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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

Sacred Vs. Secular • What Do You Think?

Jeff Ostrowski · December 17, 2015

Earlier today, I sat down and sight-read a beautiful arrangement of a Christmas song:

    * *  Mp3 Audio • “Live Recording” — Played By Jeff Ostrowski

My performance leaves much to be desired, but you get the idea. It’s quite a nice piece, isn’t it? My mother gave me a whole pile of these pieces when I left Kansas in 2005; there are literally hundreds more like it, and they’re all fantastic. The music is not difficult. 1

I find this music quite BEAUTIFUL—but is it sacred?

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING photograph by Fr. Lawrence Lew:

921 Father Lawrence Lew


This, too, is beautiful—but there’s something more. It possesses a certain dignity: grandeur yet austerity, splendor yet simplicity, majesty yet gravity. It has a holiness, a power. This type of dignity can also be felt when listening to sacred polyphony. The same dignity is shown by a priest wearing sacred vestments.

I agree with Pope Saint John Paul II, who said in June of 1980:

“To the extent that the new sacred music is to serve the liturgical celebrations of the various churches, it can and must draw from earlier forms—especially from Gregorian chant—a higher inspiration, a uniquely sacred quality, a genuine sense of what is religious.”

This notion flies in the face of certain theories made popular in the 1960s. “God made everything,” some say, “so everything is sacred.” One of the drafters of SING TO THE LORD even presented a paper asserting that liturgical music need not sound “Catholic.” People like that will never forbid any styles at Mass; and by eliminating nothing, they allow any style—even rap music! (They will do anything to avoid admitting that!) But look again at that beautiful cathedral and listen to the beautiful carol. See whether you agree that “beautiful” does not necessarily equal “sacred.”



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   If I can sight-read something, that proves it’s not very difficult!

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 Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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    Here's a live recording of one of the choral “warm-up” exercises my choir enjoys. It was taken during our rehearsal on 27 January 2023. It’s good to make sure each chord is perfectly in tune and balanced before moving to the next one. That only happens when each singer has the correct vowel. If you like, you can freely download that vocal exercise.
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    “Jeff, I wanted to personally thank you for your spiritual witness at the Symposium & often blogs that you write too. Praying that prayer in the mornings My God, my Father and my all (by Cardinal Merry Del Val), mentioning saints’ stories of Brébeuf, Jogues, John Vianney, monks who fought in WWII, their hard work in spite of terrible conditions, their relentless zeal for the faith, their genuine love for the laypeople they served, etc. Overall though—more than anything concrete I can point to that you did or said—it was your demeanor at the Symposium. I could tell you really absolutely love and believe the Catholic Faith. You don’t get that everywhere, even in Church circles. And your humility is what then makes that shine even brighter. It is super inspiring! God is working through you probably way more than you know.”
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    Those who head over to the Symposium Website will notice the tentative schedule for 2023 has been released. This is all very exciting! Very soon, we will begin accepting applications, so please make sure you have subscribed to our mailing list. If you are subscribed, that means you'll hear announcements before anyone else. (It’s incredibly easy to subscribe to our mailing list; just scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address.)
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Random Quote

“Chants closely related to the readings should, of course, be appropriately transferred for use with these readings. For pastoral reasons also there is an option regarding the chants for the Proper of Seasons: namely, as circumstances suggest, to replace the text proper to a day with another text belonging to the same season.”

— Ordo Cantus Missae (1971)

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