This past week, I dedicated 5-6 hours of my time in listening to the music presentation series entitled, “Music in Your Sphere: Max the Potential of Music in Ministry.” It was by a group of young people with musical backgrounds and was held at Phoenix, Arizona in the most recent GYC Conference, “Arise.” What I…
Tag: hymns
I’m one of those guilty people who used to sing mindlessly in church. In fact, most times, I would lip sync my way through the motion. Especially if the song is one of those plain, old boring (too many stanzas) hymn that’s been sung too many times. “There is a Fountain” written by William Cowper…
Music is often a reflection of what happens in the society. Many a man’s ideals, beliefs and philosophies are mirrored by music through its tune, rhythm, harmony, lyrics and form. When the Protestant Reformation era came about, the kind of music that emerged to reflect it came in the form of hymns, and a participatory…
The general idea when it comes to hymns is that there is a close bond between the author and the composer. That the author writes a hymn and the composer invents a tune to suit it, and then provides the harmony to accompany the tune. However, such wasn’t always the case. Many hymns actually worked…
George Beverly Shea could have had an easily popular music career. After all, he had 500 vocal solos recorded on more than seventy albums. He was nominated for ten Grammy Awards, and actually won one in 1966. But fame and popularity aside, Shea chose to serve God instead. You would probably be more familiar with…
There is a general misconception in many worship and music discussions that rhythm is evil. Sadly, this particular topic has been the source of many heated debates. I for one have played referee on numerous occasions when such a debate ensues between the ultra conservative “syncopation is of the devil” camp versus the modern musician that…
Harmony. We love it. Even its name is being borrowed at everyday language to mean closeness, friendliness, human warmth, cooperation and well-being. Unlike rhythm and melody, harmony wasn’t part of music from the beginning, it’s an upstart…But what an upstart! –Howard Goodall In the story of Western music civilization, a single line of music or monophony was the main…