Understanding the Beauty of Sacred Christian Music Tradition - Vik. Jethro Rachmadi

Let us first begin with simplicity. The hymn According to Thy Gracious Word by James Montgomery is a hymn commonly sung during a Holy Communion. The hymn is as followed:

In analyzing a piece of music, we must first look for any repetitions in the music. In this case, the word remember is being repeated at the end of each verse, yet in different tenses: I will remember Thee, and thus remember Thee, I must remember Thee, Will I remember Thee, and finally Jesus, remember me.
According to these tenses and the lyrics of each verse as a whole, verse 1 is most likely to be sung before the Holy Communion and verse 2 during the Holy Communion. While stanzas 3 and 4 could be sung in our daily lives and verse 5 too has a sense of continuity even until death, and finally, verse 6 speaks of the afterlife.
Such a simple hymn could express the journey of one's entire life. This is why traditional hymns often consist of multiple verses (about12 verses or more), because they focus not at the present time and one's self-ness, for the root of all sins is self-centeredness. A hymn with many verses may engage us to pass ourselves and to see what Is beyond ourselves. The end of the hymn says Jesus, remember me, reminds us of the question: how many times do we pray and ask God to remember us? Very infrequently.

Speaking of traditional sacred music, people usually ask why use old music? In the past, God worked in many ways and through many things that we are unaware of. Some people may also claim that music is a matter of preference and taste. But diabetic people do have a greater tendency to love chocolate. Are those people not free people, because they are driven—and murdered—by their own taste? We love to think that if a matter is subjective, it could not then be objective. However, music is both subjective and objective. It is true that many ears listening to the same music will result in many perceptions. For example, what do you think of when you listen to this tune?:

If there are fifty people in this room, there surely is a possibility of us having fifty different perspectives: this tune is preparing the troops for battle, the procession of a king, a tune of victory, the list goes on. But I am certain that nobody would perceive the tune as a sad and lamenting tune. Without objectivity in music, there would not be any music filmography/music in films. Because the main intention of musical compositions in films is to deliver a specific message or meaning to a particular scene. A scene with two different music could result in two drastic perceptions, which difference also dictates the genre of the film. For example:

Now you might argue that a composer like Bach is suitable for Europeans, but not for Indians, Chinese, and definitely not for Indonesians. But this has been proven to be a false statement because even Arabians use  Bach's Air, one of the most famous Bach's compositions to sing Muslim lyrics.

Bach's Air "On the G-string" from his 3rd orchestral suite in D major, BWV 1068.

Why then do we need to appreciate and talk about music? If we are willing to appreciate music, then we must agree that there is greater music then the other. The answer to this question is that music is powerful, yet subtle. What I mean by subtle is that it possesses a hidden influence. Music is like salt. When we eat fries without salt, we would complain about the absence of salt. But when we eat fries with salt, we would not praise the salt either. It would be odd for us to say, "how delicious the salt is!",  instead, it would make a lot more sense to say, "the fries taste great!" We are never aware of the salt's presence, yet it has a great influence. This is why we ought to talk about music and to appreciate it. Music affects our worldview and our perspective about all things with or without our knowledge.

For example, how does pop culture affect us? To answer this question, we must first think about the rationale behind pop culture, which is pragmatism, an approach that values something—whether its righteousness or concepts—according to its success of practicality and effectiveness. Pop culture started at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. This era overlaps with the 20th century (modern era) of classical music, which produces elitist and escapist music. Elitist means that the music is rather difficult to fathom and somewhat rambunctious that people find it challenging to enjoy. Escapist means to be separated from daily life/world. We like to think that classical music is for the old, that the young ones can listen to other genres, such as pop, R&B, or maybe a more complex genre, jazz. But, the spirituality of trial and error should never be used in music. If we know that music is good, we should begin learning the music as early as possible, instead of waiting for us to age.

John Dee said that immediate experience is what matters. He claims that if it feels right, it must be right. This is another form of pragmatism. Comparing this with Plato, who lived a millennium away from Dee and 2300 years ago from today, Plato has a rather interesting commentary on popular music. The popular music in his era and the popular music of our era are clearly distinct. But his commentary on the popular music in his era is the same with our common commentary on our popular music today. The following thought from Plato is not Christianity, but we could learn from parts of it. Plato claims that the human soul consists of three theories of emotions, which are listed according to importance:

1. Reason

2. Emotion

3. Desire

However, the Bible says that these three must be equal in importance. Plato claims that reason is pure, emotion is fallen, and desire is the worst. Yet, the Bible says that all three are fallen and must return to the Bible. Plato says that popular music bypasses reason, immersing immediately into emotion and desire. This raises the question: what is our enjoyment when we listen to mainstream music, music that can be enjoyed without the need of thinking? It is in analyzing popular music, that its fallenness is more evident. True Christians must enjoy music in all who we are: in reason, in emotion, and in desire.

Furthermore, practicality/pragmatism is like a placebo effect. A simple example of a placebo effect is when the doctor gives you fake medicine yet you suddenly feel better. Medicine is even tested for its placebo effect by testing 100 sick participants: 50 are given fake medicines and 50 the real medicines. Then the number of participants who claim their healing from each set of 50 is analyzed. If the placebo effect level is too high, the medicine will not be sold. This is why vocalists are not supposed to take Strepsils because Strepsils are cough drops that act as a painkiller, they cure the symptoms, not the sickness itself. This is dangerous and it resembles music. We feel that certain music is good for us when it really is not.

In the present world, we differentiate ethics from aesthetics. Ethics has something to do with moral and character and aesthetic, beauty. Yet, Plato claims that both of them are all together and inseparable. An unethical person is so because he does not understand a higher art, and an unaesthetic person is so because he is unethical. This is similar to what apostle Paul said in the book of Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things". This one verse says the two worlds of ethics and aesthetics are one and inseparable.

We must also speak of how music is not merely for your personal consumption, but also for others'. Thus, there was the Age of Enlightenment (European 18th century), when music and music education were made available not only for the aristocrats but also for the commoners. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) supports this in his belief that "the human mind creates the structure of human experience, that reason is the source of morality, that aesthetics arises from a faculty of disinterested judgment, that space and time are forms of our sensibility, and that the world as it is "in-itself" is independent of our concepts of it".

Yet, if you consider art as a mere consumption/experience, it would very much resemble a carousel. You are happy in it, but you are merely rotating on the same axis, going nowhere. "I just want to have fun, play some music, and then, that's it." Such happiness is not longlasting and will lead you nowhere.

Also, music should also be able to be used as an educational aid, because music affects both personality and character. For men, beauty is enjoyable and enjoyable is beauty. Men cannot differentiate between the two. This too is another form of pragmatism. In appreciating music, we do not decrease our enjoyment but increase it. One of the singers in the band group Kiss, one of the most famous dark metal musical groups, was interviewed. He was asked why he makes such kind of music? And his answer was, "Because my desire is at its maximum when I perform for the audience." We can see that he finds pleasure and enjoyment when his self is being the center of attention. But is this not the only pleasure/enjoyment that we know? We too find pleasure when we watch the sun rises or when we observe the photograph, Hubble Ultra Deep Field, the furthest photograph ever taken. Just in one shot, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field could show more than 2000 galaxies!

Sunrise

Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Don't you now feel awe and pleasure when these are made known to you? If so, how could you find pleasure even when you are not being the center? This must explain that there is Something that is beautiful that is not us, hence beauty does not always mean pleasure. Beauty is when our center of attention is anything but us. When we hear people say, "Jesus is abundant", we would automatically think that He abundantly give us wealth and riches. On the contrary, providing wealth and riches as His only way to be abundant, is not abundant after all. His abundance could also be shown in art, in music, but then we refuse this and seek wealth instead! We want comic books and refuse to learn about the works of other incredible writers such as CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien!

Finally, we cannot possibly talk about music without talking about the musical eras: the Middle Ages / Medieval, Renaissance,  Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th century. But we will only talk about the Renaissance and Baroque era in detail. The Renaissance period is harmonical and very much in order. While, the Baroque period is greater in harmony, and words and music are connected. In the Medieval and Renaissance era, music does not serve lyrics like in the Baroque period. The Renaissance lyrics and music are usually not congruent with each other. A Renaissance composer, Josquin des Prez composed a composition called Kyrie, which means "LORD, have mercy", as followed:

Listening to the recording above, the lyrical meaning of the piece is still connected with the music. But Josquin also composed Missa Pange lingua - Gloria, as followed, with similar music:

Although Gloria means glory to God, the music is very similar to the Kyrie composed by the same composer. This shows that the Renaissance period does not match the lyrics with its music. Let us now compare this with Bach (a Baroque composer)'s Kyrie and Gloria:

This is only one of the differences between the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Moreover, one of the breakthroughs in the Baroque period is the introduction of the term chiaroscuro (chiaro means light and scuro means dark).

Chiaroscuro gives the effect of depth, dramaticism and liveliness, both in music and in art. For example in both Caravaggio's paintings below, the use of chiaroscuro is very evident. By observing the shadows and lights in the paintings, we can conclude that the source of light in both paintings always come from God / Jesus.

The Conversion of Saint Paul (or Conversion of Saul), by Caravaggio

Supper at Emmaus, by Caravaggio

Chiaroscuro in music works the same way. For instance, in GF Handel's composition, Comfort, ye my people, an accompagnato, one of the numbers in his most famous oratorio, "Messiah", was written in E major. In contrast, the previous work, the oratorio's overture was written in E minor. The switch from the French overture to the accompagnato is very dramatic due to this chiaroscuro effect.

No. 2. Comfort ye my people, 'Accompagnato' (tenor), GF Handel

No. 1. Overture to "The Messiah", GF Handel

Digging deeper into the piece, Comfort ye my people, its stable intro delivers peace to its listener. Moreover, a phrase that is repeated over and over again is the phrase "Comfort Ye". Although this phrase is repeated four times, it is said in four different ways. This resembles how we comfort someone in real life. We don't comfort someone in the exact same way/words of consolation. We use different comforting words, "Be patient, something will happen, God will send help, and so on".

The phrase is then followed by the phrase "Saith your God, saith your God!" with an assertive tone. Then the piece returns back to its comforting theme. And during the phrase "iniquity is pardoned", the word iniquity is in a diminished chord, a chord of tension and suspense. While the word pardoned is in a major chord. Briefly about chords, there are several important chords in music: major, minor, diminished and augmented. The major chord sounds happy, the minor chord sounds sad, the diminished chord is a lowered chord that sounds narrower than the minor chord, and the augmented chord sounds the broadest among all. These are only some of the reasons why Handel's "Messiah" is one of the greatest oratorios ever written. And we have not even talked about how many tenor soli are written in the oratorio, which number possesses an intended meaning.

Above all, we must then ask the question, is this music beautiful? If so, is the music beautiful because it is your taste or is it beautiful because your pleasure is expanded? We often hear people say that conservative music is not progressive to the current culture. We must first be able to differentiate between conservative and progressive. To be conservative means to conserve an age/tradition and to be progressive means to move on. Both are true in a sense that we must constantly progress, but stay conservative. This is why KRI (Kidung Reformed Injili) also has songs that are not hymns, like "Why Have You Chosen Me" because they correspond with the Bible, the Word of God. How do we know if music corresponds with the Word of God? There are four aspects to test music: its lyrics, musical form, the composer's religious life, and who the audience are/were. We have a person like Beethoven and Mozart whose lives were a total wreck. Yet in their chaotic lives, they inherit a structural tradition as well, and God works through this inheritance.

But why progress to the future and not to the past? In the past, there were much music worth enjoying for too. Progressive to the future is not wrong, but because of its strong pragmatistic culture, this is dangerous to be followed.

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Q: In going to church, our hearts must first be made ready to come before the LORD to praise His name. Popular music can do this very well!

A: If your purpose to go to church is this, then I must disagree. Because we don't go to church for us, but for the LORD. Since the beginning, we praise Him as a response to His providence and loving-kindness for us. 

Q: The songs discussed today are very difficult to be dissected. Popular music is easier and less time-consuming to be understood and learned. We would need an awfully long time to educate the congregation to be able to enjoy such difficult music

A: The point is laziness. Now you know that there is good music, but the problem is that the music is difficult. Why then the solution to this problem is to not use the music at all, and not to learn and understand it step-by-step? If we earnestly want to give our best to the LORD, we surely are willing to undergo the time-consuming learning process.

Speaker: Vik. Jethro Rachmadi, B.Mus, M.Th
Written by: Alicia Angie Wiranata
Summary has not been revised by the speaker