I think that those who follow what I write know well my position, at times critical, on the situation of current sacred music. Of course this situation has evolved over time, it would be childish to think that everything was born only in the last few years. An event that certainly led to unexpected changes was that of the Second Vatican Council. A great deal has been read about the Council and its hermeneutics. Certainly some interpretations of this ecumenical assembly have led to a de facto devaluation of the role and dignity of liturgical music and its importance. A musician who went through these difficult decades was Domenico Bartolucci (1917-2013), who had been a conductor for many years of the choir of the Sistine Chapel, or Pontifical Music Chapel. I have been a disciple of him for years, giving him a veneration that I still feel very much alive, even after his death. So I had many conversations with him that focused on the theme of the evolution of sacred music and I was able to hear from his own voice the reproaches he made for some abuses that had by now taken possession of his beloved liturgy.
He was an excellent composer. I always say, even though I know that some will disagree, that Domenico Bartolucci was the greatest composer in the field of sacred music of the past century, at least in the Catholic sphere. If you know his production, perhaps you can agree with my opinion, so high is the technical level and the profound understanding of the liturgy that emanate from his pieces. Among his best known pieces is the Eucharistic motet O Sacrum Convivium, with 4 mixed voices. Salvatore de Salvo, in his beautiful book on the history of the Sistine Chapel in the twentieth century, attests this piece in 1957 through a quotation from the Sistine diaries. The text is from the antiphon to the Magnificat for Corpus Domini, in mode V of Gregorian chant. Referring to the Gregorian antiphon is important, as Bartolucci will take the Gregorian theme and will be able to develope it in four parts in an admirable way. We will be back to this soon.
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