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Views from the Choir Loft

Music Beautiful by Nature

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski · April 10, 2014

OR THIS POST, I am indebted to correspondence with a friend, who began discussing with me the definition of beauty as applied to music. I don’t claim to have any definitive answers, but the following train of thoughts might be of value to those who enjoy thinking about such questions.

To my mind, the “beautiful” is largely distinguished by the degree to which the beautiful “thing” is in accord with nature. nature in itself and untouched by man―as God’s direct creation―is simply beautiful, so then is art, architecture, and human life in general beautiful, insofar as it is in “accord with nature,” both the metaphysical laws that run throughout creation and the natural moral law that specially abides in man.

One might think here of the older usages of the terms “monster,” “monstrosity,” or even “freak of nature.” Things called by these names in the past due to their departure from the natural forms have practically become glorified in our time, in every part of human activity. Ugly art, ugly buildings, ugly music, ugly literature, and even literal “monsters” in movies/TV fill our senses with so much anti-beauty that even the very lives of humans forced to live in this environment can become unnatural and ugly. Interestingly, this decay appears directly proportional to the extent to which any given society has succumbed to Western modernization, which translates roughly to giving up the spiritual life and the rural life in order to live the high-tech material urban life.

I agree with the ancients and the wisdom of the ages: in melody and harmony, nature gives us the natural harmonic series. The further harmony deviates from the concord of these natural vibrations, the less beautiful it is. In rhythm and meter, nature gives us the gentle flowing of water or of human speech, the steady beating of the heart and cycle of respiration, as well as the vigor of the wind and of fleet-footed animals, and so we find beauty in Gregorian chant as well as in the “Ride of the Valkyries.” In timbre, nature gives us the songs of birds, the whistling of the wind, the roaring depths of canyons, the nearly-angelic human voice, and so the choirs and orchestras of the world bring us man’s best attempts to reflect nature’s awesome beauty―but the electrified, noisy chaos of Western modernization stands out in stark contrast.

St. Pius X rightly put the human voice and Gregorian chant on the sacred music pedestal: the more distant any instrument or music stood in relation to these models, the less sacred it was, the less fitting for the temple of God. As plainchant most perfectly exhibits the three qualities of sacred music―holiness, goodness of artistic form, and universality, chant should therefore be the model and inspiration for the best sacred music, as it was for Renaissance polyphony, and as it continues to be for a new generation of Catholic composers today.

Wherever we find people trying to classify ugly music as “beautiful,” or secular music as “sacred,” we also find agendas being pushed: whether it be self-aggrandizement or peer-aggrandizement or material profit or what have you, the encroachment of the ugly and the un-sacred always has the feeling of being “forced” (which is, un-natural), and it always seems to be appreciated and supported only by those who share the same agenda. And yet the frustrating difficulty is that these folks would say that Saint Pius X and those who agree with him are pushing their own “agenda.” How does one convince them that this agenda is for the truth? At least we can say this much: it brings little or no financial benefit, social status, or job security to those who pursue it!

In contrast, I always find telling what the musical “layman” thinks of a certain music. The person with no vested interest or agendas seems to have no trouble accurately identifying what sounds beautiful and what sounds sacred―it’s only natural!

Please visit THIS PAGE to learn more about Dr. Kwasniewski’s exciting new publication,
Sacred Choral Works, a 273-page collection of a cappella choir music for the Liturgy.

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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Quick Thoughts

    Requesting Our Advent Eucharistic Hymn
    A young lady named Agnes wrote to us: “Dear Mr. Ostrowski, do you have the PDF score for Ave Corpus Domini set to the ADVENT melody? Last year, we sang the hymn tune “Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland” quite a bit using your contrafactum technique. My choir appreciates the Latin hymns and practice videos, especially in the ADVENT and CHRISTMAS seasons. Your recent article on Gregorian Psalm Tones is a great help to my organist brother, and reminds us of attending VESPERS years ago when we lived in California. Thank you so much for all the effort put into providing these wonderful resources!”   Agnes, if you are listening! Yes, the PDF file you desire can be downloaded for free at the Brébeuf Portal via this URL link. Thanks for writing to us!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Message from the Vice-President!
    The Vice-President of the Church Music Association of America, Dr. Horst Buchholz (who also serves as Director of Sacred Music for the Archdiocese of Detroit) sent us an email yesterday regarding the harmonizations (PDF) I composed for the Gregorian Chant psalm tones. Dr. Buchholz says: “Those settings are absolutely exquisite, as I'm used to when it comes from you. Bravo! Well done! Now, as a sequel, if you could write something for accompanying psalms in English that would be awesome.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Seven (7) Hymn Verses for November!
    In the month of November, we remember in a special way the souls in purgatory. The BRÉBEUF HYMNAL often includes text alone versions for its hymns; why is that? The short answer is: flexibility. The “text only” version allows each choirmaster to employ a myriad of melodies. For example, I recently set the English translation of “De Profúndis” with the DAVOST MELODY (PDF). We are singing this before November ends. Indeed, you can hear our volunteer singing this (in real life) if you click here.
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Random Quote

“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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