The Bible and Music

For my final project, I completed two different parts.  The first part of my project was putting Psalm 134 to modern day music.  It was difficult choosing which Psalm would work best with the tempo and rhythm of the song, this was a challenging task.  I ended up deciding to use Selena Gomez’s song “It Ain’t Me” to pair with Psalm 134.  At some parts of the song, I had length the emphasis on words or add an “an” or a “the” to make the music work properly.  Overall, it was a rewarding task and it sounds pretty good together.

The second part of my project was learning how to play a song on the piano.  For someone that has zero musical bone in her body, this was very challenging.  I was able to enlist the help of a musically inclined friend and after multiple multiple multiple tries and practice, I was able to successfully play “He’s Got the Whole World” on the piano.  The final definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone but I had a lot of fun learning about myself and learning more about the Bible and Music.

I really enjoyed doing this project. It made me stray away from thinking in black and white but to think in color. I had to use the creative side of my brain, which I do not get to use in many classes. Although I did enjoy doing this project, it was frustrating at times. I spent around four hours just trying to make the song on garage band. It was difficult to get everything to line up. It was also hard to get the verses to match the music. It makes me realize how challenging it is to make music. Sometimes I listen to a song and think that it would not be that hard to compose something, but it really is. I have a greater appreciation of the arts. Altogether, this project really pushed me outside of my comfort zone, but I fell like I grew as a student.

For my final project, I decided to create two beats on GarageBand. I messed around with the different instrumentals that were offered. I made a beat that I feel like could have been easily manipulated to fit lyrics. One is more of a relaxed hip hop (if that is even a thing) and the other one is more under the category of rock.

I decided to put Psalms 100 and Psalms 28 to the songs that I made. They match up for the most part. I think overall, it sounds like a piece of music. I am pleased with my project.

I enjoyed producing a composition for the final project in this class. Once I overcame the obstacle of self-consciousness concerning my musical ability, I enjoyed experimenting with different bible verses and songs. The task of selecting a song to use as the background for a setting of biblical text was challenging. I struggled to determine whether certain genres would be more or less conducive to merging with passages from Scripture. For some reason, my mind kept coming back to “Imagine” by John Lennon. “Imagine” is widely popular and the tune is recognizable to most. Furthermore, I found that the meter of the song was easy to follow and replicate. The song had been stuck in my head for several weeks so I decided to experiment with a passage from Romans.

Romans 10:13-15 is one of my favorite Bible passages. It presents “the great commission”, or the call to bring others to Christ in a beautiful. My favorite verse from the passage is verse 15, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”. I knew that I wanted to emphasize this verse in my composition. While tweaking and revising the composition was challenging, I enjoyed the experience of manipulating the text and incorporating my personality into the work. I was nervous about recording my composition as I know that my voice is far from perfect. I made slight alterations to the composition with each new recording before I finally settled on a recording that brought me pride. It would have been wonderful to have been able to play “Imagine” on the piano and sing my composition but alas, the instrumental version of the song sufficed.

Easter is always an interesting time for my family and I. We are not religious but still celebrate the Hallmark version of Easter. I understand the importance of of Easter to Christianity but always wondered what a bunny or Easter eggs have to do with Jesus. Are these the same as what the Christmas tree is to Christmas? I also compare to Christmas when looking at music. There is a distinct section of Christmas music in stores months ahead of the holiday. What about Easter music? Are there certain pieces played during Easter services? Because we do not celebrate in a church, we do not know of any music besides “Here Comes Peter Cottontail.”

During our class on April 11^th, we were shown a music video for “Creeping Death” by Metallica. Scenes from this video were taken from the movie The Ten Commandments. I thought it was quite funny because, as a child during my faith formation classes, I had been terrified watching that movie. Hearing the story told from Bible vs seeing it depicted on a screen were two different experiences for me at that age.

The music of “Creeping Death” was an accurate representation of how I saw the plagues from the story of Moses as a child. Now, watching scenes from the movie during class, it seems a bit less threatening because I have a wider perspective of the story of Moses and the reason for the plagues. From what I can remember, God sent down the plagues to set the Jews free from Egypt, using Moses as a means of communicating with the Pharaoh. As a child, all I saw was the Nile turning to blood and a huge green fog coming to kill everyone without lamb’s blood painted on their doors’ first born son. I feared plagues like that coming to hurt the ones I loved for my wrongdoings in life. However, having become more familiar the Bible and its stories as I have matured, I see the production of The Ten Commandments as another experience in understanding my religion as a child.

Metallica did a wonderful job setting the story of Moses to music, in order to give an intense interpretation of the plagues to listeners.

Easter is by far my favorite time of the year for mass.  On Easter Sunday, everything comes alive.  The music, the colors, the flowers, everyone is happy and rejoicing for Jesus has risen.  One of the main reasons why Easter Mass is my favorite mass is because of the joyful music.  Today, the choir was in full attendance as were the trumpets and violins.  It seems like Easter is a full effort from everyone.

The first song that sung the joyful praises of Easter was “Let Christians All Their Voices Raise” where the priest was walking down the alter being greeted by the congregation and the beautiful flower arrangements.  Every part of the mass was beautiful and was apart of the celebration.  The Alleluiah’s were beautiful, a celebration, and a reason to give thanks.

For Communion, we sang some of my favorite songs.  “Taste and See” and “Draw Near” are among my favorite songs for Communion because they are simple, peaceful, and serene.  The closing song was “Sing with all the Saints in Glory”, which had a huge emphasis on the trumpet and brought the congregation to good spirits to leave and celebrate the rest of the day.  Overall, the music, the atmosphere, the flowers, and colors are spectacular for Easter and all of those components make mass one worth remembering.

As we near the end of the semester, I have been reflecting on some of the lessons and ideas that I will take away from this course. One idea that we have examined throughout the semester is the inherent beauty of music. I have been contemplating our judgment and classification of beauty. I think we often categorize things according to our likes and dislikes. This course has challenged my views on certain genres of music. While I still have musical preferences, I believe that I have become more open and receptive to the musical opinions of others.

I have also reached the conclusion that the experience of beauty in music is often a gradual process. Some musical compositions do not provide the immediate gratification that a breathtaking sunrise or delicate snowfall would provide. One can observe the beauty in music after listening to a song for a third or fourth time or perhaps even after the song has ended. I think the transitory nature of musical preferences confirms my theory about the gradual nature of recognizing beauty in music.

Through my reflections, I observed parallels between the experience of beauty in music and the experience of beauty in the Bible. I have found that my appreciation of the beauty in certain bible passages has taken years. My appreciation of the symbolism and deeper meaning of many passages in scripture did not happen overnight. Similarly, my appreciation of the lyrics in songs by the Doors or Jimi Hendrix has developed over several years.

As I am halfway through completing my final project, I now realize how difficult it is to make music. I have messed around with GarageBand to try and make beats. That alone is difficult, but it is so much harder to add music to add lyrics to it, especially when you want to leave the scripture untouched. I have had to try and leave it as it is, but have had to make adjustments. I think overall that doing this is making me think in different ways and appreciate artists in the music field.

For my final project, I want to be able to put Psalms 94 to music. I really like this specific verse. I have never been familiar with this verse, but I am intruiged with what it means. I wanted to know when this became a verse. We do not know when David wrote Psalm 28.  At the time of David , if God gave help to the Messiah it meant that he gave help to the whole country. In verses 1-5 David prays for help. In verses 6-9 he thanks God for giving him and his people help. Perhaps the danger was fighting other countries; perhaps it was illness in many homes. Whatever it was, God answered David’s prayer. He gave help to David and to his people.

I think that this is something that I am trying to put into my final project. I cannot wait to see how my work will turn out.