Thursday, October 26, 2006

So there's this stuff called polyphony that's pretty nice

GIRM Paragraph 41. All other things being equal, Gregorian chant holds pride of place because it is proper to the Roman Liturgy. Other types of sacred music, in particular polyphony, are in no way excluded...

Seán Patrick Cardinal O’Malley: Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of participating in the 125th Anniversary Celebration of St. Bridget Parish in Maynard. It was a beautiful experience. I was quite impressed by the fact that the Choir did a lot of polyphonic music, which one doesn’t hear too often. They performed many beautiful Latin Mass arrangements. I think that for a festive occasion like that one, the parish enjoyed very much hearing those special arrangements. Obviously it meant hours and hours of practice on the part of the choir prior to the Mass. It was apparently a labor of love for them.

You may not be familiar with polyphonic music. It is harmonized music. The old four part Masses featured much polyphonic music and it was very prevalent in the 15th and 16th centuries. It’s quite beautiful. It’s close harmony…sort of like a barbershop quartet, but in Latin…LOL!

More recent articles:

For more articles, see the NLM archives: