Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, "I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him."According to Benedict, "Christians now sing an altogether new song, which is truly and definitively new in view of the wholly new thing that has taken place in the Resurrection of Christ. ... It is the Holy Spirit who teaches us to sing. ... Church music comes into being as a charism, a gift of the Spirit."
Liturgical music went through different phases, and each phase ended with changes that were made to keep it centered on Jesus Christ and the true nature of the liturgy.
Regarding music in the current age, Benedict laments that classical music is "an elitist ghetto," while two other types of music entertain everyone else: pop music, which is a commercial product, and rock music, which provides only "the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects."
Liturgical music, unlike these forms, must proclaim the Word in response to God's love, inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that it "elevates the senses by uniting them with the spirit" and expresses "man's special place in the general structure of being." Finally, liturgical music should have a "cosmic character" because, in the liturgy, "we sing with the angels."
