The Singing of Solesmes

The Disciples followed the Last Supper with a hymn, and the early martyrs went singing into the arena to meet the lions; voices raised in praise and gladness have always been part of the Christian faith. But the sound is sometimes unholy. In modern times, Pope St. Pius X warned against the infiltration of profane music in his Motu Proprio (1903), followed by Pius XI in his Divini Cultus (1928). Last fall Chicago's Cardinal Stritch blacklisted such sentimental standbys as Schubert's Ave Maria and the Wagner and Mendelssohn wedding marches (TIME, Oct. 24).

Last week Roman Catholics could study the first full-dress encyclical on the subject in the church's history (title: Musicae Sacrae Disciplina). In it Pius XII held up as model for all devotional singing the "sacred Gregorian Chant . . . a precious treasure that must be carefully maintained and copiously shared with the Christian people." The Pope did not object to instrumental music or modern polyphonic compositions if their character is sacred. But if the "simple, even naive" music of the Gregorian Chant is heard in all Catholic churches, wrote the Pope, "the faithful in every part of the world will feel these harmonies to be familiar, and almost homelike, thus experiencing with spiritual comfort the marvelous unity of the Church."

Penance for a Flat. Gregorian Chant, or plain song, is a flowing unaccompanied chant that originated in the Greek, Roman and Hebrew melodies used by the first Christians. Thousands of these chants were composed by unknown authors; according to tradition, it was not until the 6th century that they were collected and edited under St. Gregory the Great, who was Pope from 590 to 604. Gregorian Chant, the music of the church, was practically the only written music in Europe during the early Middle Ages, but with the Renaissance, a new flamboyance began to corrupt the ancient Latin prayer-songs. In the 19th century, the old Catholic music was saved, almost singlehanded, by the Abbey of Solesmes.

In 1833 a young French priest named Prosper Gueranger, with 40,000 borrowed francs, founded a Benedictine monastery in an abandoned, 11th century priory at the village of Solesmes in western France. "The principal concern of the brethren," he wrote, "will be the celebration of the divine office." First they set to work to find how the divine office should be celebrated. The result was the rediscovery of Gregorian plain song. And so compelling was the force of their meticulous research and meticulously conducted services that by the time Abbot Gueranger died in 1875, almost all the churches in France were following the liturgy of Solesmes.

Today Solesmes is the recognized center of Catholic liturgical music. The monks have made recordings that are known around the world; choirmasters and music lovers look to the monastery as a place of pilgrimage. From Matins at 5:30 a.m. through Lauds, Prime, Mass, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline, the monks sing their way through each day, striving always for perfection. If one flats a note or stumbles over a word he falls to his knees in penance.

Better Chant, Better Prayer. The Vatican often calls on the monks of Solesmes to compose new church music in the traditional Gregorian style. When the dogma of the Assumption was proclaimed in 1950, it was Solesmes that produced the music for a new Assumption Day Mass. Last week the monks were hurrying to complete a revision of Holy Week liturgy that will be used this year in Roman Catholic churches.

But for all their musical eminence, the Benedictines of Solesmes remember that they are monks, not musicians. No one enters the monastery because he is interested in music; only a few have good voices--most are quite ordinary, and some actually bad. "Gregorian Chant, however beautiful we may judge it to be, is not merely an art," say the monks. "Our life is a life of prayer. The only reason we work for better chant is to produce better prayer."

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