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Music is an extremely touchy subject. My dad likes to say that the three touchiest subjects to speak on in a sermon are child training, spending habits, and music.
I love music and always have. I often sing while I go about my work, and I love listening to music as well, especially while I cook, edit pictures, organize my room, or do practically anything that keeps me in the same place for awhile but doesn’t involve a lot of concentration (maybe that explains why my recipes turn out the way they do at times…haha). I am now a choral music junkie, but my music tastes have drastically changed over the past year or two.
I’ve always had pretty classical music tastes. Wait, let me clarify. Most people think “orchestra” when I say classical, but that’s not really what I mean. By classical, I mean traditional music that is classy. Spiritual music is great, but about 2 years ago when I really started listening to more music, I listened to a lot of secular stuff. Still within the classical realms, but secular. I loved musicals (the decent ones)…did you know that there’s a line in a musical for every situation? Yeah. I could practically carry on conversations with lines from musicals. The most “modern” music I got into was classical crossover, along the Hayley Westenra/Josh Groban/Andrea Bocelli/Sissel lines. Classically trained artists, but it leaned a little more towards classy pop and was mostly secular music. I listened to a LOT of music.
Then I went to Bible school, and for 7 weeks I listened to no secular music whatsoever. At Bible school, we had choir practice every day, preparing a program of choral music. By the end of those 7 weeks when I went back home and started listening to my old music, I found that it no longer satisfied. It was empty, trivial. However, I didn’t find much music to replace it that I enjoyed listening to (I enjoyed singing choral music but didn’t necessarily enjoy listening to other people sing it unless I was at a live concert.), so I soon got used to the secular drivel again.
So for 6 months, I listened to my old music, although maybe not quite to the extent that I had before (I just plain didn’t have as much free time, for one thing.). Then I went to the same Bible school again, but this time just for 3 weeks. I came back home and found that once again my secular music sounded cheap. Being a little older and wiser, this time I hypothesized that maybe God was trying to tell me something. I found some good choirs/sacred music groups that I enjoyed listening to, and the rest is history. While I do listen to a little bit of secular music now and then, I get annoyed with it very quickly and find myself enjoying sacred choral music much more than the secular stuff.
5 Reasons Why I Love Sacred Choral Music:
- 1) It is God-centered, not man-centered.
- 2) It is beautifully intricate.
- 3) It is inclusive. Many parts harmonize into a whole. It’s a beautiful picture of the church (body of Christ) as it is meant to function in community. It is not a soloistic work.
- 4) It is peaceful.
- 5) It is spiritual.
You might not like choral music. I didn’t either (I wasn’t opposed to it, but I didn’t seek it out for the pleasure of listening.). Keep an open mind.
Choral music certainly isn’t the only sacred music out there, but it’s a beautiful form of it. I’m not saying that everyone has to listen to choral music (but you should give it a try!). What I AM saying is that a steady diet of secular music can be very detrimental. I feel such a difference in my mental/emotional/spiritual state after listening to sacred music when compared to how I feel after listening to a lot of secular music. Sacred music puts me in a much calmer, restful state of mind. I get restless when I listen to too much secular music, and I feel unfulfilled.
As in everything, moderation. And making a choice to listen to God-conscious music is certainly a good one that makes a lot of sense if you’re concerned about your spiritual well-being. Even if the secular music you’re listening to is not WRONG, is it the BEST?
In case you need something to listen to, here are a few of my favorite sacred composers/arrangers (I can’t speak for all of their works because I haven’t heard them all, but what I’ve heard, I like.):
- Lloyd Kauffman
- Larry Nickel
- John Rutter
- Moses Hogan
And feel free to check out my sacred music playlist on YouTube (in it you’ll find a lot of works by the composers above)!
Just like so many other things in life, once you experience the good stuff, the cheap stuff will be just that: cheap.
This is so true that Christian music just uplifts and satisfies the soul even for our little ones. My 16 month old gets so fidgety on long car rides, even listing to kids music, but if we put her Steve Green “Hide em’ in your Heart” CD in, she calms right down.
Myself, I tend to just avoid music altogether since I don’t know many Christian artists that I enjoy (My favourite, Downhere, broke up ?) so I will pin this post and give your choral playlist a listen next time I need some bookkeeping background music!
I commented on this post but don’t see it. Forgive me if it shows up twice.
I was tickled to see that the first song on your YouTube playlist is the song my children call “The Song that Daddy Wrote.” He also arranged #77 on that list. Hopefully sometime soon he’ll orchestrate it for Anabaptist Orchestra Camp.
I encourage you to try oboe. They’re rare in the Menno world, and we’d be happy to have another at Anabaptist Orchestra Camp.
You might really enjoy recordings of Millikin University. My husband (a Concordia Choir grad) heard them recently and loved them. They have some songs on YouTube, including “De King is Born.”
Maria
Hi Maria! Great to hear from you! I’ve enjoyed singing many of your husband’s arrangements and compositions. I’m planning to be at SCMC VA this summer, so maybe I’ll get to meet you. 🙂 The oboe is still on my list of instruments to learn, but I took a detour for a little bit and started learning the cello in November. Mostly teaching myself at this point since I’m currently taking voice lessons, but I hope to pick up some cello lessons over the summer and depending on how well that goes, I may show up at Orchestra camp this year. 😉 Thanks for the tip about Millikin; I believe I’ve heard some of their work in passing, but I’ll have to go search them out again and listen with a more discerning ear.
I absolutely love choral music because it always lifts me up. Thank you for sharing your playlist, and I will check it out. My tastes in music are eclectic, and I have dozens of stations on Pandora, including choral music. I love Jim Brickman’s channel because it includes sacred songs. Music is one of G-d’s greatest gifts, and aren’t we thankful that we have such easy access to the many genres through modern technology.
Shalom,
GG
Thank you for sharing this. I too have found that as I better learn who I am and what my purpose is, that I am drawn to more music that reflects upon God and my own divine goals.
I love listening to this group – https://youtu.be/8EHQFb7f9CU?list=PLXPFet_zDHioTsMCH2sSzECCHtLOCPJ2B
And though it’s not a group, I can’t help but focus and reflect when I hear this song. Even my children are completely still when they hear this, not something that happens very often! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DRLmrboGK4
Wow. That is creepy. It sounds a lot like my music story. (except for the Bible school part) Amen! Chorale music is the best. I used to be a southern gospel junkie, until we moved to Tn. The youth here are exceptionally musically talented, love instruments( not me) , and singing. It is amazing what being surrounded with talented people who enjoy music will do to you. We have a small chorus that practices every Sunday. I now love singing and listening to chorale music, hardly ever listen to gospel, definitely wouldn’t pay for it. The highlight of my year this year was Shenandoah Christian Music Camp in Harrisonburg Va. It was absolutely amazing, especially Mass choir. Look it up on youtube!
Yes, it is amazing what being around musically talented, Christ-centered people will do for you. I would love to be part of a local chorus; some of the youth at church do sing together, but I’m the closest thing we have to a director… 😛 I attended the Ohio branch of SCMC this year, and it was an incredible experience. Wendell directed our mass choir as well; he’s awesome! We sang some of the same songs you guys did in VA.
If you are interested in sacred choral, check out Brian Buda. He’s an up-and-coming composer that’s won some awards for his choral work and also does a lot of instrumental, including several piano books. (You can find various places online where you can get them by googling him.)
Here are a few youtube clips of his:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFZtwNNZHUE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeuzeeXKtSk
(Just as a bit of a disclaimer, I do happen to be married to this guy… so I get to listen firsthand to his creative process… and I love it. 🙂 )
THanks so much for the tip! I love those songs.
He also has several choral pieces that aren’t on youtube, obviously. 🙂
I’m not sure if you are a pianist or not, but I can ask him to send me a pdf of one of his arrangements for the piano for you to try. 🙂
Feel free to email me at [email protected]. 🙂
Good article, Briana. I’ve just shared it with my hubby and we’ve been listening to your playlist.
We were both raised in good strong Independent Baptist churches and he is a piano player “excellente”! He has always loved the old hymns and plays arrangements he has learned over the years from Rudy Atwood and adapted himself.
Over the years, he has become more and more discouraged by the direction our churches are going in music and has developed courses to teach in the choirs that he has started in different churches we have been in (we have moved a lot over the years lol). He has done much research and learned much on the proper use (the godly use) of music.
He enjoyed the choirs on your playlist :).
God can be greatly glorified through godly music…..that should be our goal 🙂
Amen! Thanks for sharing your story.
It is a beautiful journey that God has led you on, Briana. I can so relate to a lot of what you said. I have always dearly loved music, too. Love to play it and sing it and love to listen to it. I was raised on bluegrass, and it will always be my biggest love of music. It calls to me and takes me back to my childhood…such happy, comforting memories of my Daddy playing his five-string banjo and guitar, and he and Mom and relatives and me singing together. Because of my love for music, satan used it as a tool to discourage me and attract me to a place that ended me up in a horribly depressed, spiritually-discouraged state. Unfortunately, my straying in the wrong direction went much farther than it sounds like yours did…yep, 70’s Rock was my destination…not a place conducive to holy living. To this day, I can STILL be drawn in VERY quickly if I let myself. I have to be on constant guard and stay off temptation’s ground, in order to stay in a place of victory in my Christian experience. There are songs that just draw me in with such power that it takes all I have to walk away. The Apostle Paul said we are not ignorant of satan’s devices. We know our weaknesses, and unfortunately, so does he. But, thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. God bless you for sharing your testimony!! You are an inspiration!!
Thank you for sharing, Cheryl! Isn’t our God wonderful for teaching us with such patience?
Thanks for sharing this part of your life journey, Briana. You are a very brave girl !
I was just a worldly miss who took to worldly music (pop/beat style) like a duck to water when naughty local girls introduced me to it. But when I turned to God in a crisis and got converted He started to give me a ‘no-no’ whenever I reached for the radio. At first it was hard to turn that stuff ‘off’. Soon it was ‘easy as’ and I’ve loathed that dismal, godless stuff ever since.
These days I sing happily to the Lord as I work at home, as you do. Prayer while I work is even more important to me than listening to music, although I love beautiful praise songs well sung. I figure that there’ll be forever to give vent to my praise to the Lord, but, on Earth, I’ll maybe be able to help others reach Heaven better through my prayers than through my singing. (Although I DO sing in tune !)
Thanks for sharing, Sue!