Emotional States Aroused by Music

Emotional States Aroused by Music

              I am also concerned about the emotional states of mind that can be aroused by the music part of music.  Every Christian musician should be greatly concerned about the fact that the music he or she performs can affect the whole life of the listening audience (both saint and seeker).  As I have often told my music philosophy classes that no one musics in a “bubble” i.e. in a closed system that does not have a positive or negative effect on the performer and listener.  The emotions that are aroused in public (or private) musicing are important.  For instance, the arousals of the complex emotions that cause sexual stimulation have absolutely no place in Christian worship.  If a worship leader uses music styles that arouse sexual passion on a dance floor, it stands to reason these aroused emotions will have the potential to have the same effect on the listener in the context of public worship.

              Part of this emotional arousal comes from the music part of the music and some of this emotion is representational or referential simply because it reminds (association theory) the hearer of the emotions he or she had when dancing on a club floor.  The objection may be that some or all the people who are assembled in the worship service may not frequent dance clubs.  However, unless they all have been hiding under a rock, they will have mental images from movies or even TV ads that may be aroused somewhere just past the neurological synapses of the brain that has stored them chemically.  These emotions can be aroused by the music part of the music and or by association etc.  So, to ignore the fact that style does matter is a faulty praxis that leads to naive musicing practices.

              Religious musical formalists often believe that when emotions are aroused they are not related to real life understanding.  This theory renders the emotional states that are aroused when one musics or listens to a musical performance ineffectual in relationship to real life.  This lets the Christian performer of the hook.  What this means is that regardless of the emotional states that his or her religious musicing evokes, the music has no cause and effect that will have a negative or positive on the seekers and worshipers. The only problem with this notion is that it is too good to be true because it is an unfounded belief.