Return of the Music of Palestrina and Gregory the Great
Catholic, GeneralChiesa has given us a wonderful interview (by Sandro Magister) with maestro Domenico Bartolucci on the state of liturgical music today. Some of my favorite quotes:
Today the fashion in the churches is for pop-inspired songs and the
strumming of guitars, but the fault lies above all with the
pseudo-intellectuals who have engineered this degeneration of the
liturgy, and thus of music, overthrowing and despising the heritage of
the past with the idea of obtaining who knows what advantage for the
people. If the art of music does not return to its greatness, rather
than representing an accommodation or a byproduct, there is no sense in
asking about its function in the Church…Our motto must be: let us return to
Gregorian chant and to polyphony in the tradition of Palestrina, and
let us continue down this road!
and
…Gregorian chant has been distorted by the rhythmic and
aesthetic theories of the Benedictines of Solesmes. Gregorian chant was
born in violent times, and it should be manly and strong, and not like
the sweet and comforting adaptations of our own day.
and
Today the motto is “go to the people, look them in the eyes,” but it’s
all a bunch of empty talk! By doing this we end up celebrating
ourselves, and the mystery and beauty of God are hidden from us. In
reality, we are witnessing the decline of the West.
and
For one thing, we would need to recover that spirit of solidity [i.e. in Gregorian Chant). But
the Church has done the opposite, favoring simplistic, pop-inspired
melodies that are easy on the ears. It thought this would make people
happy, and this is the road it took. But that’s not art. Great art is
density.
Read the whole article
Wow. I just love these quotes, especially where he notes "great art is density." That phrase alone, put to action, could be enough to undo all the liturgical, musical, and architectural ugliness to stem from the so called "spirit of Vatican II."
