Ceremonial Instrumental Music
  • FSSPmusic
    Posts: 471
    Although Wagner's Bridal Chorus and Mendelssohn's Wedding March have been much deprecated, there seems to be an organ transcription repertory of what I will call ceremonial music of secular origin that has been generally tolerated, such as Clarke's "Prince of Denmark’s March" (Trumpet Voluntary), selections from Handel's Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks, Mouret's Rondeau, Campra's Rigaudon (from the opera Idoménée), Mendelssohn's "War March of the Priests" from Athalia, and Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" marches. A few of these remain on the list of wedding music selections I offer couples, but should they? I was reviewing the CDF's 1987 document on Concerts in Churches and noticed the following (emphasis mine):
    The principle that the use of the church must not offend the sacredness of the place determines the criteria by which the doors of a church may be opened to a concert of sacred or religious music, as also the concomitant exclusion of every other type of music. The most beautiful symphonic music, for example, is not in itself of religious character. The definition of sacred or religious music depends explicitly on the original intended use of the musical pieces or songs, and likewise on their content. It is not legitimate to provide for the execution in the church of music which is not of religious inspiration and which was composed with a view to performance in a certain precise secular context, irrespective of whether the music would be judged classical or contemporary, of high quality or of a popular nature. On the one hand, such performances would not respect the sacred character of the church, and on the other, would result in the music being performed in an unfitting context.
    Is it legitimate to appeal to custom to justify pieces that by now have arguably become more associated with church ceremonies than secular ceremonies? What about secular melodies that have become "Christianized" by the setting of religious hymn texts, either from the concert hall, such as Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," Holst's "Jupiter," or Schubert's "Ave Maria," or folksongs such as Kingsfold or The Ash Grove? I heard Debussy's "Clair de lune" played as an organ prelude before High Mass at a church famous for its traditional liturgical music program, and Cardinal Burke marched down the aisle in cappa magna to a Handel overture in Florence a few years ago. Where should the lines be drawn?
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  • Palestrina
    Posts: 549
    The CDF's principles for determining stylistic origins are, surprisingly enough (given the amount of time that had elapsed and what had happened in that time) very consistent with Pius X's principles as set out in his motu proprio.

    For what it's worth, I don't think that an appeal to custom for justifying the liturgical use of pieces with overtly secular (and especially operatic) origins is a slope that one would want to tread. Precisely the same argument could be applied to allow for the worst of everything, and of every period, and in every place!

    Put another way, the entrenched nature of a liturgical abuse does not make it any less an abuse - I think, for instance, of the number of occasions on which the Congregation was asked about accompaniment of singing on Good Friday (etc) because of an established usage in a place and responded to say that this was an abuse that needed to be eliminated.

    I also had a quick look at the regulations stemming from the motu proprio for the Diocese of Rome and note (at 30), that the prohibition against performance of musical compositions in 'free style' that have already been pronounced unsuitable, even in non-liturgical contexts or extra-liturgical offices was forbidden.

    As to hymnody, its uses and abuses, I would suggest, again, that anything operatic or overtly secular must be out. As to the folk tradition, this seems to me to be more complex, especially when I think of the tradition of Christmas carols and how closely interwoven it is with folk music in some places. I can only think that this is the reason that the publication of hymnals was once carefully regulated. It does make me wonder about the Lutheran chorales that we have adopted at times, some of which do have secular origins (Wachet auf). Perhaps the case for the adoption of folk melodies might be that these were once, long ago (but are no longer anywhere) used for any secular purpose? That would be making an argument analagous to the idea that the pipe organ, once heard in the Roman circuses, was ultimately adopted and adapted solely for liturgical purposes.

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  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,662
    The CDF document is about concerts in churches. One can say that a concert performance of Mendelssohn's incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream is inappropriate without saying that the Wedding March may not be used as an adjunct to the Nuptial Liturgy.
    Beware scrupulosity.
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  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,374
    Also that document seems particularly concerned about places where the state either owns churches or pays for their upkeep or otherwise has an interest in the use of the church that Americans don’t have from their government wherein turning the church into a concert hall for any and all kinds of music would be bad.

    I think that there are probably more problematic things to play in the baroque repertoire: arias even religious ones given explicitly sacred words like with “Thine be the glory” (in Dublin, at Saint Patrick’s, they use the Handel melody for “Hark the Herald angels sing”) never caught on with Catholics as far as I can see. I get a bit nervous with organ reductions of arias or overtures from classical operas above all but the Rigaudon would be unrecognizable as such even if you note the piece in the leaflet. Same for Handel’s other famous aria from a classical opera. “Overture from Xerxes” on the other hand…that would irk me a bit more.

    The Rondeau and the Pomp and Circumstance March no. 1 have active secular associations apart from the original context. I don’t mind the former, although some might, and it could cause some snickering, but the second has words, and I think that that poses a different problem. The rest of the examples don’t faze me.

    I would encourage people to come up with baroque repertoire in particular that evokes the feelings and power of these common pieces without the perhaps problematic aspects.
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