Music and Religion

 

 



Most of the Sunday mornings in my life have been spent at home. For my rather devout Catholic grandmother, the idea that we did not find a home church after we moved to South Carolina is awful. In fact, I've never been baptized and she swears that if I were ever to become deathly ill she would fly here with holy water to save my soul. So when it comes to music and religion, I only have very recent experience to base my knowledge off of. However, even with my limited knowledge base I do think that prevailing religions do impact what areas listen to which can in turn impact what is believed to be aesthetically pleasing. I'm not sure that the religions I have participated in necessarily influence what is aesthetically pleasing firsthand.

The church my best friend at home went to was an Evangelical church, where music was a big part of the service for teenagers. When I would accompany Danielle to Wednesday youth group in high school, the majority of the service would be music worship. First Assembly of God would have the teenagers and young people make up the praise band that would lead the Wednesday and Sunday services. For this church and its members, music was primarily used as a means of Thanksgiving to God for all He has done. Each Sunday the first thirty minutes was Christian praise music, that could have been found on the radio, followed by the sermon.

I had only vague memories of attending Catholic mass as a six year old and being a rather introverted person, it seemed very strange how much the worship time of service seemed like a rock concert. I guess the musical choices in this church are similar to the Native Americans in that the music was very energetic and danceable.

This kind of rock concert to praise God is very different from the way music is used at the Church of the Advent in Spartanburg, which I have been attending as often as I can to sing in the choir. The Church of the Advent, which Dr. Vaneman also attends, uses very traditional hymns and uses music throughout the service not just at the beginning or end. The music, to me personally, seems to have the purpose of dividing the service into specific parts not to have a connection with the members of the church and God.