Music and Spirituality: Reflections from a Western Christian Perspective
Abstract
:1. Double Paradox
2. Sorting Things Out
2.1. Word of God
2.2. Musical Outcome
The “jubilus” – that is, the musical vocalization of the “a” of the Alleluia – this, and this alone, can finally translate the ecstasy of the believing soul in the face of revealed truth, truth which is ultimately not an idea but a Person. . . . ([7], p. 43). Faith in this Word, which leads to its musical vocalization, is neither a cold judgment nor the expression of artificially elaborated sentiments. It is the exultation of our whole being, ravished in the contemplation of the Mystery discovered in the Word . . . which is essentially the gift of God [as the one] Who gives [and] is given ([7], p. 42).
2.3. Common Themes
2.4. Words and Music
sphere of miraculous audible things – like the Gospel [and] is a unique gift of God’s creation [that] comes to us in the same way the Word of God does, namely, mediated by the voice.[10]
2.5. Music and Proclamation
in the liturgy . . . the praise of Israel – or more broadly the human vocation of praise – is to maintain and transform the world, [that it is] world-making . . . through human activity which God has authorized and in which God is known to be present.[17]
2.6. Music and Prayer
2.7. Memory, Health, Emotion, and Time
Because music is so close to human emotion and feeling, and, because faith is a matter of both the head and the heart, it leads us again and again into the realm of spirituality.([24], p. 17)
The phenomenon of music is given to us with the sole purpose of establishing an order in things, including, and particularly, the coordination between man and time. To be put into practice, its indispensable and single requirement is construction. Construction once completed, this order has been attained, and there is nothing more to be said.([25], p. 54)
. . . music spins itself out in time just the same as worship does. Music accompanies processions [as] the processional nature of the pilgrim people on the move takes place in time. Music articulates that time. . . Beyond that music articulates worship itself [in the] pace and shape and flow of a service.[29]
Music is the temporal art par excellence . . . music is by its very nature ephemeral. It sounds within a now that vanishes. Our present moments are fleeting. Yet music mysteriously connects the time past with the now and with what is to come . . . The very flow of life is given back to us in music that can touch that deeply in our bodies and souls.([24], p. 54)
2.8. Community
taken into the triune singing . . . as the proclamation and prayer of the church regularly bursts into beauty. . . A congregation singing a hymn of praise to the Father is doubling the Son’s praise, and the surge of rhythm and melody is the surge of the Spirit’s glorification of the Father and the Son.([30], p. 235)
2.9. Beyond Human Expression
But if I travel in your company, You know the way to heavens doore.[35]
It helps to increase the beauty and splendor of the ceremonies of the Church, and since its chief duty is to clothe the liturgical text, which is presented to the understanding of the faithful, with suitable melody, its object is to make the text more efficacious, so that the faithful through this means may be more roused to devotion, and better disposed to gather to themselves the fruits of grace which come from the celebration of the sacred mysteries.[37]
The phrase, “to enhance the word” [clothe the liturgical text], is not to interpret the word in a meaningful sense so much as to clothe the word with beauty and sacral character. Ultimately even this word becomes mute because it is secondary to the act of sacrifice and communion. The climax of adoration in the Presence is silence, symbolic of final peace.[38]
Music can never reveal to us the whole of its mystery until it has become silent and no more sounds reach our ears. For the praise of heaven, pure love, will have no further need for the art of sound.([36], p. 27)
the baser functions of the body will pass away in the blessed state, the higher ones will remain. . . In contrast to labour with the hands, eating, drinking, and the exertions of coitus, the use of the voice is one of the principal continuities between the states of bodily life on either side of the grave.([9], p. 49)
2.10. Silence
Faith comes from listening to God’s word. But wherever God’s word is translated into human words there remains a surplus of the unspoken and unspeakable which calls us to silence – into a silence that in the end lets the unspeakable become song and also calls on all the voices of the cosmos for help so that the unspoken may become audible. This means that church music, coming from the Word and the silence perceived in it, always presupposes a new listening to the whole richness of the Logos.[41]
2.11. The Absence of Music
And I heard a voice coming from the Living Light concerning the various kinds of praises, about which David speaks in the psalm . . . “Let every spirit praise the Lord” (Ps. 150:3, 6). These words are outward, visible things to teach us about inward things. Thus the material composition and the quality of these instruments instruct us how we ought to give form to the praise of the Creator and turn all the convictions of our inner being to the same.([50], pp. 81–82)
never ceases from confounding confession and the sweet beauty of both divine praise and spiritual hymns, eradicating them through wicked suggestions, impure thoughts, or various distractions from the heart of man and even from the mouth of the Church itself, wherever he can, through dissension, scandal, or unjust oppression ([50], p. 83). So she instructed the prelates to exercise the greatest vigilance to clear the air by full and thorough discussion of the justification for such actions before your verdict closes the mouths of any church singing praises to God . . .([50], p. 83)
the Devil [who] cannot sing; he can barely speak mellifluously. The Ordo calls for the Devil to speak in a voice that is strepitus (grating, shouting, growling).([50], p. 110)
2.12. The Dark Side
2.13. Musical Styles and Syntax
2.13.1. Praise and proclamation
2.13.2. Prayer
2.13.3. Community
2.13.4. An Anglican Perspective
The link between music and Anglican spirituality . . . is simple: Anglican spirituality is rooted in the Church’s liturgical life. Liturgical music serves two purposes; it is an offering of praise in the context of the liturgy and it enhances the liturgy.([60], p. 121)
2.13.5. Laudi Spirituali
2.13.6. An Afro-American Perspective
2.13.7. Lament
2.13.8. Music after the Second Vatican Council in the Twentieth Century
2.14. Spirituality and Musicians
3. Conclusion: Another Paradox
Conflicts of Interest
References and Notes
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Westermeyer, P. Music and Spirituality: Reflections from a Western Christian Perspective. Religions 2013, 4, 567-583. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel4040567
Westermeyer P. Music and Spirituality: Reflections from a Western Christian Perspective. Religions. 2013; 4(4):567-583. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel4040567
Chicago/Turabian StyleWestermeyer, Paul. 2013. "Music and Spirituality: Reflections from a Western Christian Perspective" Religions 4, no. 4: 567-583. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel4040567
APA StyleWestermeyer, P. (2013). Music and Spirituality: Reflections from a Western Christian Perspective. Religions, 4(4), 567-583. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel4040567