Whether God Should Be Praised with Song?
Objection 1: It would seem that God should not be praised with song.
For the Apostle says (Col. 3:16): "Teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles." Now we should
employ nothing in the divine worship, save what is delivered to us on
the authority of Scripture. Therefore it would seem that, in praising
God, we should employ, not corporal but spiritual canticles.
Obj. 2: Further, Jerome in his commentary on Eph. 5:19, "Singing and
making melody in your hearts to the Lord," says: "Listen, young men
whose duty it is to recite the office in church: God is to be sung
not with the voice but with the heart. Nor should you, like
play-actors, ease your throat and jaws with medicaments, and make the
church resound with theatrical measures and airs." Therefore God
should not be praised with song.
Obj. 3: Further, the praise of God is competent to little and great,
according to Apoc. 14, "Give praise to our God, all ye His servants;
and you that fear Him, little and great." But the great, who are in
the church, ought not to sing: for Gregory says (Regist. iv, ep. 44):
"I hereby ordain that in this See the ministers of the sacred altar
must not sing" (Cf. Decret., dist. xcii., cap. In sancta Romana
Ecclesia). Therefore singing is unsuitable to the divine praises.
Obj. 4: Further, in the Old Law God was praised with musical
instruments and human song, according to Ps. 32:2, 3: "Give praise to
the Lord on the harp, sing to Him with the psaltery, the instrument
of ten strings. Sing to Him a new canticle." But the Church does not
make use of musical instruments such as harps and psalteries, in the
divine praises, for fear of seeming to imitate the Jews. Therefore in
like manner neither should song be used in the divine praises.
Obj. 5: Further, the praise of the heart is more important than the
praise of the lips. But the praise of the heart is hindered by
singing, both because the attention of the singers is distracted from
the consideration of what they are singing, so long as they give all
their attention to the chant, and because others are less able to
understand the things that are sung than if they were recited without
chant. Therefore chants should not be employed in the divine praises.
_On the contrary,_ Blessed Ambrose established singing in the Church
of Milan, as Augustine relates (Confess. ix).
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 1), the praise of the voice is
necessary in order to arouse man's devotion towards God. Wherefore
whatever is useful in conducing to this result is becomingly adopted
in the divine praises. Now it is evident that the human soul is moved
in various ways according to various melodies of sound, as the
Philosopher state (Polit. viii, 5), and also Boethius (De Musica,
prologue). Hence the use of music in the divine praises is a salutary
institution, that the souls of the faint-hearted may be the more
incited to devotion. Wherefore Augustine say (Confess. x, 33): "I am
inclined to approve of the usage of singing in the church, that so by
the delight of the ears the faint-hearted may rise to the feeling of
devotion": and he says of himself (Confess. ix, 6): "I wept in Thy
hymns and canticles, touched to the quick by the voices of Thy
sweet-attuned Church."
Reply Obj. 1: The name of spiritual canticle may be given not only to
those that are sung inwardly in spirit, but also to those that are
sung outwardly with the lips, inasmuch as such like canticles arouse
spiritual devotion.
Reply Obj. 2: Jerome does not absolutely condemn singing, but
reproves those who sing theatrically in church not in order to arouse
devotion, but in order to show off, or to provoke pleasure. Hence
Augustine says (Confess. x, 33): "When it befalls me to be more moved
by the voice than by the words sung, I confess to have sinned
penally, and then had rather not hear the singer."
Reply Obj. 3: To arouse men to devotion by teaching and preaching is
a more excellent way than by singing. Wherefore deacons and prelates,
whom it becomes to incite men's minds towards God by means of
preaching and teaching, ought not to be instant in singing, lest
thereby they be withdrawn from greater things. Hence Gregory says
(Regist. iv, ep. 44): "It is a most discreditable custom for those
who have been raised to the diaconate to serve as choristers, for it
behooves them to give their whole time to the duty of preaching and
to taking charge of the alms."
Reply Obj. 4: As the Philosopher says (Polit. viii, 6), "Teaching
should not be accompanied with a flute or any artificial instrument
such as the harp or anything else of this kind: but only with such
things as make good hearers." For such like musical instruments move
the soul to pleasure rather than create a good disposition within it.
In the Old Testament instruments of this description were employed,
both because the people were more coarse and carnal--so that they
needed to be aroused by such instruments as also by earthly
promises--and because these material instruments were figures of
something else.
Reply Obj. 5: The soul is distracted from that which is sung by a
chant that is employed for the purpose of giving pleasure. But if the
singer chant for the sake of devotion, he pays more attention to what
he says, both because he lingers more thereon, and because, as
Augustine remarks (Confess. x, 33), "each affection of our spirit,
according to its variety, has its own appropriate measure in the
voice, and singing, by some hidden correspondence wherewith it is
stirred." The same applies to the hearers, for even if some of them
understand not what is sung, yet they understand why it is sung,
namely, for God's glory: and this is enough to arouse their devotion.
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