No Law about music
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    There is no Law about music in the Bible. There is liturgical law involving music, but no law, to my knowledge, governing music in the home or marketplace. No one is forbidden dissonance, or the augmented fourth, or those new-fangled lyres.

    Plato's Republic places very strict limits on allowable music in the ideal city, but the Bible does not. Plato allows only the Dorian and Phyrigian modes, and no multiplicity of strings or pan-harmonic scales. The ideal city will not "maintain the artificers of lyres with three corners and complex scales, or the makers of any other many-stringed, curiously harmonized instruments."

    The Republic's ideal city is highly controlled. The Law maintains both order and freedom. Still, it seems curious that there is no restriction on musical expression. Has God left us free to find it, or is finding the laws of music important after all?

    Plato says, "Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the sound, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful: and also because he who has received this true education of the inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art and nature, and with a true taste, while he praises and rejoices over and receives into his soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he will justify blame and hate the bad, now in the days of his youth, even before he will recognize and salute the friend with whom his education has made him long familiar."

    Plato is talking about music's effect on character development. Is he saying more or less, "Those kids play their music too loud"? Is his a good argument for the Ward Method in public schools? Should we be paying music critics a lot more?
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    yes! nothing is considered 'bad'. all musics are equal. bad music supercedes bad society. how does one retire Slash?
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    Okay, that's one vote for "Those kids play their music too loud!" :)
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Many things are allowed.
    Few are useful.

    I don't know enough about Plato's ideal city, but in the Christian one (the real one), I believe goodness and quality (in musical terms, as well as otherwise) are shared values, not enforced or mandated ones.
  • mlabelle
    Posts: 46

    "What About Bad Music" by Dr. Jeff Mirus is probably the best philosophical description of music I've read, along with "So What's Wrong With Rock Music?" by the same author.

  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    I have a more definitive perspective than Jeff Mirus and I sense an article in the making.
  • mlabelle
    Posts: 46
    I'm intrigued, francis! Do post it here when you are finished.
  • zalzan
    Posts: 1
    it is true there is no "law" in Scripture, but when looking to the Bible for instruction one has to look at patterns or trends. For example, in the Book of Revelation, which has a protracted depiction of activities in Heaven, the only instruments mentioned are trumpets and harps. Harps are mentioned twice. Stringed instruments. No mention of organs. One also notes that there is a great deal of shouting, very loud shouting, as well as a period of silence. As Catholics, we believe that we in fact are entering into the events depicted in the Book of Revelation every time we participate in the Eucharist. Liturgical music over time has been monastacized (chant) and baroqified (organ), but if Sacred Scripture says that a simple stringed instrument is sufficient for Heavenly Worship, then I am honored to play my guitar at the Eucharist. If it is good enough for the angels, no one should knock it. Revelation also does not mention any polyphonic chant or the use of Latin. In fact it is presumed the author of Revelation heard the events transpiring in Greek.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    zalzan

    The Church establishes its norms from scripture and tradition. Its tradition is thousands of years old, and its forms of music are chant, polyphony and organ. Styles of music that arise from other cultures and religions, or the lack thereof, are very bluntly, not sacred music. That includes pop, jazz, reggae, rap, opera, theatre, etc. These forms are foreign to the liturgy. So while the harp is mentioned in Revelations, it is very different from guitar because the primary use of guitar, especially today, is based in the pop/rock style and is used to accentuate rhythm. It arises from a Dionysian form of music that tends toward the base aspect of humanity of which B16 writes about in his Liturgy and Church Music, found here:

    http://musicasacra.com/publications/sacredmusic/pdf/liturgy&music.pdf
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    Zalzan,

    do read the document cited above:

    Liturgy and Music

    Read with an open mind and an open heart and you will come to the right conclusions.

    Pay no heed to the fustian you will encounter here and elsewhere, nor allow it to distract you from the truth. The truth should be imparted in charity, not administered via stoning.
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