The Snowbird Statement (Part 3)

The Practice of Liturgical Music

16. Many parishes, especially smaller ones, are limited in material and personnel resources. There exists a need for the development of more adequate resources which would enable sung liturgy in such communities. Essential is a body of congregational music which is easily singable and of sufficient quality to endure across generations. Possibilities meriting further exploration include unaccompanied vernacular chants (such as the highly successful English Lord's Prayer), unaccompanied settings which can be led by a presider or cantor, simplified accompaniments for musicians of modest capabilities, and hymnody which has proven successful in small assemblies of other Christian traditions.

17. Since the Second Vatican Council, a prodigious amount of church music has been produced and published. So much music is now available and the turnover so great that common and stable repertoires of music familiar to Catholic populations are difficult to maintain. What common repertoire does exist has all too often been established by default rather than by informed design. This instability constitutes a serious pastoral problem and represents a source of disunity at all levels of the church's life. It impedes, for instance, the possibility of common diocesan celebrations. We call upon bishops in consultation with competent practicing musicians to begin to identify and promote a common repertoire of liturgical music to be commended to all parishes and ecclesiastical communities in particular regions of the church. This process need not mean uniformity or rigidity in musical practice, but rather the promotion of fundamental unity amidst diversity.

18. Regarding those elements of the church's liturgy which are to be sung, we encourage a renewed study of the 1967 document Musicam sacram. A practice based on this document would include the participation of priests, other ministers and people according to their respective roles in a greater variety of responses, acclamations, dialogues and prayers. A renewed study of Musicam sacram would serve to complement practices emanating from the widely used U.S. document Music in Catholic Worship. While the latter has been enormously constructive and valuable, it has given rise to a particular, rather standardized, model of music in liturgy. This model needs to be enhanced so as to allow for a more celebratory liturgy, a greater variety of forms, and a more fully engaged active participation on the part of the assembly.

19. We call for a positive approach to hymnody in the Roman liturgy and the development of criteria for the appropriate use of hymnody in all liturgical rites. The tradition of Catholic hymnody stretches back to congregational office hymns of the early church; includes sequences of the medieval eucharistic liturgy which in effect were strophic hymns; and extends through vernacular medieval community hymn singing which was well developed before the Reformation. The use of hymnody, already a feature of preconciliar eucharistic and devotional services, has continued to grow since the Second Vatican Council and deserves today stronger encouragement.

The hymn represents a poetically generative form of time-tested value for stimulating congregational participation. Well-crafted new hymn texts serve to amplify lectionary themes and bring spiritual enrichment to the hymn-singing tradition. Strophic hymnody, a well-established part of the religious culture of the English-speaking world, may rightly be seen as an authentic expression of liturgical inculturation. Hymnody is also ecumenically important as a musical bond between various Christian traditions.

We acknowledge that the hymn form poses certain challenges in relating well to the ritual and textual structure of the eucharist, but we reject the view that hymnody is intrinsically incompatible with the eucharistic liturgy. The task at hand is to advance the liturgical use of hymns, even if critically, and to clarify when and how hymns might be used appropriately in Catholic worship.

20. We are strongly committed to the renewal of the role of the choir in Catholic worship. There is nothing in the church's official liturgical directives since the Second Vatican Council that would justify deprecation or elimination of the choir--developments which have unfortunately taken place in some quarters. The voice of the choir and that of the congregation properly exist in dynamic relationship; there is no intrinsic conflict between the two. As part of the assembly, the choir at times leads congregational singing; at times it simply joins with the congregation; and at times it sings alone for the congregation's edification or to allow a ritual to unfold more expressively. It should not be forgotten that active participation on the part of the people is ensured both through actual singing and engaged listening. In no case should the choir offend against the proper norms for congregational singing. In all situations, a careful balance between the choir and congregation needs to be fostered.

Deeper theological reflection on the nature of the liturgical choir is necessary in the Western church. Some, unfortunately, would reduce the choir's role exclusively to supporting and leading the assembly's song; many seem insufficiently aware of the ability of fine choral music to enhance worship. The resources for a more intensive exploration of the choir's role in worship may be found in a closer examination of the structures of the liturgical rites, in the resources of Eastern liturgiology and aesthetics, as well as in modern theories of symbol and art. Such theoretical exploration of the role of the choir might well consider the following: the choir serves in a particular way to give voice to the glory and beauty of the liturgy; the choir bears witness to the eschatological fulfillment of the church, the song of which prefigures that of the saints and angelic choirs in the New Jerusalem; the choir is a joyful attendant of the pilgrim people of God and a festive sign of their heavenly home; the participation of the choir is crucial to the realization of solemnity and majesty in liturgical events.

21. In view of the growing interest in Gregorian chant among people of diverse backgrounds and ages, we encourage the rediscovery of the role of chant in Catholic worship. The modern use of this chant is provided for in the Graduale Simplex, Jubilate Deo, the Gregorian Missal and other sources. Whether in Latin or in the vernacular, chant connects the modern liturgy with its ancient roots and can provide a source of unity for multicultural and multilingual worship, speaking to and from the collective musical consciousness of the church. Among the most successful examples today of common sung prayer are the chant versions of the Lord's Prayer, Kyrie eleison and Agnus Dei, litanies and simple hymns. Moreover, melodic cells and motifs drawn from the church's collective memory can also serve as a basis for evocative modern composition.