Well, that's because Purgatory will purge us of attachment to our own tastes. Flannery O'Connor captured this well in her immortal closing passage of “Revelation” – I am omitting the appropriate-to-character-in-this-context-given-the-Omniscient-Narrator use of the N word in order to avoid this triggering spam filters; forgive me, Miss O’Connor – the phrase “even their virtues were being burned away” betrays Patristic depth of wisdom:

“She [Mrs. Turpin] bent her head slowly and gazed, as if through the very heart of mystery, down into the pig parlor at the hogs. They had settled all in one corner around the old sow who was grunting softly. A red glow suffused them. They appeared to pant with a secret life. Until the sun slipped finally behind the tree line, Mrs. Turpin remained there with her gaze bent to them as if she were absorbing some abysmal life-giving knowledge. At last she lifted her head. There was only a purple streak in the sky, cutting through a field of crimson and leading, like an extension of the highway, into the descending dusk. She raised her hands from the side of the pen in a gesture hieratic and profound. A visionary light settled in her eyes. She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling toward heaven. There were whole companies of white-trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black n*****s in white robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs. And bringing up the end of the procession was a tribe of people whom she recognized at once as those who, like herself and Claud, had always had a little of everything and the God- given wit to use it right. She leaned forward to observe them closer. They were marching behind the others with great dignity, accountable as they had always been for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. They alone were on key. Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces that even their virtues were being burned away. She lowered her hands and gripped the rail of the hog pen, her eyes small but fixed unblinkingly on what lay ahead. In a minute the vision faded but she remained where she was, immobile.

At length she got down and turned off the faucet and made her slow way on the darkening path to the house. In the woods around her the invisible cricket choruses had struck up, but what she heard were the voices of the souls climbing upward into the starry field and shouting hallelujah.”

Whatever its standards are, I hope to be there.
I'm sure that we shall all be enthralled.
(Anything that we imagine about it will have been 'as straw'.)

When musicians arrive in Heaven, I'm fairly sure their reception will be akin to Anton Bruckner's:



Also, I forget which philosopher said so, but he surmised that the bureaucratic language of the angelic choirs will be Bach, but the everyday dinner conversation will be Mozart.

Haydn more likely than Mozart.

What, then, is the language of Purgatory? What about the various circles of Hell?

Ocheghem....Telemann......Danzi......most of the Italian Romantic opera composers....Kurt Weill..... A. Webern....Dallapicolla/Berio.....Cage....Glass/Reilly.....Harrison....and a bunch of people still breathing.

What in the world is wrong with the music of Johannes Ockeghem? I've sung and recorded (with Zephyrus) both his Alma Redemptoris Mater and his Ave Maria... benedicta tu. He was one of the most significant Franco-Flemish composers of the late 15th century, a worthy predecessor to Josquin des Prez.

The Zephyrus recording of Ave Maria:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGJ9ptk4Pns

The Alma Redemptoris as sung by Pomerium:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m79X61rH7Ac

Here is a recording (from 1978) of his "Missa Prolationum"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-gGwzFLFKI

Chuck, as the whole post was jest, I just had to settle for one polyphonic-era composer. Since I was just using my memory references (a feeble, impaired approach that) I just remember that old Johnnie, according to Grout, was at times vilified for appropriating really bawdy tunes as cantus firmi. I do recall his genius with multiple voicings was considerable tho'.
MJO, you're right, Stockhausen should've sufficed better than the crazed 20th c. Italians. But I dismissed him from any care in my yout', while Webern just irritates me if I think of his name, as does Glass.

I have started to compile traditional Latin entrance hymns using more recent metrical melodies. One interesting thing I have found is that English Catholic hymnals before Vatican II rarely, if ever, used melodies whose origin is Protestant, generally by the composer's affiliation. Of course, they never used texts written by Protestants. This impresses me, actually, even though a lot of the melodies and texts are poor, and sounds un-Oecumenical but that is not my main intention. Rather, it is important to preserve one's Catholic heritage. This is my "thing" only, but I will be using melodies that are of Catholic origin in the above sense, at least for now. That limits me even further, so I will have to also start investigating non-English Catholic hymnals prior to Vatican II. If anyone has suggestions.....