Views from the Choir Loft

God Has No Need of Our Music

Fr. David Friel · February 5, 2017 ·

OT EVERYONE appreciates the value of the liturgy, nor do all understand the value of particular aspects of liturgical celebration. For some, church architecture seems frivolous, while to others, it is “organized religion” that poses a difficulty. For some, the very idea of offering a “sacrifice” is interpreted (wrongly, I believe) as unnecessary, unfruitful, or unscriptural.

The value and pertinence of sacred music, also, is very often not well understood or appreciated. After all, some people ask, what good does a choir accomplish? What purpose does singing serve in the act of worship? “God doesn’t need to hear your music,” they might say. “He has no need of your praise or your music.”

A passage from Saint Irenaeus might serve as a clarifying response to such a position:

The Lord gave directions to His disciples to offer first-fruits to God from His own creatures, not as though He stood in need of them, but in order that they, themselves, might be neither unfruitful nor ungrateful. (Irenaeus, Adversus haereses 4.17.5; trans. adapt. from David Power, Irenaeus of Lyons on Baptism and Eucharist {Nottingham, England: Grove Books, 1991}, 15-16)

Indeed, while God may have no need of our music, nor does He have need of our worship, our love, or our very existence. This is precisely how we know the magnitude of His love.

UR DILIGENCE in the work of sacred music, therefore, serves not to fulfill a need on God’s part (as though the Godhead could stand in “need” of anything). Our worship, rather, serves to fulfill our own need to bear fruit for God and to express our gratitude for His munificence.

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served for five years as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski