Sacred Music

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses that today sacred music plays a significant role in all the world's religions just as, before there were scriptures, sacred songs in the oral traditions of poets and musicians carried the sacred words to the people. The author points out that Judaism has done a better job of preserving its musical heritage than Christianity because Judaism considers the sacred texts as simultaneously inviolate and yet open to further revelation. The paper contends that Protestant music is generally not considered to be the word of God; in the Catholic Church, the sung mass is increasingly being abandoned along with most of the Church's musical history.

From the Paper:

"Before pursuing the issue of this change any further, it becomes necessary to step back a moment an analyze the place and value of music in the Catholic Church and in Judaism as it was before the rather radical stripping of such things from worship. (It might be pointed out that music seems to have retained a more prominent place in Jewish than in Christian worship) In the Catholic Church, music historically had a very strong role. The majority of the common people throughout its history only came to understand the theology of their faith fully through the art of the church. Stainglass windows told stories about the Bible, but it was the mass --a musical ritual-- which explained to them the core ideas about salvation."

More papers on Sacred Music:

• Essay # 67273 : "Guillaume Dufay Music from Medieval and Renaissance Music"
• Essay # 57323 : "Sacred Vs. Secular Music"
• Analytical Essay # 112257 : "Aboriginal Music"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: