The Shift in Sacred Music Paradigm—part 2

The Shift in Sacred Music Paradigm—part 2

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 21^st 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.