22 Feb The Importance of Spiritual Music
In an article that he wrote on sacred songs, James MacMillan says that “throughout the years, musicians have proved midwives of faith, bringing their gifts to the historic challenge of inspiring the faithful to worship.” He highlights the fact it’s often through the medium of music that something inside people is awakened.
Some of the primary purposes for church choirs throughout time has been to encourage congregations to worship, to contemplate their internal selves and the connection they have with God. Reverend Dr. Jeremy Morris, dean of King’s College at Cambridge from 2010 – 2014, has stated something akin to this idea. King’s College is famed for its heralded choir, as well as the renowned Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols service that’s held every year on Christmas Eve. In referencing that service beloved by many, he said that its principal purpose was based round worshiping God. However, beyond that, the music’s objective was to help people step away from the commercialism and craziness of the season to consider, as he put it, “ultimate things.” These ultimate matters–and the pondering of them–seem to be both encouraged and furthered by sacred songs.
There are many who believe faith is restricting, merely a brainwashing agent for people who subscribe to it. MacMillan explains spiritual life in today’s culture such as this:
“Substantial anecdotal evidence points to a widespread distress felt by religious people in the world. They confront ignorance and prejudice, because to become religious, according to the new secular, liberal orthodoxy, is to be reactionary, bigoted, and narrow. A smug ignorance, a gross oversimplification and caricature that serve as an analytical comprehension of religion, would be the typical intellectual currency.”
Though that perspective may function as “intellectual currency” of this day, faith is a personal matter of the center for people who embrace it. And even though it’s fed in various ways, many spiritual individuals would likely identify music as a significant catalyst for cultivating religion, inviting reflection, and as a vehicle for transporting them into a place of mystery, beauty, and grace.
Take King’s as well as the Christmas Eve service, for instance. That Sacred service brings people together from all over the world, tuning in via radio transmission. For 90 minutes, individuals in living rooms and kitchens throughout the earth listen to the clear voices of boys and men sing familiar carols with texts that are reflective regarding Christ’s birth.
David Willcocks was the director of the choir for several years. His son, Jonathan Willcocks, afterwards recollected that his father regarded his role in that place as “a custodian of a great tradition.” Along with the present manager, Stephen Cleobury, has the task of conducting the choir and picking the songs for this momentous event. He’s got the choir sing pieces that combine well with the readings for the service, and such pieces invite the listeners to actually contemplate the messages of the texts and consider their religion.
Whether it’s for a famous service like what happens at King’s on December 24, or the job of choirs in tiny churches all over America, the custom of choir singing is a beautiful and significant one. There is something about stepping right into a quiet, low-lit church which can’t be duplicated. You slide into a pew and turn off all distractions. Then, you close your eyes, open your ears, and also focus on something: extreme listening. And how does one explain what happens afterward?
Maybe MacMillan states it best:
“Music gives us a glimpse of something beyond the horizons of materialism , or our modern values. What is music, after all? You can’t see it ; you can not touch it you can’t consume it but its palpable presence makes itself felt, not only in a physical manner, but in ways that reach down into the crevices of the soul.
What is music? Is it the notes on the web page? If that’s the case, how can we equate those strange, black, static symbols together with the vivid, sometimes convulsive emotions provoked when the consequent sounds enter our minds, our brains, our bodies, and our secret selves?”
Amen, brother.
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