Chant

From a Telegraph article entitled “Pope to purge the Vatican of modern music”.

After reintroducing the Latin Tridentine Mass, the Pope wants to widen the use of Gregorian chant and baroque sacred music.

In an address to the bishops and priests of St Peter’s Basilica, he said that there needed to be “continuity with tradition” in their prayers and music.

He referred pointedly to “the time of St Gregory the Great”, the pope who gave his name to Gregorian chant.

I love a good Gregorian chant. Who doesn’t?

The Pope has recently replaced the director of pontifical liturgical celebrations, Archbishop Piero Marini, with a man closer to his heart, Mgr Guido Marini. It is now thought he may replace the head of the Sistine Chapel choir, Giuseppe Liberto.

The Pope sounds serious, he wants his Gregorian chants. But, that’s not all of it. Evidently there are some performance issues.

The International Church Music Review recently criticised the choir, saying: “The singers wanted to overshout each other, they were frequently out of tune, the sound uneven, the conducting without any artistic power, the organ and organ playing like in a second-rank country parish church.”

Woah! That is a tough review, there. I’ve never read The International Church Music Review before, and I am assuming that they are an authority here but, that is about as bad as a review can get for a choir. They attacked every facet of what a choir does and “second-rank country parish church”, ouch! That stings, because this is the choir for the Sistine Chapel we’re talking about. That’s the big time, it doesn’t get any bigger than that. You don’t want comparisons to a country parish.

Mgr Valentin Miserachs Grau, the director of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, which trains church musicians, said that there had been serious “deviations” in the performance of sacred music.

“How far we are from the true spirit of sacred music. How can we stand it that such a wave of inconsistent, arrogant and ridiculous profanities have so easily gained a stamp of approval in our celebrations?” he said.

What has been going on over at the Sistine Chapel? I would think that after all of this time and tradition that the song list would be pretty well set.

I’m with the Pope on this one. Bring back the Gregorian Chants and do them justice.