Sunday, December 17, 2006

Mgr Bartolucci: This is Nuts!

A few of you know that Mgr. Bartolucci used to be the Vatican's choir director--he was "allowed" to retire during the reign of JPII, but was loudly lamented by some traditionalist-types who thought that he'd been dumped.

Maybe he WAS dumped. The fellow has some....interesting....opinions. This is one:

And furthermore, Gregorian chant has been distorted by the rhythmic and aesthetic theories of the Benedictines of Solesmes. Gregorian chant was born in violent times, and it should be manly and strong, and not like the sweet and comforting adaptations of our own day.

Chant, unlike any other music, is thoroughly un-'sexed'. There are marches, which are masculine, and certain hymns (e.g., Mother, Dear, O Pray for Me) which are decidedly feminine.

But, generally speaking, really good Church music is predominantly neither of the above--it is transcendent. Think about that for a few seconds--there is a reason...

On the other hand, some of his opinions are very useful:

Today the fashion in the churches is for pop-inspired songs and the strumming of guitars, but the fault lies above all with the pseudo-intellectuals who have engineered this degeneration of the liturgy, and thus of music, overthrowing and despising the heritage of the past with the idea of obtaining who knows what advantage for the people. If the art of music does not return to its greatness, rather than representing an accommodation or a byproduct, there is no sense in asking about its function in the Church. I am against guitars, but I am also against the superficiality of the Cecilian movement in music – it’s more or less the same thing. Our motto must be: let us return to Gregorian chant and to polyphony in the tradition of Palestrina

Let us recall that the "hootenanny Mass" was proposed by a certain local ex-Archbishop...

And then there's this one:

Q: Bruckner was also very inspired...

A: He has the defect of being longwinded. His Mass for wind instruments, the one in E minor, is rather tedious.

The good Mgr. evidently doesn't have time to appreciate the art of anyone born north of the Alps...

HT: ManWiththeBlackHat

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