Aesthetics and the Christian Musician- part 3

 

Aesthetics and the Christian Musician- part 3

 

So, this distortion found its way into religious genres making subtle mockery of the awesomeness and solemnity of sacred symbols.  One shocking aspect of this distorted religious music is that the narration of the Bible text is clearly understandable.  John Cage (b.1912) became interested in anti-musical techniques like prepared piano and chance operations.  Cage called his chance music indeterminacy.  Other composers began to use chance operations which have been termed aleatoric i.e. like the throwing of dice.  In 1952, Cage composed his ultimate anti-musical composition, 4 minutes and 33 seconds.  This piece became the ultimate composition of anti-music since his purpose was to compose music that said absolutely NOTHING!  The performer simply sat at the piano for the designated period of time making absolutely no sounds.

          At this point in the history of music, serious music composition had philosophically destroyed an aesthetic of beauty and profundity in music.  Cage had philosophically proved Stravinsky’s antithesis philosophical statement, “I consider that music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all...”  Philosophical Perspectives on Music, Bowman, p.194.   So the godless antithesis of depraved man in the 20^th century closed the door on a music aesthetic based on beauty and musing with anti-music based on distortion and chance techniques.

These composers opened the door for the lack-luster philosophy that the music part of music is incapable of expressing any effective message or perhaps any message at all.  They also denied profundity in music since chance music was just as profound as the most thought out composition by great composers like J. S. Bach.  Now complete musical despair reigned.  To these composers music says nothing and is incapable of being profound; and furthermore, it is ultimately incapable of expressing anything at all.

 

Aesthetics and the Christian Musician- part 2

 Aesthetics and the Christian Musician- part 2

 

Any philosophical view of aesthetics in music that admits the grotesque or ugly is faulty.  We know that crude, ugly unmusical compositions do exist, but they are the result of a mis-arrangement of the building blocks of music.  Never blame God with ugly grotesque unmusical compositions.  The main stream of anti-music compositions of the 20^th century was not produced by God-fearing Christian composers and arrangers.

Musique concrète is an example of anti-music music composition.  Pierre Schaeffer (b.1910) composed music directly on tapes or discs from natural sources.  However, these “natural sounds” were seriously distorted by playing them backward, changing the speed of the sound of by other editing abnormalities.  In 1948, Schaeffer composed his Concert des bruites (Concert of Noises) and other original compositions.  Pierre Schaeffer’s music can be identified with the philosophy of surrealist painters with its juxtaposition and chance techniques.  He often took perfectly natural sounds and scrambled them in an indeterminable manner.  (Surrealism will be considered in a later   discussion.)  Schaeffer, Henry, Baronnett and Boulez were the early “inventors” of this anti-music distortion.  These compositions included religious pieces like Mass for Liverpool and The Apocalypse of John.

 

Aesthetics and the Christian Musician- part 1

 

Aesthetics and the Christian Musician- part 1

Aesthetics is that area of philosophy that considers the perception of the beautiful as distinguished from the moral of the useful.  Christian musicians often wonder just where Christocentric music philosophy fits in to a Christian aesthetic.  One thing is sure, God is interested in beauty.  We know that He is since when we look around us we can see that His creation is not only useful but also very, very beautiful.  A part of God’s creation being very good is evidenced, among other things, by its beauty. Genesis 1:31states very clearly, “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good (maod towb 3966 2896).”  Maod towb connotes a creation that was exceedingly beautiful or best.

As always, the Christian is concerned with where to start when building a philosophy of artistic beauty.  One thing we know, that in the beginning God created everything that is beautiful.  Since music was a part of His creation, we know from the Genesis record that the beauty that God created was very good so therefore His creation of beauty was exceedingly beautiful. 

Attitude Adjustment

 

Attitude Adjustment

      My beloved former pastor R.E. Carroll used to tell those of us who worked closely with him that when trouble and misunderstanding arose in his life that he would pray, “Lord handle me.  Lord take care of my attitude.”  Rather than pray that the Lord would change the other guy, he would ask the Lord to change him and his attitude.

       So, when the heat is on, do not try to music unto God until you have had an “attitude adjustment”.  I believe that it is impossible to have an efficacious music ministry when your heart is not prepared or “fixed”.  I say again, heart fixing is absolutely necessary before you music unto God.  It doesn’t do much good to tune your harp until you have tuned your heart.

 

Thought for the Day

Being upset or angry at someone else over a long period of time hurts you much more than the person with whom you are angry.

 

 

Singing under Stress

 

Singing under Stress

Psalm 57:7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed:  I will sing and give praise. 

       Evidently David prepared this Psalm for the chief Levite musician during the time he was fleeing from King Saul.  While under great stress the Psalmist David found it necessary to prepare his heart before he could sing and give praise unto God.  This Scripture says that David “fixed his heart.  The Hebrew word kuwn (3559) means that David prepared his heart so that he could sing and rejoice, even though he was under great pressure from King Saul.

       Christian musicians who are constantly working with others will from time to time find themselves under great stress.  At such times there will be situations that are capable of causing hard feelings and misunderstandings.  Dealing with these situations will require much heart preparation.  If the Christian musician does not take time to make the necessary heart “fixing”, burnout is sure to happen.  

 

Prayer for the Day

Dear Lord, as I come to you in prayer at this moment, I want to thank You for Your sustaining grace in times of stress.  I am asking You to help me to trust that You will never let any stress overtake me.  However, I need Your help at this moment.  Lord help me to not lean on my own understanding or strength.  I confess to You that when the pressure is on, I do not trust my own inner strength to take me through the time of trouble and stress.  Here I am Lord. Please help me just now.  This I am praying in Your strong name.  Amen.

 

Book Review

 Book Review

Music Philosophy in Christian Perspective by Garen L. Wolf considers how to determine what music is acceptable to use in worshiping God. Since God created all things, including the formal properties of music (the nuts and bolts of music that make it what it is capable of being), what a musician does with these properties of music makes him responsible to the Creator.  This source is a Christian response to many of the major topics that secular music philosophers are currently considering.

The author studies the original meanings of ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek musical terms to address the modern-day evangelical church music.  He examines artistic underpinnings to modern music movements and consider multiple hot topics: ·Is all music equal? ·Does being “seeker sensitive” trump all other considerations? ·Does God have an opinion on what music is used to worship Him? ·Is it enough for music to be beautiful? ·What makes for acceptable and unacceptable worship music? ·Is all modern music to be rejected, or endorsed? ·What is the proper priority for hymns, gospel songs, praise choruses and other sacred music? This is not a simple judgment of what is right or wrong, but rather a finely-honed tool to assess how one chooses music, and why.

Musical Actions Matter

 

Musical Actions Matter

A Christian’s actions and associations matter because alignment with the actions of the unrighteous places the Christian musician in agreement with them.  For this reason Christians are warned to “come out from among them”.  What this means is that any music or musicing that identifies the musicer with the world and what it stands for is a poor choice for sacred musicing.  A Christian is considered to be bigoted when he or she follows the admonition “come out from among them”. Although it is not a popular thing to do, God has promised to those who follow this admonition that, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Since the last half of the 20^th century there has been intense pressure placed on church musicians to conform their musicing to the way the world musics.  They are often told that for a church to acquire its rightful “market share” or have a relevant music ministry, it must admit all genres and music fusions that the world uses in its secular musicing.  The concept of separation from the world has been replaced with the notion that in order to win the world to Christ it is necessary to use music that is as much like the music of those who do not know Jesus Christ as is possible.  A concomitant of this faulty praxis is the philosophical belief that the end justifies the means. This philosophy has permeated much of current religious music philosophy and praxis. The basis for sacred musicing should be faith in God rather than likes and dislikes, musical taste, and musical style conformity.

Thought for the Day

Have you ever considered why you music the way you do?  Every Christian musician must know why he or she has chosen to follow a course of musical action.  Start the new year knowing where you are going musically.

 

Creation Brought Form to the Erets

 

Creation Brought Form to the Erets

Although the discussions of music being a part of God’s acts of creation in my former writings are of utmost importance to Christian musicians, I will refrain from repeating all of them here.  However, I will add one additional thought about  “in the beginning God created…”  One of God’s acts of creation was to bring form to the earth. Genesis 1:2 states,  “And the earth [erets 776] was without form [tohuw 8414], and void [bohuw 922]; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”  One of the valuable lessons to be learned from Genesis 1:2 is that because of God’s omniscience He included, as a part of His acts of creation, bringing proper form to everything on the earth.  So, it is reasonable to deduce that God is very interested in form. God saw that the erets i.e. the world at large and not just the adamah (127) i.e. the ground, needed to have proper form.  For years I have heard Christian musicians say that musical form i.e. style does not matter to God and therefore only the words utilized in a Christian’s musicing are of importance to Him.  These statements troubled me greatly, but I confess that I as a young musician I struggled with the term form. 

Later, it became clear to me that the form in which a composer or arranger organizes the formal properties of music does matter.  Just recently I was studying the Book of Genesis, and it occurred to me that a part of God’s acts of creation was  bringing proper form to everything on the earth.  God saw that because it was without form (tohuw) it was in a state of confusion that caused it to be without proper worth.  Furthermore, God saw that the erets was also void (bohuw) i.e. it was empty and a vacuity.

Religious music that is without proper form is superficial and without worth as a vehicle for worship.  All of a Christian’s musical doing matters to God, so it is logical to deduce that the “form” of a Christian’s musical doing matters to God.  When the form of the music that a Christian uses in the context of worship is not congruent with the  purposes of Christian worship, it has an “emptiness” because it lacks appropriateness  to be used to represent the moral nature of God.

 

God Will Revive the Musician’s Spirit

 

God Will Revive the Musician’s Spirit

Isaiah 57:15-16, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.  For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.”

Are you depressed about all the trouble that surrounds us all in2021?  Musicians are prone to discouragement.  We don’t always have conventions to attend that are uplifting to the Christian musician who is out there in “Smirgley Junction” where  the rubber hits the pavement.  No doubt it may have been a while since someone said thank you for all the hard work you have been doing.  That is a perfect opportunity for Satan to slip up beside you and whisper in your ear, “Nobody cares.”  The enemy of your soul may be telling you a partial truth because those in charge are so busy that they often forget about others who work around them. 

I think of the Scripture above that promises that God who is the High and lofty One has promised that HE dwells “ with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”  Wow, that ought to cause you to smile out of at least part of your mouth.  God cares and that is enough!

God has sent you to the exact place where you are ministering.  In St. John’s Gospel in verse 32, Jesus said to those who were with him, “…I have meat to eat that ye know not of.”  Then in verse 34,  “Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”   In a much smaller way, you have been commissioned by our Heavenly Father  to do God’s work right there in “Smirgley Junction” where your loving Heavenly Father has sent you.

So, you can quote the words of Jesus to Satan when he sneaks up on you, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.”  When you quote the words of Jesus to Satan. he will have to let you alone because He is no match for the WORD.  So, don’t try to be “large and in charge”, just remember that HE dwells “ with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”    

Wind Instruments Were Mentioned in the Bible-part 2

 

Wind Instruments Were Mentioned in the Bible-part 2

 Probably the largest argument that has lasted for centuries is whether or not the Hebrew word machol refers to a wind instrument, most probably a pipe of some sort, or whether machol refers to a dance, often thought to be a round dance.  We found that this argument centers around the derivation of machol with scholars on both sides declaring a drastically different derivation of this  Hebrew word.  As early as when the Cambridge scholars printed the AV, the word machol was explained in the center reference as a pipe.  Ancient Jewish writers like Rashi referred to this word as a pipe.  However, most English translations of the OT translated machol as dance. 

Because of the uncertainty of the meaning of machol, it is risky do declare that it represents an OT sacred dance imperative.  We also learned that the use of dance is nowhere traceable in the worship of the First or Second Temple.  It is important to that many Christian theologians consider that machol refers to  dance, and many music historians consider it to refer to some kind of a pipe.