Music...

hmmm... it looks like my last post didn't work... maybe i dont understand this blogging thing as well as i had hoped. or maybe i clicked the wrong button. no matter, it was only a whinge about my work anyway.

anyway...

every couple of months, i am reminded at just HOW GOOD some classical music is. it normally happens during coursework time, which is when i have some on as background working music.

Don't get me wrong, i'm not exactly a connoisseur - i only own 2 cd's of "the best classical moments ever" and "the best of beethoven", along with a couple of Puccini operas. neither can I understand music like my housemates and dad can, but i've been struck with the passion that these composers manage to convey with this music. im currently listening to the glorious ninth at an obscenely loud volume, and the triumphal noise blowing out of my speakers has totally changed my mood today...

i freely admit that this type of music is not for me all (or even most) of the time, but it makes me wonder - what have we lost? music that has the potential to do this to a persons mood, to completely change the general feeling of a room, and to fill the air in a concert hall even when its being played fairly quietly surely stomps all over 'music' which contains lyrics like "zig-a-zig ahhh" and "wave your hands in the air like you just don't care"... when people can write a symphony about the concept of joy that brings tears to my eyes when im not even giving it my full attention, why is everything today about sex? I'm sure sex is great... but other subjects are far and away more powerful to create art about...


and while i'm on the subject, where is God in today's music scene? i not necessarily saying that we should be hearing Matt Redman on radio 1, but how many of our worship songs glorify God with at least a percentage of the grandure that He's due?

Listen to the Hallelujah Chorus sometime, i mean *really* listen to it - try and forget every time its been over-used, mis-used, parodied and so on, and listen to it freshly as a piece of worship music. there's a reason that King whoever-he-was got to his feet the first time he heard it. Its the same reason that i struggle to stay off my knees when i listen to it with that attitude.

back to work. damnit.

thought for the day: "there is nothing new under the sun" Ecclesiastes. we as a generation seem to be crediting ourselves with creating all this new worship music for the glory of God. ok it's new in the sense that no-one has written exactly that song before, but are we really pushing the boundaries of praise as much as we think we are? let's compare our generation's music with music by Handel, Vivaldi and Charles Wesley to name but a few worship leaders... is it possible that this groundbreaking praise music is actually getting more mundane in the long run? i wonder what the psalms would have sounded like in the Temple....

God bless... please feel free to comment and tell me if you think im wrong.

C