The Bible and Music

The Exodus opera is an intense and dramatic musical production that portrays that story of Moses. Specifically, this story focuses on the 10 commandments and the golden calf. Frank, our guest speaker, introduces this story as the Spiritual versus the Carnal dichotomy. The Spiritual is given to you by law. It is God speaking to Moses and humankind. The carnal refers to the people coming out of Egypt and what they are used to. The Egyptians are liberated, but are now questioning their new lifestyle. They are coming from a religion that is flesh and blood and eating and drinking; this is all they know. They are used to giving into their gluttonous passions and not having many strict rules. This dichotomy comes to blows with the golden calf. The Egyptians betray Moses and God’s orders and start worshiping a homemade deity.  The music leading up to this event is both song and in dialogue. The musical reflects the tension and drama that unravels with the wrath of Moses and the conflict of his followers.

Our guest speaker, Frank, is very open and obviously passionate and educated in music. He grew up Christian, but doesn’t let that affect his political views. “I think that God is bigger than political parties…If you are a believer you should look at these particular scriptures versus what you focus on.” He focuses on the feeling, impression, and autobiographical sides of the Bible when it comes to getting inspiration for his musical compositions. On top of being a composer he is also a bass player. Sometimes his compositions come out naturally, most times it is a lot of work and trial and error. He even played us a clip of his wife singing a song he composed and it was absolutely beautiful. There were many dips and tones and it was incredible. Frank said he still sometimes finds himself nervous about releasing his music to the greater public. A song to him is his “baby” that can be susceptible to criticism and apathy. Music can seem so powerful that it seems it’s amazing feelings it can evokes out of us can only be from something otherworldly. Frank was a great speaker and I really enjoyed listening to him.