Fixing Music in Catholic Worship

Somehow, the William Mahrt statement before the USCCB subcommittee on "Music in Catholic Worship" was lost in the transition to a new site. Fortunately, it will appear in the Spring 2007 issue of Sacred Music, and it is posted again with a new layout. Here is where Professor Mahrt takes apart the document piece by piece, as a good editor might, bring to bear his lifetime expertise on the history and meaning of the relationship between liturgy and music.

Something tells me that when, in forty years, people look back to find the major milestones in the restorative efforts concerning liturgical music, this statement will stand out. I don't believe that anything so thorough, calm, sweeping, and ultimately withering, has ever been written about this document that has had such an enormous impact on American liturgical life.