4-1-15<\/p>\n
I recently have quoted St Augustine, from more than 1500 years ago, to the effect
\nthat \u201cHe who sings, prays twice.\u201d In the early days of the church, it was music
\nthat helped attract worshipers… and was, naturally and powerfully, an irresistible
\nmeans to praise God and express joy.<\/p>\n
Before the church fathers (and mothers; St Cecilia becoming the Patron saint
\nof Music) Plato identified not only music but harmony as capturing \u2013 as best
\nhumankind could \u2013 the abstract but Perfect Good that reigns over us. Plato did not
\nparticularly ascribe it to the manufactured Greek gods, but he believed that there
\nexisted an Absolute Truth; and that, even if we could never fully know it, humans
\nare ennobled by seeking it. Although he lived 300 years before Jesus, the early
\nchurch recognized his philosophy in some ways as proto-Christian; and many of
\nthem were neo-Platonists. <\/p>\n
So the musical impulse, in many ways, was concurrent to the institution of
\nworship, formal and informal. Plainsong and chants predominated, and in the
\nevolution of corporate worship, the trends moved from singing individuals to
\nensembles and choirs. In the Gothic era, polyphony \u2013 \u201cmany sounds,\u201d part-
\nsinging, basic harmony \u2013 entered church music. There was actually a time when
\nthe Roman church considered banning harmony as rebellion against tradition, but
\nthe impulse of reformers from Luther to Bach opened the floodgates of glorious
\nharmonies, attractive melodies, the regal organ, full organs, and the resumption of
\ncongregational singing.<\/p>\n
This is a brief introduction, in Holy Week, to a brief introduction to the history of
\nchurch music. Linked here is a 90-minute BBC-TV documentary on sacred music,
\nusing Easter themes as the touchstone.<\/p>\n
It covers approximately a thousand years of Western church music, from Plainsong
\nto Polyphony, simple chants to the complex but captivating musical expression of
\nJ. S. Bach. The setting is St Luke\u2019s in London, staged as a reverent mixture of the
\nancient and modern. There is tasteful narration between numbers. It ultimately is
\na concert, not a church service, and I hope the occasional audience applause is not
\ndisconcerting.<\/p>\n
If you are a person who enjoys listening to the Messiah at Christmastide, or even
\nif you are not, sometime during Holy Week you should find this interesting.
\nThe church\u2019s heritage; musical history; the sweep of cultural changes; artistic
\nexpression of another time, almost another world, are here. And, by the translation-
\nsubtitles of chants, songs, choruses, and motets, the essence of the Easter story is
\ntold.<\/p>\n
… as, maybe, only music can bring it to our souls.<\/p>\n
+ + +<\/p>\n