Re: "Good" music

Date: 20 May 2003 10:47:43 -0700
Newsgroups: alt.music.gospel.southern
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Michael,
Oh, you're daring. But you are stating the exact truth. And I suppose
that I am to some degree imposing my own educational level on everyone
else. Except for one thing: Charles Wesley's music was specifically
written for the very purpose of teaching profound spiritual truth to
people who couldn't read. It was written cause people to be able to
hear and understand something that was, if you will, beyond their
intellectual base. It elevated the understanding of the people.
One of the other problems is that the dumbing down of music also means
that we have lost much of the great music of the church that goes all
the way back to Martin Luther and even before.
I wrote these words at Christmas for another discussion group:
"This will probably be my last check-in before Christmas Eve arrives.
How blessed we all are to be able to listen and to sing our music: the
music of the Christ. I just finished listening to a CD, "Christmas
with Robert Shaw." Hearing the great Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and
Chorus singing "Adeste Fidelis," all four verses in Latin, makes me
remember that we are part of the great Church that goes back and back
and back all the way to the First Century, and now we're entering the
twenty-first. Yet, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and
forever. So whether we listen to Adeste Fidelis in Latin, or Bach's
"Mass in B minor" in Latin, or Berlioz' "L'Enfance du Christ," in
French, or, God bless him, listen to old Ben Speer sing "The Star of
Bethlehem" and hear his voice break as he sings, "Jesus is now that
Star Divine," we are all part of what God has been doing since before
the foundations of the world, and part of that which we humans began
to be able to touch (as John says in I John) since he was born in
Bethlehem on that long ago night."
Already the evangelical church has lost most of the great musical
foundations of Bach, Haydn, Mendelssohn (whose father was a converted
Jew -- have you ever heard his "He Watching Over Israel") and others.
Yet hearing Mr. Shaw conduct Bach's Mass in Bmin was one of the
greatest spiritual experiences of my life. Oh, and all the other great
compositions: Vaughn Williams "Dona Nobis Pacem", Haydn's "Creation".
In distancing ourselves from great music we have distanced ourselves
from great feeling, grand understanding... ah, well, let me not go to
ranting here.
But, Michael, you make a point. It is the culture that is descending
and in whose hands have we left the high culture of Western
Civilization, created because people such as Bach and Haydn knew not
only the doctrines of the Christ, but knew the Christ Himself.
And Handel -- was there ever any such music to declare the Glory of
God anywhere.
Sorry for the rant....but it is something I feel deeply about. I was
preaching in a moderate sized town the other day and a friend took me
over to the Methodist Church, which had just been rebuilt and a
European pipe organ installed. He knew that I played organ and had
arranged for me to have a couple of hours on the instrument by the
grace of the music director. They had never heard me do what I do on a
pipe organ and they were stunned, amazed. In all of the music they've
heard, they've never heard anything like the great music that God has
given to his servants. So I told the head elder of the church where I
was speaking: you arrange to bring together all God's people in this
community to praise the Lord in this building, and I'll come up and
play this thing for you. With me that day was a classical pianist and
I agreed with him that we would play opposite each other. Then we'll
get an idea of what we can do in praise.
At Robert Shaw's memorial service in Atlanta, his successor Norman
McKenzie called us all to sing a hymn, the old "O God Our Help in Ages
Past," accompanied by a great organ, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
and Chorus, the Morehouse Glee Club, the Robert Shaw Chorale. 2500
people besides those lifted our voices in this old hymn of praise and
adoration. For a Christian in the midst, I was overcome, and had to
get hold of myself, and I just listened for a while to this
magnificent wall of sound. My pastor later said, with a twinkle in his
eye, "Now perhaps you understand a little of what it means when it
says, 'The sound of many waters.'"
> Gotta jump in here. I agree, there HAS been a definite "dumbing down" of
> lyrics in modern gospel music, and it isn't limited to just
> contemporary-style choruses, either. Some of the lyrics to some of the SG
> songs getting a lot of airplay are downright embarrassing to me. "Momma
> this" and "Momma that" usually have little to do with worship or praise.
>
> But, in fairness to the songwriters, part of the problem is the overall
> dumbing down of society. You cited as an example:
>
> "Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and natures night,
> Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with
> light,
> My chains fell off, my heart was free,
> I rose, went forth and followed Thee."
>
> How many high school students could walk into a church on a Sunday and even
> pronounce these lyrics, much less understand them or be impacted by their
> message? Churches (and songwriters) have been forced to adapt to the
> realities of the modern world in order to remain relevant. Hence, you have
> more simple choruses for a poorly educated culture.