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The Music of Vatican II
Why is Gregorian chant so seldom heard in Catholic churches?

“The Church recognizes Gregorian chant as being especially suited to the Roman liturgy. Therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.” 

—Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 116

Read through those two sentences, and see if you can detect any shadow of ambiguity or irony. I can’t. I find no reason to believe that the Council Fathers were kidding—that what they really meant to say was that every parish should have a folk-rock trio available for Sunday Mass. 

Hollywood and Madison Avenue certainly understand the connection between Gregorian chant and Catholic liturgy. When a movie director or advertising producer wants to create the solemn, prayerful atmosphere of a Catholic church, what sort of music does he use? (Hint: You won’t hear “We are the Light of the World.”)

But I have a problem. In the past 30 years I have not found a single parish in which Gregorian chant receives “pride of place” for use at Sunday Mass. Unless my experience is unusual, it would seem that the Church in the United States today does not recognize Gregorian chant as “especially suited to the Roman liturgy.”

Since the Church is a body that extends across time and space, I suppose that we can reconcile the clear teaching of the Council with the reality—what we have been taught to call the “lived experience”—of life in the typical American parish. Quite possibly the universal Church recognizes the beauty of Gregorian chant, and the unparalleled power of this form of music to raise souls in prayer, but the Church in America has not yet grasped the lesson. But if that explanation covers the facts, it only raises another question: Why haven’t American Catholics discovered Gregorian chant? 

The people’s preference?

The first hypothesis that springs to mind is that Americans simply don’t enjoy the sound of chant. I would be tempted to accept that hypothesis, if I had not recently visited a (secular) music store, and watched the tapes and CDs of Gregorian chant flying off the shelves. Could all those avid consumers of chant recordings be non-Catholics? Why would the musical tastes of Catholics be different from those of their neighbors—unless the Catholic ear has been damaged by the incessant beating of eagles’ wings?

Maybe that is the situation, because when I have asked about using Gregorian chant, I have had one priest after another tell me: “The people don’t like it.” Can we accept that as an adequate explanation? A good pastor is not guided solely by what his parishioners “like.” If it is true that Catholic Americans do not appreciate Gregorian chant in the liturgical context, then they are out of sympathy with the preferences of the universal Church. A conscientious pastor should do his best to change that situation.

And by the way, there is plenty of precedent for an effort by pastors to change—or if necessary to override—the preferences of their parishioners. Did the pastors of a generation ago take opinion polls before they pulled out the altar rails, put the statues in storage, and laid beige wall-to-wall carpeting over the marble floors of their sanctuaries? 

No, I cannot accept the notion that the use of Gregorian chant has been stymied by popular resistance. There must be a better explanation.

Competing hypotheses

Is chant impractical? I don’t think so. Many of our stone Gothic church buildings are perfectly suited for chant. You need neither an orchestra nor an elaborate sound system. You need only human voices, which the parishioners supply. A professional choir will make the chant sound particularly breathtaking, but even an ordinary congregation, with a minimum of training, can produce a lovely sound.

Would the training be too difficult for a normal parish to undertake? Again I don’t buy the argument. A few years ago, the publisher of this magazine toured the Catholic lecture circuit delivering a “stump speech” in which he extolled the glories of Gregorian chant. He concluded each talk with a 5- or 10-minute lesson in performing chant, and then invited the audience to join him in a short performance. Invariably the results were beautiful. Extrapolating from his experience, I suggest that if each American diocese could find an instructor just half as good as Father Fessio (who can neither play a musical instrument nor read musical notation), an entire parish could receive basic training in Gregorian chant in 10 to 20 minutes—about the length of time it takes to move in the synthesizer, set up the drums, and wire the amps for the Life Teen Mass.

There is one more possibility, I suppose. Maybe Gregorian chant cannot make any headway because American Catholics are already perfectly content with the quality of the music they hear in church every Sunday. Do you suppose that’s it?  

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