Glory of God and Refreshment of the Soul

“The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.” – J.S. Bach

  As a Presbyterian and part time Baptist while in Spartanburg, the music in my religious experience is used to exalt and glorify the Lord. According to Bach, that is the use of all music. Music is a form of worship and has always been a primary form of worship/communication with God in my life. In the churches that I’ve been to, typical protocol is allowing the entire congregation to participate in the music and raise all of their voices together as one.  This is one facet of church music that is very similar to the music of the Africans and Native Americans. Everyone participates, sure there are leaders, but it is a form of communal bonding or worship. In my experience nothing bonds a group of people quite like worshiping together.

   In the first church I ever went to, there was rarely clapping after special performances by a soloist or choir. It was a very formal service where the only songs that were sung were from the hymnal. In my church at home and in my church at school, the worship songs can be contemporary and traditional. It has been recognized at all of my churches that whoever is helping with the music is using their gifts to lead musical praise, not perform. At my current churches clapping and the giving thanks to the musicians is welcomed. At my church here in Spartanburg, during the time of musical worship, bodily movement while singing is much more common practice than at my church at home. I’m not going to lie, it startled me when people began dancing around a little and waving their hands up to the heavens. That relates back to the fact that some music moves people, literally!

   I think that to a certain extent more contemporary western secular music has actually influenced the religious music scene. At least in my life, which started out as singing just plain hymns, contemporary “Christian pop” was brought into my church as a means of a different style of musical worship.  Due to the fast that Christian pop has changed the idea about what is beautiful and commonly practiced in many churches across the world because it is easy for most everyone to follow. People of older generations, who only grew up singing hymns, now like and even prefer this contemporary type of worship song. It is becoming more widely used and considered more interesting, perhaps more beautiful. I see  that this opinion not only held by people of my generation but also spanning across many different generations.

   When thinking about the construction and rules of music writing, church music has always influenced everything that succeeded it. Church music was the only type of music for some time. From church comes idea that a plagal cadence is very pleasing to the ear and should signal the end of a piece of music – people have been taught to recognize this even if they aren’t aware that it has a name. Amen!