Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Sacred Music

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI recently offered some intriguing reflections on sacred music, including on his own experiences.  Post-Vatican II developments come in for some predictable critiques.  But some of Benedict’s reflections also strike me as quite beautiful (such as his thoughts on music being born out three key experiences: the experience of love, of suffering and dying, and of an encounter with the Divine — all three seem to me to be deeply interrelated, in fact). Troubling for me is the uniqueness — bordering on superiority — Benedict accords traditional Western music in its Christian canon of masterpieces.  I have no problems with Benedict’s personal preferences, but to ground these in theological claims seems problematic to me.

Here is a brief English summary of the remarks (which, however, lacks some of the more interesting parts of Benedict’s address): http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/07/04/pope-emeritus_benedict_xvi_receives_honorary_doctorates/115596.

And here is a link to the complete remarks, currently available only in German as far as I can tell: http://de.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/07/04/die_ansprache_von_benedikt_xvi_-_volltext/1156064

I note in passing that the German version also includes a photo of the event that led to Benedict’s remarks, namely a couple of (additional) honorary doctorates for him — the photo invites a fun game which one might call “where is woman?” (I spot two, on a first quick look).

Teresa Berger

Teresa Berger is Professor of Liturgical Studies at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School in New Haven, CT, USA, where she also serves as the Thomas E. Golden Jr. Professor of Catholic Theology. She holds doctorates in both theology and in liturgical studies. Recent publications include an edited volume, Full of Your Glory: Liturgy, Cosmos, Creation (2019), and a monograph titled @ Worship: Liturgical Practices in Digital Worlds (2018). Earlier publications include Gender Differences and the Making of Liturgical History (2011), Fragments of Real Presence (2005), and a video documentary, Worship in Women’s Hands (2007).

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8 responses to “Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Sacred Music”

  1. Elisabeth Ahn

    And here is the Vatican link to his speech — in Italian, German and Polish:
    http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2015/07/04/0533/01162.html

    “Troubling for me is the uniqueness — bordering on superiority — Benedict accords traditional Western music in its Christian canon of masterpieces.”

    Beyond troubling, I dare say such Western-centric thinking, coupled with a deep-seated, almost unconscious, sense of European superiority — one of the most unfortunate hallmarks of his papacy, IMO — has been the root of all the problems, liturgical and otherwise, that vexed his pontificate.

    Reply
  2. Doug O’Neill

    Regarding the Western music remark – first of all, consider his audience, the Krakow Academy of Music. I don’t find that troubling at all. Although there is beauty in other cultural traditions, I think he is correct in saying that the Western tradition is without parallel, because nowhere outside the Western world have there been created great works of artistic formal beauty for the Church. Music in other cultural traditions that evolved largely separately from the Western tradition does not have the same function as Western music. That’s not to say it does not have value and beauty; it just means it has a different purpose. I do appreciate that he is not Catholic-centric about it – he gives a shout out to Bach and Handel.

    Western music has always been influenced by non-Western traditions, from Middle Eastern monophony to African and Hindu influences in the 20th-21st centuries. Don’t consider it a “pure” Western tradition, because the truth is it has never been. Like Europe itself, Western music has never existed in a vacuum.

    I urge us to give Benedict the benefit of the doubt – rather than degrading other cultural traditions, he is upholding the value of the great sacred treasury of the Church, which is in line with the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. There is nothing wrong with that.

    Lastly, I think we should be careful when we talk about the value of world music in the liturgy. In the U.S., the vast majority of liturgical song, regardless of style, is firmly planted in the Western tonal tradition. There is very little true world music, and what there is is Westernized for our tonal system and instruments. It would actually be more exotic and non-Western to get into ancient chant scholarship!

    Reply
    1. Teresa Berger

      @Doug O’Neill:
      I appreciate your thoughts, Doug. This is certainly something that deserves reflections from different corners and sides. And of course Western music itself is a hybrid. But I actually WAS thinking not of “world music” (whatever that is supposed to be) but of, for example, Syriac chant when I raised questions about the superiority of Western music, as supposedly the truest embodiment of Christian music.

      Reply
      1. Doug O’Neill

        @Teresa Berger:
        Teresa, you are right about “world music” – hardly any cultural music exists in isolation. I think we are in agreement re: Syriac chant etc. There was much crossover even in those days. Benedict is talking about much later stuff. I find the mention of Handel a bit odd. He wrote little actual sacred music. The oratorios are concert hall entertainment pieces, just with religious subjects.

      2. Tony O’Brien

        @Teresa Berger:

        I know I’d prefer some Syriac chant over some of the stuff I’ve heard.

  3. Luisa Navarro

    Good Lord! Political correctness even here!
    Please mention the Zulu, Arab, Aztec or Chinese composers you deem even remotely comparable to Mozart, Bach…
    Like it or not.
    Please stop your anglo guilt trip…

    Reply
    1. Anthony Ruff, OSB Avatar
      Anthony Ruff, OSB

      @Luisa Navarro:
      Well Mozart and Bach surely wrote music in their respect European genres better than anyone from the groups you name did. But people in those groups surely wrote music for their purposes and in their styles better than Mozart or Bach ever did (or tried).

      So-called “guilt trips” are appropriate for Christians, I think, in cases where there is guilt and need for conversion and repentance.

      Anytime someone throws out the “political correctness” label, a red flag goes off for me – so often, someone is avoiding engagement with an issue.

      awr

      Reply
  4. Luisa Navarro

    Nonsense.
    You engage with the (apparently for you) painful reality of the superiority of Western culture in many fields.

    Reply

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