Sacred Music should Be Worthwhile Music-Part 8

Sacred Music Should Be Worthwhile Music-Part 8    

       Now let us consider the words DeVinney used to express the other side of the musical coin.

First he used the word “pale” which means, among other things, music that lacks intensity or music that lacks importance or quality.  Some religious music is so lacking in intensity that it is dull or uninteresting.  When I studied composition at Pitt State University we were instructed to make sure that every musical phrase must have a forward directionality.  That does not mean that phrases should have an incessant forward driving propelling directionality.  It simply means that every well constructed musical phrase should have beginning middle (climax) and an end which gives an element of finality and emotional release. 

         Without these three essential elements music will either hammer on and on without emotional release or it will drone on and on and will essentially go nowhere. Music that goes nowhere is essentially “pale” music lacking enough intensity to make it interesting to the performer or the listener.  It is often overly predictable music lacking enough mystery, if I may use that word, to give the music in a forward directionality and thus keep the music interesting.  If the music part of the music is supporting lyric poetry, it needs to be the handmaiden of the text that is telling a story.  Although we do not have time to discuss this concept here fully, the formal properties of the music should tell the same story as the text is expressing.  In other words the music part of the music should be a concomitant of the text instead of its rival or enemy.

        If the music is “music alone” i.e. music without words, its formal properties must be arranged in such a way that it will tell its own story.  This story must be congruent with the purposes of public or private worship, and this worship must be the worship of God and not the worship of music.  This puts great responsibility upon the composer to construct the formal properties of the sound in such a way that it will suit the purposes of worship.  This, I might add, is easier said than done.  Taking an art form and subduing it to the purposes of honoring God is an awesome responsibility.  Furthermore, since “music alone” is not able to lean on a sacred text, its formal properties must be skillfully arranged so that the music will be compatible with the purposes of worshiping God.