The Bible and Music

Although rap has seemed to be heading in a bad direction with all of the terrible messages they send out to their listeners, there are numerous rappers who make connections to bible verses and their music. One of the biggest examples of an influential rapper who drew attention to the bible is 2Pac. Although 2Pac rapped about some pretty terrible things he went through in his life, he constantly referred to god as the light at the end of the tunnel. In one of his more famous songs he states:”Though I walk through the valley of death, I shed so many tears, if I should die before I wake, please God walk with me, grab me and take me to heaven. This line is a reference to Psalm 23 which states : “The lord is my Shepard I shall not want”. He puts these kind of lyrics in his songs with the intention of encouraging people to turn to God. He is also quoted saying “How many caskets can we witness before we see its hard to live life without God, so we must ask for forgiveness.” Rappers like 2Pac and many more are using the bible as a tool to encourage some of their more troubled listeners to turn to God.

When most people think of rap they think of violence, drug abuse, and disrespecting women. Although majority of the rappers of todays day and age do include these things in their lyrics, there are also many rappers who make references to the bible in their music. With rap being one of the most popular genres of today’s youth, artist including these bible verses in their music is making waves. Pusha T, one of the more popular artists in the rap genre, recently came out with a song called “Exodus 23:1”. On Thursday the bible verse was on the worldwide trending topics on twitter. But now the question is, is it a good thing that Pusha T has brought so much recognition to the bible verse, or a bad thing that he named a song filled with profanity and violence “Exodus 23:1” tarnishing the meaning of the verse in general. In my opinion, although it is disrespectful, I think it is good that he is inspiring young fans to look into the bible. I know that hearing the song inspired me to read the verse. I think that if naming the song after the verse will get more people interested in reading the bible verses and looking more into the meaning of it, then it is making a positive difference in the world.

John Rutter, unlike the other composers that we have looked at this semester, is an agnostic. Although he is an agnostic, his works are based on sacred texts and other religious topics. Rutter was never a religious person, but still made really moving religious music. This poses the question: do you need to have a personal faith in order to write religious music? To this question, I would answer “no”. There are several artists, now, that sing or write songs that do not directly apply to their own situations. The artists that do this may not be moved by their music, but those that can relate to the music are. If the music does not apply to them, that does not mean that the music does not apply to someone else. Even though John Rutter was not religious, his music was still capable of moving his religious listeners. For this reason, I believe that a composer does not have to have a personal faith in order to successfully write religious music.

In class on Tuesday (3/21), we were visited by Dr. Robert Saler from CTS.  He discussed the life of Arvo Pärt and his journey to becoming the most performed living composer in the world six years running.

Pärt had an interesting path leading him to becoming a biblical composer.  He grew up in Estonia during the Soviet occupation and began his composition career using Soviet avant-garde techniques and influences.  Pärt’s first biblical composition was “Credo,” written in 1968.  This work is often used to benchmark Pärt’s crisis point, because, it was his last composition prior to his eight year dark period.  During this time of silence, Pärt married his second wife and became a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church.  His religion introduced him to the writings of the church fathers, which helped him overcome his internal struggles and motivated him to compose once again.  He made his debut once again with the invention of the tintinnabuli technique.  He used this technique in his composition “Für Alina” – one of his last non bilblical compositions.

We listened to “Für Alina” during class and the tintinnabuli technique really struck me.  As with most of Pärt’s work, “Für Alina” is minimalistic in nature.  It revolves around two notes – one higher and one lower.  The idea is that the lower note is there to anchor the higher note.  It’s almost like the lower note is the sound of reason and the high note is floating around in its own world and would be lost without its anchor.  The result is beautiful.

After researching a little bit about Korngold, I have found some interesting facts about him.  In 1938, he composed the music for Robin Hood and won an oscar for it.  He also based the music that he wrote off of the characters at certain in films.  If the antagonist was being all mad and bold in the film than Korngold would add loud thunderous music to make the character seem even more scary.  I think I definitely want to do a research paper about him!!!

It was interesting and thoroughly confusing having Rob Saler, the theologian, come to speak at our class.  He spoke about the discussion regarding the bible and theological ideas that are transformed into art.  At what point is art hindering the integrity of the bible?  I understand artistic integrity and how the bible is up for interpretation, however, at what point is the freedom to interpret ruining the message of the bible.  He also spoke about how God interacts with the everyday world.  When I say “oh thank god” when something bad is prevented, Rob mentioned how if something bad ended up happening, does that mean that God wanted it to happen?  It makes you think about the purpose of praying and makes you question why catastrophes happen.  It’s good to stop and think that just because something bad happens, doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love you or that he is punishing you.

I found Dr. Saler’s presentation on composer Arvo Part very intriguing and instructive. I have come to find that the way my brain works is chronologically, or otherwise historically. I appreciated how Dr. Saler was able to recount Mr. Part’s composition style and theology by breaking different transition points into life events. I found that I was able to better understand Mr. Part’s role in religious music by studying his life.

I think that Arvo Part’s music has been my favorite to listen to so far, because it is so simplistic. My personal taste is very simple and clean, without too much clutter. This is why I think I connect to it so much more than, say, Bach. I really enjoyed the tintinnabuli technique, because it is still simple while being a unique form of musical composition.

I really enjoyed Robert Saler’s visit to our class on Tuesday. His extensive knowledge of the Arvo Part and the intricate theology behind his compositions impressed me. I am really intrigued by and attracted to theology, due in large part to my Catholic school background. I found Saler’s descriptions of Part’s music fascinating. As I listened to Part’s music in preparation for the class, I had a hard time connecting his works with the Bible and/or the Christian tradition. It became clear to me that Saler has dedicated hours upon hours to studying Part and interpreting the musical structure of his compositions.

I wanted to know a bit more about Robert Saler’s background; for instance, I was curious about his involvement with prestigious concert venues like Carnegie Hall in New York. Similarly, I would have loved to learn about his interaction with Arvo Part. Perhaps we would have needed a much longer class period to flesh out these topics.

I really appreciated Saler’s references to other scholars who have analyzed Part’s compositions. I was particularly struck by the excerpt from a book written by a scholar at Duke (unfortunately I was not quick enough to jot down his name) about the centrality of suffering in Christian theology. I would love to explore this theme more in light of the relationship between the Bible and music.

Saler’s comments on contemporary Christian music were interesting. As a fan of some contemporary Christian music, I did not entirely agree with the argument that it tells the listener to feel a certain way. I can acknowledge the validity of the claim that instrumental music might be more conducive to personal interpretation and personal religious experience. However, I think meaningful religious experience is possible through more contemporary compositions with lyrics. For example, I have had experience spiritual enlightenment and religious awakening through Matt Maher’s song “Lord, I need You”.

On Friday night, I went to the performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the Palladium with Brittany Head and I believe that it was money well spent.

The Palladium is a beautiful concert hall that Brittany and I both ended up taking pictures of once we found our seats before the performance.  The walls were lined with box seating all the way to the ceiling with a balcony to the back of the hall and floor seating, which is where we were sitting.  The Indianapolis Symphonic Choir entered with the orchestra organizing in their sections on the stage, the choir members sitting in the seats above the stage, and the four soloists sitting in the front close to the conductor.

I went into the performance thinking that I would become disengaged to say the least, but I am happy to say that this was not the case.  In the beginning, the orchestra played without any singing.  They were very good and I found myself watching the violinists the most.  I thought this was going to be how the majority of the performance was going to be, but all of a sudden the choir stood up and the very first note they sang gave me goosebumps.  I immediately thought “this is going to be better than I thought” and I was right–it was much better than I originally thought it would be.

Elijah is about Elijah and his travels as a prophet and his interactions with angels, townspeople, and King Ahab among others and ends at his death.  I thought the soloists did a great job of portraying the moods of the characters, especially the soprano soloist when she was acting as the widow crying over the death of her son.  She did a great job of expressing sadness in the beginning of the section and as her interaction with Elijah continued, her tone changed to express joy as “the soul of [her] son reviveth.”  All in all, I believe this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I’m glad that this class presented it to me.

~Alyssa

Last class we had a guest speaker from the Christian Theological Seminary, Dr. Saler. Dr. Saler spoke about the most played living composer in the world, Arvo Part. He has been the most played composer for the past 6 years. Dr. Saler said that Part’s music is very slow and very long. One of Part’s pieces is 1 hour and 10 minutes. Arvo Part uses a technique that utilizes 2 notes played at the same time. The 2 note symbolize sin and forgiveness. Many non Christians enjoy Part’s music because it is very relate able. Dr. Saler brought up a question, when people say ‘thank God’ after something good happens, are we saying that God is responsible for the bad in life as well? I disagree with this statement because of the fact that God has given us the gift of free will. Bad things happen to us everyday because humans are not perfect. If humans were perfect, then we would be on the same level as God.