Response to Embellishing the Liturgy

The Monk Notker of St. Gall was a known author of the lengthy hymns that have embellished the Liturgy following the Alleluia of the mass. My response to this article is that it seems that such embellishments were for purely practical reasons, to make segments more easily memorized by members of the church.

Why would anyone want to embellish the Liturgy? It's interesting, because the specific choice to use the word 'why' implies a judgement. This judgement, or assumption in this case, of course, is that the standard or 'the norm' is that people would not want to embellish the Liturgy. If the Liturgy is not broken, are you going to try to fix it? People go to great lengths to establish, and more importantly, preserve traditions of cultures. The Liturgy, specifically, is a very influential tradition of a highly significant culture, so changing it in any way at all, especially during times of communication rates very much slower than today, would be a near impossibility against the odds of those up in arms about maintaining tradition. As we hear in lecture, this is evidenced by the fact that from 700 A.D. to the 1960's, the Liturgy had never been truly reformed.

To answer the question at hand now, I would suggest that embellishing the Liturgy could be just as practical as replacing old, worn out lighting in a house with more energy and cost efficient bulbs, or as aesthetic as painting the house a different color. Over time, things change in abundance both practically and aesthetically, and sometimes modifications should be made.