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It is really interesting to see how far music has evolved as time has passed. When I listened to the videos embedded in the reading (for 8/31), such as “The oldest song in the world” it was not what I was not a type of music I have listened to before. What it reminded me… Continue reading the influence of ancient instruments and music

When I was reading “2. Chanting the Hebrew Bible” for class today, I learned that there is no clear answer to what the Psalms sounded like. There are clues such as cantillation marks found in old manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. The marks are above and below the consonants. However, the original meaning of the… Continue reading Unsolved meaning of ancient scriptures

It was interesting to learn how the Bible has been interpreted in many different ways. There are many different versions of the Bible that may lead people to interpret it in various ways. We learned that there is even music that interprets the Bible. This class will be interesting to learn about different music and… Continue reading Interpreting the Bible and Music

Today in class Dr. McGrath asked the question, “What is the oldest song you know?” Most people probably had no idea, but don’t we all know Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the alphabet song? As Dr. McGrath mentioned, Mozart did work with the melody, but it is suspected that the melody originated 20 years before… Continue reading Musical Evolution

This Thursday, September 1, we talked about chanting and what chanting is, and how it sounds.  As well as how pitch can play a role in chanting and determining what certain words can mean based on pitch.  We started off class thinking about some old songs we personally knew and in some cases realizing some… Continue reading Chanting and Pitch.

One day, I was driving my car on the way to school. While listening to The Message on Sirius XM, I heard a familiar song, similar to how I have heard it before, but a new rendition. It took a little bit to figure out what that was, and I wondered how I knew every… Continue reading Doxology. . . or All People That on Earth Do Dwell?

The concept of emphasizing written text by italicization or underlining is not unfamiliar to me, neither is the concept of having inflections in your voice in order to get the point across that what you are saying is important. What is new to me is tph concept of reading the Scriptures that are held to… Continue reading Giving Scripture a “Halo”

When reading the Bible, listening to a message, or participating in the responsive reading at my church, I never truly remember the words. I definitely cannot hear something once and repeat the exact words right back to you; however, I can hear a song and most likely regurgitate the chorus after the song is completed.… Continue reading Melody = Memorization

It was interesting to learn that chants are very common forms of religious practice in religions like Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, etc. Although chanting sounds more primal than music, is actually very similar, has melodies, notes, and has been used for ages.

In the first class, we learned about how music correlates with The Bible and how humans have used music for all of time to communicate, express emotions, and tell meaningful stories. It was interesting to learn that the very first instrument was actually the voice, then came the lyre, and the flute was not very… Continue reading The Bible and Music