You can tell a lot about a worldview by the kind of music it produces.
If you visit a Muslim mosque, you will not see an organ or a
piano. No choir will sing, nor will the congregation. Devout followers of Mohammad believe music is heram,
which means "illegitimate." Westernized Muslims are not as strict
when it comes to music, but in fundamentalist Islam, music-making is
intentionally absent.
Buddhists view life as a cycle of suffering caused by human
desire. Salvation, for the Buddhist, is escape from suffering through the extinction
of desire. Joy To The World is not something you’ll hear in a Buddhist
temple. There’s no living God to sing about. The closest thing to music coming from
a Buddhist temple is a single-note drone. Some Buddhists now incorporate
Western-style music into their practice, but this is a relatively recent phenomenon.
“Westerners” take melody and harmony for granted. But
"Western" music did not spring from a vacuum. It came from Christianity.
Any music history 101 course taught at any university in America will tell you
this, unless they’re re-writing music history, too.
"Western" music came out of worship by monks who birthed
single-voice melody, called Plainsong, which later developed into Gregorian
Chant, starting in the 3rd century. In the 9th century, two-voice melodies appeared, and then polyphony [multi-voice music]. Out of this came Handel, Bach,
Beethoven, and Brahms. That’s the remarkable, true story of how “Western"
music developed.
The next time you listen to your favorite pop tune, you can thank Christian monks for making it possible. Better yet, thank the living God who inspired the monks to create polyphony!
They saw music as a means of worshipping the living God. “Western”
harmony sprang out of a worldview of hope and joy, producing polyphony as an
expression of praise, thanksgiving and celebration. Multi-voice harmony
made worship come alive.
Think what this world would be like if Christ had never been
born. As C.S. Lewis described it, “Always winter, never Christmas.” Would the extraordinary Handel's Messiah be here? Don’t kid yourself! Not even Johnny Cash music would be here.
It's an unpardonable postmodern sin to compare the Christian worldview with others and find the others wanting. All worldviews are supposed to be equally grand. But the music tells a different story.
We’ve just forgotten where the most resplendent music came from.
Start your year off with some Chopin: https://youtu.be/DhQ5KpeZMEo
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