Some notes on modern church music

There are many debates about CCM (defined as a genre of music with a pop or rock sound and lyrics that are related to the Christian faith). The argument for it is that, since today's youngsters adore pop and rock (my hero didn't - another abnormality on his part), the way to get them into church is by incorporating that genre with the substitution of vaguely Christian lyrics, often complete with light effects, smoke machines and suggestive guitarist postures. Although our group eschews the bling and glitter, we do encompass some of their songs and sometimes either the lyrics or accompaniment is whacky enough that I cannot join in. And why does the drum kit have to pound away at my tinnitus ridden ears through the majority of the songs we sing? In the musical forms I am more at home with, as a general rule percussion is used for special effect rather more than monotony.

Stock photo

Ali and I once went to a "modern" Charismatic church with the whole works: light shows, smoke, the works, audience in darkness, musicians prancing around on the stage. A performance rather more than congregational participation. Actually I rather enjoyed it, trying to figure out how they achieved the various effects and immersing myself in the changing colours. But it wasn't what I consider praise or worship. But then I've also attended meetings in a Kenyan village, PA system distorted at full volume, African beat and gyrations - and that wasn't worship either IMHO. Which suggests that the fault here lies with me - for the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.

Prompted by a remark my son made I have been reading Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night which is set in the Oxford both she and I loved. She makes an interesting comment on "genuine music" which concurs with my own experience: He was wrapt in the motionless austerity with which all genuine musicians listen to genuine music. Harriet was musician enough to respect this aloofness; she knew well enough that the ecstatic rapture on the face of the man opposite meant only that he was hoping to be thought musical, and that the elderly lady over the way, waving her fingers to the beat, was a musical moron. She knew enough, herself, to read the sounds a little with her brains, laboriously unwinding the twined chains of melody link by link. Peter, she felt sure, could hear the whole intricate pattern, every part separately and simultaneously, each independent and equal, separate but inseparable, moving over and under and through, ravishing heart and mind together. I position myself on this spectrum somewhere between Harriot and Lord Peter - I'd like to say that I was closer to the latter but it would not be true.  But, like a good fruit cake, I know something I like when I hear it.

C. S. Lewis adds that an excellently performed piece of music, as natural operation which reveals in a very high degree the peculiar powers given to man, will thus always glorify God whatever the intention of the performers may be. But that is a kind of glorifying which we share with the ‘dragons and great deeps’, with the ‘frost and snows’. What is looked for in us, as men, is another kind of glorifying, which depends on intention.  Although he didn't think much of them he at least realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren’t fit to clean those boots. It gets you out of your solitary conceit. 

So, returning to Christian praise, if such a thing as "genuine music" exists objectively (by which I mean is commonly accepted by the majority in at least most Western cultures and upbringings) then one would expect this very best attempt by mankind to be that employed in praising his maker. And of course musical repertoire down through the ages has, to some degree, demonstrated this. Then why do we have something inferior IMHO in modern churches? As I have already argued, is it because of a conception or misconception about modern youth?

So now I have a mental picture of our meeting room with an orchestra out front playing highly polished "genuine" music with the congregation now a choir, instead of the usual guitarist with piano and drums backup on the side. I am not sure if that was what I had in mind...

Cecil Francis Alexander

I was brought up on hymns and, in children's meetings, CSSM choruses. Many are slushy or nonsense but some are sublime. A high contender in my book is:

There is a green hill far away,

Without a city wall,

Where the dear Lord was crucified,

Who died to save us all...

for its simplicity in lyrics, doctrine and musical setting. Another favourite is:

Elizabeth Celphane

Beneath the cross of Jesus

I fain would take my stand,
the shadow of a mighty rock
within a weary land;

but, although the whole hymn is worthy poetry, for me it is in particular the words "a mighty rock within a weary land" (my emphasis) which conjures up peculiar emotions as does "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. (Isa 54:11). The trouble is, in both cases the allusion is destroyed once you change Bible version or look the words up in Strong's concordance.  Therefore these word pictures which I like apparently have little or no actual value. Such is poetry.

Horatio Stafford

And then there is: His wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous telegram, 'Saved alone …'. Shortly afterwards, as Horatio Spafford travelled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daughters had died. Although his Christianity was hardly conventional from then on.

When peace like a river, attendeth my way

When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul…

These lyrics are packed with human emotion - is this what I am searching for?  When I should be bowing to an all powerful, eternal, changeless creator entity beyond my ken, god yet born in the likeness of men?

Sandy Thompson was an enigma in the church my parents attended. I was young at the time and so wasn't told the back story but I heard things whispered and knew enough to be intrigued: I gleaned that Sandy was something special in that he was an evangelist and constantly on the move, previously had had a ministry in the Holy Land, and only occasionally was seen in our church. Was he estranged from his wife and family who lived next door to the church? Was this because he was away from home so much, or was the tension because of a clash of doctrine?  It saddens me that doctrine can cause such a rift. Over the weekend we watched the fictional but true to life movie 7500 which unfolds the drama of extremist Muslim terrorists trying to seize control of a Berlin-Paris flight - that men could act like this in the name of religion is mind blowing. 

I'm sure the man in this video is the same man as I remember: the picture of him agrees with my memory, he mentions preaching at Andover which is not far from my childhood home, mentions a Brethren background but now seeing things differently, from which I infer differences over the baptism in the Spirit, an experience the Brethren church typically disagrees with, and he quotes a song (at 23 minutes) that I remember he teaching us and which made a deep impression on me back then if only because I knew that it described how any true Christian should be and yet I could not truthfully say it was my own experience.

For me to live is Christ

To die is gain

To hold His hand and walk this narrow way

There is no peace, no joy, no thrill

Like walking in His will

For me to live is Christ

To die is gain

Whatever my or your views on Christianity, there is no doubt that it has been and continues to be the inspiration for a significant and much loved part of the repertoire of "genuine" music. But as to what constitutes "genuine" surely is at least to some degree a matter of personal taste. And my own tastes with its love of evaporated milk, golden syrup and fruit cake are clearly not the norm.

Snare drums and tinnitus

Snare drum

As CCM goes our church is relatively innocuous. We don't rely on amplification. Many of the songs we sing are our own. The praise leader generally has an acoustic guitar, we have a grand piano and several excellent pianists, the possibility of bass guitar and trumpet depending on availability of players, a congregation that sings well. And a drum kit (next to the piano).

I experience mild tinnitus and loud sounds can distort. This is partly age related and partly due to angle grinders in my earlier years of stupidity. In retrospect I earnestly tell the youngsters to look after their bodies - we don't generally get replacement ears (or eyes or backs) and they can be so easily permanently damaged.

Looking at this diagram, and adding the blood and gore that doubtless accompanies it, it is frankly amazing that my or anyone else's ear works at all. I am so very thankful that I can hear as well as I can, and for my other senses too.  We are fearfully and wonderfully made.

The cacophony of noise that is our praise is bad enough on my ears but the snare drum beats it all. One internet sufferer writes from bitter experience: The sound of a snare-drum hit is one of the worst types for the ear.  The fast attack comes too quick for the ear to defend itself by closing down a bit, so the ear closes too late. Bad news for the ears. This guy recommends that all drummers wear ear plugs. Not that I am telling anyone to do anything in this post - I am merely relating my own feelings and I do not intend to offend.

The "snare" is a number of springy wires that are stretched across the lower drum "head" and thus jangle against it when the drum is hit. There is a lever that adjusts the tension and thus allows the snare to be disengaged.

It's not that I dislike drums per se. But to my ears the snare drum sounds a bit like a drawer full of metal pots and pans being tipped from about head height onto a concrete floor. On every beat. I don't particularly like this sound, let alone its volume. And whilst on this hobby, I hate the way the snare resonates when I play the piano (outside of meetings) and generally get annoyed enough to warrant getting off the stool and disengaging it. I've toyed with somehow permanently crippling it but I think this would be noticed.

Maybe I should wear ear plugs. But I don't want to make it obvious. Instead I tend to stand as far away from the drum kit as I can.

Song of Albion 6

I must try to be focused. My purpose in these posts on music is to try to answer the question of "what sort of music should be acceptable in church?". Clearly lots of people have already got strong opinions on this - witness the diversity of musical expression in churches - and who am I to gainsay them? But you can hardly fail to have noticed the prevalence of what has become known as CCM or Christian Contemporary Music.You may also have noticed that some CCM is a major money-making industry.

To be proper and legal our church is a member of CCLI and, when we project lyrics, we duly display the copyright owner if known. Our annual dues to CCLI are based on how many times we have sung particular songs and thus the copyright owners get paid. We pay the Christian music industry so that we can worship God. Really? Yes really.

We are privileged to have several anointed songwriters in our small congregation. I do not think that they get paid by CCLI when we sing their songs!

I don't have any problem with people being enterprising about making money. People have to live. I don't have any problem with Christian song-writers selling their wares to help make a living or at least cover expenses. But I do have a problem with people charging for the "Christian" ministry they claim to be providing. Jesus paid the taxes due and Judas carried the purse so they must have had something in the way of finances, but I cannot imagine Jesus charging for his ministry. Somehow it just doesn't fit. To the twelve Jesus instructed "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. You have received freely, freely give."

I would like to tease out, in these posts, whether the nature or suitability of the artist's music is affected by their financial inclinations.

With this in mind I have started to take more attention of who the artist is of the songs we sing in worship. Apart from our own songs (which make up a major proportion) I see that we sing a lot of songs by Chris Bowater. So I checked out his web site - it is refreshing that you can freely download sheet music for many of his songs there. This is unprecedented - it is unusual to find free sheet music for current musicians. He also has some good things to say on the CCM debate. And he is also a mature pastor of what looks like a lively church in the UK. All this bodes well for my theory...

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