Can Music Have a Moral effect on the Listener?

Can Music Have a Moral effect on the Listener?   

      Ancient philosophers believed that music could have a profound moral effect on the hearer.  “All ancient peoples of whom we have knowledge gave music a place of honor, they considered it a potent religious and moral force, intimately related to the most formal, as well as the most informal aspects of life.” Music in Europe and the United States, by Edith Borroff, Pg. 4  It has only been the product of modern man’s mind that music is amoral.  Although philosophers and musicians have argued for centuries about how music affects us or exactly what moral effect music had on the auditor and the performer, they have always believed that music had a message.

           Philosophers have always believed that music had great power over everyone.  It has only been since the 20^th century that some Christian philosophers have come to the conclusion that style in music is neutral and therefore amoral.  Under this new “liberated” philosophy anything goes in church music.  To them, church music exists in an absurd universe and is a standardless art.  Since church music is without absolutes or any standard of correctness it is merely a matter of personal taste.  These modern church music philosophers quote St. Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”  They purport that Jesus put an end to judgment when it comes to Christian living.

            The real question before us is, “Will we be judged for what we do (music included) in this life?”  Therefore, these musicians have missed the point.  They say we should not criticize each other’s church music since it is merely a matter of taste anyway.  Since, to them, all musical roads lead to heaven, it is wrong to criticize anyone’s style of church music performance.  It is my belief that every church musician will give an account to God at the judgment for what he or she did with the great art of music and that is what really matters.