THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD MUSIC

[turnorburn]

I just knew you'd all like this one..

We are going to try and nail down how to tell the difference between good and bad music, especially if the words are O.K. How can I tell if something is sensual or not, if something is spiritual or carnal? I think of a fellow that didn't know anything about music, and he said to me: "When I read my Bible, when I pray, when I listen to preaching, the Holy Spirit teaches and ministers to me and comforts me, rebukes, instructs, corrects me--whatever it is that I need. But I can tell that the Holy Spirit of God is working in me." And he said, "When somebody sings a song, I expect the Holy Spirit to do the same thing through that song."
I had sung a blues arrangement of "No One Ever Cares For Me Like Jesus," and he said, "Never sing that one in church again." This was years ago.

This man could hardly play "She'll Be Coming 'round the Mountain" on the harmonica, but he told me that, and I promised him that I would never sing that song that way again.

This young man is responsible for his whole family coming to Christ. And the entire time that I have known him, he has spent time alone with the Lord and has put the Lord ahead of any friendship that he has with another man.

When we're all done with this thing, if too much is scrambled--I will try to make it simple--but if it is scrambled, you can always just ask the Lord. Say, "Holy Spirit, teach me; is this song good or bad?" If you have a question, ask the Lord. "Try the spirits" is what 1 John 4 says, "whether they be of God." You'll be able to tell. Some songs are so bad you'll know immediately you ought not to listen to them. Others are more difficult to tell. I still have questions about certain songs I listen to. There are some songs that seem to have a good message, but something doesn't seem right. We want to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and if there is something wrong in the song, we don't want to sing it.

BE CAREFUL
Let's look at 1 Peter 5:8-9. "Be sober; be vigilant; because your adversary, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world."

This is a message to Christians. We must be careful, because, though Satan cannot take a child of God to Hell--and praise God for that--he can take a child of God just about everywhere else, if we let him.

I'll never forget something that great preacher R.G. Lee said in the middle of a message in which he was preaching on the crazy devil-possessed man of the Gadarenes. He talked of how Christ cast the devils out and sent them into the swine. I remember him preaching very fervently: "The devil will live in me if I let him; the devil will live in you if you let him; but if you kick him out, he'll go and snook up to some dirty, lousy hog and feel in good company. And that shows you that the devil's second choice is a hog."

I never forgot that. I thought, if I let my body, my spirit, and my thoughts be a place that harbor things that side with Satan, what a mess I would be. I don't like the thought of that. This book says that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and I want that. God says I am to be holy, and I want my body to be holy. I long to be that way, and the Holy Spirit within me longs to have me be that way, longs to have you be that way.

It's a troublesome thought. When I think of devils filling up a hog and how dirty that is, I think, why would I ever want to be close to anything that would be comfortable in a hog? I thank God someday we will be delivered from the body of this death, and we won't be near anything that's dirty or unclean. You say, is that your own righteousness? No, that's the Holy Spirit within us that tells us so that we want things to be holy and pure. I never had those desires at all before I got saved, but I do now.

In the area of music, I am careful, because at one time it swallowed me up. The devil had my testimony so that no one thought I was saved. For two years they couldn't even tell. Through sin, the devil can swallow up our testimonies.

So we are to be sober and vigilant; mark it down. Someone might say, "But that sounds like a tiring thing." Well, maybe it is, but what it produces in the end is some liberty in Christ and a lot of joy. It's worth it to look out for trouble, and music is a trouble area.

MARCH MUSIC VERSUS DANCE MUSIC
The devil is our adversary. He is against us, because he is against God. This is the basis of march music. God has given us wonderful march music, so the devil says, "If that is what God is for, then I'm against it," and the devil puts the accent on a beat opposite from that of march music. Dance music and march music are direct opposites, because their basic beat is the opposite. Now there are other things involved, which we will look at, but the devil is an opponent of everything that God is for. If God is for good, the devil is for evil. If God says go to church and listen to the Bible, the devil says go somewhere else and listen to something else. I think that's obvious to folks who have gone to church for a long enough time.

There's a basic difference. A march has the beat on one and three. ONE, two, THREE, four, ONE, two, THREE, four. Dance music is one, TWO, three, FOUR, one, TWO, three, FOUR. You can hear that old snare drum playing this difference.

The march type music is the soldier's music. We're going to depict something military if we use the march rhythm. If we use the dance rhythm, we're going to depict something that is opposed to marching, something sensual. This is a basic element of music.

We are to prove all things and hold fast that which is good (1 Thess. 5:21). Once we find good music, we need to hang on to it, and we ought to abhor that which is evil. Ephesians 5:10 tells us to prove that which is acceptable to the Lord. I want my music to be acceptable to the Lord. I want Him to be pleased with it.

We are spirit, soul, and body, and God has given us music to bless us spirit, soul, and body. Here's how it fits together: There are only three parts to music, because God made music, and He made music to be a blessing to man. 1 Thessalonians 5:23--"...and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." All that we are is affected by music.

How does this work? The spirit deals with our thoughts, and particularly our thoughts toward God. If you're not saved, your spirit is dead; and you're not thinking about God. It will take someone else to talk to you about the Lord to get you even to think about Him. Jesus said to His disciples, "...the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (Jn. 6:63). In the words of God are life. That's how we get eternal life; we are born again through the incorruptible seed. That has to do with spiritual things.

http://biblebelievers.com/Ives1.html

tob

 

[turnorburn]

MELODY, HARMONY, AND RHYTHM

How does that apply to music? Take melody, one of the parts of music. Melody is for our spirit. It is to enable us to commune with God. If I softly hum "Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross," without any particular rhythm or harmony, I make praise to the Lord. That song is a prayer. I can help my spirit by humming a melody. Any piece of music that has a decent melody, though it have no harmony or rhythm, may be used to commune with God. You can think upon the Lord in your spirit. That is what melody is for.

Let's take our soul. That's where our feelings, emotions, and affections are. In our soul we have attitudes and feelings about the things we think about in our spirit. You say, "What is that?" For instance, if I say "Mom," along with that thought that's spiritual, you have a soulish feeling. You go, "Oh, Mom, that fuddy duddy thing," or you go, "Oh, Mom, that's the best thing that ever was," or something in between those two, maybe. If I say, "spinach!" or "barley green," that evokes a feeling, a taste even. "Green peas." "Circus." You have a feeling that goes along with the thought. That's what the soul is. Your ability to like or dislike things is harbored in your soul. That's what gives you your personality, basically--what you like and dislike, and how you react to all those things.

Harmony, on the other hand, is for the soul. A lot of Gospel tunes are written in major keys; they are bright and happy. As young children in grade school we are often taught that major chords are happy, and minor chords are sad. If I play a whole series of minor chords on the piano, you will soon be very weighted down and sorrowful. The minor chords depict sadness. There is nothing wrong with minor chords in and of themselves, but they must be balanced. If we are going to talk about how our Savior was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, we might want to use some minor chords--but not a steady diet of them. You need to mix and balance them with other types of chords.

If I sing "There Is A Land That Is Fairer Than Day" in a major key, Heaven sounds like a wonderful place. But if I change that to a minor key--keepingthe same rhythm and melody--all the sudden Heaven doesn't sound like such a happy, wonderful place. The only thing I have to change to effect this different mood is the harmony.

TEXT PAINTING

My grandfather had a cousin who played piano in the theater. All he did was watch the silent films and try to match the piano or organ music with what was happening on the film. There were no words; all that was going to be expressed had to be expressed from the keyboard. Sure enough, there was a guy with the moustache who wanted to marry the pretty young lady with the long, blond hair. She didn't want anything to do with him, though, so he wanted to get rid of her; and at that point along came the hero, who was the man the pretty lady was in love with anyway. The hero was big and strong, and he was a good guy. He was going to deliver the pretty lady from Oil Can Harry. Before the movie was done the bad guy always figures out what to do--if he can't have her, the train's going to get her, so he ties her up to the railroad track. The hero can't rescue the heroine until he catches the bad guy, because the bad guy is keeping him from saving the girl. All of this went on without words. Everything was built up by the accompaniment on the piano. Somewhere in the middle the bad guy is chasing after the good guy to try to throw him over the cliff, and you have the chase music. It is in a minor key because it's not a happy thing, and it moves along rapidly and grows increasingly furious as the scene progresses.

Then they show you the railroad track and the train is coming closer and closer, and the accompanist plays something called a fully diminished seventh chord; and he keeps raising the chord a half step to raise the tension. It's a scary type of chord, and it, too, is played increasingly furious. Then suddenly it's back to the chase, and the chase music starts; then back to the railroad track, and the music is higher this time and more furious; then back to the chase; then back to the railroad track. The pace of the music increases each time, building the drama in the hearts of the audience.

What this is called among musicians is text painting. It is painting a picture with melodies, harmonies, and rhythms, on purpose, to affect the way people respond to something. There are a lot of people that make money watching television shows and writing music behind them. When I was a boy, I would turn the sound down when I watched scary movies on television; and lo, and behold, they were no longer scary. Think of some guy minding his own business and walking down a dark alley (No one ever explains why he is walking down a dark alley, probably because he is stupid!) all alone at night. In the background you hear a minor chord building in intensity, and you know something is going to happen any minute because of the music. If you turn the sound off, the effect is ruined. It is the music that builds the drama, that paints the picture. These musicians are painting a picture behind that film, and that's big business.

They manipulate people's feelings through chords, melodies, and rhythms. With all pieces of music the composer, with his palate of sounds, paints pictures. He may even look at a painting and write a song. He may look at the sea and the clouds and write a song about these. He may look at a person and write "The Maid With the Flaxen Hair." He may look at the stars and write about all of the planets. The composer paints a musical picture from something he sees or feels.

The most noble thing that can be done is to take the Scriptures and set them properly in music, painting a correct and suitable picture.

http://biblebelievers.com/Ives1.html

tob

 

[turnorburn]

THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS

We want to look at the Psalms for a moment. Psalm 29:1-2--"Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." It says to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Part of worship is praise and singing. What, then, does this Psalm mean?

I heard that even when I was back in the Methodist church, long before I was saved, and I thought, "What is that?"

First of all, our God is holy, and He said that the definition of beauty is something that is holy. No young lady, no matter how beautiful she may be thought of in her face, is beautiful if she is not holy. No thing that man ever created, no matter how skillfully it was crafted, is a beautiful work of art if it wasn't made to be holy. Beauty and holiness go together.

Now this is true when it comes to music and the playing of instruments. Every instrument was made to be played beautifully. God gave the Jews music. God gave King David the ability to make instruments, and the Jewish community today, though they are the enemies of the Gospel, still have a shred of what King David had. Many of the classical musicians are Jewish. If you want to hear how a violin should be played, listen to a Jewish man play it. If you want to hear what an oboe should sound like, listen to a Jewish man play that oboe.

The classical musicians strive to play with the most beautiful tones they can on their instruments. Now, sad to say, some of the music that is written for them is not holy music; and no matter how well they play, it comes out rather strange. But if you want to find out what a trumpet should sound like, listen to the first chair solo player in an orchestra. Those people are so picky that they are fired if they miss a note in a concert recording, and there are fifteen, twenty, seventy, seventy-five, one hundred people waiting in line to try out for that place. They dare not miss a note. As a matter of fact, some of them are fired at practices if they don't play well enough.

I wish that I could say that we could find that standard of excellence among Christians and say, "This is what a voice should sound like; this is what a baritone horn should sound like; this is what a bass clarinet should sound like; this is what a flute should sound like." I'm not sure that we can find it. Sometimes Christians forget that David was "cunning in playing," and we forget to put in the practice that David did.

Today we scarcely hear a saxophone played right. We scarcely hear people sing right. How come? Because people don't appreciate things that are holy. All appreciation for beauty goes right out the door with it. So if someone sings with a poor tone, nobody seems to care.

Things that are made beautiful are a picture of holy things. Now everything that man tries to make beautiful is not holy, but it is at least a picture of holy things. We are to praise the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

We are told that the Holy Spirit that dwells in us is holy, so this is a picture of beauty. The Holy Spirit, God, dwelling with man--that is beauty to the Lord.

The Holy Scripture, God's perfect Word, is a perfect picture of beauty. What this Book does for my soul, for my thoughts, for my life, and for all around me is amazing and wonderful. It is holy, and it is beautiful.

Holy matrimony, as we call it, is supposed to be holy. Hebrews 13:4 says "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled..." Marriage is a beautiful thing. It is a picture of holiness. The Bible says, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it" (Ephesians 5:25). The Bible tells me that I am to be faithful to her no matter what. The Bible tells me to love, care for, and cherish her, knowing that she is the weaker vessel. And if she ever lets me down, that is just what the church does to Jesus Christ anyway; but if I love her yet, that is a beautiful picture of how Christ loves us as His bride. Also, she may be a picture of a church that is obedient to Christ, if she is obedient to her husband, and if she reverences him. That's what God intends to take place in a marriage, so that it is a beautiful picture of something far greater than just the two of us becoming one flesh--of Christ and His church. Matrimony ought to be holy.

This says something about the way we are to worship the Lord. There ought to be some beauty in our singing, in the depths of our spirit and soul, that what comes out might be pleasing unto the Lord and a beautiful picture of holy things. It is to remind us of the Lord's holiness.

I went to Pittsburgh, Michigan, (to play in an orchestra), and I was amazed at how slack I was when it came to music. They did not allow a young person to blat one bad note on an instrument. They could not pick it up and go "blah," even just for fun. They did not allow it. Every note that came out was supposed to be pure. Of course there were mistakes that we made, but Brother Rick Town send would never let a sour note be played on purpose or in jest. He said, "No, they have to come out in praise of the Lord." He was seeking to achieve some beauty in the playing to show forth the Lord's holiness.

That's part of text painting--putting the right sound in the voice or instrument to make a picture of the Lord's holiness.

Turn to Psalm 66:1-2. "Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious." Our music should be joyful. That means we can put joy into the music. We can paint a picture of joy. "Sing forth the honour of his name." The music should be honorable. Somehow we can put the Lord's honor into the music. "Make his praise glorious." It doesn't say that this is text painting, but this is what God is talking about. It is saying that when we praise God, it can be a glorious praise. It should come from the heart, first of all; and if it does, when we raise our voices and when we play our instruments, it should be our very best effort to bring glory to the Lord's name. We can paint a picture of a glorious Savior if we sing and play right.

This tells us something else. Music can be dishonorable; music can be inglorious, and that's what is going on today, largely.

http://biblebelievers.com/Ives1.html

tob