The author is trying to show to what extent the teaching of Pius XII referring to church music included in his encyclical Musicae sacrae disciplina, influenced the council’s reform of liturgical music and it found its reflection in both the council’s documents and post-council’s church legislation. Applying the method of comparative analysis he discusses two documents announced directly before the Second Vatican Council : the encyclical Musicae sacrae disciplina (1955) and the instruction of the Congregation of the Orders of 1958, and two documents representative of the teaching of the Council referring to the liturgical music: the Constitution about the Holy Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium (1963) and the instruction of the Congregation of the Orders of 1967.
The result of those comparisons was a deep conviction of the author that the reform of the liturgical music made by the Second Vatican Council had been developing for many years before, and the encyclical of Pius XII Musicae sacrae disciplina and the instruction of 1958 cleared the ground for those reforms. The author, however, emphasizes those indications referring to the liturgical music, which were the achievements of the Council; and laid new directions and depicted new horizons both for the theoretical reflections on the place of music in liturgy and for the pastoral, practical activities of the Church.

(Translate by Marzena Tatarczuch)