Miglė Miliūnaitė: The Sacrum-Profanum distinction in Church Fathers References to Music

The distinction between sacred and profane music was already made by Plato, who wished to exclude some instruments and tunes from his ideal state. Also, it could be found in the New Testament, where music instruments lost their sacred meaning, presented in the Old Testament. Although in both Greco-Roman and Jewish societies the role of music was very important, the Patristic musical puritanism was dominative during Early Christianity. Nowadays exclusion of musical instruments from the liturgy is still valid in the Orthodox Church, while in the Western culture sacred and profane music has a nonopposite relationship since the Late Middle-Ages. How we should interpret Patristic musical puritanism after this transformation? Have Church Fathers negative connotations to musical instruments lost their relevance in the Catholic Church? Even though the concept of music in the writings of Church Fathers is multivalent, two musical conceptions became common in patristic literature: living in harmony and exclaiming in a single voice. The presentation assumes that it is not commensurable with the most prevalent contemporary conceptions of music. Reinterpreting fragments against music instruments and passages that signal acceptance of music as one of the liberal arts, the presentation seeks to show, that distinguishing sacred and profane music could be made not by judging elements of music, but by criteria of mind and senses.