Liturgical Song?

A liturgical song is a song that is integral to the liturgy.

Browse liturgical song titles in the alphabetical index and genres in the genre index. Find songs for particular days by clicking the liturgical index, or browse the navigation bar above.

Three principles help us to choose music for liturgical songs - liturgical holiness, musical beauty and pastoral universality.

Holy?

What is Holy?
Sacred music is considered "the more holy in proportion as it is more closely connected with the liturgical action" (Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, 112). It must be able "to express adequately the mystery grasped in the fullness of the Church's faith" (John Paul II).

Music, including sacred music, is not liturgically holy if it is incompatible with the liturgical action or Church teaching.

Beautiful?

What is Beautiful?
"The criterion that must inspire every composition and performance ... is the beauty that invites prayer." (John Paul II).

Requires sound form, true art, full adherence to the text it presents, synchronization with the time and movement in the Liturgy for which it is intended, appropriately reflecting the gestures proposed by the rite.
(John Paul II).

Universal?

What is Universal?
Three requirements:
1. "must comply with the legitimate demands of adaptation and inculturation"
2. "must respect specific criteria such as the search for musical expressions which respond to the necessary involvement of the entire assembly in the celebration.
3. "nobody of any nation may receive an impression other than good on hearing them."
(John Paul II).

How Much Singing?

How Much Singing?
(General Instruction, 40):
The amount of singing should correspond to the degree of solemnity of the occasion, with due consideration for culture and ability of the assembly; "preference should be given to those (parts) of greater importance and especially to those to be sung by the priest or the deacon or the lector, with the people responding, or by the priest and people together." More detail

Culture

In some cultures and languages reciting readings and prayers may be more efficacious and authentic than chanting.

Ability

Some parts for presider and cantor may be recited, for lack of singing abilty.

Importance

"parts especially should be sung which by their very nature require to be sung, using the kind and form of music that is proper to their character" (MS, 6): hymns, psalms, antiphons; litanies, dialogues, acclamations & prayers that are more beautifully expressed in song.

The Amount of Singing ...

should correspond to the degree of solemnity of the occasion,
with due consideration for culture and ability of the assembly;
preference should be given to those parts of greater importance ()

Solemnity	Dialogues & Acclamations	Litanies	Psalms	Antiphons	Hymns
Weekdays Sundays	Alleluia, Lenten acclamation, Sanctus, Eucharistic acclamations	Agnus Dei	Responsorial Psalm	Entrance, Communion	Gloria
Sundays +	The Lord's Prayer	Kyrie		Offertory, Sprinkling	Thanksgiving, Recessional
Solemnities and Rituals	Sign of the cross, Greeting, prayers, Preface dialogue, Sign of peace, Concluding rite	Prayer of the faithful		Procession of palms, Confirmation	Sequence
Triduum	Lumen Christi, Exsultet	Litany of the saints		Washing of feet, Veneration of cross	Pange Lingua
Most Solemn	On the most solemn occasions, Credo, cantillation of readings, and their acclamations