The Recovering Choir Director

From the Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Ecclesiastical Music comes this interesting quote:

To the human voice, the immediate vehicle of the sacred word, belongs the first place in the churches, and not to instrumental additions or the trivial scraping found in most of the churches pieces to-day. Catholic Church music can regain its former purity only by a return to the purely vocal style. If an accompaniment is considered absolutely necessary, the genius of Christianity has provided the instrument worthy of such function, the organ.

- Richard Wagner (emphasis A.A.E.)