Musicians, especially those seeking funding to pursue academic research, often have to defend devoting our time to a subject widely characterised as frivolous, economically unproductive and of little real-world value.[1] Arts subjects are grudgingly admitted to have worth only if they deliver obvious practical benefits (such as improved mental wellbeing or educational outcomes), or develop transferable skills. It’s not uncommon to encounter a version of these attitudes in churches. Fellow Christians may question the justification for a degree or career that appears to offer less obvious opportunities to care for the needy and promote social justice, serve the church and proclaim the gospel than ‘vocational’ subjects, or even than practical excellence in singing or playing an instrument. However, historical and theoretical approaches to studying music do have gospel value and application. To unpack this, as with any other issue in life, we look first to God’s Word.
The Bible, creation, and music
The Bible gives context and meaning to all human activity, including music. Vaughan Roberts’ God’s Big Picture, a book I’ve often turned to when mentoring students who are growing in their understanding and love of God’s Word, helps us see that the whole of Scripture, in all its apparent diversity of authors, forms, styles and subjects, is fundamentally one overarching narrative of God’s plan, purpose, and promises through creation, fall, judgment, and redemption.[2] This gospel narrative encompasses the whole of time and space – from before anything existed but God Himself, to eternity – and therefore teaches us that all of history, including every branch of human civilisation and development – hence, music in all its forms – falls within God’s salvation plan.
That music exists at all is an outcome of the acoustical properties of the physical universe we inhabit, and the imaginative and sensory capabilities of human beings, as designed and created by God. During my undergraduate studies in Glasgow, RSAMD (now RCS) Principal, virtuoso trumpeter John Wallace, jokingly summarised a scientific report identifying B-flat as the fundamental resonating frequency of the universe as 'proof that God was a brass player.' [3] Underlying this flippancy is a serious point: together, science and Scripture inform us that God designed natural materials to transmit vibration, resulting in sound, and gave humans the capacity to create, assign meaning to, draw comfort, identity or inspiration from, and build community around music.[4]
Like all created things, music is dignified by its fundamental origin in the heart and mind of God Himself, and is intended to reflect and reveal His glorious nature.
We can see this, as Johann Sebastian Bach reflected, in God’s instructions to His people for using music in worship, sacrifice, teaching, and fellowship (and calling individuals to specific musical roles), as well as in many biblical examples of musical worship, and of music as a metaphor for embracing redemption.[5]
Scripture demonstrates that music-making is meaningful and purposeful to God, and those who live for Him. Therefore, we should devote time, energy, and effort to understanding what music is and how it works.
Music and musicians, like everything else, were designed to glorify God, have been and are vulnerable to being corrupted by sin, but can be and are being redeemed by Christ’s self-sacrifice on our behalf, and will one day be fully restored to their intended role in God’s kingdom. When we study music - both of the past and the present, whether the significant repertoire composed to honour the Christian God, or music associated with non-Christian cultures and religions - we can reflect on how the making and reception of music, the writings of theorists and philosophers, the structures and processes of forms and genres, and their functions within different historical periods and social contexts, relate to the all-encompassing worldview of the Bible.
Doing musicology Christianly
What topics we engage with
Last semester I taught seminars on a core undergraduate course at the University of Leeds, ‘Music in History and Culture.’ The module title and content acknowledge that music is both shaped by, and plays a role in shaping, its historical and social context. Examples we explored include: how profits from the transatlantic slave trade helped finance the composition of Handel’s oratorios, which in turn were utilised in philanthropic fundraising; how the lives and works of composers including Franz Schubert and Clara Schumann reflected contemporary living conditions, political regimes and gender hierarchies; how hip-hop and rap responded to the deprivation and radicalism of Black communities in the United States; how commercial charts, streaming services and the television industry influence consumption of popular music.[6] Studying music in its socioeconomic context enriches our understanding and interpretation of its technical and expressive features, while also raising hard questions about privilege, power, and oppression.
Applying a gospel perspective, underpinned by humility and compassion, to the human history of music, can offer vital spiritual insights into moral complexities with which, as followers of Jesus, we should be concerned and engaged.
Applying basic biblical ethics to musicological work
It's both possible and appropriate to relate important concepts in academia to basic gospel truths. Practising academic integrity, taking ethical considerations seriously, and engaging in respectful debate are not only essential elements of professionalism: they reflect and honour God’s commands not to lie, steal, or covet what belongs to others, to speak truth in love, use words to heal, not harm, practise godly submission in relationships, and be prepared to answer seekers and interrogators ‘with gentleness and respect’.[7] The recent emphasis on decolonisation of canons and curricula, acknowledging that all music-makers and their music are equally worthy of respectful study and representation in academic discourse, is wholly compatible with the Bible’s primary teaching that all people are created and loved by God, all bear His image, all are sinners for whom Jesus died, and through Christ God’s love and grace are extended to all.[8]
Confronting past problems
Where nations, classes, traditions, and institutions, including universities and churches, are or have been active or complicit in degrading, devaluing, or even erasing the culture and dignity of others, Christians can model godly transparency, repentance, and restorative justice in our attitude towards confronting these problems, and foregrounding the stories and skills of the overlooked or oppressed through research, teaching, discussion, and performance.[9] My own current project involves tracing the largely unresearched careers and repertoires of historical working-class professional musicians through various archives. I’m motivated, humbled, and encouraged by knowing that, though most of these individuals have been entirely forgotten even by their direct descendants, God knows every detail of their lives as intimately as He does mine. He gave them their talents and opportunities, sorrowed and suffered with and for them, heard the performances I’m trying to reconstruct, and whatever I may discover about or learn from them is in His hands.[10] Seeking God’s perspective on my research gives me patience, persistence, and balance, keeps me thankful, and opens doors for witness when communicating my findings.
Bringing personal experience of faith to bear on historical understanding
Christian musicologists can also bring spiritual understanding and lived experience of biblical doctrine to bear on historical and contemporary cultures, especially those that are nominally or actually Christian. As a baroque cellist I studied and performed seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European sacred music, with fellow musicians of all faiths and none. As a born-again, Bible-believing, praying and worshipping Christian with awareness of church history and denominational distinctives, I was familiar with scriptural and Scripture-derived texts, and their context within the gospel narrative and within liturgical practices; and I had experiential understanding of spiritual realities like conviction of sin, and the joy of salvation. This did not mean I could play or analyse the music ‘better’ than non-Christian performers or academics – my faith does not remove my own physical or intellectual limitations – but it often enabled me to offer insights in rehearsals, class discussions, programme notes and pre-concert talks that enriched or challenged received interpretations.
So, though we need to consider how to communicate without using 'churchy' jargon that may be alienating or misunderstood, the fact remains:
Christian musicologists can contribute evidence and arguments informed by Bible knowledge and active faith that would otherwise be missing from academic discussion of sacred music.
Challenging assumptions
Christian musicologists can also trouble widespread assumptions that nobody with a liberal, Western education believes in God anymore, and challenge the prejudice or lack of depth that may colour academic approaches to Christian or Christian-influenced aspects of history and culture. A key objective of the essays I’ve just marked was to demonstrate critical thinking and constructive evaluation of sources: exposing hidden narratives, assumptions and biases, building informed and evidence-based arguments, and expressing these in nuanced and considered language. Christianity is widely characterised (often through misreading or ignorance of actual biblical texts) as among the outdated, intellectually primitive, patriarchal systems that critical approaches seek to dismantle; however, as well as bringing a constructive, informed response to such arguments, we can gently provoke reciprocal critical examination of secular belief systems and cultures.[11]
Conclusion
In studying musicology, you can reflect and fulfil God’s salvation purpose by engaging with your subject and your peers in ways ‘worthy of the calling you have received’.[12] The challenge is to continually, consistently, reflect on and apply the gospel both in your field of study and in your daily life. This takes effort – but if you are trusting in Jesus, you have His mind, and His Spirit, to help you.[13]
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[1] For recent (secular) empirical research countering some of these arguments, see e.g. Sarah Hunter, Rox Middleton and Lucy Tomlinson, ‘Has beauty become a dirty word?’, Arts Professional, 14 December 2023 <https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/article/has-beauty-become-dirty-word>; Emily Haves, ‘Supporting the performing arts’, House of Lords Library, 27 March 2023 <https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/supporting-the-performing-arts>; Jonathan Deakin, Tom Meakin, Tunde Olanrewaju and Van Nguyen, ‘Assessing the direct impact of the UK arts sector’, McKinsey & Company, 20 November 2023 <https://www.mckinsey.com/uk/our-insights/assessing-the-direct-impact-of-the-uk-arts-sector>; Creative Industries Council, ‘The Economic Contribution Of The Arts’, 4 March 2020 rev. 2 March 2021 <https://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/facts-figures/industries-arts-culture-arts-culture-facts-and-figures-the-economic-contribution-of-the-arts>.
[2] Vaughan Roberts, God’s Big Picture: Tracing the storyline of the Bible, 2nd edn. (Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2009); some key passages to explore: Genesis 1-3, Isaiah 9:1-7, John 3, Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Thessalonians 4, Revelation 20:11-21:4.
[3] Dr David Whitehouse, ‘Black hole hums B flat’, BBC News Online, 10 September 2003 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3096776.stm>.
[4] Jeremy Begbie discusses Christian and pre-Christian ideas about music and the cosmos in Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music (London: SPCK, 2008), pp. 77-95.
[5] Exodus 15:1-18; 1 Chronicles 6:31-47, 25:1-31; 2 Chronicles 5:12-14; Nehemiah 12:27-47; Psalms; Isaiah 44:23; Ephesians 2:18-20; Colossians 3:16. Robin Leaver, J. S. Bach as Preacher (St. Louis: Concordia, 1982), p. 13, cited in Patrick Kavanaugh, The Spiritual Lives of Great Composers (Milton Keynes: Word Books, 1992), p. 32; Begbie, pp. 65-74, 119-39.
[6] Reflections presented here are my own, and do not represent the views of module lecturers or the University. Readings included Trevor Herbert, ‘Social History and Music History’, in The Cultural Study of Music, eds. Martin Clayton, Trevor Herbert and Richard Middleton, 2nd edn. (New York & London: Routledge, 2012), 49-58; David Hunter, ‘Critical Exchanges: Handel and Slave-Trading Companies: Handel, an Investor in Slave-Trading Companies: A Response to Ellen Harris’, in Music & Letters, 103 (2022), 532-40; Leon Botstein, ‘Realism Transformed: Franz Schubert and Vienna’, in The Cambridge Companion to Schubert (Cambridge University Press, 1997), 13-35; April L. Price, ‘(Re)Considering the Priestess: Clara Schumann, Historiography, and the Visual’, in Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture, 21 (2017), 107–140; Tricia Rose, Black Noise: rap music and black culture in contemporary America (Hanover: New England University Press, 1994); Ralf von Appen and André Doehring, ‘Nevermind The Beatles, here’s Exile 61 and Nico: ‘The top 100 records of all time’ – a canon of pop and rock albums from a sociological and an aesthetic perspective’, in Popular Music, 25.1 (2006), 21-39; Julia Durand, ‘Romantic Piano’ and ‘Sleazy Saxophone’: Categories and Stereotypes in Library Music Catalogues’, in Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, 14.1 (Spring 2020), 23-45.
[7] Exodus 20:16-18; Proverbs 12:18; Ephesians 4:15, 5:21; 2 Timothy 4:2; 1 Peter 3:15.
[8] Genesis 26:4; Psalm 67:1-3; Isaiah 56:3-7; Jeremiah 3:17; Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 2:11; Galatians 3:26-28; James 2:1-13; Revelation 21:24-26.
[9] Exodus 23:1-9; Proverbs 21:15; Malachi 3:1-5; Matthew 3:8; Luke 12:1-3; 2 Corinthians 7:9-11.
[10] Psalms 8:1-9, 139:1-17; Isaiah 53:4-5; Matthew 25:14-15; Luke 12:6-7; Romans 11:33-36, 12:6; Colossians 1:16; James 1:5.
[11] John C. Lennox, Have No Fear: Being Salt and Light Even When It’s Costly (Leyland: 10Publishing, 2018).
[13] John 14:15-17; 1 Corinthians 2:6-16; William Edgar, The Christian Mind: Escaping Futility (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2018).
