I believe that every musician who performs music and every
person who listens to music brings something outside of music to the music
experience. All to little has been
written about the multiplicity of emotion, opinions, or ways of “knowing” that
each person brings from the outside world to a music listening or performance
experience. Every person brings
something from his or her music aesthetic to the worship experience or the
secular music experience.
No one is
capable of listening to or performing music in a vacuum. Music can not be perceived by the human mind
in a “space” which has nothing at all in it from life experiences. Music psychologists have shown that a human
fetus perceives music and responds to it before birth. Kindermusic enthusiasts have shown us that
the newborn infant can and will respond to music if proper stimulation is
provided. Therefore, I believe that no
one perceives music in a closed system without reference to the real world. This view places me in the camp of the referentialists who believe that all
musicing and all listening of music is affected by the references one brings to
the great art of music from the world outside of music. This brings me to the conclusion that a
Christian music aesthetic must be referential.
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