Christian Music
Religion has played a huge role in shaping art and music of different societies. This is especially so when thinking of Christianity. Christianity is a relatively old religion; through centuries of practice it has exerted influence on people’s way of life including their music and arts. Since the birth of Christianity more than 2000 years ago, Christian music has evolved through various stages into what we understand today. Tracing the evolution of Christian music from ancient time to contemporary period, one thing that comes out clear is that, this music tends to reflect the mood, thinking and way of life of people at the time they are being developed.
Christian music is sacred music and is developed with the aim of illustrating and portraying the principles of Christianity. Early Christian music can be traced back to the Byzantine Empire (Kimbrough). This music forms the most ancient records of Christian music, with old manuscripts dating back to the 4th century. Byzantine music was mainly composed to Greek text mainly as church hymns. Being practice during the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine music is closely associated to the ancient Greek system. This music provides a picture of technical and artistic knowledge that existed during this period. Byzantine music was short, mostly in the form of Christian chants and was characterized by monophonic vocals. Most of them made use of the metrical scheme of Greek poetry.
Byzantine and other early Christian music presents certain value system practiced during the ancient and middle ages. One of these values is the central position that the church played in the social and political aspects of life (Dickson, 56). Records of Byzantine music indicate that the Christianity formed the nucleus of traditional political structures in early civilizations. This was particularly so in early Greek cities of Alexandria, Antioch and Ephesus. This practice continued during the Roman Empire and into the middle ages. Christian music, particularly from the middle Ages, demonstrates how Christianity and the Catholic Church dominated almost all aspects of people’s lives. The bishops and the pope were the determinant of what is acceptable in the society and what is not and directly influenced political decisions in Western Europe. During the crusade, the pope had the power to declare and organize war, giving an indication of the role the church had during this period. Such events from the early and middle period in Christian civilizations have been well represented in music.
Byzantine music also communicates various attitudes and beliefs of the people in regard to Christianity. One major belief portrayed in early Christian music is a theological speculation that sacred hymns had the power of angelic transmission (Dickson, 71). This refers to the assumption that the hymns united men with the heavenly angelic choirs. There was the notion that early worship patterns were derived from heaven with this illusion being perpetuated in early music. This conception had various effects on early Christian music. First, it led to a highly conservative attitude towards music composition. In order to be in line with the heavenly angelic choir, early music composers embraced very traditional approaches to music composition believing that they were the right approaches.
Second, this notion gave rise to standardized melodic hymns. This is in order to satisfy the belief that, earthly music must be to the standard of the angelic music. Third, early Christian songs maintained anonymity of the authors. In order to ensure prosperity of the hymns, followers had to be convinced that that the Christian hymns originated from heaven. Having hymns that acknowledged humans would have defeated this purpose. Another concept derived from this belief was communion. Since hymns connected men to God and heavenly sphere, every man in a church congregation was expected to be part of the choir so that he or she is not left behind. Therefore instead of living music responsibilities to a group of people, each and every person participated (chorus).
Another important period for Christian music was during the renaissance period. During the ancient and the middle period, production of sacred music had dominated the air and so did the Christian doctrines (Charles, 44). The renaissance marked the period of reform from what was being advocated for by the Church. The name renaissance actually means rebirth. This period gave rise to the humanistic concept; which refers to the belief that human being should be allowed more control over their lives. In Western European countries were protestant Christianity had spread the concept of humanism spread much faster. Humanistic concept also advocated for finding of truth outside region (in science and nature). The influence of the church over people’s lives and much of the social and political aspects of civilizations was drastically reduced. Production of secular music which was virtually non-existent during the ancient and Middle Ages began to crop up. Renaissance music has been instrumental in communicating developments during this period.
Renaissance music also shows remarkable improvement in the artistic and technical skills of music composers (Charles, 63). During this period there was a shift from the production of shorts and simple hymns to development of large scale hymnographic forms. Long and elaborate metrical sermons were now being composed during the renaissance period. During this period the shift from monophonic sound to polyphony sound had already being effected. Christian music production during this period signals much technical and artistic advancement in the society. Since the invention of printing made distribution and storage of music much easier, much of renaissance Christian music has survived to current period. Music began to follow an independent path divergent from ancient beliefs that propagated the perception that music was an extended adjunct to worship. Christian music began to be viewed as facet of its own.
Modern period has also witnessed evolution of Christian music from what it used to be in the renaissance period. Modern period has marked the production and distribution of the largest volume of Christian music in history. Two developments characterized the development of contemporary Christian music. One of them is the shift in role of the Christian music (Charles, 106). Christian music during earlier period had only one role; worship. In the 1960 and 1970, the church began to loss it popularity with many people opting not to go to church. This marked the birth of contemporary Christian music.
Various features were introduced into Christian music to make it more appealing to people. Therefore, church music not only served the purpose of worship but was assigned a new role of attracting new members into the churches. Secular music concepts such as blues, rock and reggae rhythms were introduced into gospel music. Another development is the commercialization of Christian music production. With the growth of the music industry and increased popularity of capitalistic values in the society, Christian music has today been tagged with commercial values.
In Conclusion, Christian music has undergone various evolution processes to become what it is today. Analyzing the evolution of Christian music, it has now become common knowledge that, music reflects the values and attitude of the society at the time of production.
Work Cited
Dickson Andrew (2005). The Story of Christian Music: From Gregorian Chant to Black Gospel, an Authoritative Illustrated Guide to All the Major Traditions of Music for Worship. USA. Augsburg Fortress Publishers
Hoffer Charles (2009). Music Listening Today. USA. Clark Boxter
Kimbrough T (1985). Hymns are Theology. Theology Today: 42 (1), 59- 65
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