I believe-Intellectually Honest Performance-part 4

                          Performing Music in an Intellectually Honest Manner
I believe the following:

1.  If the performer were to straighten out the rhythm, tone down the volume, use correct classical vocal technique, and remove the incessant forward propelling directionality of the music, it is no longer rock music.  So this performance of “so-called” rock music is no longer an intellectually honest performance.

2.  If church musicians are going to perform religious rock music in an intellectually honest manner, it must be equally like secular rock music except the fact that this music has “religious lyrics.”

3.  If one is to perform religious rock music with correct rock music performance techniques, then the performer is saying by his or her actions that the music part of the music doesn’t matter. These musicians are purporting by their performance that the message of the music part of music should not be any different for sacred or secular music since the music part of the music is without cause and effect..

4.  Some church musicians believe that the music part of music does not have a message.  They believe that music is not capable of saying anything at all.  They believe that the formal properties of the music are without cause or effect therefore the formal properties are as though they weren't objectively "there".

5.  Therefore, the music part of music is considered to be benign or amoral.  Such a belief is without scholarly basis and is certainly a minority notion when considering the opinions of performers and composers since Plato and Aristotle. Have you ever heard a secular rock performer say that his music is benign? Only Christian rock performers believe that the music part of music has no effect on the listener.

6.  So, if we are to perform any style of music in an intellectually honest manner, we must find out what the music part of the music is saying. Then we must set about our musicing with the composer’s purpose in mind. We must understand that he or she understood what that specific style of music represented before, during and after he or she composed the music.