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Views from the Choir Loft

Modernity Impact

Aurelio Porfiri · August 4, 2014

N MUSIC I MAY BE CONSIDERED conservative, but I am neither conservative nor am I a traditionalist, I am just rooted to the origin. For me tradition is not going to the past, but going to the origins. This is the great limitation of so many traditionalists: they refuse modernity and they pretend to live still in the past.

After reading the beautiful book about history and memory from Jacques Le Goff, a great French historian, I have come to think that all these classifications – past, present, future, modern, ancient and so on – are mainly constructions of our mind that may help us to make sense of what surrounds us, but sometimes can also mislead us. One of my books about liturgy is called La Presenza, “The Presence.” In the liturgy we are living at the Present of the great absent. We cannot see Him but He is there under the Eucharistic species, in His own word proclaimed during the Mass, in the person of the Priest and also in the midst of us (“When two or three…”).

Liturgical music is the sign of this Presence; it is not an emblem of the present. Usually the harmonic and musical techniques of music performed from “contemporary groups” are far less advanced than many of the compositions of “conservative” musicians. So conservative is more modern than contemporary. But the idea is that some people, many I think, are confused between modernity and mass society. So we are modern or contemporary (even if the two words do not mean the same thing in an historical context), when we adhere to the culture that surrounds us, but that culture, as was identified well by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, is not the outcome of people’s aspirations and social interactions, but a huge marketing operation.

DOES IT MEAN ALL IS BAD in our society? Of course not. We live in a time of unprecedented advancement and opportunities. This has given us something: the internet, a revolution in the way we communicate. And this is the problem with some traditionalists that are not attached to church tradition but to the past. I remember years ago I had an acquaintance with a priest belonging to one of these congregations that celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary Form. I introduced him to one of my friends who told me, with good reasons, that this priest looked as if he was coming from the XIX century; in the way he curled his hair, the glasses, even the umbrella: everything made him look like a post card from one century ago.

Of course there are also people that are not like this, they just like Extraordinary Form because they think it is a better way for them to participate at the Mass. After what I have said before, of course I can understand them. Having said that, I need to recognize that I cannot blame the works of liturgists and theologians that try to understand the impact of modernity on ourselves, without confining themselves in a comfortable and fake past. The Tridentine Mass is not the past, it is the expression of eternity and so can be the Mass of Paul VI, if correctly celebrated, without selling it every Sunday on earth to the knights of capitalism.


BOTTEGA • Aurelio Porfiri is where you can discover
many of Mæstro Porfiri’s compositions in PDF format.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Extraordinary Form 1962 Missal, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Liturgy Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Aurelio Porfiri

Renowned as composer, conductor, theorist, author, pedagogue, and organist, Aurelio Porfiri has served the Church on multiple continents at the highest levels. Born and raised in Italy, he currently serves as Director of Choral Activities and Composer in Residence for Santa Rosa de Lima School (Macao, China).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

Amid all these old liturgical books, I find that I am happy and at ease; I feel at home.

— Dom André Mocquereau (1884)

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