A Closer Look at Christian Music, Joshua Law, 1991
A Closer Look at Christian Music. by Joshua Law June 1991
Music is a language.
Some people, unwittingly, believe that music is a universal language mainly because music generally has a pleasant appeal. To me, music is an enhanced encoded language. Music needs to be learnt in order to be understood. And to be understood, music needs to be decoded. (Music can be very uncertain: I Cor. 14:8) However, since pure music is abstract, the message it gives is ambiguous, The listener is free to interpret it the way he feels at the moment. Therefore, music often arouses a variety of emotional responses. However, not all music appeal to all people. The same piece of music can arouse contrasting emotional responses.
Lyrics are more important
Songs are different because the words control the message. When Paul talked about singing and praying, (I Cor. 14:15) he emphasized doing them not just in spirit (here it points to the emotions) but more importantly in understanding. (expressed verbally in the words) According to Paul, prayer and Christian music must possess rich verbal content. Paul did not support emotion for emotion’s sake. The Bible does not support activity without the significant and correct emotions. (Mark 7:6; Psalm 51:16,17) Therefore, I believe the verbal content is the life and steering force behind Christian music.
Music worship
Most music were written in a high emotional state of mind. Most people emotionally respond to music apart from the words. Music enhances our worship, however, we should not allow music to become the cause of and reason for our worship. This is called music worship (a form of idolatry) where we worship the music, more than God.
Great hymns
Most of us may know that our traditional hymns has a wonderful past in the Reformation. Martin Luther (1483-1546) purposed to involve the congregation in worship, and to teach them salvation by faith, not by works. He gave up using the old Latin chants and German Psalters, and wrote his own hymn texts, employed folk tunes, arranged the music in the unison chorale form, a much more rhythmic style than what we now seem to have inherited. His new arrangement greatly revolutionized and enhanced the kind of worship which emphasized congregational participation. Later, called the Lutheran Chorales the arrangements were criticized for their “man-made” hymn texts and lack of literary value.
However many of us may not know that the spiritual power of Lutheran hymns, was due to the tremendous emphasis on rich, and full Biblically sound texts and his new arrangement of music. A good example of such a Lutheran hymn is “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”.(Hymns of Life #50) A lesser known one is “Out of the Depths I Cry to You.” (Hymns of Life #389) Please notice how rich are the lyrics and particularly the rich organ chord progressions behind these unison hymns.
Unfortunate mediocrity
Most of us may not know that, following the example of Luther, Isaac Watts, (1674-1748) Charles Wesley, (1707-1788) and many of their contemporaries not only inestimably contributed to the history of our great hymns of faith by writing the greatest and most poetic texts for our hymns. Their production were so prolific and high in literary quality that they overshadowed most later hymn writers. After they were gone, particularly in America later, the hymn quality in terms of music and literature, plunged into the depths of mediocrity. Though, subsequently, many great men and women of God had written and used hymns successfully for great revivals both in England and in America. Devotion to this mediocrity, has resulted in the perpetuation of inferior hymns from generation to generation.
Unpractical arrangement
Most of us may not know that the hymns that we have inherited and used were primarily rearranged for four part singing, SATB, (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass) with organ back-up instead of the unison and descant singing form of its former glorious days for which they experienced great success. Most of our hymns were rewritten and rearranged for us in an era (19th Century) where there were many more people who could read music and who had a good sense of pitch. Even with much better music background and training supported by the society and schools in England and in America’s past, the four-part chorale style suffered a tremendous decline as a congre-gational praise song because this SATB division had raised the range of and weakened the melody which descant and unison singing had, at one time, so much supported.
Out-dated music
For us in this generation of information explosion, ruthless capitalism, heartless commercial-ism and senseless consumer mentality, though there is endless exposure to music, (consisting of mostly noise and commercialized low quality background music) We tend to hear everything but do not listen to anything, particularly music, there seems to be a general decline in aptitude for music. (Witnessed by author in his college voice and choir classes in the last two decades) Therefore, the singing of these SATB hymns has slowly become more difficult. Not only because of its antiquated style but because of its SATB practice. To enjoy singing the melody of these hymns, one would have to have, not only an appreciation of poetic literature, a good sense of pitch but also a high voice range which are rare talents nowadays. For this reason, The Baptist Hymnal was transposed down during the seventies. What this means is that, as an art, musical, and literature form, our great hymns of faith is fast becoming out of style and less understood, preferred, and much less appreciated.
Where are the Isaac Watts and Charles Westleys of our time? Where can we find theologically and musically mature musicians? Where can we find pastors church leaders or Christians who has something to say which is worth setting to words for our kind of music?
The new Christian songs.
Are contemporary Christian songs more Biblical? No. Contemporary Christian songs, though many of which quote from the Bible are generally quoting from the emotional segments of it. If that means being more Biblical, Satan would have been Biblical too, (refer to the Temptation of Jesus in the Gospels) and our pastors would not have to preach and teach anymore. All they had to do is to read from the Bible and perform the rituals. To be Biblical means to interpret the Bible in its context and be true to its entirety. We talk about and explain the word of God in our own words. One example of a good contemporary Christian praise song is “Our God Reigns” by Leonard Smith.
Unfortunately, many of our contemporary Christian songs and the practices of performances are only mediocre imitations of secular music. The emotional content, relying on overused colorful chords and easy melodies, tend to sweeten these songs and make them “sweet nothings”. These kind of Christian music sweeten the sensations but does not do much to build up Christian life and understanding. For lack of substance in their faith from which to write any worthy lyrics, many Christian musicians resorted to quote from the Bible to justify their media-generated cravings for music expression to write the so called “Contemporary Christian Songs.” Most hymn writers had been theologians first and musician second in their music philosophies. However, most of our contemporary Christian song writers and pop-rock singers love music first, therefore they serve God with music. Not only do majority of our hymns have rich Biblical content, a great majority of them has a lot to say to God and about God. Charles Wesley was known to write hymns of up to 20 verses. We can’t blame the contemporary Christian musicians. The church leaders of our time generally are not producing much worthwhile lyrics for any musician to set to music.
Nice & sweet: Christian pop rock:
Contemporary Christian songs do have an easy going style, comfortable ranges and pretty harmonies. As a result, they have gained wide acceptance by the majority of young Christian public whose musical appetite is mainly created and nurtured by secular media. In Contemporary Christian pop-rock songs, like its secular counter-part, music plays a much greater role in communication. Since music is an encoded language, problems mostly occur in the process of decoding. With the contemporary Christian songs possessing little verbal content (lyrics) or strong emphasis on ambiguous feelings, our praise songs can easily be misunderstood. That is why there are a lot more controversial and emotional reactions (differences in the decoded messages) to the contemporary praise songs. Some re-jected it because the music (possibly wrongfully decoded) reminds them of some ill-famed Pop-Rock singers, their non-Christian life style and moral position. Others celebrated it because the music, decoded, has a lot of emotional (sensual) content which they desire whether the emotion was pleasing or directed to God or not. I enjoy a variety of music, but I would not name the enjoyment of music the enjoyment of God because God is not music nor is He in music.
What about the hymns?
Our hymns are often, unfortunately, associated with classical music, especially in the operas, where the sensuality is not much less than pop-rock music. The music and lyrics of hymns has never impressed anyone as being sensual and the great emphasis of theologically rich lyrics protects the quality and substance of the spiritual experience the hymns produce. But it is only fair to point out that the substance of some of the things I mentioned in regards to contemporary Christian songs could well be true in case of some of the gospel hymns. I enjoyed, as a youth, singing “In the Garden” by C. Austin Miles (1868-1946). I still enjoy the words of the chorus. However, the idea of treating God like a lover fairy-tale style in the verses now turns me off.
Too much of a good thing
About a year ago, I was invited to visit and give the Sunday worship sermon in the English service of a prosperous, fast growing church of evangelical Christian faith.
On Sunday morning, I saw, on the stage area an overhead projector, five or six microphone stands, a drum set, and a few instrument stands. There were also a quality synthesizer to the right and a name brand high quality seven foot grand piano at the left. I felt great. The sight of musical instruments has always exited me. With expectation, I eagerly waited for a wonderful time of praise and worship.
The first fifteen minutes of the worship with the small band on stage was just marvelous. Most of the selections were familiar to me. However, after fifteen min-utes, I began to feel that I had enough. I needed to go further with the Lord by relating to Him more intelligently.
Unfortunately, the praise music, mostly were spiritual love songs, went on and on and on. I tried harder and harder to follow and swallow as much as I can. At the forty minute mark, I couldn’t stand it any more. I had to go outside for a fresh breath of air. I walked back into the sanctuary later and discovered that among the closed-eyed, hand waving crowd, there were quite a few people laying asleep in the pews and many more standing there starring at the congregation, meaninglessly. I finally found an empty sound-proofed baby crying booth to pray in. At last, after one hour into the song service, I was asked to give the (much abbre-viated) sermon.
The giving of the sermon was exhausting for me. I preached well but it was anticlimactic. The congregation was too mentally exhausted to go on. I gave a challenge to encourage them to do more than lip service to the Lord. I, then, closed the sermon and gave the benediction.
The song service was not much more than an “emotional trip”. A great majority of youths in the worship could neither follow the leaders closely nor sing comfortably in tune. Much less were they, by observation, spiritually capable of such intensely emotional worship. I certainly was not.
Creative Alternatives:
Our contemporary songs, though much needed, are still new to the church. They need help and guidance. Let us not praise and raise contemporary Christian music on the highest pedestal. With an open mind, let us learn to accept them and develop them to include a balanced and rich theological content. Let us not dwell solely on the emotions but move on forward to more wholesome verbal substance that teaches, admonishes, and enriches the church. Let us depart from the musical cliches (well worn out pop-rock idioms) and go on to higher musical grounds. Let our pastors and church leaders get involved in expressing themselves through music and prose. Let our musicians be encouraged to serve God with respect and regard themselves as servants of the word. When will Christians music-ians feel God’s calling as pastors and be treated as one? When will our pastors learn music and able to express themselves musically?
Our hymns are great, let us keep them. Sing them with an open mind. Transpose them to fit within our range, rearrange them to fit our style. It would be great if we can reinterpret their spiritual richness in contemporary language and use them in our contemporary songs. Let us rearrange the great hymns of our faith and reinterpret them in the form of contemporary songs. A good example of songs in this category is “How Great Thou Art” arranged by arrangers from both the old Singspirations and the more recent Manna Music sung by Sandy Patti.
Let us not blindly criticize but appreciate both styles of Christian expression. After all, music is merely a language, a medium.
June 1991
(Rev. Joshua Law has been the associate pastor and minister of worship for 10 years in two churches. He has many years of experience in teaching colleges and seminaries. Currently he is a professor of music at City College of San Francisco.)