the GregoTian
chant in the services OF the church
and the Punishment of women from
the choirs OF the churches.
Cardinal Gibbons was instructed
to write the Vatican, telling OF the
facts which led to this decision and
asking for a modification OF the de
cree. Until such an answer is re
ceived, nothing will be done in this
country in the matter, and 1t is prob
able that even then the matter will be
left undisposed of until the al'chbish-
ops council next year.
".Of course all the archbishops
wanted TO carry out the pope's de-
cree, said Archbishop Messnaer to-
night but we decided that under ex-
dsting circumstances it would be al
most impossible.
When 1t was announced that Pope
Plus \ would make change III the
character of the music to be sung i'll
the Roman Catholic churches OF the
world doubtless many people thought
| it a simple thing to do, and that they
would like the earlier music of the
church perhaps as well as that which
they have been listening to for years.
There is an air of sincerity about the
title "plain song or ''plain chant"
that appeals TO those who care little
for the elaborate music OF the COM
posers And there are objections to
some OF their compositions aside from
the fact that they are operate rather
than devotional. An example on
these objections ocilrs in one OF the
masses that has been popular at Cath
ollie churches in the state! In the
"Credo'' there Is 4 phrase, "Genitum
non factunl," which may be translat-
ell, 'Generated. not made The COM
poser of this mass wishing to pro-
luce certain effect with his music,
changed the Latin SO that 1t Is sung,
"Non gpnitum, non factun," which
means, Neither generated nor made"
and which il undoubtedly heresy.
And there are other instances Of this
sort of Latin twisting that are either
heresy or nonsense, or both. This is
doubtless what Pope Plus X sought
to remedy when he gave his order to
return to tho music OF the early
church.
But there are strange difficulties ~
ing along the path of the return to
the plain song or GTegorian chant.
While for 1000 years after the dawn
OF the Christian era, the cart OF music
was inenopeliXed by the church, and
the history of choral music is tho
whole history of music, yet the writ
ten music was so imperfectly eX-
pressed, and so much depended on
memory and tradition. that to return
to ancient music AS sung by the medi-
eyal choirs is almost an imposslbility.
There has been IN occasional at
tempt at Rome to revive the music of
Palestrina, a famous composer of
church music. and each time 1T has
been matter of immense difficulty
and generally has met with rather I'M
satisfactory results. There is no ques-
ton concerning the technical superb
ority of Pedestrians music. An au
thoritative writer has declared that
while each ana every melody OF the
polyphonic structure is vocally fluent
and individually expressive, and Is OF
equal significance with every other
melody. the harnonies which result
from the union Of all the melodies
are SO supremacy beautiful and sue
coed each other so naturally, as to
preclude the thought of calculation. 1t
Is the apparent artlessness of the tone
combinations. which are really the
product Of the most profound learn
Ing, that Is SO eloquent Of his skill,
for the simplest harmonic expressions
often prove on close summation to
rest on the most intricate forms OF
imitation"
Pedestrians conception of what the
music of the church should be was
that music should form an integral
part OF the liturgy and add to its i'm.
pIGSSlN GlCSS, anu NlCdJSI VI ty Pc VI
music which never Aobtrudes its own
beauty, but reflects In its purity the
mysteries symbolizedl in the ceremon-
les of the church. There are no SEN
sllous melodies, no dissonant harmon
les, no abrupt rhythms to distract the
thoughts and excite the sensfbilitles.
Instead there are chains Of chords
flowing with smoothness, and well cal
clrlated to lull the deyotee to relig-
ious mental state. and to make him
susceptible to the influence of the GER
emonial
The Sistine chapel has always been
the authority for the proper perform
ance of Pedestrians music. The tra-
ditions there affect even the very
tones themselves Signs were used
sparingly in the writing, ana the sing
ers were expected to introduce them
In acorfiailpn with certain rules that