Looking for a Song?

Genre index:
Locate the song's genre in the genre index, or in the navigation bar above.

Alphabetical index:
Locate the song's title in the alphabetical index, or by moving the mouse over the drop down menus.

Liturgical Index:
Find songs for particular days by clicking the liturgical index, or navigating the drop down menus.

Holy?

What is Holy?
"Sacred music is to be 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

Paul Mason
146 Campbell Drive
WAHROONGA
NSW 2076 Australia
Phone: +61 4 1443 6017
Mobile: 0414 436 017
info@liturgicalsong.com

Willow Publishing
PO Box 288
BROOKVALE
NSW 2100 Australia
Phone: +61 2 9948 3957
Fax: +61 2 9948 8153
E-mail

About Us

Paul Mason is a liturgist, composer and pastoral associate with degrees in engineering, theology and liturgy. Paul is married to Margaret and they have four sons. Click for a detailed bio.

Willow Publishing are the publishers of the As One Voice series of hymnals.

New Releases!

~ the universal beauty that invites the involvement of the entire assembly in prayer ~

Welcome!

Liturgical Song is the website of Australian composer and liturgist, Paul Mason. It features his musical settings of the Mass, the responsorial psalms, and other songs for Christian rituals. You can look for a song from Paul's collections to find help in learning and performing them (see example). You can also read about Paul's songbooks, and place orders for them here.

Explore the world of liturgical song

Liturgical song is the category of songs and sacred music that meet all the pre-requisites for singing in the liturgy - liturgically holy, musically beautiful and pastorally universal (see the left sidebar for a summary discussion, based on John Paul II's Chirograph on Sacred Music).

Christian liturgy is a tapestry of many different genres of liturgical song. Each genre has an intrinsic musicality determined by its particular form and its service to the liturgy. You can explore the world of liturgical song using the navigation bar - from silence, to cantillation, to dialogues and acclamations, to litanies, to responsorial psalms, to processional antiphons, to songs and hymns, to instrumental music. Each page presents a summary overview of the song's service to the liturgy, a star rating of its importance for singing, and references to it in key documents.

I hope you find this website helpful for your own particular parish or school situation.

(under construction: this site is a work in progress)