Lucy E. Carroll, D.M.A., is organist and music director at the public chapel of the Carmelite monastery in Philadelphia, and is adjunct associate professor at Westminster Choir College, Princeton. She insists in her article: "While some liturgists may try to tell us that music becomes sacred by being used for worship, the notion that function (or use) creates form (or meaning) is hardly self-evident. Most musicians, musicologists and music therapists would strongly disagree -- not to mention Cardinal Ratzinger, the popes, and Vatican directives! The nature of the thing will determine its use, not vice versa." (emphasis in the original) Most of the music heard in parishes today does not conform to Vatican directives, and thus does not contribute to the authentic liturgical reform envisioned by the Council. Until the Western Church returns to the pipe organ as the primary liturgical instrument, we shall continue to be a people adrift, out at sea, battered by the waves of the whims and preferences of whomever happens to be director of music.
