The Bible and Music

Today, during class we looked at pieces that focused around Mary. We also, looked a lot about what goes into making music and starting a project. There is a lot of steps and quite a process, that goes into making music. We did an activity with the first two lines of Magnificat where we put beats onto each word, how we wanted.

This activity gave me a greater appreciation for song writers and creators. This process, was quite challenging because it was an out of the box task. I found it difficult to visualize and hear what the beat would sound like with each individual word. We also talked about how even writing an essay takes creativity. It made me think about all the processes that go into making anything in your day to day world.

In speaking about the Magnificat or The Song of Mary, the main theme we focused on was creating your own work in writing essays and more importantly writing songs. Some of the pieces we discussed for writing essays and songs is where to start, to whom our audience is, the simplicity of the work, how to revise or edit the work, and bringing in other sources. These tasks may seem simple at times, however it is a complex action to bring in another source and still personalize your own work with creativity. In terms of differences for writing standard essays and song writing, the points we brought out included how song writing encourages repetition more than essay writing. Another difference mentioned was how we can stretch out words in song writing and create longer notes that fits the voice or instruments utilized. In essay writing, creating bigger font is not necessarily wanted. In song writing, you have to find where the music has to go up and down or where the focus is. Essay writing may have revision that requires the author to consider certain fragments of their writing, but not similar to song creating.

The class activity of deciding where we should be emphasis on words and form a rhythm was difficult at first, yet I learned that there was not a wrong way to do it. The first trial was easier to create because I looked at the syllables and basically followed that format. However after I did my second attempt, I decided to put the emphasis on the small words before introducing the words with longer syllables. This is not a common practice, but it brought out a different perspective that audiences are not typically familiar with. This activity taught me how many aspects go into song writing and how you can easily create a different work of music with even a small variation in melody or changing how long you sing a word.

I hadn’t seen anything like Jesus Christ Superstar growing up. The church I attended when I was younger was much more traditional, which involved little to no technology, so streaming a video was out of the question. Also, the depiction of him in cargo pants and a t shirt would’ve surely ruffled some feathers in the congregation. So to me, it’s interesting to see that some classmates grew up in such lax religious environments as they remembered this movie from their youth. It’s also been interesting to see the changes and trends of the religion through time. Now a decade later, a large majority of people would find the movie humorous and wouldn’t have any kinds of problems with the sillier depiction of Jesus.

Monday during class we looked at the musical Jesus Christ Superstar and the idea of dramatization. Personally, I didn’t really like the music from this musical because there were some theological mismatches and some things seemed close to crossing a line and I didn’t really like that. It was clear that this musical was made more for entertainment purposes rather than educational ones. It is interesting to look at the dramatization of the Bible. Something I was thinking of during class was the mini series The Bible which went through most of the stories of the Bible and put them on screen. A lot of the scenes were very dramatic and some things needed to be added in as the Bible didn’t have all the details necessary for translating the text to the screen. Another example of dramatization I could think of is the musical Joseph and His Technicolor Dream Coat. This musical is very similar to Jesus Christ Superstar in the way that it adapted the story to a more ‘modern’ setting. Like for instance they portrayed Potiphar as living in a disco style mansion rather than a home that matched up with the time period. The more you think about it, the more examples of dramatization from the Bible you can find.

On March 7th, we discussed the different apps and programs that we could use for our final projects. I really liked the different chord creating websites because although I have a good background in music, I’m not good at playing any instruments and would have no idea where to even start so I really liked that we have these tools to help us figure out what to put into our projects. We also talked about the story of Samson and Delilah and the Song of Songs. I had never actually read the Song of Songs before and was surprised at how detailed the poem was. When talking about the music that has been set to the story of Samson and Delilah, I remembered a class on biblical literature that I took in high school. One class, we also talked about Samson and Delilah and actually listened to a pop song written in the 90s I believe. It was an interesting song that was sung through Delilah’s perspective and portrayed her as having more love for Samson than what is written in the text. I thought it was an interesting song and it was cool to look at other pieces of music that are based on these romantic stories from the Bible.

During class on March 5th, we talked about the creation story and the music that various composers have set to it. We offered up different ideas for what creation music would sound like including music that is light and has an optimistic sort of feel to it. After thinking about it some, I thought about ways that I could portray the creation story through music. I think that there would have to be a lot more to it than just a light and airy tone. I think that there need to be crescendos and sudden loud bursts for when the world was created and slowly add in more variety of tones and themes as the story plays out. This would be a lot of work to create but I do also think it would be kind of fun to look into.

In class on Monday we talked about dramatization. Dramatization can be when a story is true, but they exaggerate certain parts of it. An example we talked about in class was Jesus Christ Superstar. I have heard about it, but I never saw it. The things I have heard about it have all been good. Talking about it more in class has peaked my interest in it. I know it is one of my mother’s favorites. I can see why the Bible or other stories are dramatized. It is too add more interest for the purpose of entertainment. While the show or play can educate, it is mostly for entertainment purposes. Talking about dramatization reminded me of the tv show The Crown. After watching the one clip in class, I was inspired to watch the series. Over break, I watched the two seasons on Netflix. It drew me in right away because there was so much drama surrounding the Royal Family.  I found myself fact checking the things I was learning about the Royal Family. I couldn’t believe some of the things that went on behind the scenes. I ended up learning more than the tv show intended. I think that is the secret behind dramatization. If what happens is exaggerated, it peaks the interest of the audience, which might cause them to look it up in order to learn more.

Today in class we talked about the rock musical, Jesus Christ, Superstar.  I had heard of it before, but I had never heard any of the songs or seen it. As it turns out, the musical is told from the perspective of Judas Iscariot. This was shocking to me because Judas is known as a betrayer of Jesus. The only media reference I had experience with had been when Judas was in the lowest circle of Dante’s inferno, as in, he was a really bad guy. So, having the story be seen from the perspective of Judas is an interesting change of pace. Another choice that was made with this musical is having the vocal range of both the characters of Judas and Jesus be in the same range, the tenor range, which is generally used for the protagonist or hero of the story.

Today’s class, was focused a lot around telling stories from different points and view and dramatizing stories. We looked at pieces from Jesus Christ Superstar, and saw from Judas’s point of view. The idea of “how far is too far”, in terms of dramatizing a story, was also talked about.

I think that when recreating a story, you need a factual base. When stories are retold from the Bible, the base is the Biblical text itself. If the retelling of the story drifts far from the core of the Bible, then it is not telling an accurate story. The idea of how do you know that the Bible is accurate, was brought up in class. This topic made me a little mad, because there shouldn’t be doubt in a religious text. The Bible is sacred to many people and trusted by many, including myself. The Bible is the truth and should be the focal point for renditions of Biblical stories.

Today we talked about one of the more well known dramatizations of the bible, the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar”. I think creating a musical with modern music to tell the story of Jesus (or at least a version of it) is a great way to engage those who have had little to no exposure to the bible. Talking about the portrayals of Judas and Jesus and how their characters differ in each and every representation of the bible is interesting to me. There is no clear cut correct version that everyone agrees on. There are multiple stories and as similar as they may be there are still variations, such as whether or not Jesus was born aware of his fate, that dramatically change the tone of the musical. Personally, I think the more human portrayal of Jesus, in which he struggles with fear and doubt (as most people do), is relatable and therefore more effectively captures the attention of those who also experience wavering faith. I believe everyone has a relationship to religion, whether it is positive or negative or strong or weak, and to see that Jesus too may have had a complex relationship to religion is reassuring. A line from a song that has stuck with me for years goes “I look up to the sky there may be nothing there to see, but if I don’t believe in Him why would He believe in me?”. I think this is a feeling many struggle with: feeling that if they are doubtful or not 100% positive in their faith that they cannot possibly be a good christian. I think depicting Jesus as having doubts, especially when confronted with his own mortality, allows those watching to realize that a relationship with God or religion doesn’t have to be perfect or strong all the time in order for someone to be religious or accepted by religion. I think almost everyone, even those who have been very religious their whole lives, struggle with their faith and to be shown a Jesus who has also had the same feelings shows that it is not a bad thing, but a normal thing.