The liturgical music tradition of polyphony with its blend of melodies and harmonies should lift people’s spirits as it subtly transmits a message about diversity and unity, Pope Leo XIV said.
In the frescoed Sala Regia of the Apostolic Palace 18 June, the pope helped celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, a composer whose Mass settings are still a staple of Vatican liturgies.
During the evening event, the Vatican unveiled a postage stamp issued in Palestrina’s honor, and the choir of the Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci Foundation sang selections of Palestrina’s “Missa Papae Marcelli” and gave Pope Leo a CD of the Mass setting.
Polyphony “is a musical form full of meaning for prayer and for the Christian life,” Pope Leo said.
First, “it is inspired by the sacred text, which it sets out to ‘clothe with suitable melody’ so that it may better reach ‘the intelligence of the faithful,'” he said, quoting a document from St Pius X on sacred music.
“What is more, it accomplishes this purpose by entrusting the words to several voices, each repeating them in its own, original way with varied and complementary melodic and harmonic movements,” the pope said.
“Finally,” he said, “it harmonises the whole by the skill with which the composer develops and interweaves the melodies, respecting the rules of counterpoint, making them echo each other, sometimes even creating dissonances, which then find resolution in new chords.”
“The effect of this dynamic unity in diversity—a metaphor for our common journey of faith under the guidance of the Holy Spirit—is to help the listener enter ever more deeply into the mystery expressed by the words, responding where appropriate,” he said.