An Encouraging Development from Rome

Alas, it will take a bit longer than that but this item from a couple of weeks ago (which I managed to miss) contains some most encouraging news. From www.chiesa:

ROMA, October 18, 2007 – In the span of just a few days, a series of events have unfolded at the Vatican which, taken all together, foretell new provisions – at the pope's behest – to foster the rebirth of great sacred music...

In effect, since just over a year ago, Gregorian chant has been restored as the primary form of singing for Mass and solemn Vespers in Saint Peter's basilica.

The rebirth of Gregorian chant at St. Peter's coincided with the appointment of a new choir director, who was chosen by the basilica chapter in February of 2006.

The new director, Pierre Paul, a Canadian and an Oblate of the Virgin Mary, has made a clean break with the practice established during the pontificate of John Paul II – and reaffirmed by the previous director, Pablo Colino – of bringing to sing at the Masses in St. Peter's the most disparate choirs, drawn from all over the world, very uneven in quality and often inadequate (emphasis added).

Fr. Paul put the gradual and the antiphonal back into the hands of his singers, and taught them to sing Mass and Vespers in pure Gregorian chant. The faithful are also provided with booklets with the Gregorian notation for Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and the translation of the texts in Italian, English, and Spanish. The results are liturgically exemplary celebrations, with increasing participation from a growing number of faithful from many nations. There's still much to do to bring back to life in St. Peter's what was, in ancient times, the Cappella Giulia – the choir specifically founded for the basilica – and to revive the splendors of the Roman musical style, a style in which the sacred polyphony pioneered by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Gregorian chant, also sung in the Roman manner (virile and strong, not like the monastic models inspired by Solesmes), alternate and enrich each other.

"There's still much to do..." Indeed there is but this a splendid first step. There is no more effective way for Holy Mother Church to promote high-quality liturgical music than by insisting on it in her own home (the Anglican Church's world-wide reputation for musical excellence no doubt results from the glorious sounds heard in her English cathedrals and the chapels of Oxford and Cambridge). Obviously most Catholic churches do not have the resources of St. Peter's but the Church, by demanding the best music in that most prominent locale, sends a powerful and encouraging message to churches everywhere they should strive for the same; that one cantor properly intoning the minor propers is infinitely preferable to trotting out the wobbly biddies to croak out (again) "Canticle of the Sun" or "On Eagles' Wings".