The Bible and Music

My biggest fear with the final project was that I would have to sing.  As I have written about before, singing in public is a big fear of mine and I avoid it at all costs in class.  So, I thought I found a good solution for the final.  I found some sheet music for New Britain with no lyrics and I added lyrics from Psalm 23.  I typed them in under the notes, but I soon realized that it would not be as simple as reiterating Psalm 23 under the notes.  It didn’t match up right and I was frustrated that it wasn’t as simple as I anticipated.  The ironic part is I had to start singing to make it work.  I was having trouble imagining what the lyrics would sound like with the New Britain melody, so I had no choice but to sing it out and find a combination that worked.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and I was proud of myself for putting two separate items together to make something new.  I also started changing some of the words.  I didn’t make any drastic changes, but I took out some words that I didn’t see as essential and added some words to make the timing match up correctly.  I also added to the ending so the song wouldn’t just cut off abruptly.  I don’t think what I put together is a masterpiece, but I’m proud of myself for stepping outside of my comfort zone and learning something new.

I didn’t realize how the bible and Psalms were not only used for religious purposes, but also for traditional ceremonies.  In Psalm 100, we watched the coronation in Westminster Abbey.  The bible is used during important moments in history and on a daily basis.  It’s interesting to see how the bible plays out in everyday life, even when we do not realize it.

Psalm 100 is about giving praise for the Lord and all of our good fortunes.  The Psalm talks about how we must be grateful to the Lord for he has made all of us and we are his people.  This Psalm puts everything into perspective.

The Gregorian Chant, Psalm 134 started off with the traditional church bells that bring me back to Europe.  Most of the churches that I went to in Europe had traditional “chant” like music and traditional routines throughout the mass.  As someone who grew up Catholic, I thrive on tradition, which is slowly becoming the minority in terms of churches, especially the modern churches that make mass more relatable.

This psalm is a chant to praise the Lord and thank him for all that we have been given.  Especially in times of tragedy, it is important to remember to praise the Lord.

I have attached a youtube of an Italian chanting Psalm 134.  I love the clarity of the man’s voice and how familiar the sounds are to me.

I think there is a big stereotype around Christian music and what it is “supposed” to sound like.  It’s one of bad commercials featuring religious followers swaying in the audience, singing about their lord and savior.  None of this is inherently bad, but it does corner what people see as biblical music.  It narrows everyone’s mind about what Christian music is and can be.  Because of this, people don’t realize that many of their favorite songs reference the bible or another religion.  Artists often create around what is close to them and important in their life.  Many artists, just like everyone else, are religious or spiritual in some way and they incorporate this into their work.  I think this realization is the most important part in continuing to move religious music forward with every other genre of music.

Once audiences of all music genres realize they they are often listening to music that is religiously inspired, the old Christian music stereotype will start to crumble.  With a new mindset towards religious or spiritual music, artists may be more outspoken about the influences on their music and continue to evolve Christian music beyond its past stereotype.

In class on Tuesday, we discussed that many popular songs use the same, simple chords repeatedly. This is why they get stuck in your head so quickly.

While this information was helpful as we prepare our final projects, we mainly focused on Heavy Metal, and Classic Rock music. It surprised me how deeply rooted a heavy metal song can be within the Bible, yet make it seem like a dark story simply because of the composition. We talked at length about the song “Creeping Death”, a song I had  never heard before. Dr. McGrath explained that the song was actually inspired by the film “The 10 Commandments”, and not on the Exodus story. But I think that it is kind of like a game of Telephone; “The 10 Commandments” is based on the Exodus story, and then inspired Metallica to write “Creeping Death”, so indirectly “Creeping Death” is inspired by the Bible. I think that this is a common theme in popular music, because popular culture can take one thing and remake it while not always understanding how the original thing was created. This creates biblical allusions, like in our Scavenger Hunt, that may not be obvious and appear as cliches or common sayings.

The difficulty of the biblical scavenger hunt surprised me. I was expecting to find more explicit references to the Bible in popular music. I found that many songs referenced God or the possibility of a higher power guiding us through life but few songs referenced specific Biblical characters. As I conducted my research, I contemplated the question of whether it is socially acceptable or unacceptable to allude to/sing about God and the Bible. I found that few songs reference names or specific stories but many songs allude to the theme or sentiment of particular Bible verses.

I was surprised by the length of list we were able to compile in class. I really appreciated the fact that my peers and I came up with different examples of Biblical allusions in popular music and contemporary Christian music. I think the diversity in examples made our discussion much more exciting and engaging.

I would like to take a closer look at some of the Biblical allusions I found in popular songs. I did not include many Christian songs in my final list of songs as I decided to focus on secular songs. The results of my scavenger hunt were somewhat surprising. However, some of the results were consistent with my predictions. For example, my hypothesis that I would discover several country songs with Biblical allusions was confirmed. Consequently, a significant portion of the songs on my list belong to the genre of country.

One of my favorite country songs, “When I Get Where I’m Going” by Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton, contains Biblical allusion. The song addresses the experience of heaven. I really enjoy the song because it portrays heaven as such a magnificent and joyful experience. Upon closer examination, I recognized the Biblical allusions in the song. The singers make a reference to the end of sadness and an endless experience of happiness. Revelation 21:4-6 reads, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true’.” This song is clearly of Christian nature so its biblical inspiration did not surprise me.

I enjoyed finding biblical allusion and inspiration in secular songs. I am a big fan of Mumford and Sons. I appreciated finding biblical allusions in “Awake My Soul”. Similarly, I was unaware of the biblical allusions in “Father Stretch my Hands” by Kanye West and “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix.

A topic we’ve touched on a little bit throughout the semester is the concept of non-religious people enjoying religious music or people of one faith enjoying the music of another faith.  It’s an interesting thing to think about, because biblical or other religious music inherently revolves around a particular belief system.

This distinction is more subtle in mainstream music.  For example, during the scavenger hunt we found a lot of music by popular artists that had biblical references (U2, Eric Church, Lady Gaga).  Often times listeners to these songs don’t even realize that they are listening to music with religious influences, they just enjoy the sound.  I think people who realize the references, but don’t follow Christianity appreciate the music for the spiritual value.  Everyone has a spiritual connection to something, even if it’s just the concept of family and friends and people can appreciate the broader concepts of religion regardless of their personal beliefs.  Beyond that, these artists are popular because a large portion of the population enjoys the music they produce and how it makes them feel.  This general feeling can outweigh any feelings of religion that a listener might not particularly agree with.

Before I started going to this class, when I heard the word “instrument” my mind would immediately go to the guitar, saxophone, tuba, drums, and other basic instruments. Now after going to this class for a while I have begun to look at the human voice as an instrument. Although it is the most noticeable part of almost every song I listen to, I just took it for granted. I thought all that went into being a good singer is having a good voice. Although this does play and important role in singing, the aspect that is even more important is the ability to control the pitch of your voice, just like you do on an instrument. I remember when I was very young I heard of people taking singing lessons and I did not really understand why someone would do that. I thought that being a good singer was something you were born with, but I know now that it is all about the ability to control your voice.

What is the difference between singing a song and hearing a song? Well they are both very important interactions with music, yet they are very different. Well to begin, when you sing, you are taking part in the musical process. When you listen you are not making the music, just analyzing it. Whether you are just listening to the melody or focusing on the lyrics, you are taking in information. Singing a song helps you to retain even more information than listening to a song does at times. One example of this is children’s’ music. Although they have to listen to it a couple of times first to retain the basic beat and lyrics of the song, when they begin to sing the song it stays in their head. The reason for this is the catchy tune and simple chorus. In this instance, the goal of the music is for children to sing along after listening to it a time or two. I think that listening revolves more around retaining information and singing revolves more around expressing emotion. When you listen you hear the lyrics and the beat, but when you sing you are making the music your own and expressing it in a unique way.

What is the value of actually singing a song?  Do you get something more from it than just listening?

Whenever Dr. McGrath asks us to sing, there is an instant feeling of dread that you can feel in the room.  Why can’t we just listen and talk about the music?  I think there is value to both listening and singing.

When you listen to something, you can focus on the melody and the general sound.  You can think about how a song makes you feel – happy, sad excited, etc.  This is important, because melody and feeling contribute a lot to the purpose of a song.

When you sing a song, you are forced to focus on the lyrics.  Assuming that you know the right lyrics of the song, singing along makes you think about the author and the message they are trying to convey.  This is particularly important in biblical music or music with biblical references.  The artist is often trying to tell a story or make a connection between their own life and their faith.  No matter how a melody makes you feel, you will never know the whole story unless you understand the lyrics.

Once you have taken the time to both listen and sing a song, you can start to have a complete understanding of the story being conveyed.  The words tell you the story, but the melody tells you the mood and gives context.