This style is best represented by composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 to 1594) and was written primarily for a cappella choirs without instrumentation and was always sung in Latin, the official language of the Roman Catholic Church (Robertson, "Music Through the Centuries," Internet). During the Reformation, sacred music became very closely linked to the congregational singing of psalms and hymns in Calvinist and Lutheran churches as a way of "collectively affirming church doctrine and experience which was later adopted by Roman Catholicism" and then in the successive Evangelical revivals, such as with Methodism and Wesleyanism (Predmore, 267). At the same time, traditional polyphonic settings and themes related to the Mass and other liturgical texts was greatly extended and developed and reached its conclusion during the Baroque Period with the great Passions, motets and cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 to 1750). With the refinement of the church pipe organ in the 18th century, the composition of very elaborate chorale preludes and other organ works came about, all of which "took their place in the liturgical context of Lutheran worship" with the name of Bach standing above all other sacred music composers of the time (Blackwell, 213).

During what is known as the Romantic Period, subjective aesthetic elements slowly worked their way into sacred music. Some of the best sacred music composers linked to this period include Haydn and Mozart with their various Masses and Handel and his Oratorios, all of which became the dominant forms of religious expression and piety in the music of many Western denominations. However, many other romantic composers, such as Beethoven, Brahms and Mendelssohn, wrote sacred church music without taking into consideration the liturgical setting of the church, meaning that some of this music was also performed in secular environments.

In the 19th century, Anglican and Orthodox churches came to create sacred music compositions under a wide variety of liturgical settings for use mainly...

In every instance, the technical requirements of this form of sacred music "set the performer apart from the congregation which was reduced to a passive role as an audience" (Blackwell, 220). This same tendency has persisted into modern times with a church congregation serving mostly as an audience for the singing of the choir; however, in most Western churches, the singing of hymns by the congregation is almost always integral to worship. For example, in practically all African-American churches, singing plays a very major role because it "prepares for, and then intensifies, the experience of the Spirit" (Swain, 467). Thus, as a consequence of this, most African-American churches have large and regular choirs with congregational singing being almost the rule.
Undoubtedly, the role of sacred music in world cultures cannot be emphasized too much, due to providing a musical outlet for religious emotion, devotion and beauty and for its ability to bring worshippers closer together in order to express their individual religious feelings to not only the clergy but also to God Himself.

Bibliography

Blackwell, Albert L. The Sacred in Music. UK: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000.

Gregorian Sacred and Ritual Music." 1998. Internet. Retrieved May 21, 2008 at http://www.angelfire.com/ga/Georgian/music2.html.

Predmore, George V. Sacred Music in the Catholic Church. New York: Kessinger Publishing Company, 2003.

Robertson, Donald. "Music Through the Centuries: Part 2 -- the Sixteenth Century." The Text Library. 2005. Internet. Retrieved May 21, 2008 at http://www.dovesong.com / positive_music/archives/renaissance/about_renaissance.asp.

Schuler, Richard. "What Is Sacred Music?" The Catholic Liturgical Library. 1991. Internet. Retrieved May 21, 2008 at http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/

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Swain, Joseph P. Historical Dictionary of Sacred Music. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.