The Bible and Music

The biblical song that I first recalled singing as a child was “Jesus Loves Me.” This hymn is very popular around the world and common for children’s choirs to sing. I first sang this song when I was in my United Methodist Church preschool. I was not actually apart of the preschool, however my family attended the church and the young kids would have a show every year. This was one of the songs that we sang and I vividly remember it. It was really cool because my little cousins attend the church now and I remember listening to them sing this song last year, which brought back countless memories. The song is not super upbeat, however I enjoy the rhythm of it. It is broken into the perfect melody and is easy to stay in your head for a long time! It was my favorite song out of all the ones we sang when I was apart of the children’s choir.

The song that I chose from my childhood was called “Zacchaeus Was A Wee Little Man.” The song comes from the story of Zacchaeus who had been skeptical of Jesus and his teachings and so he tried to go listen to a sermon to see if he could get any clarity to his doubts. He was a very short man and couldn’t see Jesus as he was coming by, so he climbed up a tree and Jesus took notice, telling him he would spend time with him. I chose this song because I remember learning in Vacation Bible School when I was little and heard it again when I volunteered in my church’s nursery. http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkd-QFD7vMA

Today we talked about Handel’s Messiah and why he chose those specific Bible passages to bring together into one big musical piece. I was very interested in the process that Handel had to have gone through to find the right pieces and verses that he would be able to set music to not only for a choir, but also for the symphony he would be conducting. In his place, I am not sure whether or not I would choose the same passages that Handel did but I also wouldn’t have written a piece nearly as long as he did. One of the excerpts of Messiah sounded really similar to a piece we are performing in choir which I thought was really interesting. The piece, titled Day By Day We Magnify Thee was also composed by Handel, so maybe it was possible that one piece took the melody to add into the other (I am not sure which piece was composed first). This would definitely be something interesting for me to look into further.

I have listened to “Messiah” before in some of the music classes I have taken in the past. It is definitely a very dramatic piece and differs greatly from most worship music I am accustomed to. The type and presentation of music can really vary the perception of the message. I know from my own musical background that “Messiah” is often seen as a musical masterwork for the composition not the religious messages behind it. In my opinion sometimes high-art isn’t the easiest means for the general population to relate with.

When I taught vacation Bible school and during my childhood, this was a common song I would hear. It tells a simple story about Noah and the Arc. While this isn’t the exact version I knew, it is very close. I find that songs with easy beats and melodies are songs that children remember the most. The pairing of numbers in this song, helped a lot to remember it. Children in Bible school learned hand motions to go along with this. It is a easy tune to remember for a famous story.

In class today, we really focused on Handel and his version on the Messiah. It follows along a version of the story of Jesus. There has been some controversy over his version of the Messiah but it is often used at Christmas time and in the Protestant faith. We also looked at the importance of the crowning of someone and what it means to me anointed. I never knew that this process of crowning Kings and Queens, had religious connections.

Something else we touched on, was the idea of highlights. It is hard to get a full meaning of the Bible when you are only looking at highlights or brief pieces of the Bible. I thought this idea can be applied in all areas of life. If you only know pieces or key points in a story, then you really don’t know the full story. This is something I will keep in mind when learning about various topics.

In high school, I took a class called Music History and Appreciation. In this class, we learned about many different composers, discussing their lives and sampling their works. Although the class was a snooze fest, a bit of the material stuck with as I remember Handel. I had forgotten, however,  that The Messiah was such a large piece. It blows my mind to think that Handel could take bits and pieces from the Bible, score them all together, and have such a large work become the result.

Handel telling the story of the messiah in this way allowed for people to more closely relate to the writings of the Bible. Reading through the Bible is a large task to undertake that many people in that time were not willing to do. However, setting the words to music changes the way the words are perceived. The Messiah left such a large impact that it is still present today. In the case of the hallelujah chorus, many christmas services use the chorus to add something more.

In today’s class segment, we spent the majority of it discussing the impact music has on the anointing of British King and Queens. One interesting fact that I learned was how G.F. Handel wrote up to four coronation anthems that were derived from the text of the King James Bible. These were designed to play at the coronation of the British Monarch. When the British Kings and Queens got anointed, they even made reference to biblical anointing. The Anointing video that we watched in class with Queen Elizabeth was something I have never seen before, however I enjoyed hearing the music and how it impacted the emotion of a significant moment in British history. Professor McGrath stated that Handel could provide a mind picture for a majority of his work and he still produced his music with a feeling of simplicity. He broke it down in simpler terms. Although we seem to associate Handel’s Messiah with Christmas, you can analyze it like we did in class and examine the meaning of how he combined a variety of bible verses. At first I was confused with the meaning of the Messiah, however my interest grew as he brought in different Psalms and other biblical texts. I did not realize how Handel could change the meaning of the biblical verse with the context of his music. We talked about how we do not always know what is going on in a composer’s head and it would different to see what was going on when Handel composed his work.

Today in class we discussed the basics behind anointing, and what it really means.  We watched video clips to provide a mental image to go along with our new understanding of it.  It is normally kings or high priests who are anointed in order to show their power standing.  In religion, hierarchy is important as religion is focused around a “high being”.

This weekend I saw the movie Black Panther. It’s soundtrack has been gaining a lot of popularity over the past few weeks, so I was excited to see the movie. I was expecting to hear the music much more than I actually did. I think the movie draws you in so much that sometimes it can be hard to notice. I did notice the music during some fight scenes. It was upbeat action like music. However at the critical part of the action between the villain and hero, the music would die down so you could better hear the banter between them. I also thought it was very interesting at times there was tribal chanting because the movie took place in Africa. Overall, I thought the music I did notice really added to the movie as a whole.