The Bible and Music

Listening and Singing songs are very different in many aspects and people are able to get different things out of doing the two. For example, when singing a song, I am able to feel the song and instead of be an observer, I feel like I am now part of the song. However, sometimes listening to a song is still beneficial because it allows me to sit back and reflect on the music. Sometimes I am able to pick up things in music that I am not able to recognize when I am singing along .

On Friday March 17th, I had the opportunity to attend a live performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the Palladium at the center for the performing arts in Carmel. It has taken me almost a month to produce a description of the event that I believe would give it justice. I was amazed by the performance but the words to capture the experience seemed to escape me.

I had seen the exterior of the Palladium when my parents and I took a driving tour and had browsed through pictures of the interior when flipping through brochures at the Booth Tarkington Theater across the street. Thus, a chance to see the inside of the theater and experience a live show was quite exciting. The architecture and magnificence of the Palladium did not disappoint. I did not conduct much research prior to the performance as I did not want to set any expectations.

The grandeur of the theater’s interior contributed to my experience of the performance. I had attended symphony and orchestra concerts previously but had not attended a performance with singing as such a major component.

Ushers distributed programs as guests settled into their seats. The program included a transcript of the entire performance. The program listed the full title of Mendelssohn’s work as “Elijah: Oratorio on Words of the Old Testament”. I believe that Mendelssohn gave his work this title as it draws from a variety of books in the Old Testament. The transcript included references to specific books, chapters, and verses for each recitative and chorus portion of the text. I greatly appreciated this transcript throughout the performance. While the cantors’ diction was close to flawless, the transcript helped me monitor the progression of the plot.

I was mesmerized by the quality of the cantors’ voices and their remarkable ranges. I expected some introductory remarks at the start of the performance. However, the cantors just jumped into the performance. The overtures provided some background but the performance opened with Elijah and the people of Israel in the throws of several major dilemmas.

I was somewhat familiar with Elijah’s story in the Bible but not familiar enough for the performance to be dull or boring by any means. In fact, I think even if I had been more familiar with Elijah’s story, the performance would have held my attention. The live performance of this compilation of bible made the story all the more dramatic. I was captivated by the story. Even though I was familiar with the ultimate resolution of the conflict, I felt nervous for Elijah and wondered whether the people would turn back to God.

One of my favorite elements of the performance was the children’s choir. Their voices sounded angelic. Their location  in the upper chambers of the theater contributed to their resemblance of angels.

I hope to attend another performance of an oratorio. If the oratorio is biblical in nature, all the better.

When you listen to a song on the radio, you never really get the full impact unless you sing the song. When I am driving down the road, a song is just a song. But, when I am driving down the same road, but this time I am singing, the song has a bigger emotional connection. When you sing a song, you focus more on the words and what the words mean. An example would be reading. When you read a passage for your self, then you will understand the section better, and understand what the section is saying. However, when someone reads a passage and you just listen, you are less likely to understand and remember the passage. Singing a song forces you to look at the words and what the words mean.

Today in class we read and then sung 40 by U2 and I was surprised to hear that their is a lot more emotion when we sung the song versus when we just read it.  This makes me think about the other songs that we have read in class because I never really got an emotional feel out of them when we just read them.  I should listen to the songs more often!

Today in class, we started off my listening to a heavy metal song titled Creeping Death, which was based off the movie The 10 Commandments. Next, we sang a song by U2. I found that these two songs put me in the mindset of my final project. I originally planned on playing a piece on the piano if I would have learned it by now. That did not happen though. It was harder than I expected. So now, I plan on trying to add some verses of Psalms to music on GarageBand. I then would like to write my own version of a biblical story to music that I make. I hope that I will be able to do this. If anyone feels comfortable with this kind of project, please let me know!

When popcorn reading in a classroom, it is very likely that you comprehend more when you read rather than when someone else does. When someone else is reading, you may be listening to what they are saying, but unless you’re following along, you might not comprehend what they are reading. The same idea can be applied to music. When you are listening to a piece of music for the first time, it is highly unlikely that you would understand every lyric, but when you are the one singing, you are focusing on the lyrics, and therefore have a better chance of understanding the message. Reading, and singing the lyrics, yourself, makes the song seem much more relevant to your life. We listened to a heavy metal song in class, and without reading the lyrics we probably never would have known that the song was full of biblical references. If we were asked to perform the song, and were given the lyrics, our first impression of the song would have been very different.

With the final project due date approaching, the idea of setting Psalms to music is very prevalent. It seems that it is near impossible to make the exact words fit an already existing piece of music perfectly. As I’ve started my final project, I’ve definitely started to recognize this difficulty. Some songs with biblical allusions incorporate more exact translations than other songs. The song heavy metal song played at the beginning of class clearly had biblical illusions, but really only incorporate one phrase from the Bible. I thought the heavy metal song played at the beginning of class today was really interesting because I didn’t expect a song that sounds like that to have biblical allusions. The next song, that Professor McGrath played on his guitar, had more lines from Psalms directly incorporated. Even if  the words used in the Bible are changed or not directly translated, a song can definitely still be considered to have biblical allusions. Another point to be brought to attention is the emotions and actual lyrics of a song. Does knowing that the lyrics were derived from the Bible change the mood of the song? When singing the song that Professor McGrath played on his guitar from Psalm 40, I felt like the emotions of the song seemed stronger because we knew that Psalm 40 from the Bible was being referred to in the song. If one didn’t know this song was Psalm 40, they may interpret differently from an emotional standpoint. This also connects to the idea that the writer and the listener of a song can have completely different interpretations of the music. As I continue on my final project, I will keep all of these points in mind!!

When we were discussing the scavenger hunt activity in class, Dr. McGrath asked if we came across any songs that we thought had biblical references but weren’t completely sure.  A number of us raised our hand, and I think this speaks a lot to how removed certain phrases have become from their original religious context.  The most obvious example I can think of is “Oh my God.”  Almost everyone I know has said this at some point, but without the deliberate intention of referencing God or the bible.  To some people, this phrase is taking the lord’s name in vain – something that is specifically banned in the 10 Commandments.  However, for most of us this phrase is something we say in surprise or awe.   We also talked about water – there are a lot of references to water in the bible, but does that mean that any song talking about water is referencing the bible?

One such song is “What The Water Gave Me” by Florence + The Machine.

This song revolves around water, but (in my opinion) it is not referencing the bible or Christianity.  While water is used as a symbol of purity in the bible and the lyrics of this song talk about getting something from water, I don’t think she’s referencing purity.

Through our assembly of research on music containing Biblical allusions, including contemporary Christian artist, “Whom Shall I Fear” by Chris Tomlin stood out to me during one of our last classes. I had not heard the song in quite some time, but remembered most of the lyrics as it started to play. The way memories are able to be brought back to us through music is fascinating, but that is a blog post for another time. I feel this class might be a bit more difficult to connect to had it not been for my upbringing with these songs, or influence of faith/spirituality in my life overall. However, Professor McGrath makes important points when analyzing the impact music and the Bible have on each other, including artist taking words directly out of the Bible and setting them to music.

With Professor McGrath’s guidance, our class was able to see the origin of these lyrics that were taken from the Bible. Not only is this a lyric in the song, but a portion of the extended title as well: “God of Angel Armies,” happens to come from Psalm 84:1. This directly states, “What a beautiful home, God of the Angel Armies!” It is not the only part of the song coming from the Bible, however. At the end of the first verse, the lyrics are “It cannot hide the light” with “it” referring to darkness or fear. In Matthew 5:15, also linked to the children’s song “This Little Light of Mine,” the words “Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house” are identified. So far in this song, Tomlin has created an image of God being a helpful and caring figure in his life.

When the song title “Whom Shall I Fear” comes up after the first verse, it actually originates from Psalm 27:1 with, “The Lord is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall I be afraid?” While this might be the part of the song most directly identified with the Bible, there is more allusion to it than some might think.

The second verse is “You crush the enemy / Underneath my feet / You are my sword and shield / Though troubles linger still.” Parts of this verse come from Romans 16:20: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” and portions of Ephesians 6:10-18: “Also, pick up the shield of faith… And take the sword of the Holy Spirit. The sword is God’s word.” Something that bothers me about this verse is it makes commitment to God and faith seem like it must contain fear, enemies, and violence. Even thought this might bring comfort to some that God will be their protector, I do not feel God intended us to perceive His as having this kind of vehemence for those against Him. As Professor McGrath mentioned in class, who might be the enemy the narrator is referring to?

Moving along with the order of the song, the words “The one who reigns forever / He is a friend of mine” appear. God’s reign taking place throughout eternity can be found in Psalm 146:10, which goes “The Lord will reign forever, Your God, O Zion, to all generations.” I am a huge fan of the concept of time, because no one truly knows when things as we know it will end, except perhaps God Himself, which is why these lyrics are so important. To my understanding, the person singing this song intends to show they have total trust God will take care of them forever, especially when they clarify they are friends with Him. Nowhere in the Bible is it clearly stated that God is to be perceived as a friend, but this understanding of assurance to one another is a nice touch to the song, in my opinion.

A few more lyrics that stuck out to me were “You hold the whole world in your hands.” This too could be related to another children’s song which is, “He’s got the Whole World in His Hands.” They can both be connected to “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand” from Isaiah 40:12. Although it is not specifically the world in His hands, the intention of this lyric is to state that all creation (which would not be possible without water) came from God’s careful doing.

Diving into a song with what might have seemed to contain only one Biblical allusion proved to be more than just a short write up of where the majority of its inspiration came from. “Whom Shall I Fear” was more of a repetition of phrases from the Bible than I had thought. I hope it was on your Scavenger Hunt list, because it should be worth more than just one point for all of its Biblical allusions.

In another religion class I am currently taking titled ‘Sin Seminar’ by Dr. Hege, we are reading the works of Christian Wiman. Wiman is a novelist and famous poet, with some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read. We are currently reading his book, My Bright Abyss, which is a poetic narrative of Wiman navigating life transitioning from atheism to theism all while battling an incurable cancer. It is a heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, say-yet-happy book, and it led me to search for more of his original poetry. Some of his poems is a prime example of how big themes of Christianity and the Bible can intersect with the written art of poetry. Here is one of his poems: