In his Instruction on sacred music, commonly referred to
as the Motu Proprio (22 Nov., 1903), Pius X says (no.
3): "Special efforts are to be made to restore the use of Gregorian
chant by the people, so that the faithful may again take a more
active part in ecclesiastical offices, as was the case in ancient times". These words suggest a brief treatment of
congregational singing with respect to (a) its ancient use, (b) its
formal prohibition and gradual decay, (c) its present-day revival,
(d) the character which that revival may assume.
(a) The first testimony is found in the Epistle
of St. Paul to the Ephesians (v, 19): "Speaking to yourselves in
psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody
in your hearts to the Lord". Cardinal Bona finds in these words a
witness to the fact that "from the very beginnings of the Church,
psalms and hymns were sung in the assembly of the faithful", and
understands them to refer to an alternated chant
(mutuo et alterno cantu).
McEvilly in his "Commentary" applies them to
public and private meetings. St Augustine (Ep. cxix, ch. xviii) says:
"As to the singing of
psalms and
hymns, we
have the proofs, the examples, and the
instructions of the Lord Himself, and of the Apostles". (Cf. also Col.,
iii, 16; I Cor., xiv, 26.)
In the ancient congregational singing both
sexes took part; the words of St. Paul imposing silence on women in
church being interpreted to refer only to exhorting or instructing.
Duchesne describes how the earliest
worship of the Christians was parallel to that, not of the Temple of the Jews
at Jerusalem, but of the local
synagogues, the Christians borrowing
thence their four elements of Divine service-
the lections (reading parts of
Scripture),
the chants
(of the Psalter),
the homilies (explaining those
passages of scriptures),
and the prayers.
In treating of the Syrian Liturgy of the fourth
century, he makes up a composite picture from the 23rd catechetical
discourse of St. Cyril of Jerusalem (about the year 347), the
Apostolic Constitutions (II, 57; VIII, 5-15), and the homilies of St. John
Chrysostom, and describes the Divine service (Christian Worship: Its
Origin and Evolution, London, 1903, p. 57-64), and incidentally shows
the part the congregation took in the singing.
(b) A council held at Laodicea in the fourth
century decreed (can. xv), that "besides the appointed singers who
mount the ambo and sing from the book, others shall not sing in the Church".
Cardinal Bona (Rerum Liturg., Bk. I, ch. xxv,
sec. 19) explains that this canon was issued because the
unskillful
singing of the people
interfered with the decorous
performance of the chant.
The decree was not accepted everywhere, as Bona
shows. With respect to France, he also remarks that the custom of
popular (congregational) song ceased a few years after Caesarius;
for the Second Synod of Tours decreed "that the
laity,
whether in vigils or at Masses,
should not presume to stand with the clergy near
the altar whereon the
Sacred Mysteries are
celebrated,
and that the chancel should be
reserved to the choirs of singing clerics".
Hereupon Sala notes (no. 4) that "this custom
still obtains, nevertheless, in the Eastern Church; and in many
places in the Western Church, very remote from cities,
and therefore tenacious of older
customs and less influenced by newer ones,
the people learn the ecclesiastical chant and
sing it together with the clergy".
Many causes, doubtless, combined to bring about
the present lamentable silence of our congregations, amongst which
the most prominent was probably the one mentioned by Bona as having
occasioned the decree of the Council of Laodicea. That the cause was
not, as Dickinson thinks,
"the steady progress of ritualism and the growth of sacerdotal ideas", which "inevitably
deprived
the people of all initiative in the worship, and concentrated the
offices of public devotion, including that of song, in the hands of
the clergy" (Music in the History of the Western Church, New York,
1902, p. 48), may be inferred from the efforts of ecclesiastical
authority to revive the older custom of congregational singing, as
well be seen under (c).
(c) The Second Plenary Council of Baltimore
(1866) expressed (no. 380) its earnest wish that the rudiments of
Gregorian chant should be taught in the parish schools, in order that
"the number of those who can sing the chant well having increased
more and more, gradually the greater part, at least, of the people
should, after the fashion still existing in some places of the
Primitive Church, learn to sing Vespers and the like together with
the sacred ministers and the choir". The Third Plenary Council of
Baltimore (1884) repeats (no. 119) the words of the Second Council,
prefacing them with denuo
confirmemus.
(d) The words of the quoted councils and of the
pope imply a restoration of
congregational singing through
instruction in Gregorian chant, and therefore clearly refer to the
strictly liturgical offices such as solemn or high Mass, Vespers,
Benediction (after the Tantum Ergo has begun).
Congregational singing at low Mass and at other
services in the church, not strictly "liturgical"
in ceremonial character, has always obtained, more or less, in our
churches.
With respect to the strictly liturgical
services, it is to be hoped that the congregation may be instructed
sufficiently to sing, besides the responses to
the celebrant (especially those of the Preface), the ordinary (i.e.
the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei) of the Mass
in plain chant; leaving the Introit, Gradual or Tract, sequence (if
there be one), Offertory, and Communion to the choir; the Psalms and
hymns at Vespers,
leaving the antiphons to the choir.
The singing might well be made to alternate between congregation and
choir. Perosi made a strong plea to the musical congress of Padua
(June, 1907) for such congregational singing of the Credo (cf.
Civilta Cattolica, 6 July, 1907). (See CHOIR; MUSIC; SINGING,
CHORAL.)
WAGNER, Origine et Developpement du Chant
Liturgigue, tr. BOUR (Tournai, 1904). 14 sqq. Gives a good summary of
the history of the earliest congregational singing. Two articles in
the American Ecclesiastical Review (July, 1892, 19-29, and August,
1892, 120-133) give history, references, limits of vernacular
singing, and methods of training. See also Manual Church Music
(quarterly) (December, 1905), 21-33 for methods; also DICKINSON,
Music in the History of the Western Church, 223, 242, 376 for
congregational singing in Protestant churches.
H.T. HENRY
Transcribed by Thomas M. Barrett
Dedicated to the staff at Oregon
Catholic Press
The Catholic
Encyclopedia, Volume IV
Copyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor
Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
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