CHURCH MUSIC AND ROCK MUSIC-part 3

 

CHURCH MUSIC AND ROCK MUSIC-part 3

Although both species of music existed since Bible times, there was sometimes very little difference between the styles of sacred and secular music.  Therefore, when composers like G.F. Handel used the same piece for secular and sacred settings there was often no contradistinction of style that would make this music inappropriate for sacred music.  Generally speaking there was often little rhythmic, melodic or harmonic difference between sacred and secular music.  This was not always the case but it was often a truism.  With the advent of jazz, country and especially rock music there were vast differences between these styles of secular music and traditional sacred music.  Therefore there was legitimate cause for concern when rock music began to be used as church music.

When a contradistinction of style did occur, the difference in the music centered around two aspects of the music.  First, the purpose of composing secular and sacred music was sometimes quite different.  Second, some secular music was created as dance music and was much more rhythm based than sacred music.  As a matter of fact, Jewish writers refer to the music of Ancient Israel as men’s music and women’s music.  Men’s music was text and melody based with the rhythm of the words always being the rhythm of the text.  Women’s music was rhythm based with only a few melodic turns repeated over and over again.

When it came to worship in the first or second Temple, women’s music was excluded from all public worship since it was rhythm based and was used for public mourning, dancing and even harlotry. (See Music of the Bible in Christian Perspective, Chapter 5)  In ancient times the church had the right to prescribe what style music was right and wrong, appropriate or inappropriate for music worship.  It seems from the Jewish writers that the exclusion of music based on species or style was a common practice in Ancient Israel.