I'm not sure it's an anecdote. I found interesting that secuar things had to go through the 'purification period' in early church before they were used as sacred in holy liturgy, such as organ , latin, (and I'm srue all other things too, priests vestments...) and of course they cannot be replaced by the things of someones' preferences.

An excellent article from Catholic Culture about the origin of hymns in the liturgy here:

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=2606&repos=1&subrepos=0&searchid=416355

A brief excerpt:

"When we examine this first part of the Mass—the Mass of the Catechumens, it is called—we see just how strongly the Jewish ritual has influenced it. Roughly speaking, the Jewish ritual consisted of the psaltery, prayers of petition and praise, selections from the Scriptures, litanies and a doxology which was a form of creed. These are all represented in the first part of the Mass. Taking the various prayers in their order we find first, a psalm at the foot of the altar, the Confiteor, a prayer of petition, the Introit, a prayer of praise, the Kyrie, the remains of a litany, the Gloria, the Collects, the Epistle, the Gradual, Tract, etc., the Gospel and the Creed, which ends this first part of the Mass. The second part — the preparation for the Consecration, Communion and thanksgiving afterward, are, of course, entirely Christian in their origin. There are no hymns in this part of the Mass."

Farther along:

"In the Eastern Churches hymns were sung from the beginning. In the Latin Rite, however, the singing of hymns had a definite origin, attributable to a certain bishop or bishops at .a time that is definitely known. That time was the fourth century. Curiously, the liturgical hymns of the Latin Rite owe their origin to a heresy.

The Church, as we all know, was beset with heresies, even from the beginning, one of which, Arianism, was rampant during the fourth century, although its originator, Arius, was dead, and the heresy itself condemned by the first Council of Nice, held in 325 a.d. the Emperor Constantius, who was one of the protectors of this heresy, had banished St. Hilary, the Bishop of Poitiers, to Phrygia because the latter adhered stanchly to Nicene orthodoxy. While he was in Phrygia St. Hilary came in contact with the Eastern Churches and observed the part that hymn singing played in their liturgies.

When St. Hilary was released from his exile he stopped on his way home to visit his friend, St. John Chrysostom, who was Bishop of Constantinople. The latter was having trouble with the Arians who, having been declared heretics, were being denied the use of the churches of the city. Nothing daunted, they streamed into Constantinople at sunset on Saturdays and Sundays and the eves of festivals, congregating in the porticoes of the buildings they were not allowed to use and singing hymns with gusto, all night long. The hymns which they sang were doctrinal and the doctrine they set forth was, of course, heretical.

To offset this vigorous broadcasting of false doctrine St. John Chrysostom organized nightly processions, the faithful carrying silver crosses and wax tapers. St. Hilary sensed an opportunity in all this— the truth could be spread by the very same means which the Arians were using to spread heresy. Accordingly, he set to and composed hymns himself, tuneful in sound and orthodox in content and offered them to his friend, the bishop, for his people to use in their nightly processions, so that they could sing as loudly as the Arians and drown out their heresy. His offer was accepted. "

You think the events after Vatican II were tough? In the late 8th century, Charlemagne had singers from Rome go to all his major churches and teach them the current Roman chant melodies, essentially obliterating a perfectly good Gallican tradition of chants. At least the nuns and their guitars didn't have soldiers to enforce their dictates!

When churches accepted the Roman Rite after the Council of Trent, they were only accepting the texts. Most retained their own variants of the chant melodies for years.

Also, after Trent, there was an explosion of polyphonic Requiems since that liturgy was regularized. Suggests that commercial opportunity was an important factor!

Choirs have often enjoyed hearing this anecdotal tale:
How human and venial, what institutional snobbery, that the original scholars sent from Rome to Aachen to teach Charlemagne's singers the Roman chant deliberately taught them wrong. When Charlemagne discovered this he was wroth! And, arranged with the Holy Father to send his singers to Rome and secretly imbed them in the schola there in order correctly to learn it. (I agree with Michael O'Connor: it was and is unfortunate that Gallican chant [and liturgy] were displaced. Odd as it may seem to us, it is quite likely that Gaul was evangelised and liturgically influenced as much as, if not more than, from the east as from Rome itself. What riches have been lost to history because of the march to uniformity of expression!)

this is the kind of stuff I soak in... whether it can be wrung out later -- now that is the question!

Here's a marvellous story from Bede's History of England I came across years ago, which demonstrates how handy it is to know the chant for the "Alleluia" if you happen to be set upon by an army of naked Saxons and Picts.

I always read out this moving tale at the beginning of chant courses.(For the Alleluia, at the relevant spot, I declaim the threefold Easter alleluia for dramatic effect) It never fails to inspire, myself included:

HOW THE SAME BISHOPS PROCURED THE BRITONS ASSISTANCE FROM HEAVEN IN A BATTLE, AND THEN RETURNED HOME. [A.D. 429.] (Ch XX)

IN the meantime, the Saxons and Picts, with their united forces, made war upon the Britons, who, being thus by fear and necessity compelled to take up arms, and thinking themselves unequal to their enemies, implored the assistance of the holy bishops; who, hastening to them as they had promised, inspired so much courage into these fearful people, that one would have thought they had been joined by a mighty army. Thus, by these holy apostolic men, Christ Himself commanded in their camp. The holy days of Lent were also at hand, and were rendered more religious by the presence of the priests, insomuch that the people being instructed by daily sermons, resorted in crowds to be baptized; for most of the army desired admission to the saving water; a church was prepared with boughs for the feast of the resurrection of our Lord, and so fitted up in that martial camp, as if it were in a city. The army advanced, still wet with the baptismal water; the faith of the people was strengthened and whereas human power had before been despaired of, the Divine assistance was now relied upon. The enemy received advice of the state of the army, and not questioning their success against an unarmed multitude, hastened forwards, but their approach was, by the scouts, made known to the Britons; the greater part of whose forces being just come from the font, after the celebration of Easter, and preparing to arm and carry on the war, Germanus declared he would be their leader. He picked out the most active, viewed the country round about, and observed, in the way by which the enemy was expected, a valley encompassed with hills. In that place he drew up his inexperienced troops, himself acting as their general. A multitude of fierce enemies appeared, whom as soon as those that lay in ambush saw a Pp roaching, Germanus, bearing in his hands the standard instructed his men all in a loud voice to repeat his words, and the enemy advancing securely, as thinking to take them by surprise, the priests three times cried, Alleluia. A universal shout of the same word followed, and the hills resounding the echo on all sides, the enemy was struck with dread, fearing, that not only the neighbouring rocks, but even the very skies were falling upon them and such was their terror, that their feet were not swift enough to deliver them from it. They fled in disorder, casting away their arms, and well satisfied if, with their naked bodies, they could escape the danger; many of them, in their precipitate and hasty flight, were swallowed up by the river which they were passing. The Britons, without the loss of a man, beheld their vengeance complete, and became inactive spectators of their victory. The scattered spoils were gathered up, and the pious soldiers rejoiced in the success which heaven had granted them. The prelates thus triumphed over the enemy without bloodshed, and gained a victory by faith, without the aid of human force and, having settled the affairs of the Island, and restored tranquility by the defeat, as well as of the invisible; as of the carnal enemies, prepared to return home. Their own merits, and the intercession of the holy martyr Alban, obtained them a safe passage, and the happy vessel restored them in peace to their rejoicing people.