(working draft):The Fountainhead of Authentic Human Expression

Musical performance, be it vocal or instrumental, is a form of human expression. It can be done with honesty and integrity, or with dishonesty. What we might call a highest-level performance is not about a "perfect" execution of correct notes, but about where the music comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there.

Let's imagine for a moment what the ideal musical performance would be.

1) Where it comes from: The musical performance, the expression of text, the playing, would all come from a place deep within the performer who has made a connection with the music. In the case of a singer, perhaps the lyrics are not biographical in any way, but the singer has made the journey into the deepest meaning of the text in order to internalize it, embody it, and then share it. For instrumentalists, they also must internalize and embody the music, giving purpose to every phrase. They too make a journey into a piece, such that every phrasing decision is informed by the big picture, taking the entire piece into account; and nothing is arbitrary.

While later on and elsewhere I will say things like "it's not about you," the performer is also not just a bystander. As much risk as it entails, a memorable, "authentic" performance is one in which the performer actually has a deep connection and experience with the music in real time. I say it entails risk, because often it can be easier to shut off parts of one's emotional self in order to ensure a "safe" performance and maintain total mental clarity and precision.

2) Where it goes: The ideal/perfect musical performance deeply impacts its audience. It reaches a receptive audience who is open to being deeply impacted by what they hear and see. This typically goes without saying, but the performer will have a consideration for and awareness of their audience. We are not just playing for ourselves or sending our music "out into the ether." Our audience adds value and meaning to our performing. A transaction must occur for the "currency" of music to have value*. If I were the last person on earth, there would be no difference between me having 50 billion dollars or 50 cents.

So, we have a real audience, and we are intentionally considerate of that audience. The listeners have the responsibility to be present, vulnerable, and receptive, and so they also must also trust you. You are asking an audience to trust you before you walk out on stage. And in most cases, they happily will until you violate that trust**.

3) How it gets there: In order for our hard work to reach our receptive audience and have maximum effect, our performance must be carried by the vehicles of vulnerability, honesty, generosity, and love. All of these ingredients result in a musical experience that is completely devoid of any pretense. The performers and the listeners share in an experience in which the music is delivered with utmost authenticity, consideration for the composers, understanding of the music's meaning, and a commitment to the reality of the world we live in***.

Now that we've painted this picture of the ideal, here is my argument for how we get there:

Only a Christian who is living before the face of God (coram Deo), is walking with God, and is not holding unconfessed sin can attain to the full experience of authentic human expression in musical performance.

Within Christianity this statement is not a controversial idea, because you could replace the above words "in musical performance" with many other things. Ultimately, we're talking about what it means to be truly and fully human: as Adam was before the Fall, and as Christians will be and are becoming. Sin mars our humanity. Reconciliation with Christ and the sanctification of the Holy Spirit restores it.

I want to discuss four marks of the Christian's life that I believe are crucial to honest, effective, God-glorifying - and therefore human - musical performance: Humility, Joy, Truth, and Love.

Humility.  The Christian is to model Jesus' humility. Jesus described himself as gentle, lowly in heart (Matt 11:29). And he served his disciples to the point of washing their feet. In other words, no act of love was beneath him. In the New Testament we are told to "put on humility" (Col 3:12) and to "clothe ourselves in humility toward each other" for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). The book of Proverbs says three times that humility precedes honor (15:33, 18:12, 22:4). Despite all the time we spend in the spotlight, receiving applause, and being told "great job" all week after a concert, when we see our music as an act of service to others and not as a way to bring ourselves glory, we will be richly blessed by it. Humility enables you to make a connection with your audience. Humility sees the big picture of life --  "it's not about me!" -- which frees us up to live more fully and be a positive influence in our world. Audiences can recognize humility. They can distinguish pride and humility from balcony seats. And if they're not paying attention during the performance, they'll certainly get an idea once they get close to you to thank you for your music.

"The highest glory of man is in being only a vessel, to receive and enjoy and show forth the glory of God. Man can do this only as he is willing to be nothing in himself so that God may be all. Water always fills the lowest places first." - Andrew Murray, Humility

True humility can only come by the Spirit of God after we have humbled ourselves before Him -- in the acknowledgment of His lordship and in the confession and repentance of our sins. When we stand in front of a crowd while holding unconfessed sin in our hearts, it hardens us. It is like an underlying sickness. It robs us of joy (as we will see below), but it also robs us of the ability to act humbly. Until we confess and repent, we are holding onto the worst form of pride. "Without [an all-pervading humility], there can be no abiding faith or love or joy or strength." (Murray)

Joy.  How can we effectively share life with others through music if we lack joy? When we perform for an audience, large or small, we are giving a significant part of ourselves -- and God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7). If that humble act of truthful love is not wrapped in joy, then it may be fraught with doubt or apathy. So how do we get joy?

The Christian has an everlasting joy that comes from hope (certainty) in what God has done and what He will do. God wants us to have joy. In His presence there is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). Joy is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) and can only come from God. It comes from a heart that has been rescued from sin by God's saving grace. And it comes from a clean heart that is regularly confessing sin. It comes from fellowship with God and the Church. When we hold onto sin and leave it unconfessed, we wake up in the mornings with a heavy burden rather than with joy. In Psalm 32, David describes this state of living in unconfessed sin: "...when I kept silent, my bones wasted away..."   Then he adds: "Happy is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit." This deceit is spoken of in 1 John 1:8: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

Finally, Jesus tells us in John 15:10-12, "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full."  See also this two-minute video: The Secret to Christian Joy

Truth.  Art tends to make statements about the world we live in. Sometimes it does so very indirectly or even sarcastically, such that it takes some examination to find exactly what the artist’s statement is. Given that statements are made, it follows that these statements can be either true or false. Sometimes a work of art asks a question; but any mature and honest person knows that even questions are often loaded and framed in very intentional ways so as to smuggle in assumptions (which, again, can be true or false).

An artist or a performer must believe in the statement that he or she is making in order for the performance to be honest and truthful. But if the statement itself is based on falsehood, a performer may think they are being true, but "their truth" ultimately fails because it is not *the truth*. There is inauthenticity, and then there is authentic foolishness. Believing and perpetuating a lie is folly, and unless 100% of the audience already believes the lie as well, they can spot a fool.

In order for anything to be true, Ultimate Truth must exist. And Truth exists only as it has been revealed by the source of truth, God, in Jesus Christ. All truth flows out of The Truth. We live in God's world, and He has established the rules and realities in it. The fool says in his heart, "there is no God," and then he goes on living in God's world while trying to rebel against it.

Someone reading this post and imaging an opera performance may not see any applicable connection between these ideas (especially "truth") and telling a fictional story on stage - especially a story with a completely absurd plot, as operas tend to be. I will say this post primarily has recitals in mind, but these issues ought to be at least considered by a performing artist in any situation. In the case of opera, it is often the staging director that has more storytelling power than anyone else involved -- even the composer! So a singer might ask themselves, "is the director asking me to communicate something that is obviously contrary to what the composer had in mind?" If so, there is a minor violation of truth taking place. Or if an opera was composed with clear intentions of being a vehicle for declaring that there is no God or for glorifying sin, then it will fall short of the virtues above. One the other hand, if an opera plot appears to be a fairly trivial yet entertaining story, and all those involved are striving to honor the composer's intentions, I say we err on the side of liberty and enjoy the music.

Love.  And finally, we arrive at love. 

The secular culture in the west has gone to great lengths to obfuscate the definitions of "love" and "hate" during the past 60 years.

In our world, and certainly in the Arts today, "Love" has become conflated with "Acceptance." It is rooted in relativism and activism. It is almost always accompanied by a haughty antagonism towards anything resembling traditional thought and Christian ethics. Love has therefore been gutted of its multi-faceted meaning in favor of this much more narrow, much more boring idea of "acceptance." Love, in the Earthly City, is conditional, self-serving, and prideful. By contrast, the essence of real (Christian) love is self-sacrifice in service to the well-being of another person. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 proves helpful at this point:

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy,
is not boastful, is not conceited,
does not act improperly,
is not selfish, is not provoked,
and does not keep a record of wrongs.
Love finds no joy in unrighteousness
but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

Real love is only possible from a heart that has been regenerated, because only a love that is first oriented to God and His law can be then oriented to others. Love is a fruit of the Spirit, and it is impossible to attain without Jesus Christ. See 1 John 4:7-21 and the rest of 1 John. Anything that claims to be love while denying Christ is nothing more than love of self (or hatred of self).

Most of us chose to pursue music because we have an affection and passion for it. It is a gift from God to everyone, and it brings a special joy to those of us who have the privilege of "doing it." Musicians often say things like "music is a part of me." Despite being a bit cliché, there is truth to that statement. When we perform for an audience, we are giving a part of ourselves away. Personally, at the end of a performance, I feel this sense of having been emptied. Especially at the end of the night, when I'm going to bed, it feels like I've given away something that was, in a very real way, a large part of my being. And in a weird way, part of me wants it back! Every performance represents anywhere from dozens to hundreds of hours of time spent with that music, and to finally give it away is a bittersweet feeling. If we chase performing for audiences as a means for gaining recognition or other selfish gain, we are ultimately left unsatisfied. If we remember that we are giving something precious away, and if that gift is motivated out of love -- love for the listeners, love for the music, and love for ourselves**** -- and not as a way to acquire love, then a performance can have lasting meaning.

Conclusion

Evangelical Christians of the last century have largely neglected or even lost something important. We've created a divide between the spiritual (church life, personal pietism, personal relationship with Jesus) and our daily engagement with the world and culture. In doing so, we've backed off our influence on the world, assuming that it is somehow a "neutral zone" unless there is blatant sin or crime taking place. High-handed societal rebellion against God has crept up while wearing the disguise of neutrality, because the church largely left the realms of Politics and Art alone. When we re-learn that God has something to say about every single area of life, Christian artists will be able to intentionally tap into the unique advantages we have of being fully human in what we do. The same applies for teachers, coaches, engineers, craftsmen, and all sorts of laborers. This is a Kuyperian, "every-square-inch" sort of Christianity, and it will be the key to turning the cultural tide back in the right direction.

---

*There are cases in which our own music may give us nourishment, and we can be an audience to ourselves. So music does still have value when it's just "me, myself, and I," but this scenario is not sustainable. An attempt to live in that place forever will be unfruitful and also does not fully reflect the character of God, who, being Three in One, chose to enter into eternal relationship with His creation.

**We may jump immediately to thinking of "wrong notes" as violation of trust, but that would be inaccurate. While you can violate the trust by demonstrating that you did not prepare for the performance, I'm more concerned here with the violation of trust that occurs when an artist commits artistic dishonesty: disregarding a composer's intentions, not understanding the music, taking your audience for granted, using the art to push a dishonest agenda, or not performing authentically from the heart.

***i.e., a consistent epistemology, which happens to only come from the Christian Worldview.

****There is idolatrous love of self, and there is a godly type of self-love. The latter is a sense of wholeness that is not reliant on recognition or praise. I can love/respect myself because God loved me first; and out of that, I can love others selflessly. Within the command to "love your neighbor as yourself" is the assumption that we have love for ourselves and don't wish to harm ourselves.

Cultural Heritage, Roots, and Tradition

Writing a critical, Christian-worldview response to the "women of Haiti" concert started me thinking about the value that people in our day place on cultural roots and heritage as such.  Our modern idol of standpoint epistemology ("my" truth) says that all cultures are equally good and valid.  This is coupled with Rousseau's "noble savage" concept: the idea that primitive humans are/were in some sense intrinsically virtuous or more pure.  But as we see in scripture, nations(ethnos) are either pagan or God-fearing, and it is only the nations that look to Christ for salvation that are saved.  Arguably, Jesus' own teaching of final judgment, being thrown into the fire on the last day, separation of chaff/wheat, etc., apply not only to individual humans, but also to the idols, traditions, and cultures of pagan societies.

I propose that a people's cultural history, traditions, and heritage, are only virtuous insofar as they have been redeemed by the Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

In 2022, it is popular to admire cultural diversity and to at least feign admiration of another culture's unique values, traditions, and inventions.  In practice, what I often observe is the praise of "culture" while ignoring anything that might be objectively sinful within that culture (possibly with one exception -- today's taboo: the subjugation of women).  And if one people group oppressed another people group at any period in history, the latter group is granted all sorts of passes and leniency when it comes to records of barbarism or evil within that society. (Extending "nobile savage" to "nobile victim.")  Such is the trend of the secular moralism we live in now.  

We see the same thing in our treatment of individuals.  Secular society celebrates the virtue of "living your truth" and chooses to only affirm someone (especially someone who can claim they've been oppressed), rather than also challenging them to grow and mature.

Before looking back at the way God deals with nations and cultures, let us look at what happens when an individual comes to faith in Christ.  He is a "new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17), he is "born again" (John 3:3), he becomes dead to sin and alive in Christ (Romans 6:1-14).  After this transformation takes place, an individual is able to examine his life and discern/judge what is good and what is evil based on God's perfect standards.  According to God's Word, his negative attitude in the workplace is not simply an endearing part of his unique personality.  His habits of fornication with women are no longer "just a part of who he is, for better or worse."  He no longer gets to live "his truth," but instead he must bring his life under the subjection of the One who is Truth.  His sin must be mortified, not excused.  At the same time, his appreciation of good food or film or music, his giftedness at sports, his talent for creativity, or his public speaking skills -- all of these aspects of his personality are redeemed to be used for God's glory.  The diversity of the Body of Christ (His people) is clearly celebrated and encouraged in scripture.  Christians are not meant to be identical clones -- they have different gifts and should be encouraged in their gifts.  But sometimes for a new believer, some real discernment must take place in order to determine what parts of his personality are of a fallen, sinful nature, and which parts were put there by God in order to be used for the Kingdom.

In the same way, cultures, tribes, societies, and people groups may not go on simply living "their truth."  Scripture has much to say about civil justice and worship, and only insofar as these parts of a culture are in accordance with God's revealed word can they be deemed "good."  On the other hand: food, art, musical style, recreation, and practical inventions -- as long as they are not inherently rebellious, nihilistic, or lewd -- are to be celebrated and used, not for the glory of man, but for the glory of God.

An example:  A Mexican person can take satisfaction and cultural pride in the foods (or clothing, or art forms, or dance) that were born out of their culture.  But they should view paganism, divination, and communication with the dead as sinful parts of their culture's history -- traits that ought to be brought under the feet of King Jesus.  When a society repents of its violations of God's law and assimilates to Christianity, it is "born again," putting the "old self" to death; but it also maintains its richly unique culture that is now redeemed.  The object of their worship changes, but this does not mean they stop making tacos al pastor.  On the contrary, the uniquely Mexican traditions of music, art, food, literature, sports, etc. will only flourish and reach their potential as a result of reconfiguring all of life for all of Christ.

I've included several passages of scripture that, taken together, highlight the diversity of nations in the world, as well as God's ultimate common goal for all the nations:

These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood. ² The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. ³ The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴ The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. ⁵ From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations. Genesis 10:1-5

³² These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood. Genesis 10:32

⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth. Genesis 11:9

​¹ Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3

⁴ “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. ⁵ No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. ⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. Genesis 17:4-6

⁶ Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, ⁷ that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, ⁸ but you shall cling to the LORD your God just as you have done to this day. ⁹ For the LORD has driven out before you great and strong nations. Joshua 23:6-9

​¹ Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” Jonah 1:1-2

⁴ Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” ⁵ And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
⁶ The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷ And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, ⁸ but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. ⁹ Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
¹⁰ When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. Jonah 3:4-10

​¹ Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions. ² She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. ³ And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. ⁴ And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, ⁵ the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more breath in her.
⁶ And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, ⁷ but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard. ⁸ Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! ⁹ Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” 1 Kings 10:1-9

² It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
³ and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
⁴ He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore. Isaiah 2:2-4

⁴⁰ For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. ⁴² The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. Matthew 12:40-42

¹³ But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:13-14

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Matthew 25:31-34

¹⁷And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:17-20

²² So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, ²⁵ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. ²⁶ And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, ²⁷ that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, ²⁸ for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
²⁹ Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. ³⁰ The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹ because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:22-31

⁹ After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Revelation 7:9-10

Review/Thoughts on Fanm d’Ayiti | Nathalie Joachim and Spektral Quartet

Tonight I attended a concert hosted by Da Camera Houston, featuring Nathalie Joachim and the Spektral Quartet.  They performed music of Haitian Women -- melodies written or sung by Haitian women, arranged by Nathalie Joachim herself.  Joachim is a Haitian-American born in the US.  She studied flute at the Juilliard School, is a former member of Eighth Blackbird, and is an excellent singer.

Sitting in this concert, being in the middle of writing my big piece on "Christian music performance," I had these ideas I've been writing about swirling around in my head.  It was a good test to see if my theories hold up -- if joy, humility, truth, and love are the crucial qualities that I purport them to be, and if their authenticity can even be assessed or ascertained.  (My post on Christian performance is still forthcoming as of this writing).

Joachim gave an incredible performance.  It's easy to take for granted that what the performers are doing on stage is not at all easy; and it represents hundreds of hours of preparation, practice, planning, thought, and intentionality.  She sang well, and she sang from the heart.  She also sang with joy much of the time.

But some of the content of the performance ended up being the doorway to how to consider these things as Christian artists.  Some of the songs contained references to "Vodou" and Haitian paganism.  Vodou seems to be essentially polytheistic and pluralistic -- allowing the individual to pursue other beliefs (even Christianity) without it negatively impacting their practice of Vodou.  Of course, Christianity is NOT polytheistic, and the first two commandments prohibit the worship, serving, or bowing to any god beside Yahweh.  The gods of the pagans are described by God as being deaf, mute, and blind.  They are powerless and succeed only in incurring God's wrath and jealousy.

Interestingly, Joachim spoke of a church in her hometown.  In tonight's concert, she incorporated songs that were sung in that church, and they appear on the surface to be Christian.  These songs, arranged into a 3-movement suite, contained the best music of the night, in my opinion.  And there was a difference in how the lyrics affect the reader.  They are far more transcendent, life-giving, and hopeful.

So while she gave as honest a performance as she could, it was only as truthful as her worldview and the lyrical content allowed it to be.  Her joy, love, and authenticity were limited by her ideas of truth and what ultimately matters.  The music was beautiful, and it was beautifully executed.  But it only connected us to the eternal during the songs that spoke of God's faithfulness and goodness.

Ultimately, the content of the concert was more grounded in humanism and pagan spirituality than in the transcendent reality of Christianity.  I asked my friend Marshall recently what he thinks is unique about being a Christian musician.  He responded with "We must ask, why are we ultimately making music?  For Christians, it is ultimately to bring God glory."  His answer is entirely applicable here.  Without the goal of bringing God glory, music is left being -- in the most literal sense -- mundane.

Why Singing?

 "Why Singing?" was a question that was asked near the end of a sermon preached recently by one of my elders. The context was a sermon about Jesus as our "singing savior."  The focus of the sermon shifted from God's singing to our singing; and then the question was asked "why do we sing?"  Why don't we just get together and recite things? My brain started filling with my own answers as Pastor Mark began to elaborate. I work with singers for a living, and I've sat in probably over a thousand voice lessons.

Singers are funny people. The ones that endure multiple performance degrees learn to develop very thick skin. But aside from personality, the education side of singing is very unique and fascinating.  Singers have to learn to use an invisible instrument "by feel" and by trial and error. They have to learn what good singing feels like and put enormous trust in their voice teachers. Because of the almost abstract nature of the instrument, and because of the many misconceptions about singing that must be unlearned, vocalists come up with all sorts of interesting ways to describe the sensations of good singing. Here, in no particular order, are some phrases I've heard and used over the years (several of these are NOT pedagogical - just fun):

Singing is...

• sustained speech
• screaming in cursive
• just shouting
• a whole-body activity
• an athletic activity
• dependent on breath, which is dependent on opening oneself
• not easy
• easier than we make it
• relational

So why does God have us sing? Well, one way to put it is: singing is “enhanced” speech. It is also an aesthetic form of speech. It adds an additional layer of communication to speech. It carries words further than they would go in the form of mere speech — in a figurative sense, but also a physical one. Singing takes strength and energy. It requires the use of our physical bodies, and God is very much concerned with our physical bodies. We cannot conclude from scripture that the ultimate goal is to transcend physical bodies and no longer require the uses of our voices, our hands, our feet… On the contrary, we are to use our bodies as instruments of sacrifice and worship - now and forevermore. When we sing heartily and loudly, we are presenting our bodies as living sacrifices; we are expending real energy for God.

Singing also enables unified corporate chanting. I.e., singing is a tool that enables a group of different people to all make a unified sound together. When we recite a creed or a confession together as a group, we typically all recite it with our individual “speaking voices” and consequently, it sounds like a group of people.  Rhythmically we are together, but tonally we are not. Actual singing then adds the next level of unity by having everyone match pitch. In this way we can almost sound like one voice.

But then there is more! God has created this physical world and the physics of sound in such a way as to encourage the use of harmony. Yes, God encourages us to use harmony — because He made it in nature (see the overtone series), and He made it enjoyable to our ears. (And no, I do not believe this is merely the result of cultural conditioning). Why else might we say God encourages harmony? Well, we believe that it reflects God’s character. As Pastor Mark said in his sermon, God is three in one. He exists as the Trinity. Three distinct persons within One Being, with one will, accomplishing a single unified purpose. Singing in harmony also reflects the “many members, one body” characteristic of the church.

Let us daily practice singing, with the intention of letting our corporate worship on the Lord's Day be the pinnacle use of our voices.

My Journey with Bach

In my Music Appreciation class -- my first ever -- I essentially get to talk about Bach (and Baroque music) for the next two weeks as much as I want. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I was never able to appreciate much about J.S. Bach until only about 4 years ago. Up to that point, all I really knew was that his keyboard pieces were very difficult for me and that he was the "fugue master" and the pinnacle composer of counterpoint. Those things didn't really mean much to me beyond a superficial level, and I had only played enough Bach by that point to believe I was incapable of performing Bach well at the piano.

In 2014, I went to Germany with the TAMU Century Singers. I don’t have the best memory, but I remember going to the Bach-Haus in Eisenach and the Bach Museum in Leipzig, seeing Bach’s Calov Bible commentary (or just a replica) that was all marked up with his notes, and then listening to the Motets for what was actually the second time (my first time being a live performance of all 6 Bach motets by Conspirare in 2013). Very soon after our tours through Bach's world, I purchased and downloaded the album of Bach Motets by the Monteverdi Choir.  When I got around to studying the text, I was blown away by the fact that Bach was using verses from the book of Romans as well as text from extra-biblical sources that were woven in to perfectly fit the thematic context.  Jesu meine Freude quickly became one of my favorite pieces of music, as I immersed myself in it and the other motets. It was this Biblical and spiritual lens through which to experience his music that changed the way I would look at Bach forever.  Only weeks after the Germany trip, I got to hear Conspirare perform the St. Matthew Passion at the Victoria Bach Festival.  The music and the text hit me in ways that I can only assume weren’t previously possible.  I’ve since come to appreciate the importance of his innovations in counterpoint and polyphony, so that I can appreciate his instrumental music almost as much as his vocal music.

Because the "sounds" of Baroque music (the timbres, instrumentation, melodic patterns, and harmonic progressions) are so idiomatic to that period and alien to our modern ears, I still sometimes have to resist "tuning out" when listening to Bach.  But even so, beyond the textual depth and musical intricacy that I have to appreciate, there are moments when the music itself (melody and harmony) are just as emotionally pleasing and moving to my 21st century ears as something written today might be.  One specific citation I can make here is the baritone aria Mache dich mein Herze rein from the St. Matthew Passion.

I can't casually reference that aria without talking about the text to just point out a small example of Bach's ability to take the Biblical text to the "next level."  The singer of this aria is portraying the character of Joseph of Arimathea, the man who volunteers to bury Jesus' body in a proper tomb following the crucifixion. But what text does Bach have Joseph sing?

Make thyself clean, my heart,

I will myself entomb Jesus.

For he shall henceforth in me

For ever and ever

Take his sweet rest.

World, begone, let Jesus in!

Bach takes the story and actions of Joseph of Arimathea and takes the opportunity to turn it into metaphor: "burying" Jesus in our hearts, where He takes the place of the things of this world and lives within us.

In light of my new perspectives on Bach, I approach playing his music in a totally different way.  I realize now that his music is more difficult than I previously thought, and yet at the same time, much easier when you allow the music to say what he wrote.  I no longer taking for granted the impeccable counterpoint, the importance of every single note, and the motivation behind all that he did: soli Deo gloria.


"...with Bach -- the essential Bach -- there is no "music itself." His concept of music derived from and inevitably contained The Word..." - Richard Taruskin

On Christian Musicianship, Pt. 2

So, why?  Why do I find a deeper Christian value in playing music?  (And I’m going to focus on classical music for the most part).  Here is my answer: when I play a carefully crafted piece of music, I am perpetuating the ideas of beauty, logic, objectivity, antithesis, and truth, all of which only function consistently within a Christian Worldview and in accordance with Biblical premises.  By doing these things, I am reflecting the character of God.  Here’s what I mean:

God’s first recorded act was to bring order out of chaos.  To take nothing and make something, then to take what was “formless and empty” and make it into something beautiful and orderly (or in His words, “good”).  In the same way, when I take all the various notes on a piano and the infinite ways of playing them and put them together to create something orderly, I am imitiating Him on a microcosmic level.  Adam was commanded in the dominion mandate to “subdue the earth.”  I believe the dominion mandate is for all people, and one way we fulfill it is by taking the raw materials and making something “good” out of them — gardening and cultivating.

J.S. Bach is a great example of all this, as he was incredibly meticulous and thoughtful in his writing.  Every note serves a purpose in Bach’s music.  The notes he writes are weaved together to create an incredible tapestry in which each individual thread is a legitimate melody on its own.  (Kind of like how each of us is a unique thread in God's grand and sovereign design).  Bach took the logic, reason, and order of a 12-tone system of music and essentially exploited it to its fullest potential, all the while writing intentionally for the glory of God, signing all of his compositions with the phrase “soli Deo gloria.”

Another parallel to the Christian life that I enjoy is the notion that I do not own the piece of music (e.g. a Beethoven Sonata) sitting in front of me.  I am in some sense a “steward” of something that belongs to Beethoven in this case, and he has laid out very specific parameters for how this piece of music ought to be played.  In the same way, we are stewards of the earth God has given us — even stewards of society as a whole — and God has told us how things (money, marriage, church, agriculture, work, relationships, criminal justice, etc.) should operate.  If I am to honor the composer, I am charged with playing the piece in a way that would most accurately express his original intentions.  If you want to get really weird, to intentionally "butcher" someone else's composition in your performance -- a composition that was generously given to you to play -- might be akin to a violation of the principle of God's law in Deuteronomy 22:6-7.  It assumes "lordship" rather than stewardship.

The most important thing I want to say in this blog post — the overarching theme — is that all of these facets of playing music inherently assume concepts of truth, logic, and beauty.  They assume there is a “right way” and a “wrong way.”  And my purpose is to perpetuate the assumption of these concepts.  Compare these ideas with the secular worldview (perhaps seen most sharply in postmodernism).  We can even start with music:

As much as I may hate to admit it (being, myself, a product of today's academia), aleatoric music in general cannot be included in the realm of music that fulfills the dominion mandate.  Chance music is not reflective of God’s sovereign and creative character, but instead purports that there is no order in the universe.  Similarly, if I take a bucket of paint and dump it onto a canvas and say “this is beautiful,” I’m not really reflecting the character of God either.  It may be “art,” but it offers no truthful commentary on the world we live in.  It offers no story or hope or even guided creativity.  God did not create the universe in this way.  As stated above, what God did is create order out of chaos, and He has instructed us to do the same in His world.

We take this for granted, but if something is true, then its antithesis must be false.  As Robert DeNiro’s character in The Deer Hunter says while holding a bullet, “This is this.  This is not something else; this is this.”  The truth is the truth, and it demands a certain responsibility.  Why is this relevant?  Postmodern secularism at its core says that truth is either relative or non-existent.  Nothing can be truly known in the secularist worldview, and thus, nothing can be asserted to be truth.  Obviously this leads to profound inconsistencies, e.g. the statement that "I am absolutely certain that I cannot be absolutely certain about anything." In God’s world, however, we can know truth.  We can glean definite, unchanging information from a sheet of music or from reading a book.  Never will the first four notes of Beethoven's fifth symphony ever be anything except for the three repeated G's followed by the E-flat.  In a world governed by chaos, such that matter exists for no reason, what reason have we to expect to hear the same four notes next time we go hear a performance of that piece?

To wrap up, when I assume truth, antithesis (right vs. wrong), beauty, and uniformity in nature, I am living consistently in God’s world.  As a Christian, there can be a beautiful union of my worldview to the way I live my life.  Music is my way of reminding the world that it takes a human created in God’s image to bring order and beauty out of the emptiness and chaos.  The atheist would be hard-pressed to come up with a logically consistent reason to promote the ideas of beauty and order in the world, since he lives in a universe that ultimately doesn’t care, is not governed, is the product of total chaos, and is ultimately heading back into total chaos and nothingness.  Why make music at all in that kind of world?  Is it not ultimately futile?

One last little note: I mentioned eschatology in Part 1 of this topic.  The reason I believe we should be restoring creation, bringing order, cultivating, and making the earth "fruitful" is because I believe Jesus wants us to play the long game and continue taking dominion.  I believe scripture teaches us to win the nations for Christ, here in history; and I believe that we have generations ahead of us in whom we should be investing right now.  The enemies of Truth are sowing seeds for the future -- what are we doing?

One of the battlefronts is Art, and it is here that I have the privilege of fighting to maintain and conserve what we have thanks to the foundations of Christendom of the past.

Credit for all these ideas goes to influential friends, authors, and speakers including: my friend Johnny Simmons, Francis Schaeffer, Marcus Pittman, Doug Wilson, and others that I'm forgetting.  Hopefully Abraham Kuyper and Cornelius Van Til.

On Christian Musicianship, Pt. 1 (backstory)

Why? What's the point? What am I doing, and is it meaningful? How often do musicians ask themselves this question? And is my answer different than the answer of a non-Christian musician?

I used to not have much of an answer for the question of “why a Christian classical pianist?”  To me, a “Christian musician” was someone who used their music directly for ministry purposes.  Since I wasn’t doing that more than one day a week, I had to start wondering what it means to be a Christian and have a “secular” job and what the relationship between the two should be like.  All I had to go off of at first was Ephesians 6:7 and Colossians 3:23, both of which essentially say “whatever you do, work as if you’re working for the Lord instead of for men.”  This was the extent of what I was taught growing up in church pertaining to being a working Christian.  It translated to me as “have a good work ethic; work with a good attitude, work well, and work hard.”  Beyond that, there would also be a lot of talk in my church and at home of evangelism and sharing the Gospel with co-workers.  This still didn’t connect deeply to the aspect of work itself, and isn’t necessarily sustainable if you don’t have a plethora of co-workers.  I was looking for purpose in my work as a musician.  The “best” place I arrived at was the idea that I would be working primarily in university settings and in the fine arts departments in particular — a setting where visible Christianity is relatively rare.  I thought “God will have me in a position where I am one of the very, very few orthodox, Biblical Christians working in my field in an academic setting, and He will use me to help guide or inspire students (if the conversation ever comes up) in order that they might either come to faith or simply be encouraged knowing that there is a Christian faculty member around.”

This is all fine, and I still believe that all three of those above “purposes” (witnessing via my work ethic, witnessing via evangelism, and just generally being a light in a dark place) are valid and important.  However it wasn’t until I started being taught more about the meaning of a Christian worldview, presuppositional apologetics, a more optimistic eschatology, and the continuation of the dominion mandate that I finally saw deeper meaning in my work.  And since then, I have never had to question the validity or value of what I do within the Christian framework and in light of being a true follower of Jesus.  And it excites me more and more every time I think about it.

Continued in Part 2.