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When I was tasked with the assignment of setting a Biblical text to music, I assumed it was not going to be too hard. I stand corrected now. I had problems with a few things, but I struggled the most with keeping the Biblical integrity. The Bible, to me at least, is a sacred text… Continue reading Keeping the Integrity

On Thursday, September 9, 2021, we talked about in class taking a melody and adapting it to a text or taking a text and adapting a melody to it.  This was very interesting in trying to create music from a melody and some biblical text.  As this was something I had never really tried or… Continue reading From Melody to Music

Today, in class we attempted to begin our final project. Using a melody we knew well and verses in the Bible it was a little difficult getting it to fit together and create a good song. I learned it is okay to paraphrase. Because there are so many versions of the Bible, the words have… Continue reading Making Melodies & Verses into Music

I found our discussion of the practice of paraphrasing biblical passages when transforming them into hymns quite fascinating.  Surely, it makes sense to alter the text slightly to get it to fit into a metrical pattern, or to make it easier for an audience to understand, but sometimes I personally feel these paraphrases took too… Continue reading Paraphrasing

I feel that in a way music is definitely a form of poetry. They are both methods for people to express their emotions and release what they are truly feeling. Some people feel more comfortable expressing themselves through music and songs while others feel a greater sense of expression in writing and reading poetry. Overall… Continue reading Is Music Poetry?

I thought it was really interesting how so many different songs can easily fit into the common meter and how the different rhythms of popular songs can change how the Psalm feels while its been sung. It is strange that simply changing the rhythm or style of the music can make the words you are… Continue reading The Common Meter

Something I found interesting in class on 09/07 was how many different tunes could be set to the same lyrics. Some that we experimented with were well known tunes like the ABCs/Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Amazing Grace. Although these tunes work with different lyrics, it does not mean they will sound right together. An… Continue reading The “Common Meter” and Bay Psalm Book

In chapter 3 we talked about chanting and how the overall christianity community stemmed from judaism. Chanting can be used a melodic way and it can sound very powerful and beautiful. I’m a christian and in our church, chanting is in the form of speaking in tongues and in praise and worship. Our praise team… Continue reading Chanting and Some of Its Forms

Psalms 23 is a very common scripture that is in sing song. I never thought of the Bible to be songs. the Bible is not always easy to understand. It’s almost like poetry/riddles that you have to look deeper to get the hidden message. Amazing Grace being a common meter. It’s so unique how one… Continue reading Bible Translations

On August 31st, we learned some of the history of the biblical music and the instruments way back then. They used a lute or lyre. The lyre was similar to a harp. Another thing is the oldest song in the world…I didn’t expect it to sound the way it does. It’s in a different language… Continue reading Ancient Music