24 July 2006

Nota bene: Maestro Monsignor Domenico Bartolucci

"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, and let us continue down this road!"

-Monsignor Domenico Bartolucci, who was appointed director (maestro) of the Sistine Chapel by Pope Pius XII in 1959.

Read an interview with Monsignor Bartolucci here.

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