Art Music and Pop Worship

I was sitting through a senior piano recital of one of my best friends musing through the various epochs of music. As he played the Bach Partita, I began to contemplate what it would have been like to be in Bach's family. It was intriguing, actually, because I imagined being surrounded by stringed instruments and harpsichords and improvising on music similar to what was being played. I suppose if I had a wish, I might wish to participate in a Bach "jam-session" of the 1600's. As I sat and contemplated this dream, I imagined further some of the circumstances of that day, how the royal family had hired musicians to compose for them and to play for them. (King George I of England had Handel compose the "Water Music" to help him to clear his mind.) The music played in kings courts was quite noble and classy. This reflected the structure of royalty.

As he played Mozart's Sonata, I laughed while I listened to his playing around with the musical form. I put myself in the concert setting and thought about what it would have been like to hear it with an audience and have everyone else chuckle as Mozart pretended to finish while proceeding to develop the song further.

As he played Brahms, I was struck by the emotions of the song. It brought back so many personal memories of my high-school senior recitals and of the fun of performing. By the end of the Intermezzo, I was almost ready to cry. Debussy's Toccata also evoked quite an emotional response as the music danced in my ears.

There was a huge break in the structure of the music when he started playing Prokofiev, though. No form seemed present; no musical themes went all throughout the song as did through the others; there was more discontinuity than continuity, and other than being a flashy and impressive piece, I could not really understand it.

Yet there was something about the entire recital that struck me as being there. Each one of these pieces was composed as some form of serious art. There was a wide range of emotions, forms, colors, and styles, but the overarching principle was that this art was serious.

You might ask, "What do you mean by 'serious'?" Art as such is quite broad, for it reaches into music, photography, literature, drawing, and painting, as well as many others. There are two kinds of each of these. There is the popular version and the serious version. An illustration of this would be the difference in someone who draws cartoon caricatures on the streets of New York City and the person who paints pictures for art museums. This is no different for any art. There is the kind of literature that ends up in anthologies or textbooks and that which might be published in a child's magazine. This same division goes for music as well. There were the Bach's and Beethoven's and then there were the court jesters and the heralds. Today, there are professional (concert) musicians and composers as well as those who play for dinners and bar rooms.

By no means would I imply that one ought to condemn popular arts. They certainly have their place as did the simple playing of peasants in the feudal system. Yet I walked away with a question in my mind. What type of music is found in the Bible? Is there popular music in the Bible, or is it all art music?

I am not sure that I have a satisfactory answer, but a few seed thoughts are in order. First, God did choose people who were low in social status, such as Peter the Apostle, to be writers of inspired scripture. He also chose scholars, such as many of the minor prophets and even Luke. David, who was the main writer of music in the Old Testament, was first a shepherd--the lowest social rank, but he became a king. Some of his songs are replete with emotion, and some of them pervaded with artful form. The Levites, who led worship, were highly educated and extremely intelligent, resulting in astonishingly magnificent liturgy. These examples provide us with perhaps a common model of how God is worshipped with both a variety of people and a variety of "styles" and yet with an artistic beauty which far surpasses today's standard.

Scripture can certainly not be improved upon. Thus, any work of music that is based upon biblical truth will never attain to the level of excellence that the Bible displays. I wonder, however, if we are using our abilities to their fullest extent when it comes to music. Peter was just a fisherman, but he was able to compose beautiful and poetic literature, such as:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵ Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)

This is not music, but theology. It carries not only precious content of our Savior, but a serious poetry that awakens our affections in worship to the God who is to be praised. It causes our minds to contemplate the precious riches of God's grace to us and is in essence...worship!

There is something about serious art that carries the ability to evoke noble and yet rich and heart-felt affections. Popular art can certainly carry emotion, but it does not carry quite the weight or power or timeless endurance that serious art does. I wonder if we really ought to model our worship after the popular styles.

May God richly bless you with all spiritual blessings!
Jeremiah Sandahl
1 Peter 1:3-5