Article "Beauty in the Service of the Lord"
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,464
    http://www.ccwatershed.org/blog/2019/mar/27/beauty-service-lord/
    Thanked by 3M. Jackson Osborn Incardination chonak
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,367
    Beautifully written, Greg!
    A veritable prayer of thanksgiving and a paean of praise.
    Let us all never forget that our music making, all of it, really IS prayer.
    Perhaps we should end each of our musical offerings with a silent or sotto voce 'AMEN'.
    But for Jesus our musical patrimony would not exist.
    It is his creation.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,464
    Totally agree MJO! If we lose sight of that our vocation is form Christ, it becomes a job, and not a very good one at that!.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,367
    ...if we lose sight...becomes a job...
    True indeed, Greg.
    A job, or, as too many thoughtlessly say, a 'gig'.
    I really loathe that expression and believe that those who use it should think better of it..
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    No wonder I have puzzled at MJO's expressions of disdain about that word! Now I understand that he particularly objects to people who think of their church music job and the vocation of church musician as a 'gig'.

    The Catholic church musicians whom I hear using it don't do that: they only use it to refer to one-time engagements. Thus the high duty is not being devalued as a 'gig'. Maybe there is less for him to express contempt about than it seemed.
    Thanked by 1WGS
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,367
    Clever - but,
    Whether a 'gig' is a one-time wedding or funeral it is still thought less of by that very designation. Perhaps playing in a lounge, or even playing at a wedding reception can be thought as 'gigs' - but not playing or singing at a sacred rite, be it wedding, funeral, priestly anniversary, baptism, or whatever. Sacred ritual acts are not 'gigs'.
    Thanked by 1ghmus7
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    Sacred ritual acts are not 'gigs', except in the minds of the irreverent philistine to whom little, if anything, is holy.


    And yet, Prof. Chickson, is not King David acting the part of a prophet when sing thusly in his magnificent Eighteenth Psalm: " . . .sponsus procedens de thalamo suo. Exsultavit ut gigas ad currendam viam."?

    Which COULD be interpreted as follows -

    -sponsus procedens de thalamo suo. "The bridegroom proceeds to his wedding chamber." i.e., a synecdoche indicating the massive influx of young gentlemen (and, by default, their blushing brides) seeking nuptial bonds around the trimensal period of May thru August [or in their case, Iyar to Av].

    -Exsultavit ut gigas ad currendam viam. "I rejoice that gigs come to my current way." David is here commenting on the socio-economic realities, even present in the Pre-Temple Period, which made court musicians [whose plight was of particular interest to this king] clamorous for instances of gaining honorariums, or ('gigs') in their current terms of employment (known colloquially amongst the Israelites as "ways.")

    Ergo, even the great author of the psalms found spiritual consolation which descended upon his court musicians due to the predominance of 'gigs".

    ***I know there are some who would call my methods of translation not up to par with those of, say, Msgr. Knox. However! Since reading the monumental work "N'Heures Souri Rames" by Ormonde de Kay it has been a favorite pasttime of mine to be able to conduct this sort of translating. I am glad, in this instance, that it has been able to provide some light on this subject.
    Thanked by 1ghmus7
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
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  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,367
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    Thanked by 1Richard Mix
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