Musik dan Perkembangannya (Part 2)

Dalam edisi yang lalu kita sudah membahas dua zaman besar yang memulai perkembangan musik Eropa, yaitu zaman Renaissance dan Baroque. Jika kita hendak menganalogikan musik dengan bahasa, musik Renaissance dapat diungkapkan sebagai building blocks suatu bahasa, yaitu gramatikanya, struktur kalimatnya, dan juga kosakatanya. Lalu musik Baroque adalah suatu cerita atau prosa yang digubah dengan memakai bahasa tersebut. Kalau yang pertama adalah means of expression, maka yang kedua adalah expression of meaning. Dalam artikel bagian kedua ini kita akan melanjutkan pembahasan kita dengan dua zaman besar berikutnya yaitu zaman Klasikal[1] dan zaman Romantik.

Zaman Klasikal (c.1750-1810)

Musik dalam periode ini dilatarbelakangi oleh semangat zaman yang sangat terkenal: Age of Enlightenment, yaitu gerakan yang menempatkan rasio sebagai otoritas tertinggi dalam menentukan segala sesuatu. Kita akan melihat bagaimana semangat ini mempengaruhi perkembangan musik, tapi sebelumnya kita harus melihat lebih dalam ide di balik Rasionalisme. Satu abad sebelumnya, Eropa sedang memasuki masa klimaks Humanisme. Kalau pada zaman Renaissance, pemikiran Yunani Kuno dijadikan acuan untuk berbagai ilmu, pada abad 16 dan 17 Eropa telah melahirkan orang-orang yang menemukan pemikiran dan ide orisinal, khususnya dalam bidang sains. Contoh yang mudah adalah Isaac Newton dengan rumusan gravitasi dan kalkulusnya. Perkembangan ini adalah pengaruh dari kekristenan dalam ilmu pengetahuan. Dalam periode tersebut, meskipun tidak semua orang Eropa adalah orang percaya, Alkitab diterima secara universal sebagai kebenaran. Christopher Marlowe, pembuat drama Dr. Faustus[2], dalam akhir kisahnya, ketika Faust dilempar ke neraka ia berkata demikian, “Lihat, lihatlah darah Kristus itu, satu tetes saja akan menyelamatkan jiwaku, bahkan setengah tetes, oh Tuhanku.” Marlowe, seperti tokoh Faust, adalah seorang unbeliever sampai pada akhir hidupnya namun ia mengetahui (paling tidak secara kognitif) darimana keselamatan berasal.

Pengaruh kekristenan seperti inilah yang membedakan abad ke-17 dengan zaman Yunani Klasik yang menganggap mitologi Yunani sebagai sejarah, bukan sebagai cerita belaka. Implikasi kepercayaan akan dewa-dewa yang personifikasinya adalah fenomena-fenomena alam mengakibatkan ilmu pengetahuan tidak berkembang. Petir, misalnya, adalah suatu kuasa alam yang diasosiasikan dengan Zeus, dewa tertinggi mereka. Laut merupakan kediaman Neptune, Matahari merupakan kendaraan Apollo. Bayangkan kalau ada yang mengusulkan bahwa petir bukanlah sesuatu yang supernatural melainkan hanya proses alamiah yang lumrah; Socrates bukan hanya dihukum mati karena dituduh merusak kaum muda di kota Athena, ia juga dituduh mempunyai konsep religius yang mendobrak mitologi Yunani. Namun pada abad ke-17 Alkitablah yang diterima sebagai sejarah, sama seperti mitologi Yunani pada zaman Yunani Kuno. Dan Kitab Kejadian mengajarkan bahwa segala sesuatu adalah ciptaan, bukan bagian dari Sang Pencipta itu sendiri. Maka petir boleh dipelajari, laut boleh ditelaah. Tanpa pengaruh kekristenan, sains tidak akan berkembang.

Musik dan Perkembangannya (Part 1)

Excerpted from www.bulletinpillar.org

By Vik. Jethro Rachmadi, B.Mus., M.Th.

Sebenarnya artikel ini mungkin lebih tepat diberi judul “Introduksi mengenai Musik Dunia Barat dan Perkembangannya,” sebab tema sejarah musik adalah tema yang terlalu luas. Namun lewat artikel ini saya berharap dapat memberikan sedikit insight terhadap semangat zaman, konsep-konsep, serta filsafat yang mendasari perkembangan musik Eropa dalam lima zaman yang besar. Di edisi ini kita akan membahas zaman Renaissance dan Baroque, dan di edisi berikutnya kita akan melihat zaman Klasik, Romantik, dan Modern. Adalah doa saya agar kita sebagai pemuda-pemudi Kristen di zaman yang rusak ini tidak tertidur, tidak sembarangan menerima ataupun menolak segala ilmu, tapi boleh sungguh menghidupi Firman Tuhan seperti tertulis di 1 Tesalonika 5:22: “Ujilah segala sesuatu dan peganglah yang baik.”

Zaman Renaissance (c.1300-1600)

Seperti semua periode kultural yang lainnya, pembatasan tahun periode Renaissance bersifat tidak mutlak—suatu zaman terlalu kompleks dan rumit untuk dapat dibatasi dalam hitungan tahun. Kata renaissance berarti rebirth—diatributkan untuk periode ini oleh seorang sejarawan Perancis abad ke-19, Jules Michelet. Gerakan Renaissancebernama demikian karena gerakan ini melahirkan kembali ide-ide dan pemikiran-pemikiran dari zaman Greco-Romanyang sudah begitu lama hilang dari Eropa, misalnya pemikiran dari filsuf-filsuf seperti Plato, Aristoteles, atau ahli retorika seperti Cicero atau juga Quintillianus yang tersimpan di dalam banyak teks Latin kuno di perpustakaan Ordo Monastik di Eropa, juga dari teks Latin yang diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa-bahasa lain.

Semangat zaman ini adalah apa yang sekarang disebut Humanisme, meskipun pada zaman tersebut filsafat di balik semangat itu tidak harus diartikan sebagai semangat untuk menjadikan manusia sebagai pusat segala sesuatu dan “menurunkan” Tuhan. Memang semangat gerakan ini akhirnya melahirkan Aufklärung yang jelas melawan Alkitab, tapi pada awalnya semangat Humanisme lebih dekat dan sangat dipengaruhi oleh Kekristenan. Manusia bukan lagi makhluk yang kotor dan rusak belaka (seperti yang diajarkan gereja yang tidak bertanggung jawab pada zaman Dark Ages), tapi juga adalah manusia yang mempunyai dignity sebagai peta dan teladan Allah. Sayangnya keseimbangan ini tidak bertahan lama dan akhirnya terjeblos ke dignity tanpa humility, yaitu Humanisme modern. Istilah humanis sendiri dalam zaman Renaissance dimengerti sebagai orang yang mendalami suatu sistem kurikulum edukasi dalam bidang-bidang yang sudah ada sejak zaman Medieval, seperti Dialektika, Gramatika, Retorika, dan juga Musik, tapi dipelajari dalam pengertian yang digali dari apa yang disebut primary source—dalam hal ini pemikiran para filsuf Greco-Roman. Gerakan Reformasi yang terjadi di periode pertengahan-akhir zaman Renaissance sedikit banyak mendapatkan pengaruh dari pemikiran Humanisme. Martin Luther, misalnya, mendapatkan sistem edukasi humanis. Namun Luther kemudian menjadikan Alkitab sebagai primary source—lahirlah back to the Bible.

Seni suatu zaman merupakan cermin semangat zaman tersebut, sebab budaya suatu zaman tertuang dari semangatnya. Misalnya, kebangkitan retorika klasik mempunyai efek yang merambat ke dalam literatur, puisi juga drama yang mengikuti bentuk retorika klasik. Kebangkitan prinsip simetri dan proporsi dari zaman Greco-Romantercermin di dalam arsitektur Renaissance.

Roman Architecture – Temple of Vesta               

Renaissance Architecture – Tempietto San Pietro of Montorio

Donato Bramante, seorang arsitek Renaissance, membangun suatu Tempietto (semacam bangunan kecil untuk memorial para martir) di gereja San Pietro di Montorio yang mengambil konsep arsitektur dari zaman Roma, Temple of Vesta. Konsep simetri dan proporsi juga mempengaruhi lukisan-lukisan Renaissance: para pelukis menggambarkan struktur dan proporsi manusia dengan lebih akurat; kisah yang sudah sering diketahui adalah bagaimana Michelangelo sampai meneliti mayat manusia untuk dapat mengerti anatomi manusia secara tepat sehingga lukisannya mempunyai akurasi yang sangat tepat. Bagaimana dengan musik?

Kita akan membandingkan konsep dasar tentang musik ini dari pemikiran masa kini dengan zaman Renaissance. Pengertian tentang musik pada zaman Renaissance adalah pengertian yang didefinisikan melalui hubungan numeral, bukan aural seperti pada zaman ini.[1] Sebagai contoh kita akan melihat interval.

Anger and a Double Victory - Vik. Jethro Rachmadi

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you this: Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.In this way you show that you are children of your Father in heaven. He makes his sun rise on people whether they are good or evil. He lets rain fall on them whether they are just or unjust".
- Matthew 5:43-45

Jesus' command to love our enemies could be considered idealist and simply impractical. And yet by saying so, Jesus has become a practical realist. And how do we accomplish such a difficult command? We must first analyze ourselves: why we hate, what causes our anger, then we would better love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

Christ Cleansing the Temple, by Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1875

Let us now pay our attention to anger. Anger is commonly perceived as a vice, that we think an angry man does not love and a man who holds his anger does not hate. Yet, this statement is only somewhat true, in a way that anger does lead to the disintegration of wisdom and community. In Proverbs 14:29, it is said that "Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly". In anger, we become delusional of what is right and wrong as it distorts our perception. Our sense of objectivity blurs and we despise logic as our actions are driven emotionally. After the conflict cools down, we then recall the folly things we have said in anger. Not only does anger disintegrate our wisdom at present, but it also causes future recurrences of folly decisions (addictive stigma). Proverbs 19:19 states that, "a man of great wrath will pay the penalty, for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again". This is because, among all negative emotions, anger is an emotion that is most closely related to denial. It is easy for us to admit our sadness, disappointment or worry, yet not anger. Thus, having the stigma of a grumpy man is worse than any other stigmas.

Other than wisdom disintegration, the gospel says in Proverbs 15:18 that anger leads to communal disintegration, "A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention". But another disintegration that anger causes is the disintegration of anything that threats what we love. This is why the absence of anger in a community only shows the danger of that very community, for the lack of necessary anger means the lack of love towards the community we ought to protect.

Furthermore, When the Old Testament uses the word patient, the true word in Ancient Hebrew is arek aph, which translates to slow to anger, as opposed to patient. Although arek means slow and aph means anger, the term arek aph is not two terms merged into one like the word pineapple (pine and apple). Hence, it is often translated merely as patient. An example would be in Proverbs 16:32 that says, "Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city". Thus, the Bible never idealizes patience, the absence of anger or an explosive anger, but slowness to anger. Here is an intricacy that we are often indifferent towards, that it is a sin according to the Bible to express anger explosively, yet it is, too, a sin according to the Bible to never be angry. According to the book of Proverbs, a wise man is slow to anger, which is resounded in Ephesians 4:26, "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger". This is wisdom: go ahead and be angry, but do not sin. Thus, anger is not equal to sin and prolonged anger brought upon sin. In other words, the problem is the duration of being angry, and not the anger itself. John Chrysostom says that "He who is not angry, whereas he has cause to be, sins. But he who is not angry where he has cause to be, sins. For unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices, it fosters negligence, and incites not only the wicked but the good to do wrong".

So why does the Bible uses arek aph as opposed to patience? Because arek aph is God's own attribute, as written in Exodus 34:6, "The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness". Therefore, the glory of our God is not in His absence of anger, but in His slowness in anger. Arek aph is the good anger because we often create a false dichotomy between love and anger as if a loving man is never angry and an angry man does not love, a statement we might not agree conceptually, we live daily. Betty Pippert says, "But love detests what destroys the beloved. Real love stands against the deception, the lie, the sin that destroys. Nearly a century ago the theologian E.H. Glifford wrote: 'Human love here offers a true analogy: the more a father loves his son, the more he hates in him the drunkard, the liar, the traitor.' The fact is that anger and love are inseparably bound in human experience. And if I, a flawed and sinful woman, can feel this much pain and anger over someone’s condition, how much more a morally perfect God who made them? If God were not angry over how we are destroying ourselves, then He wouldn’t be good and He certainly wouldn’t be loving. Anger isn’t the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference". We now understand that true love always contains anger. Therefore, the Bible views anger in its purest form to be an expression of love that acts to protect the beloved against its threat. This is the last disintegration that anger brings: the disintegration of the threat that threatens the beloved. Our problem today is that we tend to disintegrate what needs not to be disintegrated. Anger, before the fall of man, in its purest form, is an expression of love. In this sense, anger is very useful to understand oneself. Think of the circumstance which arises your anger the most and asks the question, "what threat are you trying to protect your beloved against? And what is your most beloved?" This is true not only in the personal sense but also social. Why do we find the society's action towards injustice pleasing? We often encounter injustice and attempt to flee, but the true danger is encountering injustice without arising and protesting in anger. Thus, we could simply analyze the political perception of a community simply through understanding what angers them, and in understanding what angers them, we could finally understand what their most valuable thing is. And in this case, the absence of anger in a community is very threatening for it is a sign of an exceeding comfort.

We could understand our God the same way. Jesus' anger towards the Pharisees and the merchants who conduct transactions in the temple could only mean that He was simply attempting to protect His beloved against a threat. The object of His anger is not the Pharisees and the merchants, but the threats that they cause towards His beloved, His people, the church. And this threat is always more important than to whom the anger is directed to. In the old testament, we see that God often punishes an individual instantly, as if He is not a God who is slow to anger (See 1 Samuel 2:12-36, 2 Samuel 6:1-6, Jeremiah 28:12-17). We could say that these are very rare recurrences. If there is a mistake that God has done (if any!) it would be that He is too slow to anger. For instance, He prolonged His damnation towards Canaan and in Psalm, we often read words like 'How long, O, LORD until you condemn my enemies?' and not 'Why do You haste to condemn my enemies, O, LORD?" The first thing we can understand from this is that God rarely condemns so instantly like the verses in bold above. The second thing is that if these events are so rare, we could discover a similarity among these events, that is only one: these are sins that offend the Holy Temple (the church). It is also written that "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). So those sins were punished so instantly because those sins greatly threat the church. And because we could analyze God's anger the same way we analyze ours, we may then ask "what did He attempt to protect that He punished so instantly?" The answer is the temple, the LORD's church. Understanding this, we could easily guess what is at the top of God's ordo amoris. That is you and I, His temple, His beloved. This also answers why He demands greatly from us, that is because of His greater love towards us.

Today, we understand anger in two cultures: the western and the eastern. In the west, anger should never be contained and in the east, anger is always badness and angry people are bad. The Bible is neither both cultures. The Bible always views both the fallenness and the goodness of anger. CS Lewis, in his illustration, states that “there is something which unites magic and applied science (technology) while separating them from the "wisdom" of earlier ages".  The question people nowadays ask is "how do I unite or connect nature with my will"? The answer is technic, either technology or magic. The Biblical wisdom according to Bruce Waltke is 'inter-relation / in tune with reality'. We then must ask the question, "what is reality"? A reality in the Bible could only mean two things: the fallenness and goodness of creation. Those who claim that good people are never angry and vice versa are people who are reductive to the reality of fallen creation. While those who claim that anger must be expressed by venting and physical expressions and avoid anger repression are reductive to the reality of good creation (without the fallen creation perspective). The Bible does not view anger in either perspective, but both, hence the term 'in tune with reality'. This means that wisdom is not merely a skill that you must obtain to face the intersections of life. Understanding this, we can conclude that the problem of anger is anger is not the anger itself, but the problem of anger is how we express it.

So I Graduated

This is the end.

Or not so as people believe: graduation is the beginning of a new era, a new life. But, what can I say? When something ends, something else begins, emerges, continues on. No one on earth really stops living, don't we? Our deeds go on and on through generations. And so when we leave a place or stop a task, that task is a part of us now and the memory of us is ever remembered.

Not only have I graduated from the Ohio State University, but I have also learned about life and its purpose. Is this a claim too bold to be written by a bachelor graduate? I should ask instead, is the most brilliant man alive not too bold to claim the same? Knowledge and science, they both are wonderful things, if not, I wouldn't have gone to a University and pursue a degree in science. But my point is that knowledge and all its wonders could never fully answer the questions of life's purpose because like us, this world is a creation. A creation that could only wonder in awe, understand a little and reflect the beauty of our Creator. Thus, through the 5 years of science drill, I have known and loved my God better.

"I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you". 

-Job 42:5

I have, too, graduated from overcoming my fears and admitting my vulnerability. I have graduated from sinking the bitter medicine in as well as from taking leaps of faith. What else could it be if it was not for the grace that was given to me that I was to fight against self-righteousness, pride, greed and jealousy. For I was drowned in a pool of tears when He raised and taught me to walk again as a new born babe.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" 

-Ephesians 2:8-9

Here's to a new beginning.

I have to confess that the idea of leaping into the "real world" terrifies me. But here's what I lay my hope upon: I have just arrived at chapter one of the most exciting story. A story which the proceeding chapter tells a more exciting story than the one before. To the people I left, know with all your hearts that as an elephant, I never forget. And to the people who I am yet to meet, you are about to become a part of my story, and my story in yours. There must be a reason of why our lives collide and perhaps part. God has everything in His master plan.
Enough with games and make-believe now. It's about time to take off into the realm of mystery.

I will not go gentle into the dark night!

Alice

When I have fears that I may cease to be, by John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be, by John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be

  Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,

Before high piled books, in charact’ry,

  Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain;

When I behold, upon the night’s starred face,

  Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,

And think that I may never live to trace Their shadows,

  with the magic hand of chance;

And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!

  That I shall never look upon thee more,

Never have relish in the faery power

  Of unreflecting love!—then on the shore

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think

Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

---

Alice

Ombak Pergantian Hidup

Sebagai manusia, sangat wajar bagi kita untuk mencari keamanan dan kedamaian hidup. Namun, segala sesuatu di dunia ini senantiasa berubah tanpa hentinya. Maka kita sering berpikir bahwa pergantian adalah sesuatu hal yang negatif dan sesuatu yang tetap, konstan dan stabil mendatangkan keadaman dan kedamaian. Pernahkan anda mendengar kalimat, "Kamu sudah berubah! Tidak sama seperti dulu lagi!" Apakah yang salah dengan kalimat ini?

Pertama, ada kemungkinan, sang subyek berubah secara negatif. Dahulu, ia orang benar dan sekarang, orang jahat. Namun, ada kemungkinan perubahan subyek adalah perubahan yang baik. Dahulu ia kurang baik dan sekarang ia menjadi lebih baik. Dalam hal ini, perubahan subyek sangat penting dan malah semua orang pun harus berubah! Satu-satunya individu yang tidak memerlukan perubahan, ialah individu yang sudah sempurna adanya. Sesuatu yang sempurna, tidak bisa menjadi lebih sempurna lagi. Angka 100 tidak bisa menjadi lebih mirip dengan angka 100, karena ia adalah 100 adanya. Lain dengan angka 80, yang bisa berubah menjadi 81, 82, 83 dan seterusnya untuk menjadi lebih mirip dengan angka 100.

Demikian pula, kebenaran tidak pernah berubah. Manusia tidak sempurna, maka kita harus senantiasa berubah. Akan tetapi Allah tidak berubah dari kekal sampai kekal. Allah berfirman kepada Musa, "I AM who I AM", "AKU ADALAH AKU" (Keluaran 3:14). Perfect Goodness is perfect and Is with no blemish.

Namun, pengertian ini tidak lepas dari pengertian bahwa Allah bekerja secara dinamis di kehidupan kita. Hanya karena Ia menolong engkau hari ini, bukan berarti Ia akan menolong engkau besok, bukan berarti engkau akan diselamatkan. Semua sudah ada di dalam masterplan Allah yang kita tidak bisa tahu. Demikianlah Yesus bukan saja Yesus yang telah mati bagi kita, tetapi juga Yesus yang telah bangkit, mengalahkan maut. Dengan demikian, iman kita kepada Kristus tidaklah sia-sia.

Alexander Ivanov - Christ's Appearance to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection

Kutipan di bawah ini membahas isu yang serupa, diambil dari kotbah Pdt. Dr. Stephen Tong:

Lalu dia (Maria Magdelena) ingin memegang, ia ingin menjamah, memegang tubuh Yesus Kristus. "Betulkah Engkau bangkit? Betulkah ini bukan roh? Betulkah ini bukan arwah? Betulkah ini bukan suatu bayang-bayang? Saya ingin pegang Yesus, mempertahankan Dia. Engkau jangan pergi! Engkau jangan mati! Jika Engkau sekarang sungguh-sungguh ada, apakah Engkau seperti dulu?"

Yesus tidak lagi sama seperti dulu. Sebelum mati, Ia mempunyai tubuh jasmaniah melalui inkarnasi. Setelah bangkit, Ia mempunyai tubuh kebangkitan yang melampaui tubuh jasmaniah inkarnasi.

"Janganlah Engkau memegang Aku, sebab Aku belum pergi kepada Bapa."

Kalimat ini mempunyai arti jauh lebih dalam dari 'Jangan pegang Saya'. Karena di situ, istilah 'pegang', bahasa Yunaninya 'jangan mempertahankan saya lagi seperti dulu'. Kita ingin agama kita, iman kita, pengalaman, pengertian daripada kerohanian kita sama seperti dulu.

The New Hope

Mary Magdalene learned and knew that the LORD is that LORD that is risen. Therefore, we went to tell the story that she has seen Him. This was the very first testimony of the resurrection of Jesus. After Jesus' death, the first to enter the Paradise was a robber who was crucified beside Jesus. After Jesus was resurrected, the first to preach the gospel was a woman who used to be possessed by seven demons. These show us that our LORD is the LORD who loves the sinners that for those who have greatly sinned could be saved, you who had been demon-possessed could preach the gospel. Do not set a standard: such kind of person is not worthy of becoming a pastor and such person is best to be a pastor. The LORD works extraordinarily within each person. I am waiting for prostitutes to repent and be the LORD's witnesses. I am waiting for robbers to repent and be the LORD's witnesses. And are there drug addicts who return to the LORD and be the LORD's witnesses to win the souls of sinners? Christianity is not about God from heaven come looking for the righteous to be His people. The gospel is God come looking for the sinners so they would repent. Jesus came down from heaven so He could bring people from the sinful mud so they are to stand on the cornerstone that God has provided.

Christianity is the new hope for sinners. The kingdom of God is built up with the broken hearted of the sinners who has experienced the true repentance. Not built up by the intelligent, the great, people who have never committed any crimes, whose morality excels the others. If you have greatly sinned, be not disappointed. The power of Jesus is able to save you, pardon you, change you, make you whole again and make you His servant, His witness.

-Excerpted from Kebangkitan Kristus dan Penginjilan Yohanes 20:19-29 | Pdt. Dr. Stephen Tong
Translated by Alicia Angie Wiranata

In Christ,
Alice