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Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”

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Views from the Choir Loft

On the Connection Between Good Art and Good Morals

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski · August 29, 2013

447 Kwasniewski URPRISING AS IT MAY SEEM, St. Thomas Aquinas defends the thesis that there is not an intrinsic or necessary connection between good art and good morals. And yet, as we will see, he also proves that there will be a connection, albeit in a roundabout way, in the larger picture of human life.

In holding this position, he differs from some contemporary conservative critics, like E. Michael Jones, who maintain that bad morals necessitate or result in bad art, or, vice versa, that bad art indicates bad morals. The history of the fine arts clearly disproves that position, which is founded upon a simplistic psychology of the human faculties and the habits that perfect them. In the Renaissance, for example, one can find truly outstanding artists who led morally disordered lives—e.g., the painter Caravaggio, who produced some of the most spectacular and subtle paintings, with true spiritual depth; the composer Carlo Gesualdo, who wrote sublime music, although he had murdered his wife and her adulterous lover in a fit of rage. Similarly, while Wagner was an adulterer and an notorious anti-Semite, his giftedness as a composer is past all doubt: just listen to the Siegfried Idyll, the Meistersinger overture, or the Ring cycle (if you can stifle your distaste at the vapid libretto). The same holds for Schubert and Brahms, whether they regularly visited prostitutes, as their biographers say, or not.

For someone who understands precisely what kind of perfection of practical intellect the habit of art is, and how it works, this lack of an immediate connection between art and morality is not bothersome. Art is a habit of applying reason to artistic materials in an orderly way to produce a definite effect, and an artist who is talented to begin with, and well trained on top of that, can develop a very high level of perfection in the exercise of this habit, in spite of habitual personal failings.

That being said, there are many connections between the practice of art and the quality of morals in real life. An artist who lets his daily life become very disordered cannot be expected to retain the discipline, self-mastery, and concentration required to produce masterpieces—or, in the worst case scenario, to acquire the technical skills in the first place. Picasso is a brilliant example of a talented artist who fell so much under the sway of his lechery that he could no longer produce great art. He sacrificed his intellect to his libido, and that is why his works are so lacking in intelligibility and beauty. They seem to be efforts, increasingly childish and embarrassing, to represent appetite or feeling divorced from reason, which is the very principle of form, order, communication.

The openness to “inspiration” that characterizes genius runs the danger of being more or less closed off by licentiousness, by immersion in dissipating and distracting pleasures. To be open to inspiration requires a certain peace of soul and delicacy of sentiment—an ability to listen and receive, to await ideas and cultivate them patiently and with self-denying labor. Prudence is the “eye of love,” as Josef Pieper says, and since the moral virtues are connected through prudence, the artist who lacks self-control lacks, or will eventually lack, that capacity to see and listen which is indispensable to conceiving and executing great works.

It seems to me that the subterranean link, so to speak, between morals and art is nowhere clearer than in pop music and modern art in general. Modern art has often been art of unrestrained sensuality or bleak despair, and this is strikingly captured in the two extremes into which it has fallen: pornography and sexual excess on the one side, atonality and abstraction on the other. Men whose minds are in the gutter will simply transfer that gutter to the canvas, the photograph, the lyrics, or the rhythm, while men whose minds are cut off from nature and its beauty will simply represent their cold and empty soul-world in a chill abstraction from form or shape, from tonality or controlled and orderly rhythm. We will see a womanizing Picasso painting prostitutes or a suicidal Pollock splattering paint at random; we will hear Ravel’s stupefying Bolero or Schoenberg’s chilly Pierrot Lunaire.

So, it is important to see on the one hand that art, as a virtue of applying reason to materials, is distinct from the moral life, and on the other hand that a man’s life, which dictates goals for art, necessarily impinges on his products, since he cannot but identify himself with a certain way of life and the pleasures associated with it. In this way we will understand how it is that artists fortunate to be born into a Catholic or Christian culture can produce marvelous works of art in spite of their personal failings, because they received a sound training and adhered, to some extent, to the larger Christian goals of their society, whereas the artists whom modernity has permitted or encouraged to be truly perverse end up producing the most perverse art.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Dr. Peter Kwasniewski

A graduate of Thomas Aquinas College (B.A. in Liberal Arts) and The Catholic University of America (M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy), Dr. Peter Kwasniewski is currently Professor at Wyoming Catholic College. He is also a published and performed composer, especially of sacred music.

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President’s Corner

    Liturgical Round (“Canon”) in C-Major
    Those who direct children’s choirs are always on the lookout for repertoire that’s dignified, inspired, and pleasing—yet still within reach of young choristers. Such directors will want to investigate this haunting liturgical round (PDF download) which has been married to the KYRIE from Mass VI (EDITIO VATICANA). I have provided an accompaniment, but it’s only for use during rehearsal; i.e. when teaching this round to your choristers. I also provided an organ accompaniment for the KYRIE—which some know by its trope (Kyrie Rex Genitor)—so that your congregation can take part when this round is used as a choral extension during Mass.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Latin Liturgy Association
    We note with pleasure that Mrs. Regina Morris, president of the Latin Liturgy Association, has featured—on page 4 of Volume CXXIX of their official newsletter—the three (3) terrific versions of the Stations of the Cross found in the Brébeuf Hymnal. One of the main authors for the blog of the Church Music Association of America said (6/10/2019) about this pew book: “It is such a fantastic hymnal that it deserves to be in the pews of every Catholic church.”
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Music List” • 28th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Readers have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I’ve prepared for 12 October 2025, which is the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are conveniently stored at the dazzling feasts website alongside the official texts in Latin.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    New Bulletin Article • “12 October 2025”
    My pastor requested that I write short articles each week for our parish bulletin. Those responsible for preparing similar write-ups may find a bit of inspiration in these brief columns. The latest article (dated 12 October 2025) talks about an ‘irony’ or ‘paradox’ regarding the 1960s switch to a wider use (amplior locus) of vernacular in the liturgy.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “American Catholic Hymnal” (1991)
    The American Catholic Hymnal, with IMPRIMATUR granted (25 April 1991) by the Archdiocese of Chicago, is like a compendium of every horrible idea from the 1980s. Imagine being forced to stand all through Communion (even afterwards) when those self-same ‘enlightened’ liturgists moved the SEQUENCE before the Alleluia to make sure congregations wouldn’t have to stand during it. (Even worse, everything about the SEQUENCE—including its name—means it should follow the Alleluia.) And imagine endlessly repeating “Alleluia” during Holy Communion at every single Mass. It was all part of an effort to convince people that Holy Communion was historically a procession (which it wasn’t).
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Canonic” • Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Fifty years ago, Dr. Theodore Marier made available this clever arrangement (PDF) of “Come down, O love divine” by P. R. Dietterich. The melody was composed in 1906 by Ralph Vaughan Williams (d. 1958) and named in honor of of his birthplace: DOWN AMPNEY. The arrangement isn’t a strict canon, but it does remind one of a canon since the pipe organ employs “points of imitation.” The melody and text are #709 in the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

In a meeting that took place on 23 July 2014, Pope Benedict told Father Josef Bisig, FSSP, that “Pope Saint John Paul II had the firm intention to personally bestow the episcopal consecration on an SSPX priest on 15 August 1988.”

— Libre entretien sur l’été 1988, Sedes Sapientiæ, issue 160, summer 2022

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