[sempertrad]

Next we use connotation. This is a little more amorphous--but in essence, if the style of the music is closely associated with the "non-worship" world, then it's likely 'profane,' and not appropriate.

I wonder - Is there a Catholic alive who, upon hearing those first strands of Shubert's 'Ave', doesn't think of veneration and worship and thus moved interiorly upward?

[ninenot]

Maybe.

But they would be extremely few and far between.

Over the years, the piece has lost its "secular" connotation. Some can say (as was said above) that it's really an art-song based on a poem by Walter Scott, and thus and so forth, and yadayada.

But I KNEW that, and would still use it precisely because it has long ago lost that connotation of 'secularity.'

For that matter, one could also use the "Ave Maria" written by Verdi for Desdemona in "Othello." Very few typical parishioners know the source--but they will hear it as a prayer. Even if they know the source, they will STILL understand it as a prayer.