Rite and Reason: The 40th anniversary of Vatican II's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy and the 100th anniversary of the founding of Dublin's Palestrina Choir prompt Prof Gerard Gillen to reflect on the current state of church music in Ireland
Professionalism in church music in Ireland has traditionally been the preserve of the Church of Ireland cathedrals and has long been the envy of Catholics. Edward Martyn's endowment of the Palestrina Choir at Dublin's Pro-Cathedral exactly 100 years ago brought something of a professional approach to church music there but has had minimal influence beyond Marlborough Street.
Matters remained fairly static until the 1960s when Vatican II's radical liturgical changes and their sometimes over-zealous and misinformed interpretations challenged the very notion of high-art music in the service of liturgy. Thus we had instances of the disbandment of choirs, and in the process much of the high art which had adorned liturgy over the centuries was abandoned, if not actually prohibited. The result was an act of gross cultural vandalism akin to the 16th-century reformers' destruction of church statuary and paintings.
The years since 1963, however, have seen some very positive initiatives in liturgical formation by the Irish bishops. In 1970, realising the inherent dangers in what was happening musically in the church, the bishops set up a Schola Cantorum music scholarship scheme at St Finian's College, Mullingar, with a view to providing high-quality music education outside Dublin for talented youth.
This initiative was remarkably successful and over the past 30 years its graduates have gone on to occupy numerous senior positions in Irish musical life, from third-level institutes and the National Symphony Orchestra to Riverdance, not to mention the organ lofts of leading national churches. The Schola now faces an uncertain future with the phasing out of the boarding element of St Finian's College. This will have the effect of minimising the national dimension in its intake and may thus limit its remit as a national institution.
At about the same time as the Mullingar Schola was founded, the National Centre for Liturgy was set up under the direction of the late Mgr Seán Swayne with a view to educating clergy and laity in a balanced programme of scholarly and pastoral remit in liturgical reform.
Anyone who visited Seán Swayne's institute in its Carlow years saw in practice a realisation of the full potential of Vatican II's liturgical vision: a beautiful space, from welcoming ambience and artistically sculptured altar-table and chapel furnishings, to music which, while often very simple, was always tasteful and carefully prepared.
The centre is now housed in St Patrick's College, Maynooth, under the visionary direction of Father Patrick Jones. The future funding of the centre is far from certain and it would be tragic if this institute which does so much to shape contemporary liturgy with scholarship, dignity, imagination and respect for heritage, were to have to curtail its activities.
The human spirit's quest for beauty of expression in the arts is unquenchable and a fascinating development in recent years has been the growth in professional church choral activity in Dublin. Not only does the Palestrina Choir (and the choirs of St Patrick's and Christ Church cathedrals) continue to flourish but semi-professional choirs have been set up in St Teresa's, Clarendon Street, the Carmelite church, Whitefriar Street, Adam & Eve's, Merchants' Quay, the Dominican Priory, Tallaght, and the chapels of both UCD and Trinity College.
In the Church of Ireland there is the choir of St Anne's, Dawson Street, and, while it is non-professional in its composition, the choir of St Bartholomew's, Clyde Road has a long tradition in musical accomplishment which it steadfastly maintains. Indeed the Church of Ireland's commitment to high standards in church music is an object of admiration from those of us in the majority tradition who ponder these matters.
Post-Vatican II iconoclasm is, however, still alive and well, as demonstrated in the recent "sacking" of the choirs of both Whitefriar Street and Adam & Eve's churches.
Admittedly the programmes of music in both churches and costs attached to them were probably not fully thought through when embarked upon some few years ago, but each was providing music in a liturgical context rarely heard in Irish churches: Widor, Poulenc and Pärt in Whitefriar Street, and Gregorian chant and its associated literature (Duruflé, Langlais etc) in Adam & Eve's.
In September it was made clear to both groups that their music was no longer wanted. Finance was not a central issue as far as the choir members were concerned. No doubt those responsible for the "sacking" of the choirs will affirm that the music sung was elitist and inimical to congregational participation.
This is, of course, to deny the power of art to penetrate the cosmic notions that underlie liturgical action, to reach the ineffable, to express the inexpressible. It is art that raises us to the hieratic in terms of spiritual consciousness, and to deny artistic expression in the liturgy is to deprive liturgy of one of its essential attributes. And congregational participation is so often understood as a one-dimensional concept.
"Participation" can be both internal and external, and a listening assembly can, in the profoundest sense, be a participating assembly. Forty years after the promulgation of the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy we could do well to ponder these matters.