Sacred Music Principles: An Analysis of Osvaldo Lacerda’s Missa Ferial and of João Guilherme Ripper’s Gloria Concertato

Through the centuries many documents regarding sacred music were released by the Catholic Church, notably in the 20th century. These documents are essential for the understanding of the sacred music principles. This doctoral research project extracts the sacred music principles from documents of the Catholic Church and didactically groups them into eight categories: purposes and general principles of sacred music; types of sacred music; active participation of the faithful; text and language; duration; solos; exclusion of profanity; and instruments. Then, this research project presents the analyses of two compositions to exemplify how to determine the degree of appropriateness of a piece for the liturgy, whether for the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, for the Extraordinary Form, or for both. The two pieces analysed are from Brazilian composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. The first piece analysed is Osvaldo Lacerda’s Missa Ferial, and the second is João Guilherme Ripper’s Gloria Concertato. Ripper’s Gloria Concertato is a piece for soloists, choir, organ, timpani and orchestra composed for concert, whereas Lacerda’s Missa Ferial is a polyphonic choral piece for the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, but such an analysis is not a black-and-white task. This doctoral research project may help composers, clergy, music directors, and others to better understand the principles of sacred music and, therefore, to better compose and choose the pieces to be executed in the liturgy