Church music

Church music is music that is intended to be part of Christian worship in churches, chapels, cathedrals or anywhere Christians meet to worship. Church music is sacred (religious) music, but not all religious music is church music. Some music may be inspired by religion, but it may not be church music. For example, some songs are about religion, but they may not be church music. Although it uses the words of the Requiem mass, Verdi’s Requiem, was composed for performance in a concert hall. Britten’s War Requiem was written for performance in a cathedral, but it was not meant to be part of a service of worship, so it would not usually be thought of as “church music”.

Church music has varied enormously during the history of Christianity as different churches kept changing their ideas about what part music should have in religious worship. Most church music is based on singing. Music written for church choirs mostly used the words of the liturgy (the words used in services). The organ is the most important musical instrument in church music, although from time to time many other instruments have been used as well.

During many periods in history composers writing for the church used traditional music rather than the newest fashions. This was particularly the case in the early 17th century when composers such as Claudio Monteverdi often wrote in two different styles: the old style for church music (which, at the time, they called “stilo antico”) and the new style for secular (non-religious) music (which they called “stilo moderno”).