Quotes by saints about Gregorian chant?
  • Heath
    Posts: 934
    I'll be doing a presentation next week on Gregorian chant for a large group of Catholics in their mid-20s, and I'd like to throw out a few quotes on chant by some saints. Any suggestions?
  • BachLover2BachLover2
    Posts: 330
    check out isidore of sevilla
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    SWINE & BEES!

    http://www.synaxis.info/psalom/reference/quotes.html

    This excellent page has a TON of them!

    Just as swine run to a place where there is mire and bees dwell where there are fragrances and incense, likewise demons gather where there are carnal songs and the grace of the Holy Spirit settles where there are spiritual melodies, sanctifying both mouth and soul.
    —St. John Chrysostom

    And even if you do not understand the meaning of the words, for the time being teach your mouth to say them, for the tongue is sanctified by the words alone whenever it says them with good will.
    —St. John Chrysostom, On Psalm 41:2, (PG 55:158)

    Virtually all know the words of this psalm and they continue to sing it at every age, without knowing, however, the sense of what has been said. This is not a small charge, to sing something every day, putting forth words from the mouth, without searching out the meaning of the thoughts residing in the words.
    —St. John Chrysostom, On Psalm 140, (PG 55:426-7)
    Thanked by 1tomboysuze
  • Jeffrey MorseJeffrey Morse
    Posts: 203
    I remember Dr. Berry always quoting St Hugh of Cluny especially in regards the singing of the Chant as a path to holiness.
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    Start with the Scripture citations about music;
    Saint Paul and others could only have been talking about chant.

    Jurgens
    http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Early-Fathers-Three-Set/dp/0814610250

    Quasten
    http://www.amazon.com/Patrology-1-Beginnings-Patristic-Literature/dp/0870610848

    Papal Legislation on Sacred Music 95 A.D. to 1977 A.D.
    by Rev. Robert F Hayburn, Mus.D.

    I have these at home, and will peruse and report back over the weekend.
    There should be some footnotes that might refence persons who are saints.
  • Chris AllenChris Allen
    Posts: 150
    Here's a good one:

    These qualities [sacredness, beauty, universality] are to be found, in the highest degree, in Gregorian Chant, which is, consequently, the Chant proper to the Roman Church, the only chant she has inherited from the ancient fathers, which she has jealously guarded for centuries in her liturgical codices, which she directly proposes to the faithful as her own, which she prescribes exclusively for some parts of the liturgy, and which the most recent studies have so happily restored to their integrity and purity.

    On these grounds Gregorian Chant has always been regarded as the supreme model for sacred music, so that it is fully legitimate to lay down the following rule: the more closely a composition for church approaches in its movement, inspiration and savor the Gregorian form, the more sacred and liturgical it becomes; and the more out of harmony it is with that supreme model, the less worthy it is of the temple.

    The ancient traditional Gregorian Chant must, therefore, in a large measure be restored to the functions of public worship, and the fact must be accepted by all that an ecclesiastical function loses none of its solemnity when accompanied by this music alone.

    Special efforts are to be made to restore the use of the Gregorian Chant by the people, so that the faithful may again take a more active part in the ecclesiastical offices, as was the case in ancient times.

    --St Pius X, Tra le sollecitudini paragraph 3
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    Great one!!
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