Music

Music is an irrepressible expression of our being. We have, after all, been created with our very own musical instrument—the voice. To sing is a fundamental musical reflex and something that God obviously wants us to enjoy. For most people it seems to come naturally. Small children sing when they are playing happily; at the other end of life the elderly love to hear songs they remember from their earlier days—the former driven by contentment and hopefulness, the latter by nostalgia and personal memories. From birth to death, music is intertwined around many of life’s activities. We seem to enter the world with a predilection for music, and when we leave it, we know that it is going to be an ongoing activity in heaven (Isaiah 51:11).

The Universal Gift

Music, whether instrumental or vocal, is an enriching adjunct to rejoicing and celebration. It also has healing and comforting properties: Saul experienced this under David’s musical ministrations (1 Samuel 16:23), as do many who today find burdened hearts lifted up by music that touches their needs. Research in recent years suggests that music has an important role to play in mental therapy. There are even claims that students preparing for exams perform better having studied against a background of Mozart’s music! Whether this can be proven convincingly is another question, but at a less sensational level it is clear that music is a uniquely divine gift with powerful potential, without which the world would be a distinctly sadder place.

Nearly all cultures have their own musical tradition, be it Inuit throat singing, Balinese gamelan, the European symphony orchestra or Scottish bagpipes. Instrumental music, song and dance have been wedded from the earliest times and remain a vital form of emotional expression around the world, whether soloistic or communal, formal or informal. Music celebrates marriage and ministers to the grieving; it helps to rally political protest and strengthens the resolve of the oppressed. Paul and Silas sang in prison (Acts 16:25), as Christ and the disciples did before taking those irrevocable steps into the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:30). Come what may, music has emerged and reemerged resiliently from the debris of a fallen world.

As a part of God’s general providence, music helps divert a disturbed world from despair and, much like food, is intended to be universally enjoyed. All cultures enjoy a distinct musical language; many non-European societies enjoy the unifying effect of an integrated heritage of music passed from one generation to the next with minimal alteration to its character. By contrast, Western music has been marked by a restless urge to experiment and change. As the centuries have passed, this has accelerated and reached a point where today a vast variety of styles and a sharp division between formal and popular music have brought about fragmentation rather than unity. Many people welcome today’s fragmentation as a rich opportunity for individual expression and personal choice, but there is no denying that it also speaks to some extent of the loss of cohesion in our society.

Music can be designed specifically to glorify God (see Music, Christian). In Western culture some of its greatest music has emerged in the attempt; unfortunately, so has some of its worst. The best (George Frederick Handel’s Messiah being an obvious example) emerged from the centuries during which the focus of European music was the church, from plainchant and medieval polyphony to the baroque riches of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Society was more integrated up to that point, and faith gave it cohesiveness. With the Enlightenment and the loss of that unity, secular and spiritual music pursued separate and wildly different paths. All significant musical experiment and progress now passed to the secular world; Protestant and evangelical music became trivialized and simplistic, eventually ending up under the umbrella of the entertainment industry. We are still greatly affected by that split, and to determine what music—sacred or secular—we listen to, espouse and pass on to future generations, we need to exercise discernment.

Discernment

As with all such gifts, we require discernment in our approach to music because it operates within a fallen world. Music is subject to exploitation, misapplication and distortion and can become highly manipulative in certain situations. One healthy approach is to challenge received wisdom about what is “popular,” “cool,” “neat,” “relevant” and “superior.” The labeling of music in this way has brought about a musical “apartheid” that sets up artificial barriers. It encourages uncritical loyalty to tastes tightly controlled by commercial interests and fosters prejudice against anything out of the ordinary or requiring a little more concentration.

One myth worth challenging is the widely held notion that some kinds of music are in and of themselves boring, snobbish or evil. These epithets are no more true of music than it was of the food discussed in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 8:4-13). Food is part of God’s general providence and like the rain comes to the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). Similarly, the ingredients that go into making music are created by God: acoustics, resonance, timbre, pitch and rhythm. What matters is how skillfully these ingredients are handled by the musicians and, most importantly, to what ultimate purpose the product is dedicated.

Some music has clearly become associated with messages of great darkness. Heavy metal, rap and some other forms of rock frequently promote values and behavior that Christians can only condemn. Extremely high noise levels, the persistent repetition of motifs, a relentlessly heavy beat and aggressive body language can convey a menacing tone. In some instances classical music has been used to similar ends: in Carl Orff’s choral work Carmina Burana (1935-36) and Richard Strauss’s opera Salome (1905), music has been used to heighten topics of sensuality and cruelty. In most cases, however, discernment should be focused on the lyrics, the culture and personalities behind the product rather than the music itself, though in rock culture this separation can be difficult. Generally speaking, music is a neutral force, which can be devoted to glorifying the Lord God or can simply convey everyday human thoughts and emotions, good or bad.

Our discernment might be clouded by popular myths about certain types of music, myths that are simply imaginary or redundant. Jazz comes to mind—one of the most creative and skillful musical forms of our day. Like rock, its roots can be traced back to earthy and often sexual expression. But jazz today is not primarily perceived in those terms; of far more interest to its enthusiasts are its opportunities for improvisatory skill and instrumental virtuosity. In a different way classical music is perceived in many minds to be boring, snobbish, elitist and in the hands of performers who are all well over fifty. Even if these epithets were vaguely true in the past, they are certainly not today. The concert hall has long ceased to be the exclusive domain of the well-heeled, and on stage brilliant young musicians are in the vanguard. And young people are increasingly listening to them, having apparently developed a broader range of taste than their predecessors.

Today discernment is necessary in music not only to warn us of what some of its more controversial output is saying—especially for the sake of the young—but also to cultivate informed taste and discover riches other than those prepackaged for us. To suggest this is not a criticism of the pop industry; it is simply wise consumer practice in a society largely shaped by mass marketing. We need to be watchful without being naive. We must apply discernment, recognizing, however, that our conclusions may not coincide with those of other people.

Music and Others

The music we support and listen to is often heard by others—in the dorm, at home, in the car, at work, or leaking from Walkman headphones on the bus. It is, however unconsciously, a form of communication as well as a statement about us. It may drive people away or attract them. Some relationships have parted over music, while many friendships have started out with a common delight in music. Not everyone may like what we like, but we do have an influence on life around us, even in such a private matter. The dismaying intrusion of “elevator music” into our society should remind us that we have no right to subject everyone to our musical preferences. By cranking up the radio at the beach or by playing an unrelenting diet of background music in the workplace, we violate the right of others to their personal choice and their right to silence.

Music as Adventure

We can gain new perceptions and understanding if we refuse to settle for the ordinary and explore new territory. We do not always have to have a Christian text set by a Christian composer to enjoy the exciting gift of music. We can catch glimpses of God’s glory through music that is spiritually neutral: a Brahms symphony, a jazz improvisation, a performance by a brass quintet or the sound of a children’s choir. This realization will open up a wealth of styles and instrumental and vocal combinations including revisited and newly explored areas such as Renaissance, Celtic, international and electroacoustic music.

If you are really an intrepid explorer, dissonant and atonal music can prove fascinating. It has been dismissed by many—in and out of the church—as an unwelcome reflection of the confusion and disorder of the twentieth century (although such music is typically very tightly organized). Nevertheless, dissonance and atonality (music with no identifiable key) has been at the center of important twentieth-century compositional experiments. Many are certainly not easy listening, but they convey hard truths about life that cannot be reflected convincingly in comfortable harmonies and conventional forms, either in the popular or the classical vein.

The enormity of the issues of human suffering and death has driven modern composers like Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) and Poland’s Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933)—both Christians, as it happens—to exploit the extremes of tonality and instrumentation. The music of Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) reflects some of the earlier radical stylistic changes of his century, from the densely scored Rite of Spring (1911-1913) to the neoclassical Pulcinella (1919-1920) and the Mass (1944-1948). Music by current composers such as Arvo Part (listen to his wonderful Te Deum) and John Tavener represents the postmodernist school; some of their latest work is delightfully transparent, reflective and accessible. Listeners may come away stimulated or disturbed, but then honest statements tend to have these effects.

Exploration is the key to a fuller enjoyment of music. It is the opposite of a passive acceptance of that which we can so effortlessly access through our radios, television sets and video players, especially that driven by the commercial media. Exploration will open up fields not of the obvious and predictable but of the intriguing and the delightful.

Listening to Music

State-of-the-art digital technology has made personal music listening an exciting experience. Headphone listening in dorms and apartments can be very pleasing for you and a great relief for your neighbors! Concertgoers are often disappointed that live auditorium sound is not as dramatic and as detailed as compact disk (CD) reproduction. A live performance will inevitably seem more distant, but the ear quickly adjusts, and in any case the communal experience, the ambience and the visual aspect of a real concert more than compensate. Before or after the concert is also a good forum for socializing, which the solitude of the headset cannot offer.

Participating in Music

Joining with others in making music is perhaps the most rewarding of musical experiences for those who, at either an amateur or a semiprofessional level, can play an instrument or sing in a choir. The beneficial effects are amazing: participants frequently speak of coming to a rehearsal weary after a day’s work only to find that they are refreshed and uplifted. For Christians of all levels of musical attainment, there is the unique opportunity to sing in communal worship, where the critical ingredient is the attitude of the heart. There is an interesting metaphor for the church in group music making: working together under leadership to achieve a common goal of harmony and unity.

God can speak to us individually and collectively through music; the music may be by a Christian, and spiritual words may be involved—or not. Because music is a gift that falls on the just and the unjust, we owe it to ourselves to enjoy it to the full while having our discerning wits about us.

» See also: Music, Christian

» See also: Pleasure

» See also: Worship

References and Resources

J. Buckley, ed., Classical Music on CD—The Rough Guide: An A to Z of Composers and Recordings (London: Rough Guides, 1994); A. Copland, What to Listen for in Music (New York: Mentor, 1953); M. Wold and E. Cykler, An Introduction to Music and Art in the Western World (Dubuque, Iowa: William C. Brown, 1991).

—Ed Norman