Models of liturgical music & model liturgical music: the application of sacrosanctum concilium to music in the parish of St Peter and St Paul, Wolverhampton

Jones, Wilfrid Henry Gooch (2016). Models of liturgical music & model liturgical music: the application of sacrosanctum concilium to music in the parish of St Peter and St Paul, Wolverhampton. University of Birmingham. M.A.

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Abstract

Active participation in the liturgy, which should be primarily internal and fostered by external participation, is the primary concern of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the sacred liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. Having investigated the historical effects of the Council and the ensuing liturgical reform on the music in the liturgies of St Peter and St Paul’s, Wolverhampton, this experiment gradually introduced the liturgical music envisaged by Sacrosanctum Concilium into a weekly Mass and uses ethnographic techniques to investigate whether the active participation of the people increased. This paper examines attitudes to active participation, to congregational singing and listening, and the construction of liturgical atmosphere. This experiment in reforming the post-conciliar liturgical reform shows that it is possible and desirable to provide music that is in continuity with the liturgical tradition of the Church and which, therefore, does not sever the chain of collective memory which that tradition has established over centuries. The results concerning whether the internal participation of the people was heighted by the experiment are inconclusive, but the atmosphere was perceived to have improved, and people were willing to sing their parts of the Mass and to listen to a cantor.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.A.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.A.

Supervisor(s):