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“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

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Views from the Choir Loft

The Eternal, Not the Contemporary

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski · March 13, 2014

HAVE NEVER MADE any attempt to hide my passionate devotion to the works of composer Arvo Pärt (born 1935). In fact, I have gone out of my way to talk about him whenever possible. (Here, for example, is a piece about his life-changing discovery of Gregorian chant.) Not only do I love his music, I also love his wise words about music and musicians. Even though he is famously reticent to speak, it’s also true that once he gets going, we can always expect profound insights.

In an interview, he had this to say about why the music of some composers will always be relevant, always fresh and contemporary to us:

It is said that many works of art from earlier times appear to be more contemporary than works of today. This combination of “art” and “contemporary” is in itself absurd. However, what are we to make of this? Certainly not that a musical genius has a prophetic eye for future centuries. I think that the so-called contemporary nature of Bach’s music will not disappear in the next 200 years, since, from an absolute point of view, it is simply of an integrally higher quality. The secret of this “contemporary” character lies not so much in how greatly the author embraces his time, but more in the way he perceives all of existence, with its joy, its suffering, and its experiences. … Art should concern itself with the eternal, not the contemporary.

Is this not a salutary corrective against the idolatry of the present―the mood that our times demand something specific to them that is somehow different from what is simply demanded by human nature, its quandaries, exigencies, and aspirations, or from what is called forth by the encounter with the mystery of the living God? The reason Bach’s music can never grow stale or irrelevant or inaccessible is that he is speaking the cosmic language of the human heart, not the local vernacular of a momentary human society.

We can apply these insights to sacred music, especially to the Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony repeatedly singled out by the papal magisterium. Their very rhythms and melodies, textures and syntax, speak to us of the spiritual, the eternal, the numinous, the consecrated cosmos in which Jesus Christ is the Eternal High Priest and we are the living members of His Mystical Body. It sounds like a cliché to talk about timeless music, and yet there are identifying features of chant and polyphony that guarantee its timelessness, its perennial suitability for the act of divine worship.

To speak thus is to speak at the level of musical style, of pure music. But we must not forget the texts, which are the directive principle, the underlying motive, the burden of the communication; it is these texts that summon the chant and the polyphony to announce them worthily, to be their servants in the work of beautiful proclamation. In this connection I was struck by Arvo Pärt’s remarks about why, when writing a choral work, he always chooses sacred texts, even though his commission may leave him free to choose any text.

I have always allowed myself to be guided by texts that mean a lot to me and that for me are of existential significance. It is a root that reaches very deep and that lifts me upwards. It is basically the same fruit that has nourished the world for centuries. If we view a period of two thousand years we recognize that people have changed very little. That is why I believe the sacred texts are still “contemporary.” Seen in this light there are not significant differences between yesterday, today, and tomorrow because there are truths that maintain their validity. Mankind feels much the same today as he did then and has the same need to free himself from his faults. The texts exist independently of us and are waiting for us: each of us has a time when he will find a way to them.

Now, re-read this passage while thinking about the Propers and the Ordinary of the Mass―the Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory, and Communion antiphons, the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei―that have given shape and meaning to the Eucharistic sacrifice for 1,500 years. Are these sacred texts not perennially, permanently, intrinsically contemporary, proclaiming truths that always maintain their validity? And is that not one of the many reasons we moderns, already prone to excessive change and pluralism, need the unifying, stabilizing, and consolidating effect of the sacred chants and sacred texts handed down to us?

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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Dr. Peter Kwasniewski

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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Can You Spare 33 Seconds?

Here’s an audio excerpt (33 seconds) of a setting for Kyrie VIII which was recorded live last Sunday at our parish in Los Angeles. The setting (“Missa de Angelis”) is by composer Richard Rice, and you can download the free PDF if you click here and scroll to the bottom. I think Richard’s composition is marvelous. I missed a few notes on the organ, but I’ll get them right next time.

—Jeff Ostrowski
5 April 2021 • When Girls Sing

Covid restrictions here in California are still extremely severe—switching “two weeks to flatten the curve” into “two years to flatten the curve.” Since 2020, we’ve had police breaking into our church to check if everyone is wearing a mask…even when only 5-6 people are present! But we were allowed to have a small percentage of our singers back on Easter Sunday, and here is their live recording of the ancient Catholic hymn for Eastertide: Ad Cenam Agni Providi. The girls were so very excited to sing again—you can hear it in their voices!

—Jeff Ostrowski
29 March 2021 • FEEDBACK

“E.S.” in North Dakota writes: “I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU for all the hard work you have put—and continue to put—into your wonderful website. In the past two years, my parish has moved from a little house basement into a brand new church and gone from a few families receiving Low Masses twice a month to several families (and many individuals) receiving Mass every Sunday, two Saturdays a month, and every Holy Day. Our priest has been incorporating more and more High Masses and various ceremonies into our lives, which has made my job as a huge newbie choir master very trying and complicated. CCWatershed has been an invaluable resource in helping me get on my feet and know what to do!!! Thank you more than I can express! May God bless you abundantly and assist you in your work and daily lives!”

—Jeff Ostrowski

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“The Catholic Church holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions on it to die of starvation in extremest agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul, I will not say, should be lost, but should commit one single venial sin, should tell one willful untruth, or should steal one poor farthing without excuse.”

— Saint John Henry Newman (1865)

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