The Bible and Music

The main topic of discussion in class today was chanting and the evolution of it. We first listened to an older chant that involved not a lot of sounds and it was too slow for me. Many of my peers commented on it being boring and I was in the same boat. The next activity that we participated in was singing a piece from Psalms. In the first reading, every student was asked to just simply read a verse and we reflected on it after. The next two times we were asked to chant the verse we were given and add an ending to it that gave it some form of pitch. As a listener, I thought it was smoother when we added the pitch of our choice. It was awkward at first, however I enjoyed hearing the differences in each person’s voice and how the pitch was either high or low.

Professor McGrath started talking about the human voice and how it is one of the most mysterious instruments in the world. It is an instrument that every single person is capable of playing, but we fail to take advantage of taking lessons or practicing to improve it. The human voice can come in a variety of pitches and sounds, like accents. Chanting, just like language, has evolved over time and it is very interesting to see how the same text is chanted in different ways. One thing that stuck with me from class was thinking about how no pitch is wrong. Pitches and music appeal to listeners’ ears in a number of ways, but a pitch that you thought was bad may be the perfect sound for a certain chant.