A conversation on why better sacred music is a must, how and why many believe it has fallen into mediocrity and banality, and what can be done to revive it.
Sacred music has an objective greatness and essential purpose that needs to be rediscovered: that of leading souls to the divine, to heaven and to holiness, says the co-author of a new book interview with Cardinal Robert Sarah on the subject.
In Song of the Lamb — Sacred Music and the Heavenly Liturgy, Peter Carter discusses with the former prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments the spiritually rich tradition of Catholic sacred music from the Church Fathers through to the Second Vatican Council, up until today.
In this Nov. 13 telephone interview with the Register, Carter, who is director of Sacred Music at the Aquinas Institute of Princeton University, discusses why better sacred music is a must, how and why many believe it has fallen into mediocrity and banality, and what can be done to revive it. He also explains his hopes for the book, and that it will help Catholic musicians to more deeply understand the importance of sacred music, and encourage bishops and priests in this area, too.
Mr. Carter, what’s the impetus behind your book? How did it come about?
The particular relevance of this book right now is that it speaks to the desire and need for beauty, sincerity, and integrity in the liturgy, hopefully in a way that transcends the politics and debates surrounding the liturgy wars. Cardinal Sarah calls for the ever-constant renewal of the sacred liturgy through rediscovering the Church’s teaching and tradition of sacred music, and shows us why it is not only relevant today, but worth immersing ourselves in so that we can truly understand and love what the Church tells us is a “treasury of inestimable value.”
Some years ago there was a famous book called Why Catholics Can’t Sing, The Culture of Catholicism and the Triumph of Bad Taste. In your book you talk about sacred music immersing us, however imperfectly, in the atmosphere of heaven. Why has sacred music often been viewed as so poor in the Church in recent decades?
One of the highest compliments for a Church musician is when someone says the music made them feel “like they were in heaven.” Though this may sound hyperbolic, it speaks to a genuine theological reality: Participation in liturgy on earth is, in essence, a sharing in the heavenly worship of God, surrounded by saints and angels at the altar. Thus, sacred music, and indeed all aspects of the liturgy, should guide us toward this profound truth, both instructing and inviting us into divine worship.
The persistent issue of uninspiring sacred music can be understood by refining the question to ask: Why does much liturgical music fail to point souls toward the worship of God? Poor music rarely results from intentional neglect, but rather from a misunderstanding of primary aims. Frequently, the focus becomes human connection, creating a welcoming atmosphere and fostering community. These are valuable goals in themselves, yet not the primary purpose of the liturgy, which, as St. Pius X tells us, is for the worship and glory of God. Secondarily, the liturgy and sacred music are for the sanctification and edification of the faithful. Community is vital but must be properly ordered alongside the primary aim of glorifying God.
What do you hope the book will achieve? What do you hope it might help to change in terms of today’s approach to sacred music in the Church?
The book provides a wonderful and thorough introduction to the Church’s rich tradition and teachings on sacred music that is largely unknown and overlooked by many Catholics today. There haven’t been many recent documents from the Church on sacred music since Musicam Sacram in 1967. Cardinal Ratzinger wrote quite a lot about sacred music, but I think it’s timely that Cardinal Sarah is bringing this to our attention today, both in giving his own meditations on the theology of music in the liturgy and in presenting what the Church has always taught about sacred music. I pray, too, that it will help form and encourage priests and bishops in their unique roles as custodians of the sacred liturgy, affirming them in the belief that all their efforts to imbue the worship of God with beauty and integrity are truly necessary and worthwhile.
I also hope, for musicians and for Catholics who already love sacred music, that they can more deeply understand why music is so important, and that they continue to allow themselves to be formed by music to praise God with more joy, with more of their heart, and their whole being. This is because sacred music is not something to which we only give intellectual assent; it’s something that we live and breathe and praise God through. So, in that sense, it’s something we can all continue to grow in.
To launch the book, Cardinal Sarah will be at the following U.S. events this month: Nov. 21 – 3 p.m: Talk and Book Signing at St. Agatha – St. James Church (3728 Chestnut St, University City, Philadelphia) (the event is free but pre-registration is required); Nov. 21 – 7 p.m: Pontifical Vespers at Cathedral Basilica of Philadelphia; Nov. 22 – 2 p.m: Talk and Book Signing at Princeton University (McCosh 50) (pre-registration required); Nov. 23 – 4.30 p.m: Preaching and Celebrating Mass at the Princeton University Chapel.