Author: mcroner

In class on December 2, we had a guest speaker talk to us over zoom. Our speaker, Devlyn Case, came to take to us about his music. He is from Wheaton College, and is a composer of many amazing pieces that we were able to listen to and learn about. He usually sets his music… Continue reading Guest Speaker

Recently, we have been looking at biblical allusions in popular music. An allusion is not when something just mentions the word “God” or “Lord.” Many songs include the word “God” but are not referring to the Bible. An allusion is an expression that refers to something without mentioning it directly. There are many biblical allusions… Continue reading What is an Allusion?

We have been working on finding biblical allusions in popular music for a while and today we got to share one of our examples to the class on zoom. I enjoyed this activity because it was fun and interesting to find songs that had biblical meanings that I did not expect to have. A lot… Continue reading Scavenger Hunt

Today we started with reading “The Lord’s Prayer” or “Our Father” in the book of Matthew. We broke down the meaning of the prayer and pieces that usually are missed because of the familiarity of the verse. This prayer is very well known among many people, religious or not. I remember learning this at church… Continue reading Prayer in Music

Today we looked at romance in the bible. We read some verses that talked about love. I thought some verses were interesting such as “Your hair is like a flock of goats.” How could this be talking about love? These metaphors don’t speak our language even though it is translated to English. We can always… Continue reading Romance in the Bible

Today we started class by listening to different music than last time. It was a calm and soothing instrumental piece. We talked about a more modern composer, Arvo Part, which is different than what we have done in most classes. He is a composer of classical and religious music. With his music, he wants listeners… Continue reading Arvo Part & John Rutter

We talked about a musician named Arnold Schoenberg, who experimented new ways to create music. We learned about one of his opera pieces, Moses und Aron. How does he explore this musically? Moses will start a tone row but doesn’t finish. It is like it’s grasping for this abstract truth. Aron represents a contrast or… Continue reading Arnold Schoenberg

We’ve been looking at many children’s songs that in some way relate to the Bible. We each found songs for children that talked about the Bible, and shared them on zoom. This was a fun activity to do for class. I thought it was interesting how we each found a bible verse that related to… Continue reading Children songs related to the Bible

Today we read the English texts of the Magnificat. It was interesting to do the activity where we each read the same two lines but tried to read them in different tones. Some sounded the same, some sang, but it was entertaining to hear from everyone to see what they could come up with. After… Continue reading Texts of Magnificat

Today we watched a few clips of the Crucifixion of Jesus in films including The Passion of the Christ, Jesus and Nicodemus, and more. It was interesting to see how each film portrayed the Crucifixion and the different views each person has of the story. In some films there was more silence that we are… Continue reading Crucifixion in films