The true standard of sacred music

From the nicely-named "Notes from Cultural Madhouse":

http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=6fa8040d-9549-4d09-822c-2febf1822326
Nothing new here, but a nice round up of music legislation, and it finishes with a BANG!

Decorous, splendid, and with suitable melody
Catholic liturgical music should admit nothing “cheap” or “trite,” or anything of “the musical cliché often found in secular popular songs.” Such music “cheapen[s] the Liturgy,” “expose[s] it to ridicule,” and “invite[s] failure.” So wrote the U.S. Catholic bishops last year in Sing to the Lord, a document on sacred music. The passage cited above and the document’s call for the restoration of Gregorian Chant should give joy to the heart of anyone wearied by the banal, saccharine, and sentimental music that has been cloying the sensitive Catholic musical palate since the days of the St. Louis Jesuits. “Cheap,” “trite,” and “ridiculous” aptly describe so much of the ditties one is forced to endure at Mass.
Still (sadly from where I sit), Sing to the Lord does not seem to reject popular-style music in the liturgy. ...
While one must admit that the Church has allowed for a wide variety of musical styles in the liturgy, the magisterium has not been as inclusive of styles as the U.S. bishops’ statement seems to suggest. Ironically, perhaps, the 20th century witnessed a renewed attention to liturgical music,...
Perhaps it was because the new post-conciliar forms of music did not "grow organically from forms that already exist," that Pope John Paul II thought it necessary in 2003 to issue his Chirograph on Sacred Music, in commemoration of the centenary of Pius X's instruction, Tra le Sollecitudini. In the Chirograph, Pope John Paul noted how his predecessors, beginning with Pope St. Pius X, "recalled the fundamental principles that must enliven the composition of sacred music, especially when it is destined for the Liturgy." And, as if to dispel the notion that Vatican II represented a break with the previous popes, John Paul wrote, "the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council did not fail to reassert the principles with a view to their application in the changed conditions of the times." Further on, the pope says, "It is important that the musical compositions used for liturgical celebrations correspond to the criteria appropriately set down by St. Pius X and wisely developed by both the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent Magisterium of the Church." Not anything goes in liturgical music, according to Pope John Paul. Pope Paul VI, he said, "explained that 'if music -- instrumental and vocal -- does not possess at the same time the sense of prayer, dignity and beauty, it precludes the entry into the sphere of the sacred and the religious.' Today, moreover, the meaning of the category 'sacred music' has been broadened to include repertoires that cannot be part of the celebration without violating the spirit and norms of the Liturgy itself.... As I emphasized in the Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, careful thought should be given to the fact that not all the expressions of figurative art or of music are able 'to express adequately the mystery grasped in the fullness of the Church's faith.' Consequently, not all forms of music can be considered suitable for liturgical celebrations." But what musical forms can be considered suitable for the liturgy? Pope John Paul, like his predecessors, did not descend into specifics; but he did establish, or re-establish, a standard -- Gregorian chant. He wrote: "With regard to compositions of liturgical music, I make my own the 'general rule' that St. Pius X formulated in these words: 'the more closely a composition for church approaches in its movement, inspiration and savor the Gregorian melodic form, the more sacred and liturgical it becomes; and the more out of harmony it is with that supreme model, the less worthy it is of the temple.'" ...
To those who would not heed his direction, Pope Pius X had this to say: "It is vain to hope that the blessing of heaven will descend abundantly upon us, when our homage to the Most High, instead of ascending in the odor of sweetness, puts into the hand of the Lord the scourges wherewith of old the Divine Redeemer drove the unworthy profaners from the Temple." Strong words, indeed, and to be soberly considered by all those who take upon themselves the task of composing – or selecting -- music for the worship of God.