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“Many faithful Christians are committed to churches they love, even if they don’t always care for the music. They join and stay because the preaching is biblicalb…. Because music engages our affections, though, it can be painful when we don’t love our church’s music.music.” - TGC

Discussion

Thu, 03/26/26

...but conversely, there's a place for asking a question about whether a particular piece of music succeeds at the central purpose of communicating the Word of God to the people of God in lyric form.

Personally, I'm one that enjoys a broad range of music, provided that the lyrics aren't too disturbing. The main genre I don't like much are light rock, CCM, and sometimes tunes/genre which are extremely dissonant. So maybe I'm close to the viewpoint of the article.

That noted, there are a certain number of songs where the merging of lyrics and melody/harmony/etc. simply don't work for me. We've got to do a better job asking "does this communicate the Word of God to the people of God", and if it doesn't, we've got to be willing to consign the song to the same dustbin where about 7000 hymns written by the Wesley brothers lie. It's OK to let mediocre songs go.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

Sun, 03/29/26

That noted, there are a certain number of songs where the merging of lyrics and melody/harmony/etc. simply don’t work for me. We’ve got to do a better job asking “does this communicate the Word of God to the people of God”, and if it doesn’t, we’ve got to be willing to consign the song to the same dustbin where…

Sometimes the lyrics are good, the music is good, but they don’t fit well. An example is a song we sang recently where the music broke lyrical phrases in the middle for no reason other than to add some syncopation. The music phrase should match the lyrical phrase. We don’t say “Good mor —beat—beat—ning” and singing like that doesn’t make sense. (The lyric was not ‘good morning’ of course, but I can’t remember any of it now.) So while we’re singing, I’m thinking of all the ways to fix the tune. Most of them easy fixes. It really is a nice tune, but phrasing matters.

My illustration isn’t very good, because it works fine to hold a syllable out for two beats. But in the song, there are no sustains or holds. It’s like everyone lost all their lung capacity suddenly. It’s “lovely. beat beat flowing. beat beat beat phrase.” Doesn’t make sense. A lyrical phrase that flows is pure gold in song writing, and all the composer/arranger had to do was drop a couple of rests and add a dotted half note. Instant powerful beauty.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.