Sacred instrumental music

Probably the text is sacred; if a piece is inspired by a sacred text (even though the text is not actually used), the piece could be considered sacred... mmhm

I would say yes, absolutely. From a historical point of view, much of the Renaissance and Baroque organ repertoire (for example, some works by the Jesuit Zipoli, which are declared to be of sacred function from the title itself, such as "all'elevazione" or "post communio").

From a personal point of view (pardon those for whom these words may sound banal or cloying), I have always thought that music is (also, though not necessarily) a means of communication with the Absolute (to be understood not simply as a synonym for God, and certainly not within the limits of a Catholic or Christian conception).

I do not want to seem even more puerile, so I will not venture into examples, but I believe that every Great musical idea capable of provoking the famous thrill or even ecstasy contains within itself a sacred seed, and that listening to (more than playing) that music is somewhat like praying.

Of course, one could think that the effects of music depend on the stimulation of certain nerve centers, and that is also true, but perhaps it is not just this... it is a matter of ideas or rather... of faith.

Oh dear, I don't know if I hit the mark regarding the question.

...the good Beethoven thought so Pestatasti

Here is where I had heard it...

Great musicians have composed music for solo organ, intended for performance in church during sacred rites.

In addition to the aforementioned Zipoli, Girolamo Frescobaldi, François Couperin, Buxtehude, J.S. Bach with his sublime organ chorales,

Cesar Franck, Bruckner, leading up to Messiaen. The list would be too long.

And these are always authentic masterpieces inspired by a profound religious sentiment.

Kappa wrote:

Do you think sacred instrumental music can exist or has existed? I mean, music without text but aimed at the sacred world...

In my opinion, yes.

I dare say that sacred music exists (music like that which Pestatasti alludes to in his beautiful post above) that was not composed by the author thinking of doing ‘something sacred’.

I - and today I feel very puerile - feel something similar to what Pestatasti says when listening to the Prelude & Fugue in E-flat major from the second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier. But also in many other pieces for klavier by the same author and in many other pieces by different authors that are not found in the ‘Sacred Music’ section.

Conversely, I feel very little of the sacred in many pieces that have sacredness in their text (or pretext).

The habit does not make the monk, and the monk will not necessarily be a saint. Not even in music.

A work of art is a bit like a tree: you cannot see the roots (the inspiration) and you cannot say anything about them.

The leaves, however, you can see... you see the color, how much they spread, how much shade and coolness they can provide you.

Thank you... Then I will let myself go too.

Quoting another Bach masterpiece (I know, it's overused but quite appropriately) there is "a fundamental reference to Christianity [the trinity n.d.r.]... in the structure of the Goldberg variations which are divided into an introductory triad (the Aria and the two variations), nine triads composed of three variations each (one in canon, the second free, the third of virtuosity) and a tripartite conclusion (the last variation, the Quodlibet and the reprise of the initial Aria)." (Michel Schnider "Glenn Gould - piano solo", Paris 1989, Turin 1991).

Even more eloquent is the unspeakable sense of melancholic detachment and inner peace that emanates from the very beginning, for example, of their first Gould recording for CBS in 1955.

I quote Schnider's book on Gould again, but the same could be said for many other composers, works, and performers: "Gould's intonation has the hallmarks of humility, of something now stripped bare, without ties to the world. He wants to know God. Or music, call it what you will..."

Thank you for your interesting points of view. Speaking of Gould, I know that afterwards he "disowned" the 1955 recording... who knows why