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The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music ( it, Pontificio istituto di musica sacra; la, Pontificium institutum musicae sacrae) is an institution of higher education of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

specifically dedicated to the study of

church music Church music is Christian music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclesiastical liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn. History Early Christian music The ...

. It is based in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, located in the former Pontifical Abbey of St Jerome-in-the-City.

History

The Institute was established by

Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of ...

in 1910 as the "School of Sacred Music". The institute was established as a body dedicated to teaching and performing "sacred music". The school opened in 1911. In July 1914, the school was declared a Pontifical Institution and was granted the power to confer academic degrees. On 23 September 1914, newly elected

Pope Benedict XV Pope Benedict XV (Ecclesiastical Latin, Latin: ''Benedictus XV''; it, Benedetto XV), born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, name=, group= (; 21 November 185422 January 1922), was head of the Catholic Church from 1914 until his deat ...

referred to the institute as part of the legacy left to him by his predecessor saying he would support and promote it in the best way possible. The following month, he assigned the Palazzo di Sant'Apollinare as the residence of the school, relocating it from via del Mascherone.

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City f ...

's ''Motu Proprio, Ad musicae sacrae'' (22 November 1922) confirmed the connection between the institute and the

Apostolic See An apostolic see is an episcopal see whose foundation is attributed to one or more of the apostles of Jesus or to one of their close associates. In Catholicism the phrase, preceded by the definite article and usually capitalized, refers to the ...

. With the apostolic constitution ''Deus scientiarum Dominus'' of 1931, the institute took its present name and was included among the pontifical academic institutes. The institute moved to the former Pontifical Abbey of St Jerome-in-the-City in 1983. In 2001, the school was received by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the institute and to honor a previous president of the institute- Bishop Higini Angles, who was president from 1947 to 1969. For several years in the first two decades of the 20th century, the administrator of the Pontifical Institute was the Spanish priest Alfonso Luna Sánchez, who died in Rome on April 3, 2020 at the residence of the De La Salle Brothers. The goals of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music are to teach music in practical, theoretical, and historical terms, to promote the spread of traditional sacred music and encourage artistic expressions of music in the current day, and to render services of music to the Catholic churches throughout the world.

Courses offered

The Institute grants the following degrees in sacred music: Bachelor (3 years), Licentiate (2 years) and a Doctorate. The degrees are offered with one of the following foci:

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe dur ...

, composition, choral direction,

musicology Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks' ...

and pianoforte. Instruction in Italian is offered in harmony, counterpoint, fugue, composition, acoustics, music history and analysis, musicology, bibliography, research methods, ethno-musicology, editing of music, notation, Gregorian chant, liturgics, piano, pipe organ, score reading, continuo (figured bass), keyboard improvisation, choral conducting and Latin.

References

External links

Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music

(The Vatican) {{Authority control Education in Rome