This is brilliant! =P
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Musings on music
Ahh music.
How it gets the feet tapping, hands clapping, hearts pumping, hips swaying and arms waving is a mystery. It feels natural, it makes you feel alive, and connected...it just feels right.
On the other hand, if it doesn't feel right, it can be very wrong indeed. Disinterest. Lips barely forming a mumble, voices barely a murmur. In bad cases, snoring.
I went to Jazz in the Domain on Saturday night, the main act of which (well, the only act actually) was a band called The Gyspy Kings and Queens. Or Queens and Kings. Probably not what springs to mind first when you think of "jazz", this was more the Latin America, fusion, flamenco sort of jazz, played with spanish guitars, bongos and a horn section, rather than the piano-with-bass-and-drums-and-maybe-some-brass sort of jazz (which is the type of jazz I always think about first).
It started off slow, but after a few songs with the horn section and flamenco dancer in colourful twirly skirt, there were crowds of people up on their feet and dancing, transforming the Domain from an oversized picnic into a kind of large open-air salsa club. I have to admit the rhythm was pretty catchy, even if every single song sounded the same. While my bum remained firmly on the picnic rug, I found myself tapping my feet and bopping my head and generally getting into the groove of things.
Ahh music.
On Sunday the church music team played a bunch of songs which I also got into the groove of, so to speak. The wanting to sing loudly, getting your head into the lyrics kinda of groove. The kind of groove where melody, words, rhythm, beat and meaning resonate with both your core beliefs and your taste in music.
Of course not all church music is like this all the time for all people. And it depends on a range of factors much larger than the number of instruments, quality of the musicians, and...stuff like that. If music in church just depended on the music itself to get it's congregation feeling encouraged and uplifted and hyped about worshipping God, then we would have a big problem. Apart from teaching and preaching, music is probably one of a church's more time and resource-consuming ministries. And some may feel that what you put in isn't always what you get out.
Why do we have music in church then? What is it about music that makes it such a special way of expressing our relationship with God as individuals and as a church? Is it because numerous Psalms begin as such... "Sing to the Lord a new song", "Shout for joy to the Lord", "I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will sing praise", "Come let us sing for joy to the Lord", "It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name"...?
Maybe God knows that sometimes words are not enough. Words alone are not enough to get the feet tapping, hands clapping, hearts pumping, hips swaying and arms waving (although the latter two would probably be looked down upon in most conservative churches). Words alone are sometimes not enough to make you feel alive and connected to the something, or Someone, greater than the four walls of the room (or the four sides of the lawn).
But what if the melody, rhythm, beat and meaning resonate with your core beliefs but not your taste in music? What if music is just not your thing in general? Maybe the words are enough then. You'll always have something to be passionate about, even if the singers are off-key, the pianist is out of time and you can't hear anything above the banging of the drums. So there's no excuse for mumbling, murmuring, chatting or snoring. As painful as it may be, this is praising God we're talking about here. Or at least sing loud enough so the person next to you knows it's about praising God and not a weekly going-through-the-motions thing.
Having said that though, we should try to do music well, like anything else we do for God and other people. That's why music teams have to practice. And have meetings. And why song leaders spend ages choosing the right songs.
Yep. I like music. I like music in church. Especially music in church that's done well. So let's get into it.
How it gets the feet tapping, hands clapping, hearts pumping, hips swaying and arms waving is a mystery. It feels natural, it makes you feel alive, and connected...it just feels right.
On the other hand, if it doesn't feel right, it can be very wrong indeed. Disinterest. Lips barely forming a mumble, voices barely a murmur. In bad cases, snoring.
I went to Jazz in the Domain on Saturday night, the main act of which (well, the only act actually) was a band called The Gyspy Kings and Queens. Or Queens and Kings. Probably not what springs to mind first when you think of "jazz", this was more the Latin America, fusion, flamenco sort of jazz, played with spanish guitars, bongos and a horn section, rather than the piano-with-bass-and-drums-and-maybe-some-brass sort of jazz (which is the type of jazz I always think about first).
It started off slow, but after a few songs with the horn section and flamenco dancer in colourful twirly skirt, there were crowds of people up on their feet and dancing, transforming the Domain from an oversized picnic into a kind of large open-air salsa club. I have to admit the rhythm was pretty catchy, even if every single song sounded the same. While my bum remained firmly on the picnic rug, I found myself tapping my feet and bopping my head and generally getting into the groove of things.
Ahh music.
On Sunday the church music team played a bunch of songs which I also got into the groove of, so to speak. The wanting to sing loudly, getting your head into the lyrics kinda of groove. The kind of groove where melody, words, rhythm, beat and meaning resonate with both your core beliefs and your taste in music.
Of course not all church music is like this all the time for all people. And it depends on a range of factors much larger than the number of instruments, quality of the musicians, and...stuff like that. If music in church just depended on the music itself to get it's congregation feeling encouraged and uplifted and hyped about worshipping God, then we would have a big problem. Apart from teaching and preaching, music is probably one of a church's more time and resource-consuming ministries. And some may feel that what you put in isn't always what you get out.
Why do we have music in church then? What is it about music that makes it such a special way of expressing our relationship with God as individuals and as a church? Is it because numerous Psalms begin as such... "Sing to the Lord a new song", "Shout for joy to the Lord", "I will sing of your love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will sing praise", "Come let us sing for joy to the Lord", "It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name"...?
Maybe God knows that sometimes words are not enough. Words alone are not enough to get the feet tapping, hands clapping, hearts pumping, hips swaying and arms waving (although the latter two would probably be looked down upon in most conservative churches). Words alone are sometimes not enough to make you feel alive and connected to the something, or Someone, greater than the four walls of the room (or the four sides of the lawn).
But what if the melody, rhythm, beat and meaning resonate with your core beliefs but not your taste in music? What if music is just not your thing in general? Maybe the words are enough then. You'll always have something to be passionate about, even if the singers are off-key, the pianist is out of time and you can't hear anything above the banging of the drums. So there's no excuse for mumbling, murmuring, chatting or snoring. As painful as it may be, this is praising God we're talking about here. Or at least sing loud enough so the person next to you knows it's about praising God and not a weekly going-through-the-motions thing.
Having said that though, we should try to do music well, like anything else we do for God and other people. That's why music teams have to practice. And have meetings. And why song leaders spend ages choosing the right songs.
Yep. I like music. I like music in church. Especially music in church that's done well. So let's get into it.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
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