I call the
philosophical pursuit that “anything goes in church music” a “praxis” because
it is an “on purpose” way of musicing regardless of whether or not it is
thought out or written. With this on
purpose denial of the existence of transmittable musical meaning, a musician is
allowed or is free to music without any restraint. This praxis allows any music genre to be used
in music worship because those who follow this philosophical pursuit falsely
believe all music styles are appropriate to represent the “joyful sound”. With the acceptance of this false belief, the
musician is free to become autonomous in philosophy and practice.
The discussion of musical sound sooner or later brings up
the heated debate over whether music is or is not capable of arousing passion.
Secular music philosophers have batted this philosophical ball around rather
unsuccessfully for at least a half century.
Those who disagree with arousal
theory are the hard core absolutists, many of whom uncategorically deny
that music has any meaning outside of itself i.e. the “music is in a bubble”
[music is a closed system] philosophers. It is amazing to me that any Christian
musician could honestly climb on the absolute
formalism band wagon and deny that music has the power to arouse passion in
the performer and the auditor.
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