Music in a Religious Context - Essay Example

Lecturer Music and religion connect in very many ways. Virtually all religions in the world make use of music, but perceive music differently. Different songs were, and still are sung for various purposes, but that does not, and never did take away the religious sense of their usage. I A Chazzan is a Jewish musician that is trained in vocal arts and whose duty is to lead a congregation in a songful prayer. They are referred to as cantors in the English language. They may also be referred to as Hazzan in Hebrew, Khazn in Yiddish and Hassan in Latino. The Church of England is the mother church of the Anglican Communion, and the officially established church in England. It considers itself within the norms of western Christianity. Its formal establishment to the mission to England dates back to AD597 by Saint Augustine of Canterbury. A cyclic mass was the very first multi-movement kind of western music to be subject to a single organizing design. It was a setting of the Roman Catholic in which certain movements-Gloria, Sanctus, credo, Kyrie and Agnus Dei-shared some common musical theme known as Cantus Firmus which served to make it a unified whole. There are types of cyclical mass which include the cantus firmus mass, the motto mass, the parody mass, the paraphrase mass and certain other masses that combined the aspects of these techniques. Emancipation encompasses a number of things that are done to free sections of people within the society that are disenfranchised (Tagg, 2002). A lot of works have been done on political emancipation, by such fine brains as Karl Max. He opined that political emancipation entails equality in status of the individual citizens of a country in matters relating to the state and equality before the law, regardless of the religious, race, property or other individual traits of an individual. Evensong is a term that relates to Anglicanism and is used to refer to the evening prayer. Evensong is also used by the Unitarian Universalist association to mean some programmed gatherings, a series of them, organized by the Unitarian Universalist Association. Many songs have been done that bear the title ‘evensong’. A lot of books have also been written bearing the title ‘evensong’, with some having been bestsellers at some point. Gospel is a music genre, whose definition is various among different groups of people. Even the creation, significance and performance of the gospel music differ from one group to another. They are composed and performed for purposes that vary, which may include ceremonial purposes, religious purposes and aesthetic pleasure. Most commonly today, it may also be meant for the marketplace for purposes of entertainment. The general characteristic of gospel music is the dominance of the vocals with referenced lyrics of a Christian nature. There are subgenres of gospel music which include urban contemporary gospel, sometimes referred to as the black gospel, the contemporary gospel, and modern gospel/praise and worship music/contemporary Christian gospel. Many forms the gospel music today make use of choirs, piano, drums, tambourines, the brass guitar, and there is an increasing use of the electric guitar. As opposed to hymns which generally have the statelier measure, gospels have more of a syncopated rhythm. The derivative forms of the gospel music are the rhythm and blues/r ‘n’ b, the country music and the rock and roll music forms. Popular music is a term used with reference to any type of music that is generally loved among differentiated groups of people. They always have a wider appeal. Their form is most often sectional, with the sections being the verses, the refrain or the chorus, and the bridge. There are other forms such as the thirty-two bar form, the twelve bar blues and the verse chorus form. Rarely do we have popular music composed with different music for each stanza. It contrasts to both traditional music and art music. It is sometimes referred to as the pop music, but the two terms may not be used interchangeably, because whereas the term pop music refers to a particular music genre, popular music is a term for all kind of music of all ages that appeal to popular tastes. Romanticism is used to refer to the romantic are or the romantic period. It was a literary, artistic and intellectual movement that started in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. It was partly a reaction to the then fast spreading scientific revolution in Europe, and partly a revolt against the aristocratic political and social norms of the Enlightenment Age, and further, it was a reaction to the scientific interpretation of nature. It was an embodiment of the visual arts, literature, and music. It also had some aspects of historiography, natural science and education. It elevated ancient custom folk arts to whole new level, and gave them a noble status. Protestantism includes all forms of the Christian faith and practices that came with the religious doctrines, ecclesiological and political impulses of the deviation from the Roman Catholic doctrines. This marked the Protestant Reformation. It was a movement that started as a protest to those who opposed the Lutheran teachings, and is believed to have started in Germany at around 1517 when Luther did a ninety-five-theses publication to react to the medieval doctrines and practices, especially touching on ecclesiology, salvation and justification (Tagg, 2002). The protestant denomination in the world rejected the authority of the pope and generally denied the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. Amongst them, however, there is the disagreement about the issue of the Christ’s presence during the Eucharist. Spiritualism is the belief that the dead spirits, living in the spirit world have the ability inclination and the ability to communicate with the living humans and influence their lives in certain incomprehensible ways. II Andrew Dorsey – Precious Lord (performed by Mahalia Jackson) was a gospel music, a composition by an African American known as Thomas Andrew Dorsey. It had great poetry, and was considered among the modern hymns. It was inspired by Dorsey’s personal tragedy. He had suffered a nervous breakdown and turned to religion as the only way to take that away. He sat somewhere, having a great spiritual feeling, wanted alone in his room, took up his guitar and started to play a melody singing the line of this song. G.P. da Palestrina – Kyrie from Missa L’Homme Armé was a cyclical mass of the type parody mass and its liturgical season was the Dominica Passionis et Exaltatione S. Crucis. It has six voices. It may be argued that Kyrie from Missa L’Homme Armé is a hymn, and there has never been a disagreement with this argument. It has properly arranged lyrics with meticulously done vocals, too well for the days that this piece of art was done. Gregorio Allegri – Miserere Mei, Deus is an ancient song meant to celebrate Easter. It was sung at such events that even the pope of the Catholic Church would attend. Madonna – Like a Prayer is pop rock music with some elements of the gospel music in it. It is a fusion of genres. It makes use of a choir that provides vocals in the background. There is a rock guitar that is used to keep the music mysterious and dark. She uses certain liturgical words that are inspired by her catholic upbringing. She hired people to do the brass guitar and some others to do the drums. On the other hand, it was meant for entertainment and sure enough, it proved to be a commercial success, having featured at the peak of the billboard top 100. Jerusalem [C.H.H. Parry] was a spiritual music and an inspirational music. It was a traditional English song with traditional orchestral arrangements. It was styled with dramatic soundtrack, knights of old, fanfare, history, film vocals, TV vocals and early music aspects. Leonard Bernstein – Adonai Roi (Second Movement of Chichester Psalms) was Protestantism in nature. It has four vocal soloists doing brass/baritone, alto, soprano and tenor. It uses a chorus and has biblical narratives, which is why some people think is more of gospel than anything else. Michael Tippett – Steal Away (from A Child of Our Time) was an emancipation song about people suffering and wanting to be free. Some brass soloist sings in his prison room, seemingly disenfranchised and singing lines that touch on freedom matters (Moore, 2007). Monty Python – Always Look on the Bright Side of Life is a comedy song that was written by Eric Idle and that was featured in a 1979 film entitled Monty Pythons Life of Brian. It was also a popular song whose lines were used to chant praises for an English football team, Sheffield Wednesday. Leonard Bernstein – Adonai Roi (Second Movement of Chichester Psalms) is set in sort of a conventional meter and has a tranquil melody. The melody is sung by a countertenor and is repeated by soprano vocals in the chorus. It has biblical narrations. It has an orchestra of trombones, three trumpets, two harps, strings and timpani. Bibliography Moore, A. (2007) "Categorical Conventions in Music Discourse: Style and Genre". Music & Letters, Vol. 82, No. 3, pp. 432–442. Tagg, P. (2002) "Analyzing Popular Music: Theory, Method and Practice". Popular Music 2: 41. Read More