Patristic writings about instruments and the early Church-cool article by James McKinnon
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=9134
    Thanked by 6chonak jpal M. Jackson Osborn gregp Ora_et_Labora R J Stove
  • jpal
    Posts: 365
    Love this article! I have his Music in Early Christian Literature on my bookshelf. It is both informative and entertaining. Really, the Church Fathers did not mince words. Most bishops are so diplomatic these days.
    Thanked by 1smvanroode
  • MaryAnn Carr WilsonMaryAnn Carr Wilson
    Posts: 1,738
    Very interesting.

    Paging CharlesW...
    Is this what you mean by chant "purists"?
    Tee hee
  • R J StoveR J Stove
    Posts: 302
    Quoth Arnobius:

    "Did he [God] send them [souls] so that as males they become pederasts[?]"


    Um, can the relevant officials at the Archdiocese of Milwaukee / Los Angeles / Boston get back to you about that, boss?
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    No, it isn't what I mean by "chant purists." The problem with chant purists, is that the examples they work from are probably not so authentic. Actually, no examples are. Prior to the first 1,000 years or so, everything is guesswork. I have yet to see a 6th century written chant score. This music was not written down until much later, and it had suffered its own degrees of corruption and alteration over the centuries.

    I have heard musicians hold up Solesmes - usually traditionalist Catholics - as some kind of standard we should all follow. The whole thing with Pius X and these 19th-century French chant adaptations is like modern day explorers saying, "We decided to rediscover America because we didn't like the way Columbus did it. Believe us, not him." There have been so many variations of chant, that no one has any lock on authenticity. Even in the east, where we have done a much better job of preserving our heritage, our music has changed over 1500 years.

    Beware the "experts" and "chant purists." That article tells us more about secular music of the time, than it does about church music.
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