A few classes ago we listed to music written by Bach. We talked about how his work has the ability for a listener to experience something. I think this is a very powerful aspect of music. Music has the power to affect listeners in different ways. Not everyone has an extensive background on music and… Continue reading Power of Music

A few class periods ago we quickly mentioned Christian holidays and thought about whether Easter or Christmas was the “most important” one to Christians. I wanted to look more into this. Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus and Easter is to celebrate when he died on the cross for sinners. Christmas and Easter… Continue reading Easter or Christmas

Growing up in the church, I learned many biblical children’s songs, including “Jesus Loves Me,” “This Little Light of Mine,” and many, many more. These songs were taught to me before I was able to read and interpret the Bible. My Sunday School teachers and Vacation Bible School Leaders taught these to encourage learning about… Continue reading Bible in Children’s Songs

Earlier in the week, on 10/5, we discussed in-class certain commercials that resonated with us. My initial answer to this question was the Extra gum commercial. If you can’t think of what commercial I mean, the commercial captures the love story between a young couple and how their relationship was planted and thus grew through… Continue reading Musical impact on commercials

I will be the first to admit that music is one of the first things I turn to when I feel a little emotional. Like many people I know, I have a playlist designated to music that helps prolong any specific emotion, specifically to mention perhaps a more saddened emotion. This might not be the… Continue reading Lyrics or Dissonance?

I think the music that would be playing during a theatrical representation of the story of David and Bathsheba could go a number of different ways. It is obviously a serious and somber scene as it deals with a number of different heavy topics such as murder, adultery, etc. In my head I imagine it… Continue reading David and Bathsheba

Class Reflection – The Passion of the Christ   During class last week, we had watched The Passion of the Christ. This was a film that was released in 2004, and on its release it was hit with a lot of scrutiny and backlash from the public community. What the movie is, a very graphic… Continue reading Class Reflection – The Passion of the Christ

Today in class we were asked questions such as “why does older music all start to sound the same to us?” and “why does contemporary music often connect with us more than old music?” An obvious answer to the second question is that contemporary music uses modern language, it is easier for us to understand… Continue reading Dissonance

We continued this week exploring the song we created in the last class discovering that it could also be a rock song set to the right music and doesn’t necessarily have to be stuck in one genre of music.  Then we began to talk about King David and some stories and also explored David as… Continue reading David

It is interesting to think that we would purposefully create a lack of harmony among musical notes, but we do it in order to create a feeling and emotion attached to the song. Composers also use it in music to create a sense of urgency. Dissonance can be used to create a deeply moving piece… Continue reading Dissonance in music