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108 Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts Vol.15 (2021) 

 
108 

 THE MINISTERIAL ROLE OF CHOIRS IN THE LITURGY  

 

Jude Toochukwu Orakwe Ph.D.  

 

Abstract 

his essay reflects on the ministerial role and relevance of 

choristers within the Catholic liturgy. Fact is that in the 

contemporary explosion of charismatic/Pentecostal spirituality 

and worship––which, by the way, coincides with the era of inculturation 

and spontaneity of worship, and also, given the gradual decline of Latin 

liturgy––there is the tendency within the Catholic Church––and this can 

be verified in other non-Catholic confessions––to pose a fundamental 

question regarding the functionality of the choir. Indeed, there is the 

feeling or temptation of thinking that the advent of Vatican II era has 

abolished the role of the choir such that cultivation of church choirs 

should now be a matter of secondary importance. The author in this 

study (originally presented as paper at the conference of the National 

Catholic Liturgical Music Council of Nigeria, 2022) seeks to interrogate 

some of the post Vatican II assumptions by a systematic and analytic 

exposition of what the Council really taught in continuity with previous 

magisterial positions of the Church––not what someone thought the 

Council said––and concludes by indicating that the exigency of the 

choral function remains as fresh as it was, ever since the Church 

conceived of the liturgical duties of the schola cantorum, right from 

the middle ages. While the conclusions of this article are based on 

findings from Catholic Church documents, its thesis concerning the 

sempiternal exigency of the choral ministry within the liturgy has much 

relevance for the worship of other Christian communities.        

T 

 Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts (ARMA) Vol. 15 2021 



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

 Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts Vol.15 (2021) 109 

Prolegomena 

The relevance of the choir within liturgical service has been a burning 

question in many Christian churches. It caught the attention and 

reflection of the Fathers of Vatican II, such that it occupied a notable 

locus in the Council Fathers’ reflection on the liturgy. Today, it remains 

an important issue in the organization of church worship in the Catholic 

Church. In this essay, I will reflect on the ministerial role of the choir 

in the liturgy. I am particularly delighted to engage with this topic 

because an Igbo adage says that when one is ignorant of his great 

status, he ends up being carried atop by opponents beyond his father’s 

compound (as though he is an inferior person). Bearing in mind that this 

essay was originally presented to a Conference of Nigerian Catholic 

choristers, I, nevertheless, expect members of church choirs – 

Catholic or non-Catholic – who would read this discourse would start to 

be proud of their status as ministers of the liturgy, holds their heads 

high with some bit of genuine spiritual self-esteem, and approach their 

ministry of sacred music with greater sense of gravity. Let me say it 

straight away that the service of the choir in the liturgy is not a 

tangential addendum or musical appendix within the sacred worship. It 

is a service that is so integral to the liturgy.  

But how do we establish the ministeriality of the choir? Is there any 

Church teaching on that? The answer is Yes. But before examining the 

teaching of the Church on the ministerial status of choir within the 

liturgy, let us first examine the meaning of the term itself.  

 

Conceptual Definitions 

The term “choir” has both architectural and human definitions. In 

terms of architecture it refers to “that part of the church where the 

stalls of the clergy are. [Sometimes it] is often loosely used for the 

whole of the eastern arm, including the choir proper, sanctuary, retro-

choir…” (Poole 1908). Another definition from New Oxford American 



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

 Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts Vol.15 (2021) 110 

Dictionary (NOAD) talks about “the part of a cathedral or large church 

between the [high] altar and the nave, used by the choir and clergy.” 

The architectural choir is sometimes referred to as chancel. On the 

other hand, the word “choir” also designates “an organized group of 

singers, typically one that takes part in church services or performs 

regularly in public” (NOAD). Now, a choir can be described as mixed if 

composed of male and female voices; but there could also be an all-male 

choir as typically seen in the Sistine chapel choir or even all boys’ and 

all girls’ choir. Shebbeare (1908) also defines a choir as “a body of 

singers entrusted with the musical parts of the church service, and 

organized and instructed for that purpose.” As is evident from the 

above definitions, the choir is not necessarily the group that sings at 

Mass. There can be concert choirs that are primarily engaged in musical 

performances in theatres and concert halls.  

 

The Choir as Liturgical Ministry in the Church  

An original or seminal teaching on the ministerial role of the choir 

within the liturgy in the modern time is located in the document, Tra 
le Sollecitudini, an Instructions on Sacred Music that was issued by 

Pope St. Pius X, on November 22, 1903. In articles 12-14 of the 

document, Pope Pius X defined singers in the liturgy as the “choir of 

levites.” In designating singers as a “levitical” choir, Pius X (1903, ¶12) 

was highlighting the fact that singers are indeed performing a 

ministerial role, for the reason of which their vocal renditions in the 

liturgy ought to have “the character of choral music.” Indeed, precisely 

because of their ministerial collocation or emplacement within the 

liturgy, “singers in the church, even when they are laymen, are really 

taking the place of the ecclesiastical choir” (Pius X 1903, ¶12).  It is 

important at this point to indicate that the use of the term 

“ecclesiastical choir” bears a contextual reference – or at least an 

allusion – to the choir of the clergy, which would usually occupy the part 

of the church known architecturally as the “choir.” In other words, St. 



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

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Pius X (1903, ¶13) is alluding to the role of the choir as being semi-

clerical. And it is exactly for this reason that he excluded women were 

from singing in the choir at the liturgy and suggested that their role 

should be taken by boys and perhaps male falsettists.1  

In furtherance of his desire of having the choir perform its role in a 

most worthy and dignified manner, Pius X (1903, ¶14) insisted that  

only men of known piety and probity of life are to be admitted 
to form part of the choir of a church, and these men should by 
their modest and devout bearing during the liturgical functions 
show that they are worthy of the holy office they exercise.  

We may define this as pious spiritual or internal disposition that should 

be a prerequisite for participating in the choral function. But the Pope 

goes further to indicate some criteria for external decorum: “It will 

also be fitting that singers while singing in church wear the 

ecclesiastical habit and surplice, and that they be hidden behind 

gratings when the choir is excessively open to the public gaze” (Pius X 

1903, ¶14).     

Now, we know that presently the Church values the contribution of 

women in the making of church choirs. But apart from the changing role 

of women in the constitution of church choirs, everything else that we 

see in the above cited papal document, including the pope’s emphasis on 

appropriate liturgical vesting, has lost none of its validity, even if there 

would be need for some form of adaptation in the application of the 

instructions in the present-day circumstances. Indeed, it is intriguing 

and would be interesting to point out that in Nigeria of today, the 

instruction of wearing ecclesiastical habit and surplice is most 

punctiliously observed mainly by non-Catholic choirs, especially in the 

                                                 
1 Falsettists sing with what in Nigerian cantorial parlance is defined as head-voice. 



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

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Anglican church. But suffice it to say that all the above provisions from 

Pope X were ways of accentuating the specifically ministerial function 

of the choir within the liturgy. Choristers are not just out there in the 

choir stand to lead the congregation in singing one cheap tune or the 

other. It would, therefore, be inappropriate to reductively assign them 

to the role of intoning songs for the congregation and, worse still, 

placing them under obligation of singing musical pieces that are “liked” 

by this or that priest and/or the people, even when these pieces have 

no liturgical relevance. 

Next in recognizing the ministry of the choir in the liturgy was Pope 

Pius XI. Twenty-five years after Tra le sollecitudini, precisely on the 

20th of December, 1928, he issued the document, Divini Cultus, On 

Divine Worship, in which he expressly recommends “the formation of 

choirs,” acknowledging that they were formerly “established in the 

basilicas and greater churches especially for the singing of polyphonic 

music,” sacred polyphony itself being “rightly held second only to 

Gregorian chant.” Pius XI (1928) therefore instructed that choirs be 

established “in churches where the scale on which the liturgy is carried 

out demands a greater number and a more careful selection of singers” 

such that choral music may flourish anew in those churches as they did 

in the 14th to 16th centuries, that is, the renaissance period. More 

importantly, he earnestly demanded that “choir-schools for boys 

should be established not only for greater churches and cathedrals, 

but also for smaller parish churches” and that “the boys should be 

taught by the choirmaster to sing properly…” (Pius XI 1928)2  

Of course, there is no gainsaying that the era of having choir-schools 

for training only boys as choristers has passed. Although this tradition 

is still upheld in some famous and historic European cathedrals, yet it 

                                                 
2 Pope Pius XII also made similar demand in his Encyclical, Musicae sacrae disciplina, 

¶73. 



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

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is definitely clear that such choir school as Pius XI intended can and 

should also include girls. Indeed, in a latter instruction, Musicae sacrae 
disciplina by Pope Pius XII (1958), the possibility was foreseen of 

allowing “a group of men and women or girls, located in place outside 

the sanctuary… [to] sing the liturgical texts at Solemn Mass…” One of 

the recent happy incidences in Onitsha is the foundation of parish-

based music academies, dedicated to the formation of boys and girls 

from very early age. It is important and necessary that dioceses in 

Nigeria explore ways of initiating and sustaining such music academies 

and even try as much as possible to have a version of it in all parishes. 

I strongly believe that formation of young boys and girls in singing and 

even playing of modern musical instruments will have far-reaching 

positive effects on their spiritual and human development. I am 

personally struck by Pius XI’s rather uncanny argument that liturgy and 

music are “matters closely associated with Christian doctrine” (1928). 

 

Vatican II and Post-Vatican II on the Liturgical Role of Choirs 

According to the Instruction on Sacred Music, Musicam Sacram, issued 

by the Sacred Congregation of Rites [S.C.R.] on March 5, 1967, the role 

of the choir within the liturgy “has become something of yet greater 

importance and weight by reason of the norms of the Council 

concerning the liturgical renewal” (¶19). The liturgical function of the 

choir according to Musicam sacram is “to ensure the proper 

performance of the parts which belong to it, according to the different 

kinds of music sung, and to encourage the active participation of the 

faithful in the singing” (S.C.R. 1967, ¶19). In saying this, the document 

assigns to the choir a double-pronged function in the liturgy, which is 

an appropriate execution of those parts of the liturgy that belongs 

strictly to the ministerial function of the choir itself and then 

fostering the general singing participation of the worshippers. On the 

one hand, the choir – obviously – should not monopolize the singing. 

Indeed, on the one hand, the Church exhorts that “directors of… choirs 



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

 Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts Vol.15 (2021) 114 

and… rectors of the churches should take care that the people always 

associate themselves with the singing by performing at least the easier 

sections of those parts which belong to them” (S.C.R. 1967, ¶20). On a 

similar note, the Church affirms rather strongly that “the usage of 

entrusting to the choir alone the entire singing of the whole Proper and 

of the whole Ordinary, to the complete exclusion of the people's 

participation in the singing, is to be deprecated” (S.C.R. 1967, ¶16c). 

On the other hand, however, the Church is neither saying that the 

choir is redundant nor that they must only serve to lead in purely 

congregational singing. Rather, she recognizes the importance of great 

and large choirs, which, in the course of history, have been very 

instrumental in fostering in the Church “a musical heritage of 

inestimable value” and therefore demands that such choirs be 

employed in “sacred celebrations of a more elaborate kind” (S.C.R. 

1967, ¶20). 

In recognition of the weight and importance of the liturgical function 

of the choir, Musicam sacram gives the express instruction that “there 

should be choirs, or capellae, or scholae cantorum, especially in 

cathedrals and other major churches, in seminaries and religious 

houses of studies, and they should be carefully encouraged” (S.C.R. 

1967, ¶19). The document further insists that “it would also be 

desirable for similar choirs to be set up in smaller churches” (S.C.R. 

1967, ¶19). The implication of the foregoing is that the existence of 

the choir for liturgical service in each of our parishes and institutions 

is a necessity. It is not an optional extra. The choir has a unique 

relevance. It has no replacement. Indeed, with regard to the relevance 

of the choir, Pope St. John Paull II asserted in his Chirograph on 

Sacred Music: “the schola cantorum’s [i.e. the choir’s] task has not 

disappeared: indeed, it plays a role of guidance and support in the 

assembly and, at certain moments in the Liturgy, has a specific role of 

its own” (John Paul II 2003, ¶8). 



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In the contemporary charismatic/Pentecostal age, there is a real 

temptation to set the choir aside and employ the services of the gospel 

band, nkwa group or even the marching band, especially given that the 

latter (non-choral options) may be relatively cheaper, easier and 

quicker to come by. That would be flatly wrong because the highly 

percussive (western or local) gospel band musicians are more adapted 

to and usually given to performance of popular religious music but not 

liturgical music. Although one may argue that religious music/singing 

could be regarded as a form of sacred music, the fact remains that it 

is – pure and simple – NOT an equivalent of liturgical music (which is 

usually supplied only by a well-formed choir). Therefore, no amount of 

resources employed to ensure the establishment and fostering of 

liturgically functional choirs in parishes would be too much.  

A next important concern of Musicam sacram is the formation of the 

members of the choirs themselves. In paragraph 24, we read thus:  

Besides musical formation, suitable liturgical and spiritual 
formation must also be given to the members of the choir, in 
such a way that the proper performance of their liturgical role 
will not only enhance the beauty of the celebration and be an 
excellent example for the faithful, but will bring spiritual 
benefit to the choir-members themselves (S.C.R. 1967). 

 

I am thinking that we really need to do more in terms of training church 

singers. Some of our choir members really do not know their left from 

their right. They have a serious ignorance of catechetical issues, hence 

their inability to do a proper placement of appropriate music within the 

liturgy. Some do not know the difference between liturgical and 

religious music. I believe it is only by creating the time and enabling 

environment and then adequately exposing choir members and their 

directors to basic Church theology and doctrines, shall we be able to 

achieve a required liturgical and spiritual formation.  



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

 Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts Vol.15 (2021) 116 

But there remains the necessity of musical formation. I think it is time 

we begin to teach choristers in our local Church the principles of music 

in a bit more scientific way. That is why I would recommend that any 

diocese that does not have a music institute or academy should plan to 

have one – ASAP (as soon as possible). Such institute would serve to 

train future music directors and choirmasters by exposing them to the 

basic theory of music including principles of composition, keyboard 

playing and singing of Gregorian chant. Similarly, dioceses should set 

up a system by which choirmasters and music directors can get to 

update their knowledge through meeting with the diocesan chairman of 

the Liturgical Music Commission once or twice every year and also 

through annual seminars.    

However, notice that the document we are examining chooses not talk 

about training, that is, musical training, liturgical training, or spiritual 

training. It speaks about formation to stress the human dimension of 

the activities involved. Dogs can and have been trained. Wild animals 

can be tamed; call it training if you like. Even machines can be trained 

– in the present age of artificial intelligence and deep learning – by way 

of programming. But only human beings endowed with a functional 

intellect can be formed. When members of the choir are diligently and 

integrally formed and “trained to perform their functions in a correct 

and orderly manner,” they become “deeply imbued with the spirit of 

the liturgy” and are able “to discharge their office [or ministry] with 

the sincere piety and decorum demanded by so exalted a ministry and 

rightly expected of them by God’s people” (Vatican II 1963, ¶29). In 

other words, through such formation, transformation will occur in the 

lives of the choir members thus educated: transformation of their 

musical knowledge, transformation of their spiritual life, as well as 

their growth in sound theological appreciation of the liturgy. 

 

 



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The Ministerial Relevance of the Choir in Today’s Church 

From the foregoing, it is clear that the choir has much liturgical 

relevance and it would be quite unfortunate to try to diminish or explain 

away this functionality. The Church defines the role of the choir as 

being “to ensure the proper performance of the parts which belong to 

it, according to the different kinds of music sung, and to encourage 

the active participation of the faithful in the singing” (S.C.R. 1967, 

¶19). Thus, the ministerial relevance of the choir is primarily seen in 

two different but related roles assigned to the choir, namely: proper 

execution of parts belonging to the choir itself and then fostering the 

participation of the worshippers. It is liturgically unwise to create a 

mix-up between these two distinct but related choral functions or to 

deny that any such distinction exists. 

The choir––in the first place ––serves to ensure “the proper 

performance of the parts which belong to it.” In other words, there 

are parts of the liturgy that specifically belong or should belong only 

to the choir. Notice that the Church speaks first of the parts of the 

liturgy belonging specifically to the choir as a way of emphasizing the 

truly ministerial function of the choir. In performing this ministerial 

duty, the choir, although it “is itself part of the community… sings for 

it in the sense of legitimately representing it or standing in for it” 

(Ratzinger 1997, p. 139 in Harnoncourt 1991, p. 17). Hehn, a 

professional music director, has some useful insights concerning this 

important aspect of the choral function: 

There’s lots of great music that needs to be sung that just 
cannot reasonably be done by a congregation. Whether it’s too 
complex to be done by untrained musicians, or just too difficult 
to be done without extensive rehearsal, there’s a lot of music 
that cannot or should not be done by a congregation. … There 
are some texts set to challenging music that congregations 
need to hear, whether it’s because it is comforting in times of 



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

 Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts Vol.15 (2021) 118 

crises, praising in times of joy, or inspiring in times of apathy. 
By spending the time and effort to rehearse each week, the 
choir provides a great service to the congregation by opening 
up the amount of literature the congregation can be exposed 
to. Used appropriately, this has significant theological and 
musical implications, broadening the congregation’s experience 
of the divine (2016). 

 

By way of elucidating Hehn’s statement concerning the congregation’s 

experience of the divine, it would also be quite germane to invoke the 

theological reasoning of Ratzinger who indicates thus:  

Through its [the choir’s] singing everyone can be led into the 
great liturgy of the communion of saints and thus into that kind 
of praying which pulls our hearts upwards and lets us join, above 
and beyond all earthly realizations, the heavenly Jerusalem 

(Ratzinger 1997, p. 140). 

It would therefore be very wrong to jettison this specifically 

“ministering” aspect of the choral function as a way of making the 

congregation sing everything in the liturgy that can possibly be sung. 

Indeed, the crux of the matter is that there are certain musical pieces 

the congregation has the right to hear—needs to hear and should listen 

to—sung only by the choir playing the vicarious role of expressing the 

deepest emotions in the hearts of the worshippers, whether joyful, 

painful or sorrowful, in a specialized and deeper ways the congregations 

just cannot. It would amount to aesthetic injustice to deprive 

worshippers of the opportunity of experiencing such intensely 

aesthetic-spiritual moments that come from listening to choral 

renditions that require higher artistic skills. Therefore, it is precisely 

incorrect to quench the performance of beautiful and sacred choral 

works in the liturgy in order to adopt cheap utility music or “songs, easy 

melodies, catchy tunes,” (Ratzinger & Messori 1985, p. 128)––something 



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 Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts Vol.15 (2021) 119 

Ratzinger defines as setting the Church on the highway of uselessness! 

(Ratzinger n.d. p. 109 in Ratzinger & Messori 1985, p. 12)––as a way of 

arriving at or achieving an exaggerated and grotesque form of active 

liturgical participation that is in reality a form of liturgical hyper-

activism.        

Flowing from the above-mentioned function is the relevance of the 

choir as a group that adds the value of beauty to the liturgy. On this, 

Hehn (2016) argues that it is necessary that when the choir sings, it 

should “sing beautifully, because it touches people’s souls.” Apparently 

for him, the choir has every good reason to “work so hard to create a 

beautiful music together” so that it “can glorify God and help people 

experience a holy moment.” In another essay, I have argued that “the 

demand for a high artistic quality of sacred music serves as a perfect 

guarantee of the beauty of the liturgy” (Orakwe 2019, p. 9). In this 

way, the liturgical 

prayer is expressed in a more attractive way… minds are more 
easily raised to heavenly things by the beauty of the sacred 
rites, and the whole celebration more clearly prefigures that 
heavenly liturgy which is enacted in the holy city of Jerusalem 
(S.C.R. 1967, ¶5).  

Now, there is the temptation to regard beauty as something that is 

accidental or incidental to liturgical worship. Quite the contrary! For 

Tveit (2017, p. 17), given the captivating character of beauty itself, it 

is incorrect to “…think of the beauty of sacred music merely as a means 

to an end. The implementation of beautiful sacred music in parishes is 

a good for its own sake.” And this is because “beauty can be a way in 

for people, a way for them to come to faith. For this reason, beautiful 

liturgy is a sine qua non of the New Evangelization.” In consequence, 

the role of the choir with regard to furnishing sacred worship with 

beauty is one that cannot be shied away from: “Beauty in sacred liturgy 

and sacred music is… not irrelevant to parish life” (Tveit 2017, p. 17). 



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

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But the function of the choir inexorably includes ensuring and leading 

the congregational singing. This must be understood in the sense that 

liturgical singing in general is meant to be an instrument of edification 

of the worshippers. This happens when “the faithful join their mind to 

what they pronounce or hear, and [thereby] cooperate with heavenly 

grace” (S.C.R. 1967, ¶15[b]). Hehn (2016) goes as far as saying that 

“when we take words and put them to music, it becomes part of who we 

are. Therefore, it becomes imperative that we put as much of the 

Word into the bodies of the congregation as possible.” In other words, 

the congregation tends to listen––perhaps––more contemplatively to 

the words when it sings these words with the choir. Hehn (2016) 

therefore argues further: “if the congregation can sing it but we don’t 

let them, we miss an opportunity to transform people’s life in the most 

direct way possible.”  

The importance of the congregational singing is seen in the fact that 

what is sung—especially the liturgical chants—has catechetical value 

inasmuch as these songs and chants of the church serve to illuminate 

the doctrines of the church itself in a most pleasant way. In line with 

this, St. Augustine exclaimed in reference to the hymns of St. 

Ambrose: “How I wept, deeply moved by Your hymns, songs, and the 

voices that echoed through Your Church!  … A feeling of devotion 

surged within me, and tears streamed down my face — tears that did 

me good” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1157). No one would 

doubt that this unique experience possibly played great role in the 

definitive conversion of St. Augustine to Christianity. Along the same 

line, the Church teaches that when she “prays or sings or acts, the 

faith of those taking part is nourished and their minds are raised to 

God, so that they may offer Him their rational service and more 

abundantly receive His grace” (Vatican II 1963, ¶33). Definitely, much 

of this would be lost if the choir would monopolize the singing. 



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

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Beyond the above well-known liturgical functions of the choir, we can 

further point to the ministry of the choir as a faith group. The principal 

issue here is the capacity of choristers to minister unto themselves, 

unto each other, whether in or out of the liturgical context. Churches—

Catholic or even non-Catholic—have always felt the need of having 

smaller forums in which members of their congregations are formed in 

Christian faith and ministry. In some circles, there is talk of small or 

basic Christian communities. In the Catholic enclave, the reference is 

usually to lay apostolate groups which can be defined as  

associations established for carrying on the apostolate3 in 
common. [These associations] sustain their members, form them 
for the apostolate, and rightly organize and regulate their 
apostolic work so that much better results can be expected 
than if each member were to act on his own (Vatican II 1965, 

¶18). 

The church choir is one of such associations where members are 

trained to live like brothers and sisters, serving God with all their 

hearts and also being of loving service to one another. Hehn (2016), 

already cited above, describes the rapport that ought to obtain within 

a choir in these glowing terms: 

I imagine… choral groups taking care of each other or holding 
someone up in a time of need. When we sing together, a bond 
is created that unites us unlike any other activity. In a church 
setting, this function can be intentionally formed and nurtured. 
Because we meet together once a week to do work for the glory 
of God and benefit of neighbor, taking care of each other is no 
longer an option, it’s a responsibility.  

                                                 
3 The word is synonymous with serving in the church or engaging in any of the Church’s 

ministries. 



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Pastors of souls would therefore do well to see the formation and 

nurturing of choirs in their parishes as a wonderful opportunity for the 

Christian formation of parishioners in the life of Christian discipleship 

and service to the entire Christian community—by way of promotion of 

the beauty of the sacred liturgy through singing. 

Another important role of the choir that very often is swept under the 

carpet, sometimes in the guise of humility or being modest is the 

ministry of healing exercised by choristers as they sing in the liturgy. 

Liturgical spirituality apart, fact is that music has and can have a 

chilling effect on a troubled soul and a soothing effect on the sick. This 

is verifiable, scientifically speaking. Outlining the importance of music 

for health, Kemper and Danhauer (2005, p. 282) give the following 

indications:  

Music is widely used to enhance well-being, reduce stress, and 
distract patients from unpleasant symptoms. Although there 
are wide variations in individual preferences, music appears to 
exert direct physiologic effects through the autonomic nervous 
system. It also has indirect effects by modifying caregiver 
behavior. Music effectively reduces anxiety and improves mood 
for medical and surgical patients, for patients in intensive care 
units and patients undergoing procedures, and for children as 
well as adults. Music is a low-cost intervention that often 
reduces surgical, procedural, acute, and chronic pain. Music also 
improves the quality of life for patients receiving palliative 
care, enhancing a sense of comfort and relaxation.  

On a practical note, the author conducted some fieldwork interviews in 

2010 concerning the therapeutic effects of choral singing. It was with 

a church choir in Bloomington Indiana during his years as a student of 

Indiana University. The result was revealing. One of the respondents 

indicated that the music performance of their choir often fulfills the 

role of upliftment in moments of depression. Another indicated that a 



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

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member of the choir at a time had cancer but her singing in the choir 

every Sunday was for her a source of considerable emotional support 

in her pains:  

She had cancer and she had chemotherapy and she was so sick 
with the chemotherapy but every week she came to church and 
she sang in the choir with a smile on her face and she said that 
this gets her from one day to the next with her treatment for 
her cancer and she is cured (Interview with Nancy Allerhand).  

The lady being referred to equally told the author emphatically that 

she has sometimes received feedbacks concerning her singing having 

healing or therapeutic effects on some worshippers.  

As already indicated above, the therapeutic force of music is a well-

known in scientific circles. The insight of health science on this matter 

is quite relevant: 

With regard to direct physiologic effects, in animals, music 
changes neuronal activity with entrainment to musical rhythms 
in the lateral temporal lobe and in cortical areas devoted to 
movement. Steady rhythms entrain respiratory patterns. 
Listening to classical music increases heart rate variability, a 
measure of cardiac autonomic balance (in which increased levels 
reflect less stress and greater resilience) …. (Kemper & 

Danhauer 2005, p. 282) 

 

With the above scientific evidence, I think it is important I inform you, 

dear choristers: you never know the number of those you are giving 

healing every Sunday when you sing at the liturgy. Maybe you will come 

to know on the last day. Besides, you never know the amount of health 

tonic you are ministering or administering to yourselves and others by 

simply belonging to and singing in the choir. You save so many people 

from health challenges by simply continuing to remain in the choir. 

 

 



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

 Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts Vol.15 (2021) 124 

Epilogue  

In the preceding lines, I have striven to put forward the argument—to 

wit—that choral singing, far from being an incidental invention of 

Christian liturgy, is a ministry that has an important emplacement 

within the liturgy. Choristers are properly speaking liturgical ministers 

in the same way that other functionaries in the liturgy––the priest, 

deacon, altar servers, and lectors––are although the various liturgical 

ministries are hierarchically ordered. The liturgical function of the 

choir has an indispensability all its own, given its apposite collocation in 

the liturgy correctly understood—primarily—as “the work of God” and 

then, as “service in the name of [and] on behalf of the people.” 

(Catechism of the Catholic Church, ##1069-70; See Ratzinger 1997, 

p. 133). From the exposition above, I hope to have succeeded to 

demonstrate that the choir is still absolutely necessary and has a 

fundamental relevance in the context of Vatican II liturgical reform 

and actual worship praxis. Consequently, the idea that the dispositions 

of Vatican II liturgical reform have rendered the function of the choir 

superfluous—given the “the exaggerated and…. completely unrealistic 

concept of congregation” which leads to the erroneous conclusion that 

“only the priest and congregation can be acknowledged as the 

legitimate singers of liturgical hymns” (Ratzinger 1997, p. 139)—is 

precisely false and lacks historical foundation or documentary proof.    

It therefore becomes clear that diminishing or deemphasizing the 

ministerial role of the choir within the liturgy is a direct attempt at 

subjecting the liturgy to a subtle strangulation. In fact, that would 

amount to subjecting Christian worship to the dictatorship of some 

unjustifiable religious or liturgical ideology—one such ideology being 

defined by Cardinal Ratzinger as “primitive actionism” and the other as 

“prosaic pedagogical rationalism” (Ratzinger 1997, p. 139). This would 

often lead to the liturgy becoming something we craft for ourselves in 



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

 Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts Vol.15 (2021) 125 

accordance with our personal whims and ideological preferences. In 

that case, the liturgy loses its status as something given. 

The conviction of “primitive actionism,” namely, that every participant 

in the liturgy must be active and alive with some form of external 

activity at all times, subjects the liturgy to a subtle spirit of 

anthropocentric showmanship—implying that the efficacy of the 

liturgy depends on the amount of external activity that the worshipping 

community engages in. This conviction is laden with theological flaw 

inasmuch as the liturgy—and indeed every prayer—constitutes an 

instantiation of the work of God (opus Dei). Besides, such attitude is 

contrary to the stipulation of Vatican II Constitution on the Sacred 

Liturgy that “each person, minister, or layman who has an office to 

perform… carry out all and only those parts which pertain to his office 

by nature of the rite and the norms of the liturgy” (Vatican II 1963, 

¶28).4 Now, the choir has unique ministerial role that is both crucial 

and non-substitutable within the liturgy. 

Finally, the idea that the contemporary liturgy is and must always be 

an arena for a classroom-like clarification of some catechetical points, 

such that every single liturgical item ought to be immediately 

linguistically comprehensible, is hardly realistic. This is the error of 

prosaic pedagogical rationalism—in Nigeria, usually directed against 

the choir singing either in Latin or even in English, the Nigerian lingua 

franca. In another essay, I sought to demonstrate that “the error here 

is built on a wrong conception of the liturgy as some kind of ordinary 

forum for exchange of information” (Orakwe 2019, p. 13). The liturgy 

as a concrete celebration of the paschal mystery requires more of 

experience than comprehension: “It is primarily meant to be 

apprehended, not just merely comprehended” (Orakwe 2019, p. 13). 

                                                 
4 Emphasis mine. 



Orakwe, J. T.: Ministerial Roles of Choirs in the Liturgy 

 Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts Vol.15 (2021) 126 

This ‘apprehension’ comes with all the senses: smell, hearing, touch, 

sight and taste. Thus, when the choir is singing in Latin or in English 

and/or does so with such level of musical skill that the ordinary 

faithful—as a genuinely conscious and active participant—is obliged 

only to listen, it is germane to remember that it is still the entire 

worshipping community giving quality praise to God through the 

ministering function of the choir. Even the absence of full linguistic 

intelligibility of what is sung can contribute—in some subtle way—to 

the positive outcome of the worship experience. Indeed, Rudolf Otto 

wrote—with regard to the use of liturgical Latin—about the advantage 

of “the only half intelligible or wholly unintelligible language of 

devotion, and . . . the unquestionably real enhancement of the awe of 

the worshiper which this produces” (Otto 1923, p. 67). It would be 

unjustified then to engage in a sort of liturgical leveling whereby only 

the easiest, simplest, cheapest and most banal forms of music are put 

forward in the service of the liturgy. In such circumstance, it is 

important to remember the wise advice of Ratzinger that a recourse 

to intelligibility as the only condition for liturgical effectiveness “does 

not really make liturgies more intelligible and more open but only 

poorer” (Ratzinger & Messori 1985, p. 35). 

 

References  

Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), #1157. 

<http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM> 

John Paul II, (2003). Chirograph of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II 
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Harnoncourt, P. (1991). Gesang und Musik im Gottesdienst. Die Messe: 
Ein kirchenmusikalisches Handbuch. H. Schützeichel (Ed.). 

Düsseldorf. 

Hehn, B. (2016). The four functions of a choir. American Choral 
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Ratzinger, J. (1997). A new song for the Lord: Faith in Christ and 
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Ratzinger, J. and Messori, V. (1985). The Ratzinger’s Report. San 

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