Music and young people in Christadelphia

According to Andrew De Witt

Do we need to run the kind of music workshops aimed at young musicians who would prefer to play or listen to music not normally found in the Christadelphian cultural milieu?

The use of music instruments may depend on how conservative or progressive an ecclesia might be.

"We need to protect our young people from the damage so easily done by a Christadelphian community which sometimes is more intent on preserving a mythical ‘golden age’ that is said to have existed ‘in the good old days’. Some may argue that there are some forms of western art music which are ‘special’ and ‘sacred’. Maybe not, maybe so. But in making such a rash statement they are dismissing much of the world’s vast musical output, and the heartfelt and honest thoughts and prayers of believers whose musical lexicon and soundscapes may not coincide with their own."

English: Behind the Christadelphian Hall (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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A small rant…music, young people and Christadelphia

 

 

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What Jesus sang

As Christmas Eve approaches, monks and nuns in their monasteries will chant Midnight Mass and many of the world's one billion Christians will sing some sort of Christmas music, secular or sacred. And so, we ask: What did Jesus sing? The answer is not simple. But perhaps of even greater importance is the question of whether what Jesus sang influenced the future liturgical music of the Catholic Church, which came to be known as Gregorian chant.

Jesus knew how to recite, rather than perform, the scriptures -- a practice that developed in the more than 300 synagogues that existed in Jerusalem before the Romans destroyed the Temple. This oral tradition of synagogue cantillation has survived unbroken among the Jewish people for more than 2,000 years and still flourishes today. Over the centuries communities in Spain, Eastern Europe and as far away as Iraq, Persia, Yemen and Uzbekistan have developed their own unique styles of cantillation.

Anthropologist Geoffrey Clarfield, writing in a leading Canadian newspaper, explores the relation between the synagogue music of Jesus’ time and Gregorian chant.
The Sacred Bridge, a CD recording that features Psalm 114, “oscillates between Latin and Hebrew, Gregorian chant and synagogue cantillation,” writes Clarfield. “The melodies are identical and despite the alteration between Hebrew and Latin you would think you were listening to the same song. In fact, you probably are, for no doubt this is a distant echo of what Jesus sang.”
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Geoffrey Clarfield: What did Jesus sing? (National Post)