Aesthetics and the Christian Musician- part 4

 

Aesthetics and the Christian Musician- part 4

 

What does all this mean to church musicians in the 21^st century?  Why should we care what “serious academic music” composers do?  The reason we care is that in order for us to know how contemporary Christian music derived its philosophical basis, we must understand the history of music.  With these basic understandings of 20^th century philosophical despair in music philosophy, we are able to know how 21^st century church musicians derive their synthesis music philosophy which is a mixture of good and bad and beauty and ugliness.

Many contemporary Christian musicians have accepted the elements of the anti-music despair of the 20^th century.  They believe, somewhat like Stravinsky, that the music part of music is not efficacious i.e. it is incapable of expressing anything at all.  Furthermore, these Christian musicians believe, somewhat like John Cage, that nothing is “sacred” or “profound” about the music part of music.  Finally, like the religious music of Pierre Henry, these contemporary Christian’s religious music is grotesque and dissonant but the words are clear and clean!  To them this sanctifies the deed! To them, if the words are clean, nothing else matters.