Church Music and the Council of Trent

Author(s): K. G. Fellerer and Moses Hadas

Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Oct., 1953), pp. 576-594
Published by: Oxford University Press
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 CHURCH MUSIC AND THE

COUNCIL OF TRENT

By K. G. FELLERER

F OR shaping church usages in general, and in particular the divine

service of the Church and its music, the Council of Trent possesses
paramount significance.' Though, contrary to popular belief, the
Council did not concern itself with details of musical and stylistic prob-
lems, it did insist upon fundamental attitudes, and thus established
directions for further development. Its implications for church music
and musicians received formulation in numerous synodal decrees of
regional councils subsequent to the Council of Trent, and these were
repeatedly given fresh emphasis in succeeding centuries.
Church music was dealt with under the "Abuses in the Sacrifice
of the Mass," in the Session of the Committee io September 1562,
Canon 8. The Committee's recommendations that music must serve
to uplift the faithful, that its words must be intelligible, and that secu
expression must be avoided were given binding form in the Decr
of the 22nd Session, on 17 September 1562.2 In the 24th Session,
I G. Schreiber, Das Weltkonzil von Trient, sein Werden und Wirken, 2 vol
Freiburg i. Br., 1951. K. Weinmann, Das Konzil von Trient und die Kirchenmusi
Leipzig, 1919; K. G. Fellerer, Das Tridentinum und die Kirchenmusik, in Schreib
op. cit., I, 447 ff.; W. Bfiumker, Die polyphone Musik auf dem Konzil von Trie
in Monatsh. f. Musikgesch., IX (1877), 123, 147; F. X. Haberl, Die Kardinalskom-
mission 1564/65, in Km. Jb., 1902; M. Flueler, Die Musik auf dem Boden der
kath. Reformation, in J. Scheuber, Kirche und Reformation, Einsiedeln, 1917, 712ff.
2 "But the whole must be managed in such a manner that Masses should be
celebrated either simply by the voice or by a chant, so that all should be pronounced
clearly and distinctly and make its way undisturbed into the ears and hearts of the
hearers. What is customarily rendered with musical rhythms and instruments should
have intermingled with it nothing profane but only the divine phrases of hymnody.
This entire scheme of psalmody with musical measures should be arranged not for
the mere delight of the ears but in such a way that the words should be appre-
hended by everyone and that the hearts of the listeners should be ravished by
longing for heavenly harmony and by contemplation of the joys of the blessed."
A. Theiner, Acta Concilii Tridentini, Zagreb, 1874, II, 122.

576

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 Church Music and the Council of Trent 577

November 1563, a new formulation was devised and the task of c

out the provisions for church music was entrusted to the P
Synods.3 The Council confined itself to a few principles wh
designed to delimit the scope of church music.
The fact that the Council dealt with church music at all shows the
importance of music in the framework of the church reform,4 on the
one hand, and on the other, the need for taking a position on the
question in view of abuses that came to light as a result of con-
temporary changes in the concept of liturgy and music.
Aside from the non-liturgical character of church music at the
turn of the 15th and I6th centuries, curtailment of liturgical texts and
the insertion of non-churchly songs in the vernacular,5 as well as worldly
and lengthy organ compositions, were marked out, in addition to unin-
telligibility of texts, as particular abuses of the proper churchly attitude.
A number of conciliar and synodal decrees prepared the way for the
decisions of the Council of Trent on church music.

"Churchmen must reject musical compositions in which there is an inter-

mingling of the lascivious or impure, whether by instrument or voice, and likewise
every secular action, idle and even profane conversation, strolling about, bustle,
shouting, so that the house of God should truly appear to be rightly called a house
of prayer." Sacrosanctum Concilium Tridentinum, Coloniae Agrippinae, I7oo0, 246;
Richter-Schulte, Canones et decreta Concilii Tridentini, Leipzig, 1853, 128.
3 "In choirs instituted for psalmody the name of God should be praised rever-
ently, distinctly, and with devotion in hymns and chants . . . As to other matters
which aim at a proper regimen in divine offices, and points concerning the appro-
priate usage of singing or modulating . . . and concerning a fixed rule for
assembling and remaining in the choir, and likewise points concerning the entire
ministry of the Church, a provincial synod of such a character shall prescribe a
fixed formula for each in accordance with the needs and customs of each province."
Sacrosanctum Concilium Tridentinum, 433; Richter-Schulte, op. cit., 349. These
decisions are preceded by discussion concerning musica troppo molle (Pallavicini,
Istoria del Concilio di Trento [Roma, 1664; latine reddita a J. B. Giattino, Augustae
Vindelicorum, I755], Bk. 22, Chs. 5 and I2); and similarly in the 23rd Session,
Ch. I8, in dealing with the institution of seminaries there is the requirement that
among various other disciplines the young clerics "should learn singing and the
discipline of other fine arts" (Sacrosanctum Concilium Tridentinum, 329). In the
concluding speech of the 25th Session Bishop Hieronymus Ragasanus again called
attention to the danger of unchurchly songs at divine worship: "You must abolish
effeminate songs and symphonies, strolling about, conversations, business discussions,
from the temple of the Lord" (Sac. Conc. Trid., 646; Richter-Schulte, 475).
4 Session 22, Ch. 5: "Since human nature is such that it cannot easily be raised
to the contemplation of divine matters without external props, pious Mother Church
has therefore instituted certain rites, to wit, that certain things in the Mass should
be pronounced in a subdued voice and others in a louder voice." Sac. Conc. Trid.,
241.
5 Session 22, Ch. 8: "The Mass must not be said in the vulgar tongue." Sac.
Conc. Trid., 243-

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578 The Musical Quarterly
The Council of Basel in 1503 addressed itself to t
the Credo and the use of non-liturgical songs.6 The S
had already addressed itself to this curtailment and s
1492.' The intelligibility of the text, in particular
the psalmody, was urged by an express discourse on t
The Concilium Senonense of 1528 and the prov
Cologne in 1536 and 1550, like the Comitia Au
limited the use of the organ and ordered the elim
notes.? The rejection of the organ in the papel cha
6 "In Masses that are chanted to notation the Nicene pattern
cated but should be sung out to the end completely, maturel
melody should be wholly omitted which is rendered in the m
secular song, which foreigners and merchants going to St. J
of using." Schannat, Conc. Germ., VI, 21; similarly Conc. Hi
XXXII, 633) and Synodus Coloniensis (Schannat, VI, 255).
7 "We likewise decide and order that whatever priest of our
by the grace of God, shall descant the solemnity of the Ma
Gloria in excelsis, Credo, Offertorium, Praefatio, along with
accordance with the sanctions of the sacred canons from the b
with nothing subtracted, diminished, or revised; nor shall
response or song in the place of those prescribed, by organ
who may be present shall intone it." Schannat, Conc. Germ.
8 Conc. Salisburgense 1490 (Mansi, XXXII, 51o) : "Divine
vidual hours should be discharged reverently by all, not curs
distinctly and slowly and with decent pause, especially at th
versicle of the Psalms, making a distinction between the s
offices." Cf. Conc. Hispalense 1512 (Mansi, XXXII, 595); Con
(ibid., I 190); Synodus Hildesiensis 1539 (Schannat, VI, 331); S
sis 1549 (ibid., 466) ; Synodus Trevirensis 1549 (ibid., 598) ;
1550 (ibid., 632, 678).
9 "The Church received the use of the organ from her fathers for worship and
divine service. We therefore desire that no immodest or lascivious melody produced
by musical instruments should resound in the Church; the sound should be altogether
sweet and represent naught but divine hymns and spiritual chants." Mansi, XXXII,
1190; cf. Synodus Coloniensis 1536 (Schannat, VI, 255).
"The music of organs should be used in churches in such a manner that it
should not arouse more titillation than devotion; nor should it produce any sound
or representation other than divine hymns or spiritual chants." Schannat, VI, 255;
Mansi, XXXII, II9o, Part II, Ch. xv.
"Should organs produce any secular sound? Should they produce any other
than ecclesiastical? Should they not remain silent from the elevation of the host
to the Agnus Dei, during which interval the thoughts of all should contemplate
in deep silence the passion of our Lord and our redemption?" Schannat, VI, 632;
cf. Provincial Synod of Trier 1549 (ibid., 6o6).
"Organs should produce no lascivious or secular sound, but, as even ordinary
people know, should be religious and pious. It is better for the whole pattern to
be sung than for part to be left to the organ, as is customarily done in certain
places, with great abuse." Schannat, VI, 756; cf. Synodus Coloniensis 1550 (ibid.,
632).
10 Pope Benedict XIV refers to this in his encyclicals on church music of I749.

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 Church Music and the Council of Trent 579

steriesu confirms scruples on its use, which, in the I5th and I6

turies, was frequently little constrained by the requirements
music. Navarrus speaks of the lack of liturgical sensibility on
of organists, who played dances, displayed their skill, exten
playing to improper lengths, and so interfered with worship."
general complaints of the secularization of organ music corres
complaints of secular practices in the Church, among which ar
reckoned the plays which had lost their liturgical association.1
11 Gerbert, De cantu et musica sacra, 1724, II, 189.
12 "Many organists too frequently cause profane organ melodies to r
the churches, nay, even frivolous and sometimes wicked melodies; of th
those which they call Baxae and Altae and other ditties which the mob
base, obscene, and passionate. This is manifestly sinful, especially whe
this thing when the divine offices are in progress, both on account of the
which thus occurs in a sacred place and because of the occasion that is
turning minds away from attention to divine and spiritual matters and
them to frivolous and wicked temporal matters. Moreover it is the re
in many places, the Credo and Gloria are neither sung nor heard by t
on festal days, on which they are ordered not to be sung so that reed
monies may be heard instead . . . Moreover many organists, in order t
display of their skill and be heard at greater length, pound away so lon
that pounding, as the distinguished man said, is nothing more than sou
sense) that sometimes they draw the Mass out a whole hour longer than i
Gerbert, op. cit., II, I94.
13 Concilium Coloniense 1536: "While vigils were being performed at t
versary assembly of bishops in our high church by the colleagues there
a chant inharmonious and in its very aspect insufficiently pious and devo
being produced" (Schannat, VI, 265). Pius V, to the Bishop of Luca, 1571: "An
extremely detestable abuse has crept in of employing fancy music of every descrip-
tion, vocal and instrumental, in the churches through Holy Week; to hear this,
rather than the divine offices, all the young people of either sex eagerly flock
together, and experience has shown that sins and scandals no less heinous have
been committed" (M. Gerbert, De cantu, I774, 234).
Concilium Senonense 1528: "No actors or mimes may enter the church for
playing on the tympanum, lyre, or other musical instrument; they should play their
instruments neither in nor near the church" (Conc. Labb., XIV, 471; Mansi,
XXXII, 1184). Concilium Narbonense 1551: "Nor in the temples, when festal
days are being celebrated or on any other occasion, should spectacles . . . buffooner-
ies, secular ditties, outcries, either by clergy or laiety, or other such things take place;
for by them the people are distracted from religion and are reduced to giggling
and immoderate laughter" (Conc. Labb., XV, 26; Mansi, XXXII, I247). Con-
cilium Basiliense 1431: "This shameful abuse has grown frequent in many churches.
At certain celebrations during the year certain persons with mitre, staff, and pon-
tifical robes offer blessings after the manner of bishops; others are dressed like
kings and princes. In certain regions this is called the festival of fools or innocents
or children. Some enacting ghosts and other theatrical buffooneries, others per-
forming dances and breakdowns of men and women, move the people to gape and
laugh; others prepare collations and banquets in the same place" (Conc. Labb.,
XII, 555; Mansi, XXIX, io8; cf. also Conc. Parisiense 1429 [Conc. Labb., XII,
393], and Conc. Rothomagense 1445 [Conc. Labb., XIII, 1304; Mansi, XXXII, 25].

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 580 The Musical Quarterly
these abuses stemmed from a lack of feeling for th
place, which it was the aim of church prescription
the 15th century moral degeneration had assailed not
but also the clergy. The numerous conciliar and sy
honestate clericorum in the I5th and I6th centuries in
situation. Particular occasions of abuses were the secu
(first Mass of the newly ordained priest), processions,
Church music was affected by this drive towards secu
the sense of its liturgical function. The Council of Pa
fore demanded a deeper awareness on the part of
in order to encourage music appropriate to the Chu
vious and impure" element, which the Council of Tren

So too Conc. Eystattense 1447 [Schannat, V, 382]; Conc. Tole

Labb., XIII, 1460]; Conc. Senonense 1485 [ibid., 1728]). Co
"One time theatrical shows and masked jesters were brought
example that there was need for canonical prescription to aboli
and we rejoice that, as we hope, the evil has been ejected from our dioceses"
(Schannat, VI, 265; Mansi, XXXII, 1239, Part III, Ch. 26).
14 Synodus Ratisponensis 1512: ". . . There was dancing and uproar with musi-
cal instruments." Schannat, VI, 95. Cf. Conc. Cameracense 1565, Ch. ii (Conc.
Labb., XV, 159); Synodus Moguntina 1549 (Schannat, VI, 579).
Synodus Coloniensis 1549: ". .. timbrels were beaten and vain spectacles
performed." Schannat, VI, 558; Mansi, XXXII, 1393, Ch. 22. Cf. Synodus Har-
lemensis 1564 (Schannat, VII, ii; Mansi, XXXVI, 65); Concilium Cameracense
1565 (Schannat, IX, 105, 755; Mansi, XXXII, i395); Conc. Mediolanense 1576
(Conc. Labb., XV, 484; Mansi, XXXIV, 182).
See also Synodus Argentinensis 1549 (Schannat, VI, 519; Mansi, XXXVI, Ii);
Concilium Narbonense 1551, Can. 47 (Conc. Labb., XV, 26; Mansi, XXXIII, 1250);
Synodus Harlemensis 1564 (Schannat, VII, 22; Mansi, XXXVI, 63); Synodus
Mechliniensis 1570, Ch. 12 (Schannat, VII, 616; Mansi, XXXIV, 577); Synodus
Buscoviensis 1571 (Schannat, VII, 722); Concilium Rothomagense 1581 (Schannat,
XV, 825; Mansi, XXXIV, 617); Concilium Aquense 1585 (Mansi, XXXIV, 938;
Conc. Labb., XV, 1146).
15 Concilium Senonense 1528 (Mansi, XXXII, 1g9o): " . . so that musical
chants in the churches be distinct and discrete, moving the heart to devotion and
compunction. Ordinary titillating ditties should certainly not be heard in the
churches under the pretext of musical chant. Nor, says Jerome, should the throat
and jaws be assuaged with medicaments in the manner of a tragic actor, lest in
striving for a pleasant voice faithfulness to life be neglected. For just as the
singer who is a true minister impels towards a godly morality when he delights the
people with his modulations, so a lascivious temper when it takes pleasure in more
lascivious measures is, by often hearing them, softened and crushed. Let priests and
clerics therefore so order their own singing that by the modest and decent dignity
of their psalmody, by their calm and pleasing modulation, they should so soothe
the ears of their hearers as to incite and rouse them to devotion and compunction,
not to the lascivious titillation of heart and mind." Cf. Synodus Trevirensis 1549
(Schannat, VI, 598).

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 Church Music and the Council of Trent 581

a thing to be avoided in church music, was based on act

in the church life of the time.16

But besides all this a new conception of music altered it

ship to the text, on the one hand with reference to the in
of the words, and on the other, in relation to the inte
meanings and distribution of emphasis. The latter is the b
new attitude towards the parody Mass based on secular
structural concept of setting in the I5th century did n
thematic bases objectionable. On the other hand humanisti
tion of the original texts allowed the "lascivious" eleme
obvious,'8 and the efforts of composers to make definite
means of reminiscences of a text and its melodic echoes19 made it more
obvious still.

Humanism made the word paramount. Hence parody Masses and

likewise such forms as the missa da caccia or missa della battaglia re-
ceived worldly interpretation which took cognizance of the text in
hand, and which was considered to be "lascivious and impure" after
the 15th century had judged such themes solely from the point of view

16 The decree of the Council of Trent was taken over in the new Codex iuris
canonici, Bk. 3, Part 3, Canon 1264, Section I: "Musical compositions in which
there is intermingled aught lascivious or impure, either by the organ or other
instruments or by singing, should be kept away from churches altogether; liturgical
laws must be observed with reference to sacred music."

' K. G. Fellerer, Vom Sinn der Parodiekomposition, in Der Chorwachter,

Einsiedeln, 1934, Io4; R. Lenaerts, La missa parodia ne'erlandaise au 16e sidcle,"
in Kongressbericht d. Int. Ges. f. Mw., Basel, 1949, 179, and The Musical Quarterly,
XXXVI (1950), 41o; A. Franz, Die Messe im deutschen Mittelalter, Freiburg i.
Br., 1902, 754 ff.
'8G. B. Doni, De praestantia musicae veteris, Florence, 1674, 137, attacks the
profanation of church music by an analogy from painting: "What madness im-
pelled those elder and rather celebrated composers of Masses, Jodocus [Josquin],
Mutonius [Mouton], Hadrianus [Willaert], and the others of that class to draw the
strains for that sacrosanct and revered sacrifice not merely from profane subject
matter but often from lascivious and contemptible themes? Would a painter be
tolerated who, if he were going to paint the likeness of some virgin saint, say
Agnes or Catherine, to the life, would use the face of some notorious and infamous
courtesan?" The Council of Basel of 1435 declared it was "an abuse for secular ditties
to be interpolated in churches with wanton voice."
19 E.g. in the political motets, such as Clemens non Papa, Caesar habet naves,
Quis te victorem dicat; Hollander, Nobile virtutum; Jac. Vaet, Si qua fides, and
others in praise of princes; J. Wannenmacher, Encomium urbis Bernae and Attendite
populus, and many others. In 1540 Jean Courtois wrote, to celebrate the presence
of Charles V at Cambrai, the motet Venite populi terrae, which in music and text
is a parody of the Sanctus and the Benedictus (plena est terra gloria tua: benedicta
acta die): Ambros, Geschichte d. Musik, 1893, III, 297.

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 582 The Musical Quarterly
of musical structure."2 It was all the more necessar
text to be intelligible in words and plain in meaning
that textual richness was rejected and a humanistic de
as close as possible to what was believed to be the anci
affective expression was encouraged.2"

In 1549 Bishop Cirillo Franco attempted to contr

ancient music with the church music of his day. The
persuasion of the ancient modes seemed to him to exer
upon men than the retorica ed oratoria of his own
Franco states emphatically that he is no musician, he n
high technical development in the music of his day

20 "Decree concerning matters to be observed and avoided i

of the Mass: Likewise it must be considered whether the species
prevails in figured modulations, which offers more refreshmen
the mind and seems calculated to arouse lasciviousness rather
be abolished in Masses, in which even profane matters are of
on the hunt and that on the battle" (K. Weinmann, op. cit., 5
L'antica musica ridotta alla moderna pratica, Rome, I555, Bk
"The Mass should proceed with dignity and with more devotion
Some will compose a Mass upon a madrigal or a French song
and when such compositions are heard in the Church they in
laugh, whereby the temple of God becomes a place to recite lasc
things, as if it were a stage where it is permissible to render
of ridiculous buffoonery and lasciviousness."

21 The simultaneous rendition of various texts was effected, w

were used, not only by the polyphonic- structure of the sett
intentional subordination of various texts. Even Palestrina in his Mass Ecce sacerdos
or in his Mass Veni Creator spiritus retained the liturgical text of the title in the
cantus firmus voice, while the remaining voices declaimed the text of the Mass
polyphonically (K. G. Fellerer, Das Credo in Palestrinas Missa sacerdos, in Gedenk-
schrift fiir H. Abert, Halle, 1928). Along with the use of multiple texts went
wilful interpolation of farciturae as liturgical tropes or secular texts. Particularly
rich in such interpolations are Masses for saints as well as Masses of dedication
or of homage. Gombert actualized diversi diversa orant in a Marian motet in which
each of four voices sings a different text (Salve regina, Ave regina, Inviolata, Alma
redemptoris) (J. Schmidt-GSrg, N. Gombert, Bonn, 1928, I95). Obrecht in his
Mass Hercules dux Ferrariae has the tenor sing continuously Hercules vivet in
aeternum; Lupus in his Mass dedicated to Charles V did the same with Carolus
imperator Romanus quinque (P. Wagner, Geschichte der Messe, Leipzig, I913).

22 "Know well that music among the ancients was considered the most excel-
lent of fine arts, with which they performed great feats in moderating the affections
and passions of the soul, the which we do today by means of rhetoric and oratory.
It was even easier for them to render a man incapable of exercising his rational
faculties and not only to withdraw him from the capacity to use right reason but
even to put him into a frenzy." Letter of 1549, printed in Lettere illustri per Aldo
Manuzio, 1567, Lib. 3, p. 216.

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 Church Music and the Council of Trent 583

requisite spiritual connection.23 Whereas antiquity would hav

a text like Kyrie eleison in the appropriate tones and with v
expression and treated the individual sections of Masses
differently, the church music of his day seemed to him
everything in a uniform manner according to musical r
themes for Masses as l'Homme arme' or Hercules dux Ferrariae arouse
his anger and are the basis for his rejection of all contemporary music
except for dance music.25 The only justification for church music is to
mark the meaning of the words."2 He sees it only as a renascence of
the principles of ancient music27 and rejection of polyphonic declama-
tion.28 A madrigal of Arcadelt in which he recognizes this affective
music in the spirit of antiquity gives him hope that a similar solution
will prove possible in church music also.
As long as a century later King John IV of Portugal (I604-56)
refuted this attack upon the new music."2 His position marks the altered
views of music that developed at the end of the i6th century and led
23 "I see and hear the music of today which they claim was brought to a
height of perfection which it has not reached and will not . . . The music of today
does not have any theory but is simply the result of accommodation to practical
exigencies."
24 ". .. but today all these things which are so different from one another are
sung in the same tone and in the same mode."
25 ". .. what the devil has music to do with the armed man or with the
nightingale or with the Duke of Ferrara? For the love of God, what numbers,
tones, harmonies, or movements of the affections can be drawn from an armed man
or the Duke of Ferrara? Now from this little which I have said draw your own
conclusions and you will see when I am silent that what I have said concerning
the music of the Church can be said concerning all other music. When I compare
ancient with modern music I find nothing good in the latter except the pavane
and the galliard."
28 "In substance I would wish that whenever it is necessary to sing in church,
the music would conform itself to the sense of the words and the harmonies be
accommodated to moving the heart towards religion, piety, and devotion."
27 "I wish very much to see revived the four musical modes - Phrygian, Lydi
Dorian, and Mixolydian - by means of which everything used to be taken car
Even if they would not completely fulfill my desire in this matter, it would ope
so that we would discover harmonic, chromatic, and diatonic music. What we
today is far removed from that of the ancients, but we do find that to the ex
that they are able, composers of ecclesiastical music are not without some good
invention and discernment."

28 "Today all musicians place their beatitude in forcing the singing into the
fugal form, so that one singer says Sanctus, another says, Sabaoth, and the third
Gloria tua with shouts and groans and garglings, so that they seem more like cats
in January than flowers in May. Forgive me if I burden you too much."
29 Difesa de la musica moderna contra la errada opinion del Obispo Cyrillo
Franco, Lisbon, 1649; the Italian translation is Difesa della musica moderna,
Venice, I666.

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584 The Musical Quarterly

to a change of style about I6oo. King John emphasi

of man and could only be repelled by Franco's stiff
ancient modes with their established affects had be
dividuality in musical sensitivity. The operation of
itself, not universal, but involved in a specific peri
of music depends upon the changing conceptions
expression the composer must satisfy the situation
But these alter, for frequent use in itself vitiates t
In the living legacy of ancient music is apparent
their art in comparison with the present.34 The
composition to the word seeks either to give prom
sion of mood or to expound the words with tonal c
how diversely the question of musical expression ca
30 ".. . and thus it has happened to some who have pre
others have preached: in the former case there was great
and in the latter great coldness. Thus the same music can
effect in all its hearers. If twenty men were to listen to
same time it is certain that it would not produce the sam
because the ears of each of them are organized in a diffe
ears were all the same, there would be a great deal of dif
inclinations, humors, tastes, and all things as well."
31". .. in those times when music was not so much em
familiar, and when it was heard the effect was better; an
it produced a greater effect then and a lesser today . . . T
cannot presume to judge what color would be given by m
their own times if they had been born in ours" (p. 37f.,
32 ". .. from which it can be clearly seen that the fact tha
does not move men, when such is the case, is not the defec
of men themselves and also of composers, but with this diff
sary to judge of all who compose, because for a compositio
is required but to be suitable. That the name of master, h
to a composer, much is necessary. And since it is evident th
the hands of the composer, there are certain requisites th
to move with great force and create the desired effects"
"The composer must select his tone and mode in accorda
of the word, because this helps to produce the effect; but th
as the ancients taught, to pass from one consonance to anoth
pitch, to change the genus by accelerating or retarding, t
acute accent, to introduce this or that novelty so that the w
of the composition" (cf. 56f.).
33 ". .. long continuance of daily usage comes to produ
for as Aristotle says, from the familiar no passion arises"
34,. .. the shortcoming of the ancient makes modern m
which appears like another and different music, since it con
and diverse species" (p. 48).
35 "The composer should always accommodate the musi
give it coloring to deserve the title . . . Good composers h
the music to the words in two ways: One by giving convic
and the other by pointing up the meaning of the words"

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 Church Music and the Council of Trent 585

Franco's attack upon titles such as that of Josquin's Ma

dux Ferrariae John IV of Portugal counters with the ne
finding designations for various Masses and the suitability
to the tones of the theme.36 If in the older polyphony of a
Josquin intelligibility of text also suffers from contrapunt
Palestrina had demonstrated that these artistic means could meet the
needs of churchly expression" and that the "moderns" had given con-
figuration to the churchly expression of their own day to correspond
to the text.38

The position taken by John IV as against Franco makes the post-

Tridentine conception of church music plain; the rigid humanistic
demand for declamation and persuasiveness no less than the one-sided
recognition of monody was overcome. But at the beginning of the 16th
century positions like those of Bishop Franco (I549) or Cardinal
Sirleto (I546) were not unique.39 Konrad von Zabern,40 Agrippa von
Nettesheim,41 or Erasmus of Rotterdam42 took a similar position, based
36 Fe ra ri ae Dux Her cu les
re fa mi re ut re ut re
or in the Mass of Filippo
Fi lip pus se cun dus rex His pa ni ae
mi mi ut re ut ut re mi fa mi re
37 In this position he follows Ban
cellus wished for some reason to remove the music of the Church, Palestrina
defended the opposite view, saying that the fault was that of the composers, not
that of the art."
38 P. 6If. "It is the great glory of modern composers that by using ordinary
music they have produced effects, contrary to what the Bishop maintains, that the
ancients produced" (p. 74).
39 G. Baini, Memorie storico-critiche della vita e delle opere di G. Palestrina,
Rome, 1828, I, Io2.
40o De modo bene cantandi, Mainz, 1474.
41 De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum et artium, Cologne, 1532, Ch. 17:
"Today music has such great license in churches that even along with the canon
of the Mass certain obscene little ditties sometimes have equal share; and even
the divine offices themselves and the sacred prayers and petitions are performed by
lascivious musicians hired at great price, not to make the hearers understand or for
the elevation of the spirit, but to incite wanton prurience, not with human voices
but with the cries of beasts: boys whinny the descant, some bellow the tenor, others
bark the counterpoint, others gnash the alto, others moo the bass; the result is that
a multitude of sounds is heard, but of the words and prayers not a syllable is
understood; the authority of judgment is withdrawn from ears and mind alike."
42 Commentary on Corinthians 14 (Gerbert, De cantu, 222): "Not content
with these things, we have introduced a laborious and theatrical kind of music
into our sacred edifices, a tumultuous bawl of diverse voices, such as I do not
believe was ever heard in the theaters of the Greeks or the Romans. They crash
everything out with trumpets, clarions, reeds, and sambukes, and human voices vie
with these instruments. There are heard vile love ditties, to which harlots and

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 586 The Musical Quarterly
on similar arguments, against existing church music
its presentation. Improvised diminution43 and coar
comparison with animal cries,44 and were contrary to
delivery of the late 16th century, which was concern
and declamation. Refinement of verbal and musical rh
the art of setting was developed and insisted upon by
the middle of the I6th century on,45 and thus a fo
for the treatment of questions of church music at the
Upon this foundation an art could be advanced, whi
that of the early 16th century, could strive for an ag
counterpoint and harmony by a clear treatment of
achieve clarification of expression. This is to be se
Prayers of Jacobus de Kerle (1561) or Palestrina
Marcellus, which was probably created under the
Council of Trent's efforts at reformation.47
Intelligibility of the text was emphasized as the ideal of church
music by the Cardinals' Commission of 1564/5, to which reform of the
church music of the city of Rome was transferred in the 24th Session,
and the same theme was repeatedly underlined in prefaces to new
compositions.48 It was the composer's mind which became the basis
mimes dance. People flock to the sacred edifice as to a theater to have their ears
charmed. And for this purpose artisans of the organ are maintained at high salaries,
and troops of boys all of whose time is consumed in learning these things, and who
study nothing good in the meanwhile."
43 M. Kuhn, Die Verzierungskunst in der Gesangsmusik d. z6/17. Jh., Leipzig,
1902; R. Lach, Studien zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der ornamentalen Melopoie,
Leipzig, 1913; E. Ferand, Die Improvisation in der Musik, Ziirich, 1938; K. G.
Fellerer, Palestrina, Regensburg, 1930, I62ff.
44 6. .. as kine in the meadows, so do you bellow in the choir" (Konrad von
Zabern).
5 Fr. Salinas (1512-90) in his De musica libri septem (Salamanca, 1577) gave
a special account of the relationship of words and musical rhythms.
46 The Cardinals Otto von Waldburg, Vitellius Vitellozzo, and Carlo Borromeo
gave special attention to church music in Rome and in particular to the problem of
declamation. It was at the instigation of Cardinal von Waldburg that Jacobus de
Kerle (1561) created his Council Prayers (0. Ursprung, Denkm. d. Tonk. i.
Bayern, XXVI, xlii).
47K. Jeppesen, Wann entstand die Marcellus-Messe? in G. Adler Festschrift,
Wien, 1930, 126.
48 In the preface to his first book of Masses (1567) G. Animuccia writes: "This
one thing is contained in them--let them be heard openly. As they are now,
the words do not so much seem to be ornamented by the singing as to be over-
whelmed by the inflexions of the voices. Therefore, persuaded by the judgment of
these men I have endeavored to ornament these prayers and praises to God in a
way to cause less confusion to the hearing of words, but nevertheless in such a way
that it should not be wholly wanting in art and should to some degree afford

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 Church Music and the Council of Trent 587

for his work, which could meet the requirements of churchl

neither in pure structure nor in symbolic configuration.
conception of church music, which goes far beyond the bri
lation of the Council's requirements with reference to ch
the spirit of the Council of Trent is evident. Navarrus (1
theologians of the second half of the 16th century based th
of man and his art upon the spiritual implications of the re
Council and the decrees of the Synods and Commissions tha
it could, by emphasizing this spiritual point of departur
stylistic and technical musical questions, particularly since
development of the 16th century was based upon the effect
humanism, which was parallel with treatment of words
naturally favored homophony over polyphony, and that in
a favoring of the treble part, in the conduct of which the
ethos assigned to modes was reaffirmed, thereby lending
character and expressiveness to the top part. Humanism
deprive polyphony of its meaning and to judge validity of
solely by the dominant upper voice.'" Figures of rhetoric new
by humanism became the basis of declamation.50 Whereas s
had already broken through these new fashions in the first
16th century, church music retained the old forms of poly
of cantus-firmus work, as even Palestrina's first volume of M
shows. Artistic as this music was, it no longer answered con
requirements of expression, the Baroque experience, and th
task as formulated in the Council of Trent.

Aside from the spiritual art of laudi51 and madrigali spirituali, so

much of the new art as could penetrate into the Church was worldly.

pleasure to the ears." Zarlino in his Istituzioni harmoniche, Venice, 1558, I, 9,

makes a similar emphasis: "And since our minds are much moved by singing,
there is no doubt that these songs will generally be heard with greater pleasure
when the words are pronounced than in the learned compositions where the words
are heard interrupted in many parts." In Vincenzo Galilei's Dialogo della musica
antica e moderna (Florence, i58i) vigorous war is declared upon counterpoint
because of the demands of the intelligibility of the text, on the basis of Bardi's
Discorso sopra la musica antica ed ii cantar bene (in G. B. Doni's Opera omnia,
1773) and G. Mei's Discorso sopra la musica antica e moderna (Venice, 1602).
49 R. Schifke, Geschichte der Musikasthetik, Berlin, 1934, P. 276ff.
50 H. Brandes, Studien zur musikalischen Figurenlehre im r6. Jh., Berlin, 1935;
H. H. Unger, Die Beziehungen zwischen Musik und Rhetorik im 16.-18. Jh.,
Wiirzburg, i941; A. Schmitz, Die Bildlichkeit der wortgebundenen Musik Joh.
Seb. Bachs, Mainz, 1950.
51 K. Jeppesen, Die mehrstimmnige italienische Laude um 150oo, Copenhagen,
1935-

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 588 The Musical Quarterly
Thus, despite the effort to win the new mode of
Church, there arose the danger that the "profane, la
pure" would force itself in at the same time. It was a
danger that church decisions were directed. The id
pression for the Church comprised an amalgam of th
of style with traditional polyphonic-homophonic c
texture with correct humanistic declamation. In Kerl
and Palestrina's Mass for Pope Marcellus this comprom
in exemplary fashion.52 Hence these works becam
Council's desires in matters of church music and were woven about
with legends.
But at the same time they bore within themselves the efforts to
augment the volume of sound, which is given form in the multiple
choirs and in the development of settings with instrumental accom-
paniment,53 as they did the intensification of expression that creates
new possibilities of expression in monody.54 The demands of the Council
of Trent that the whole man be seized and penetrated by the religious
thought-content expanded the task of church music and opened it to
the new artistic efforts. In the work of the Jesuits the oratorio attained
its first development,55 as did also the elaboration of small monodic
forms.56 Its emphasis upon the word facilitated the entry of monodic
art with the Church. In it, and no longer in the art of Palestrina and
his reform group, did the new generation see the fulfillment of the
52 In addition to the Missa Papae Marcelli, Palestrina's Masses Benedicta, Ut
re mi fa sol la (about 1562), B.M.V.; Kerle's Council Prayers, Missa Regina coeli;
Roussel's Missa Ultimi miei sospiri; Lasso's Missa ferialis, Qual donna; Animuccia's
Masses of 1567 and I568, all belong to the reform compositions which were highly
approved by the Cardinals' Commission when they were performed at the house
of Cardinal Vitellozzi.
53 K. G. Fellerer, Zum Klangproblem der Stilwende des i6. Jahrhunderts, in
Jahrbuch Peters, 1937, 45ff.; idem., Geschichte der kath. Kirchenmusik, 2nd ed.,
Dilsseldorf, I949, p. 88.
54 R. Haas, Die Musik des Barocks, Potsdam, 1928, 38ff.; F. Blume, Das mono-
dische Prinzip in der protestantischen Kirchenmusik, Leipzig, 1925.
55 The basis for the conception of his art are set forth in the significant
Preface of Giov. Francesco Anerio's Teatro armonico spirituale (1619; reprinted
in E. Vogel, Bibliothek der weltlichen Vokalmusik Italiens, Leipzig, 1893, I, I8, and
A. Schering, Geschichte des Oratoriums, Leipzig, 1911, appendix).
56 In the preface of Ottavio Durante's Arie devote (16o8) the dominant position
of the word and its correct representation in vocal delivery is emphasized (H. Gold-
schmidt, Die italienische Gesangsmethode des 17. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, 1890).
The censor of G. Caccini's Nuove musiche, Florence, 16oi0, accompanies his im-
primatur with the words: ". . . though composed with material of mundane love,
I find nothing repugnant to the Catholic faith, nor against the prelates of the
Holy Church, nor the republics or princes" - which is clearly reminiscent of the
sense of the Council of Trent.

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The Council of Trent

After a painting, attributed to Titian, in the Louvre

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 Church Music and the Council of Trent 589

demands of the Council of Trent. G. B. Doni speaks of Pal

"barbaric productions," and rejects Josquin, Mouton, and th
phonic art."5 Pietro della Valle designated the art of Palestrina
had been regarded as a novum genus in the outlook of the C
Trent, as antiquated.58
The first expression of the Council of Trent's demand for a
genus was in polyphony, which was further developed, in
antico, in the centuries following,"5 but in the younger generat
to the recognition of monody as a churchly art, until, with th
nation of the boundaries between churchly and worldly f
expression, there was renewed danger of the secularizatio
expression of church music. This was noted by the Jesuit
Drexel in 1636.60 These scruples concerning the concertante st
57Opera omnia, Florence, I773, I, o101: ". . . in them there is perc
indeed a consummate art in harmonizing and in managing harmonies w
the ear marvellously, but the elocution is extremely barbarous and inconsi
do not so much as dream of stirring the emotions." P. 98: ". . . all this scheme
of modulation which he himself calls 'symphoniastic' and which abounds with
archaic and polysyllabic terms must actually be reckoned utterly barbaric and
amorphous. There is no way to purge it except by surgery to the quick."
58 "Of the music of our age, which is by no means inferior but actually better
than that of past ages." Discorso al Lelio Guidiccioni (in Doni, Opera omnia, II,
249): ". . . I am still surprised at the famous music of Palestrina which so pleased
the reverend gentlemen and which brought it about that the Council of Trent did
not banish music from the Church; for if this music is still valued, it is not for
use but to be preserved and cared for in some museum, like a fine antique."
59 K. G. Fellerer, Der Palestrinastil und seine Bedeutung in der vokalen Kirchen-
musik des 18. Jahrhunderts, Augsburg, 1929; idem., Die vokale Kirchenmusik des
17./18. Jh. und die altklassische Polyphonie, in Zeitschr. f. Musikwiss., 1929, 354ff.;
0. Ursprung, Restauration und Palestrinarenaissance, Augsburg, 1924.
60 Rethorica caelestis, Antwerp, 1636, Bk. I, Ch. 5, Sect. 4, p. 66: "Without
offense to you let me say, ye musicians, that now a new species of singing is dominant
in the temples, but it is showy, curtailed, dance-like, very little religious, indeed,
but more suitable for theater or dances than for the temple. We seek artifice, and
lose the pristine desire for prayer and chant . . . What is this novel and tripping
scheme of singing except a comedy, in which the singers are as it were actors,
with now one, now two, coming forward, and now the whole company, and con.
versing with modulated voices; presently one is again triumphant, but will soon
follow the others . . . This new-fangled way of singing, like some remarkable trick,
introduces comedy into sacred edifices. Is everything novel really so beautiful and
honorable that it must rightly please everyone and everywhere? There were out-
standing musicians in an earlier age, but truly, as even you will yourselves testify,
those men sang differently and (if I may say so) more religiously. Their books of
music your fastidiousness has long ago buried. I beg you, let at least something
of the old religiosity of sacred music be revived . . . Let the music of the temples
be of the kind which does not confuse prayer but arouses and kindles it."
See further: Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus, Brussels-
Paris, 1892, III, 181-205; Hurter, Nomenclator litterarius theologiae Catholicae,
Oeniponte, 1907, III, 904-o6.

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590 The Musical Quarterly
mitted an association of the stile antico with the Council
Costanzo Porta, Matteo Asola, Biagio Pesciolini, Vinc
very many others invoke the Council of Trent in the p
works which incline to homophony, they really have no
so doing with reference to the technical musical bas
the more fully justified in pointing to the Council of Tr
the spiritual basis for the new art.
The development of concertante church music in the
again emphasized the stile antico as the church musi
the Council of Trent. The deepening of the liturgical c
by that Council gave the stile antico, like the Gregoria
17th century, a new position in the life of church m
again church decisions harked back to the decrees o
Trent and demanded church music in accordance wi
the Council. Hence there were not only warnings again
and impure,""' but there were also demands that the te
and likewise other requirements based on feeling fo
61 Concilium Pragense 1565 (Schannat, VII, 29): "In th
solemnity of the Mass no music whatever should issue a lascivious
Synod. Bisuntina 1571 (Schannat, VIII, 199): "The melody of o
singing should be employed in temples in such a way that it
more of lasciviousness than devotion; nor should it produce
sounds except divine hymns and spiritual chants." Synodus Tri
(ibid., 412): "Musicians and organists should in church abstain
singing and profane songs suitable for dancing." Similarly Conc
1568 (Mansi, XXXV, 631); Concilium Amalphitanum 1597 (
Synodus Constatiensis (Schannat, VII, 488); Synodus Mechline
(ibid., 615).
62 Concilium Cameracense 1565, Tit. VI, 3: "Inasmuch as cert
pertain to the instruction and education of the faithful, such
gospel, the symbol, and some to prayers, the sacred synod has
things which are read or sung for instruction should be so read a
present should be able to hear each word distinctly. Therefo
symbol it is decided not to employ organ or music unless it b
that individual words can be understood without repetition. In re
such as the hymns Gloria in Excelsis and Sanctus, in them mus
but it must not be lascivious and more apt for dancing than fo
should be dignified and stir pious emotions. As regards pray
whether they are read or sung, it should be so done as to demo
emotion of one deprecating rather than the joy of one exultin
Io3); cf. Concilium Constantiense 1567 (ibid., 487). Synodus N
"The measures which were decided in the provincial synod of C
music and the use of organs in observation of the sacred decree of
Trent, we wish to be observed everywhere" (Schannat, IX, 63
cilium Atrebatense 1570 (Schannat, VIII, 238). Concilium R
(Mansi, XXXV, 631): "Musicians should employ in the church
that will arouse people to devotion." Concilium Amalphitanum

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 Church Music and the Council of Trent 591

Inculcation of this concept of church music was required for th

cation of clerics"6 as of musicians.64 In particular this attitude
be expected of organists. The so-called alternatim technique
nating ad lib. organ playing with sung choral verses was limi
in the Credo and in the chants of the priests forbidden.6" The
of worship demanded special responsibilities of the office of pr
and singers66 as well as a choice of melodies appropriate to the
ments of the liturgy.67 Instruments other than the organ were

". .. let them praise God with devout and intelligible modulation and s
them woo the people to a mood suitable to the Church." Concilium Bitu
1584, Tit. XII, I (Mansi, XXXIV, 876).
63 Concilium Tridentinum 1563, Ch. 18: "The form of instituting a s
of clerics: Let them learn the discipline of grammar, song, ecclesiastical rec
and other good arts" (Schannat, VI, 895).

64 Conc. Prov. Urbinat. 1569 (Mansi, XXXV, 693): "Flagitious men s

not be admitted for singing in the churches of God, but only those who ar
to be endowed with good morals and not alien to the Christian religion."
Avenionensis 1594 (Mansi, XXXIV, 1327): "The Church should emp
numbers of music for promoting the sense of piety in a wholesome manne
fore we not only permit the study of music in all churches but we desir
should increase daily. But this observation must be kept: psalms as well
ecclesiastical material should not be attuned to the measures of profane s

65 Concilium Harlemense 1564: "Organs should produce no lasci

secular sound but what the common people themselves know to be relig
pious, and it is better for the whole symbol to be sung like the Praefatio
Lord's Prayer than for part of it to be left to the organs, as is customa
in some places with great abuse" (Schannat, VII, 8); but see also note io
Cf. Concilium Amalphitanum 1597 (Mansi, XXXV, I15o); Concilium Atr
1570 (Schannat, VIII, 255); Synodus Tornacensis r6oo (ibid., 479, Tit
Synodus Augustanus 1567 (Schannat, VII, 164); Concilium Burdigale
(Mansi, XXXIV, 746).

66 Concilium Salisburgense r569, Const. 23, Ch. 4: "Concerning the duty of

the chief singers: . . . if any in the choir shall have been caught discerping, lacer-
ating, and overwhelming the words by the confused noise of dissonant voices, or by
interpolating the noise of a shout assailing the ears and minds of the auditors with
horror, or confusing them, the chief singer should correct them and take care to
soften their too rough voices with some moderating means as best he is able."
Schannat, VII, 276; Concilium Ravennatense 1568 (Mansi XXXV, 630); Conc.
Prov. Urbinat. 1569 (ibid., 691, 693) ; Synod. Bisuntina 1571 (Schannat, VIII, 198);
Conc. Consentinum 1579 (Mansi, XXXV, 938); Conc. Amalphitanum 1597 (ibid.,
I145, I149).

67 The Council of Salzburg in 1569 decreed under Constitution 4 "that rites

and ecclesiastical ceremonies be observed," Const. 54, "concerning songs to be sung
in churches at diverse times" (Schannat, VII, 360); cf. Synodus Constantiensis
1567 (ibid., 487).

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592 The Musical Quarterly
mitted in the Church.68 Vocal delivery required cle
text and beauty of voice."9 How effective humanistic
with reference to the treatment of the text is shown
of an anonymous humanistic treatise on music in t
Synod of Besangon in 1571. Musical doctrine was
basis of ancient musical theory, and the case with c
similar, just as in the previous generation Cirillo F
judgment according to ancient principles.70 The an
affects and modes, like the opinions concerning the m
that prevailed in humanism, was here accepted as a
authority for judging church music and cited to docu
requirements of the Council of Trent. In a similar ma
based his disapproval of current church music upon
music, insisting upon an ethos in music," and rejectin

68 Concilium Ravennatense z568 (Mansi, XXXV, 632): "Oth

ments besides the organ may not be used, unless another sho
seem good to the bishop, who may judge it to be in keeping wit
to circumstances of time and place and so decide in accordance
Cf. Synodus Ruraemondensis 1570 (Schannat, VII, 666).
69 Concilium Ravennatense I568 (Mansi, XXXV, 632): "
should be approved such that the music be concordant, and
song be used the praises of God should be uttered neither in
depressed nor too shrill. In the middle of the verse of each p
should be made, by which one part is distinguished from the
has proved that this contributes greatly to good singing; and th
should contain their voices within the pitch and modulation
part, nor should their voices wander abroad, than which nothin
and between festive and sad offices a suitable distinction sho
cordance with the judgment of the chief of the choir." Cf. Con
Tit. VI, 3 (Schannat, VII, 10o3).
70 Schannat, VIII, 203: "The Church has overlooked no kin
song. For what nature teaches this the Church alone has avai
the voice whose articulation we have received from God we
praise of all kinds and thanks, for as Plutarch says, music is
In our offices you may see every sort of paean, odes of all kin
epicheremata and parabases and skolia, along with strophes, an
epodes, apocopes, and whatever else Greek ingenuity has inven
wholly the proverbial 'ass at the lyre,' you will be able to obs
in the songs of our Church. The innovators of our age do no
Hence it comes about that in their churches they prefer to g
barous and effeminate tune or other, to yawn out some vul
to females and wanton boys, rather than to imitate the dig
song of our people."
71 De praestantia musicae veteris libri tres (Opera, I, I
found who would restrain by severe legislation that effeminate
of singing which now prevails everywhere, or who thinks that t
and frequently incoherent singing should be reduced to some
thinks that solemn days and sacred edifices would attract their c

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 Church Music and the Council of Trent 593

polyphonic aspects of church music."7

Whereas the Council of Trent based its attitude towards church
music upon the liturgy, a churchly humanism built up its demand for
clear delivery of text and hence its condemnation of existing churc
music upon its views of ancient music. The extension and implemen
tation of the Council of Trent's thoughts upon music produced a
fruitful effect upon the opinions that humanism had defended sinc
the end of the I5th century and brought them into connection wit
the demands of the Council at a time when the Florentine humanists
were developing monody and opera out of their views of what the
ancients had done. The decrees of the Council of Trent and those of
succeeding provincial synods on church music were later conceived of
as a predominantly stylistic problem. Musicians sought to base the
character of new musical development in the stile antico as well as,
frequently, in the stile moderno upon the demands of the Council. The
novum genus of which Palestrina speaks in the preface to his second
volume of Masses (1567) appeared not only in connection with "the
redemption of church music" and the defeat of the opponents of music,
but also as incitement to a new solution in artistic movements bearing
the character of the age. But liturgical song, the Gregorian chant, had
to find new requirements in the spirit of the humanistic conception of
the word, on the basis of the decrees of the Council. The Gregorian
reform produced not only a new conception but above all an extension
and a deepening of the practice." Thus through the Council of Trent
there was created the plainchant movement which continued active
from the first printing of post-Tridentine chants through the Medici
edition of 1614 and the reform chant of the I7th and i8th centuries
to the Vatican edition of 1903-
The demand for verbal intelligibility caused a transformation of
plainchant melodies in the reformed concept. Accent and accentual
singing were bestowed upon syllables that were to be emphasized ac-

not a general resounding of effeminate and frequently indecorous song, with a great
and confused rivalry of voices and instruments."
72 "To say nothing of that all too frequent and prolix song; such as they are,
they have been thrust in promiscuously everywhere . . . that confused congeries of
rhythms and tempos; instruments of every sort employed without taste in sacred
places public ond private; vile and vulgar songs taken from anywhere for the
requirements of melody, mimic imitations and a thousand other affectations which
infect and contaminate modern music making" (Opera, I, 172).
73 R. Molitor, Die nachtridentinische Choralreform zu Rom, 2 vols., Leipzig,
I9o i; K. G. Fellerer, Der gregorianische Choral im Wandel der Jahrhunderte,
Regensburg, 1936, 42ff.

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594 The Musical Quarterly
cording to humanistic modes of declamation. Essentia
development of church music was the central pos
liturgical melodies, which are as apparent in the e
gorian themes in polyphony as in the plainsong pr
and offices.

The Council of Trent gave the practice of church music a new

meaning, and in its general deepening of conceptions of Church and
worship it determined the practice of church music and its development
in succeeding ages. As the numerous conciliar and synodal decrees
show, its influence upon church music was profound. Even though the
decrees of the Council in themselves appear slight, it nevertheless
marked out the path of development for church music by its spiritual
foundation for church reform.

(Translated by Moses Hadas)

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