Abstract

Article 112 of Sacrosanctum Concilium describes music as ministerial and integral to the liturgy. While subsequent statements by the church and professional or scholarly groups have sought to interpret and implement Vatican II's assertion, no systematic explanation of how or why music is ministerial and integral has been developed. This study examines the Second Vatican Council's interpretation of the relationship of music to the liturgy and its implications for musical practice. A comparative analysis of six other documents, including post-conciliar church statements and documents of professional or scholarly groups of musicians and liturgists, are examined in light of Vatican II's statements. ;Because of its success as ritual music at Taize, Jacques Berthier's music is used as a case study to explore the nature of music as ritual symbol. Chapter two carries out a hermeneutical analysis of Berthier's chants by examining the music's four genres, aleatory nature, performance notes, and texts. Biographical and historical data are also examined as a type of hermeneutical window for interpreting the chants. ;The dissertation then drawn on three areas of study to interpret the Taize chants as ritual symbol: chapter three examines principles of symbol theory, semiotics and theologies of symbol of Michael Polanyi, Charles Sanders Peirce, Jean-Jacques Nattiez, and Louis-Marie Chauvet to determine how music operates as ritual symbol; chapter four draws on Victor Turner's ritual theory to interpret Taize music's role in the Taize pilgrimage process; and chapter five uses J. L. Austin's performative language theory to interpret music-making as the doing of something. The final chapter explores potential ecclesial meanings which may be mediated in the Taize liturgy and the role of Berthier's chants in mediating that meaning. ;The dissertation concludes that music's symbolic property enables it to be both ministerial and integral to the liturgy. As symbolic activity, music-making evokes participation, negotiates relationships, and enables the assembly to orient themselves and to find their identity and their place within their world. Furthermore, music-making provides the illocutionary force to "do something" in the act of singing. As part of a complexus of ritual symbols, music interacts with other symbols, in mediating the liturgy's meaning