The Bible and Music

Today we focused on the Crucifixion of Jesus and how various composers translated it into music. The overall theme that was shared among the artists was a somber and dark theme. When Jesus died, some artists either stopped the music completely or let it clash out on a dramatic chord leading into silence. The most interesting part of class was when we discussed how filmmakers portrayed Jesus. The Bible doesn’t describe the physical characteristics of Jesus so these filmmakers could only go off of art that they’d seen. However, it may not necessarily be completely accurate. In high school, I took a class on Biblical literature and we talked about this topic as well. We also don’t know what Jesus’ voice sounded like. In one of the Passion pieces, we heard a German singer portray Jesus, but his voice was very low. In my personal opinion, I don’t believe that Jesus’ voice was that low. I could be wrong but it definitely shows me how different people viewed Jesus in both his looks and his sound.