Sacred Music Should Be Worthwhile Music-Part 5

Sacred Music Should Be Worthwhile Music-Part 5  

       Next, let us discuss the word “powerful”.  Sacred music should be potent.  Acts 1:8 states, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  The English word power is put for the word dunamis (1411) which means miraculous power.  So, Christian musicians who are filled with the Holy Spirit are promised the miraculous power necessary for efficacious musicing. 
       Effective sacred musicing requires the powerful anointing made available by the Holy Spirit.  I Corinthians 1:18 explains that the preaching of Christ crucified is the power of God.  I contend that the singing of Christ crucified is also capable of becoming the power of God. However, it should be pointed out that the Bible never teaches that the music part of music is the power of God. 

        I want to make it very clear that music does have a powerful influence over all who perform and hear it.  However, it is not only sacred music but also secular music that has the potential to be very powerful.  As I have said in many of my discussions of music philosophy, I believe that the music part of the music derives its power from the skillful arrangement of its formal properties.  Therefore, form and style play a gigantic role in the effectiveness and power of every musical composition. 
        Every composer and arranger has something that he or she is attempting to say with music.  Only those who are naive believe that composers have nothing to say and that, even if they do, their musical attempts are incapable or any effective communication.  It is a mystery to me that it is almost exclusively Christian musicians who purport that the music part of music does not exert power over both the performer and the auditor.