The Bible and Music

In class on March 21, we discussed many different topics. We started the class discussing how Mary had sex before marriage, and how that is a controversial topic, because isn’t one of the main points in the Bible not to have sex before marriage? We then discussed Evensong and Cranmer, and the Book of Common Prayer. On one hand, a lot of people believe that you should be able to choose to engage in any activity you want, as it is your life and not theirs to decide. On the other hand, there are people who believe you should follow the Bible on a strict basis and anything out of its bounds is sin.

We then moved on to discuss syllable use and stresses in text. We used the phrase “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my savior.” We said you can put the words in a way that you are able to keep the flow going. Repetitions are okay in music, too, in order to add length or time to a specific line or chorus. We tend to hold out stronger words because they mean more, but it is sometimes cool to do something unexpected, such as putting a longer emphasis on less meaningful words because it can easily obtain the attention of the listener. You can change the piece as many times as you want, it’s not like you’re locked into one set tone the whole time. Not everything has to sound “perfect,” as long as it sounds good to you and you like it. How are we to decide what sounds higher and lower? We said God or Jesus would have more of a higher pitch because it is talking down to us from a higher power, but that can be different for other people and their perception.