Pope St Pius X (born Giuseppe Sarto) died on August 20, 1914, at the age of 79, less than three weeks into the twelfth year of his reign. He had been in poor health after suffering a heart attack the previous year, but it was the news of the outbreak of World War I that fatally weakened him. He was canonized just under forty years later; since the day of his death is the feast of St Bernard of Clairvaux, his own feast is kept the following day.
His papacy is remembered for several salutary and in many ways highly innovative reforms: a reorganization of the Roman Curia; the promotion of a renewal of scholastic theology, already happily begun by his predecessor Leo XIII; and the codification of the vast body of Western canon law, a project which would be completed by his successor, Benedict XV. He also vigorously condemned the philosophical and theological ideas broadly described by the term Modernism, lowered the age for reception of first Holy Communion from 14 to 7, and instituted an important reform of the Divine Office.
In the later 18th century, and throughout the 19th, the traditional forms of Catholic liturgical music, Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony, came to be widely eclipsed in church services by more operatic and orchestral styles of music. And indeed, especially in Italy, it was often the very same singers and musicians who performed at the opera house on Friday and Saturday evening, and then at church on Sunday morning. In extreme cases, liturgical texts in Latin were set to the very same music that was used in the opera house; for example, there exists a version of Psalm 116 set to an aria from Verdi’s La Traviata. The general prestige of Italy in the field of music then led others to imitate this trend.
Before his election to the papacy, as bishop of Mantova (1884-93) and patriarch of Venice (1893-1903), Pope Pius had encouraged the revival of liturgical chant and polyphony, and the removal of secular influences from church. Less than 4 months after his election as pope in 1903, on the feast of St Cecilia, patron Saint of musicians, he issued his very first motu proprio, on the subject of sacred music. It is highly significant that it is always referred to as Tra le sollecitudini, its title in Italian, the language in which it was originally composed and published, indicating its intended audience, although, of course, an official Latin translation was later issued.
The joke has sometimes been made “Tra le sollecitudini” (literally “Among the cares”) is Italian for “too much of a good thing”. In particular, many Catholic musicians felt that the total prohibition of any use of music in the vernacular, even to complement the official liturgical texts in Latin (not to replace them), was an unnecessary over-reaction. As has so often been the case, much of what the Pope “prescribes” in his motu proprio was impossible to enforce, and proved unpopular enough that it was just ignored. Nevertheless, Pius X did add a strong impetus towards the ongoing revival of authentic sacred music, leading to much good fruit, and a greater appreciation of the value of the Church’s historical patrimony in this field.
Here is an excerpt from the motu proprio, in which the Pope outlines the basic principles of what he hopes to achieve.
“ 2. … musica sacra omnibus muneribus liturgiae praedita sit, praesertim sanctitate, bonitate formarum quibus et universalitas oritur. Sit sancta, eiiciat igitur e sacris profana, non tantum in se, sed etiam quoad formam qua a cantoribus proponitur. Sit ars vera, ut in animis audientium illam habeat virtutem, quam Ecclesia postulat quum musicis liturgiam societ. Sit universalis hac ratione, scilicet quamvis singulis nationibus liceat in musicis sacris admittere illos praecipuos modos, qui formam earum musicae constituant, hi tamen modi legibus generalibus sacrorum musicorum subiiciantur, ne ullius alienigenae animus, eos cum audiat, perturbetur.
5. Progredientibus artibus semper Catholica Ecclesia favit, cum cultui servire voluisset quidquid boni et pulchri, vertentibus annis, ingenium invenerit, servatis tamen legibus liturgicis. Ex quo efficitur ut et musica hodierna in ecclesiis admittatur cum sit modis suavis nec sacris liturgiis minime indigna. Tamen, quod musica hodierna finem habet profanum, curandum est ne musicorum modi hodierno stylo, qui in ecclesiis admittuntur, quid habeant theatrale vel profanum…
6. Inter hodiernae musicae genera stylus ille theatralis ad sacra sequenda minime aptus videtur, qui nuper elapso aevo praesertim in Italia viguit. Ille vero sua ipsius natura cantui gregoriano et classicae polyphoniae omnino repugnat, ideoque sacrorum musicorum legibus. Huius denique styli structura, modus et qui dicitur convenzionalismo musicae necessitatibus apte non nectuntur.
2. Sacred music should consequently possess all the qualities proper to the liturgy, especially sanctity, and goodness of form, from which arise its universality.
It must be holy, and therefore exclude all profanity not only in itself, but in the form in which it is presented by those who execute it.
It must be true art, so that it may have in the minds of those who listen to it that power which the Church aims at when it associated the liturgy with music.
For this reason, it must be universal, in the sense that, although every nation is permitted to admit in sacred music those particular forms which constitute its native music, these forms must nevertheless be subjected to the general laws of sacred music, that no one of any other nation may may be disturbed on hearing it.
5. The Catholic Church has always favored the progress of the arts, since it wished for everything good and beautiful discovered by human genius over the course of ages to serve God’s worship, always in keeping, however, with the laws of the liturgy. From this it comes about that modern music is also admitted to the churches, when it is pleasing in its forms and in no way unworthy of the sacred liturgy. Nevertheless, since modern music has a profane purpose, care must be taken lest musical forms in the modern style that are allowed in church smack of the theatrical or the profane …
6. Among the genres of modern music, that theatrical style, which was especially popular in Italy during the last century seems very unsuitable for the sacred rites. This of its very nature is wholly opposed to Gregorian chant and classic polyphony, and therefore to the laws of sacred music.
Besides, the structure of this style, its form, and as its conventionalism, cannot be properly fitting to the requirements of (sacred) music.”
