The Shift in Sacred
Music Paradigm—part 1
In the sacred music of ancient Israel, melody
was considered to be a vehicle upon which the word of Jehovah rode into the
hearts and minds of the worshiper.
Biblical research has proven that the most important aspect of sacred
music in ancient Bible times was the word of Jehovah. All the elements of music were servants or
helpers of the word of God. The rhythm of Bible music was always the natural
rhythm of the words. The word, music originally came from the word
“muse” which meant to think. So, sacred music was not originally conceived
as primarily an artistic rhythmic experience, but rather an artistic
intellectual experience. It was a means
by which the worshiper could experience the import of God’s Word more clearly.
No Bible composer would have
written a melody that would have covered up or distracted in any way from the
word of Jehovah. If ancient Israel had
some form of harmonic practice in either vocal or instrumental music, no Temple
musician would have allowed it to cover up words. What does this all mean to us now that we
have entered the 21st century?
What is the biblical example given to us? When any style of religious music
accompaniment is in competition with or covers up the words of a song this
music does not follow the biblical example of how sacred music should be
performed. Remember from the time of
ancient Israel and for centuries, after, words were most important in church
music. Melody, being the handmaiden of
God’s word, came second and any harmony came next and rhythm was normally the
rhythm of the text. Rock music reverses this order. Rhythm and beat are normally first in rock
music. Harmony is generally second and
words and melody are last. Since beat is first, it is the master of words and
therefore more important. Through the
use of extremely high amplification levels, beat becomes an even bigger giant.
Instead of a flowing forward directionality rock music has a crushing, propelling, forward
directionality.
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