What are the characteristics of sacred music?
On the centenary of its promulgation, John Paul II urged us to revisit and learn from St. Pius X’s Motu Proprio on Sacred Music, Tra le sollecitudini (1903). Pope Pius distinguished three characteristics of sacred music: “it must possess holiness and beauty of form: from these two qualities a third will spontaneously arise—universality” (§2). Concerning holiness , for music to be sacred means it is not the ordinary, not the every-day. It is set aside for the purpose of glorifying God and edifying and sanctifying the faithful. It must therefore exclude all that is not suitable for the temple—all that is ordi- nary, every-day or profane, not only in itself, but also in the manner in which it is performed. The sacred words of the Liturgy call for a sonic vesture that is equally sacred. Sacredness, then, is more than indi- vidual piety; it is an objective reality. Concerning beauty , the Latin speaks more precisely of bonitate formarum or “excellence of forms.” This re- fers to the tendenc
