Would she play the special music for our academy chapel? It wasn't easy, but Lupita agreed to try. She practiced for days, and at the appointed hour she walked steadily to the piano, sat on the bench, and gently touched the keys. Soon a soft, uplifting melody filled the room. I was immersed in its sweetness, only to be interrupted by a rude whisper behind me.
"Doesn't she know that's not a church song? I can't believe they're letting her play that in here."
I cringed, hoping Lupita hadn't heard the whisper. Lupita, a non-Adventist, was sharing beautiful, uplifting music, as well as part of herself, only to be criticized by a church member.
Non-Adventist youth aren't the only ones who come under fire for their choice of music. People who are certain that there is only one way to sing praises to God regularly criticize others who think otherwise.
Most criticisms against "contemporary" music fall under one of the three following categories: (1) much contemporary Christian music uses dance, jazz, or rock music with sacred words; (2) it appeals to our sensual nature, and therefore cannot be from God; (3) it entertains instead of uplifts.
Beginning with the Bible
Perhaps we should begin with the Bible. What does it say about music and the form it should take in worship?
A careful reading of Scripture shows that among the communities covered during biblical times, music was very much a part of daily life. It was used to celebrate God's goodness, victories in battle, weddings, and coronations. It was used in worship and practical life. It was used in times of joy and moments of grief. The people of the Bible were surrounded with music, just as we are today. The Psalms are perhaps the greatest example of how music was part of biblical life.
The New Testament too exhorts the church to worship "in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Eph. 5:19). Paul does not tell the churches to sing only hymns. Although he calls them to make melodies, he does not tell how a melody should be made. He tells the Colossians to sing "with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (3:16), but does not instruct them in how to sing or what is acceptable in singing.
Like us, the people of the Bible had the choice of using either their voices or instruments. In fact, musical instruments were often used to praise God. The Bible mentions timbrels, stringed instruments, organs, harps, cymbals, lyres, trumpets, and psalters. Other cultures in the area used the same and other types of instruments.
The most common stringed instrument found in biblical times was the lyre (a type of primitive harp) and its cousins. The harp mentioned in 1 Samuel 16:23 was actually a kinnor, a type of lyre, the national instrument of the ancient Jews. A lyra was a lyre that was associated with amateur players, love songs, and parties; and the baganna was a type of lyre used by the wealthy. There is no mention that any of these instruments were in any way sacred.
First Chronicles 13:8 tells us that David and the Israelites played before God with all their might. They sang, and their songs were accompanied by a variety of musical instruments. Notice that they were singing "with all their might." When I do something with all my might I am attuned both physically and mentally to that which I am doing. If my foot taps or my hands clap during a song, I am singing with "all my might." That is, my whole being is involved.
If David had been writing today, would he have said, "Praise Him with drums and clapping; praise Him with guitars, banjos, and synthesizers; praise Him with loud drums; praise Him upon the electric guitar" (see Ps. 150:3-5)? Putting it all into context, he may well have said something similar to this.
The way we praise God with music is important. Psalm 126:2 assures us that our mouth can be full of laughter and our tongue praising God through song at the same time. Worshiping the Almighty doesn't mean a long face and a slow beat. Biblical evidence shows that the music was sometimes loud, accompanied by common instruments, and that the act of praise is more important than the method one uses.
Music: neglected in history
Discussions on "good" and "bad" music go back to antiquity. Greek philosophers recognized the ethical and pedagogical value of music. A classic education comprised instruction in athletics and music (body and mind).
One author summarizes what Aristotle thought of music: "If one listens to the wrong kind of music he will become the wrong kind of person; but, conversely, if he listens to the right kind of music he will tend to become the right kind of person."1
History shows that Christian songwriters borrowed elements from secular music. As the science of music progressed, a corresponding conflict between new techniques and organized religion also ensued.
The early Christian church struggled with the problem of music in the same way we do today. They sought to separate themselves from pagan philosophies while at the same time they tried to follow the advice of Paul to use music for worship. The first "church music" was developed during the first four centuries of Christianity. Plainsong, as it was called, was unaccompanied by instruments and was purely melodic. Its development was influenced by the music of the Jewish synagogue as well as the Greek community. At various times it was "reformed" because it was too confusing or needed updating in keeping with new developments in music.
Even though instruments were widely used at the beginning of the Christian era, they were not popular. Jerome (d. A.D. 420) wrote that a Christian maiden should not even know what a lyre or a flute is like or to what use it is put.2 Such attitudes of Christian leaders may have led Christians to disassociate their music from the popular Greek and Roman plays and their use of musical instruments.
As each new musical discovery was made and put into use, there was a corresponding resistance by organized religion. Pope John XXII in the fourteenth century forbade the use of secular melodies as a basis for the harmonized expressions of portions of the mass. He even tried to do away with harmony altogether.3 For about the first 10 centuries of Christian history, professional choirs or singers per formed church music. All this changed when Martin Luther published the first Protestant hymnbook in 1524.
Luther and music
Luther, an accomplished lute and flute player, enjoyed the music of other contemporary composers, such as Josquin des Prez. Luther wrote at least two types of music: hymns and motets a type of church chorale that found musical inspiration in the rhythmic schemes of the day. Luther found inspiration for both types of music in old vernacular religious and secular songs.4 Some of the songs published in the 1552 Geneva Psalter borrowed their tunes from old French melodies and popular secular songs.5
Oddly enough, Luther's contemporaries didn't find his 95 theses as unsettling as his introduction of congregational singing. "His enemies declared that Luther had destroyed more souls by his hymns than by his writings and speeches."6
Changes in music acceptance
J. S. Bach, one of the greatest com posers of all time, used new techniques developed in secular music to accomplish some of the greatest religious pieces known in history. Once again, his contemporaries (mostly his employers) deplored his individuality. According to one of his biographers, Bach "played whatever music seemed fit to him improvised, extemporized, modulated, juggled his notes and melodies, as if there were no hard and fast rules for the rendering of decent and 'regular' church music."7 As music continued to develop, things that had once seemed shocking became the acceptable norm in worship services.
The hymn, as we know it today, is a fairly recent innovation in music. It has been around only since the sixteenth century. By the time the pilgrims came to America, hymns and hymnbooks were widely accepted, although our current hymnbook would be quite shocking to colonial Americans. Colonists were accustomed to memorizing 8 to 10 sacred tunes, and singing different psalms and verses to each tune. In the nineteenth century, more tunes and verses were accepted into the sacred repertory, and hymnbooks grew in popularity.8
Adventists have even borrowed from the secular. James R. Nix suggests that it was common practice for verse writers to set their words to popular tunes so that congregations all over America would be singing the same words to the same tune. Some of the secular tunes employed include '"Tis Midnight Hour," "Old Folks at Home," and "Bonny Eloise," which made the "top 10 list" of the day. Many of the tunes in our current church hymnal came from folk songs, operas, or other secular sources. Some familiar ones are "Thou Art My Shepherd" and "Fairest Lord Jesus."
Modern beat, something evil?
Is there something evil about the beat of modern music? All music has a beat. "Beat" is simply one of the elements of rhythm (along with accents and measures), and rhythm one of the elements of music. Even plainsong, the earliest "acceptable church music," has a beat. According to Scholes, the human ear seems to demand "the perceptible presence of a unit of time [the beat]."9 It's true that the beat can be used to influence the emotions, but in order to appeal to our "sensual nature" the words to the tune must be suggestive of some thing sensual.
History suggests a tradition of borrowing from the secular to turn the heart toward the holy and uplift one's thoughts to a spiritual realm. To borrow the rhythm, instruments, or style of secular music is not in and of itself bad. According to Scholes, "if music heard in church is good and sincere, and suitable to and expressive of words or thoughts to which it is allied, then the association of time and place will convert it into 'church music.'"10
What needs to be questioned is our motive for singing or listening, not the melody, beat, or instruments. Are we singing or listening to glorify God? Or are we only interested in a mindless escape which only directs us back into ourselves? Long ago, in the fourth century, the council of Carthage gave some sound advice that we would do well to heed: "See that what thou singest with thy lips thou believest in thy heart; and what thou believest in thy heart thou doest exemplify in thy life." 11
1. Donald Jay Grout, A History of Western Music (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1960), p. 9.
2. Perry A. Scholes, The Oxford Companion to Music, 9th ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1955), p. 184.
3. Ibid.
4. Robert Sabin, in International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, ed. Oscar Thompson, 6th ed. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1939), p. 1526.
5. Ibid., p. 1527.
6. Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. J.A.F. Maitland (New York: Macmillan, 1908), Vol. II, p. 788.
7. Hendrik Willem van Loon, The Life and Times of Johann Sebastian Bach (London: George G. Harrap and Co., 1942), p. 54.
8. Scholes, The Oxford Companion to Music, p. 506.
9. Ibid., p. 878.
10. Ibid., p. 183.
11. Sabin, p. 1524.
