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Gabriel Dumitrescu

For a Better Understanding of the Role and Character of Music in the Worship Service
From the beginning I want to make it clear that this is not a sales pitch for a par-ticular
style of music. I am going to advocate neither traditional hymns nor contem-porary
songs.
Rather this is an attempt to show you a different angle of perceiving music. To ex-plain
myself: in our last meeting, everyone that spoke that night used words such as I like
this or I dont like that kind of music. And that is the extent to which the majority of
us go in explaining our preference or judging the appropriateness of a par-ticular
selection of music for worship. Although it is a very common approach, it is also a very
superficial one.
I. In order to see our shortfall, I would like to use a couple of illustrations and parallels
that we all can relate to. The first one is comparing music with food. Rather strange,
you would think. But as food is the basis for building our physical bodies, music is a
vehicle to convey emotions: food for the soul.
By now we all should know that we are what we eat, not only in a physical way; our
intellectual and spiritual capacity is undeniably affected as well. Besides the biblical
story of Daniel and the three young Hebrew men, there are numerous contemporary
studies that validate that truth. By the same token, in a spiritual way, we are what we
read, what we listen to, what we watch.
As children of God, and as His people, we have a unique perspective of the world. The
mere fact that we live on this earth, places everything we are and we are surrounded
by under the incidence of the great controversy between good and evil, between Christ
and Satan. Consequently, we need to see every aspect of our lives through that
particular prism.
Speaking in terms of likes and dislikes, we need to recognize a fundamental truth: that
our personal tastes are no longer pure (the last time I checked, that was true in Eden),
but rather perverted, because we all inherit a fallen nature. Thus our taste buds are no
longer (if they ever were) the criterion for judging what is good for our body. The
degradation of human health along the ages is a direct result and proof of obeying our
perverted tastes.
God, in His love and mercy, wanted to spare His people from the consequences of this
downfall, and in His wisdom, gave them basic rules of clean and unclean foods. In
modern times, He revealed, through Ellen White, well over a hundred years ago, principles to follow in order to regain health, physical and spiritual. The fact that modern
science has not caught up yet with everything God revealed to us not only a century
ago, but even with the principles of clean and unclean foods in Exodus, does not diminish those truths, it only affirms their transcendence.
So, lets go back to the role our taste plays in judging what is good for us: I am sorry
to say that it already proved to have failed, both at the level of humanity as a whole, as
well as on the personal level. The positive aspects and the importance taste has in our
lives notwithstanding, God chose to give us something else that would supersede and

guide our sensual experience (that is the experience we gain through our senses): our
mind.
Knowledge is power, and who knows that better than the Creator Himself! He gave us
knowledge to educate our senses to like what is right for us. Here are several principles to follow in choosing our food:
1. balance between main categories of nutrients: proteins, fats, sugars
2. moderation or avoiding excesses, even of good things
3. a call to vegetarianism, the original food source for all earthly creatures
Music has eluded, for a long time, criteria for judgment of its spiritual value, precisely
because people have used their musical taste buds alone to determine what music is good
for them. So, what is the magical solution? It is quite simple: judge music by the
1. balance between its elements: melody, rhythm, harmony, instrumentation, formal
structure
2. moderation or avoiding excesses, even of good music or elements of it
3. a call to musical vegetarianism, the original music of heaven.
Let me elaborate a little:
1. A piece of music (text is not an element of music per se) needs to have a well
constructed melody (catchy tune), rhythmical variety, a balanced harmony,
and presented on the right instrument/voicing or combination of them, all cast
in a balanced and solid frame (number of phrases, their length, etc.). That
means none of these elements would dominate over the others.
a. melody: a poorly constructed melody results in difficulty of singing; lack
of it is called rap
b. rhythm: lack of it devoids music of its life, too much of it becomes
addicting, and tends to subjugate the will
c. harmony: is like clothing: it makes a statement about who you are; the
succession of chords can convey various emotional complexes
d. right instrument/voicing: the choice of instruments is critical since some
music sounds better on certain instruments than others; a caveat for
synthesized sound: it needs to be masterfully used, because it can be
invasive
and damage sensitivity. As to the voice, it needs to be in a comfortable
range, and with a pleasant timbre.
e. finally, the formal structure: lack of structure or amorphous music is unlike
God: He is a God of order. Balance in the formal structure is achieved by
the Golden Section, a principle after which our body and our emotional
expectations are built (architects and plastic artists are very familiar with
this concept).
2. The principle of moderation will save us much trouble: any of the above
elements in excess, to which I would like to add dynamics, volume
(especially true for electronic media), may cause harm, sometimes even
physical.
I would like to mention here the issue of repetition that surfaced in our
previous discussion: repetition is a very basic building bloc of music, it is a
very good and welcomed thing, but only in moderation. Repetition in excess

may result in either discomfort or on the other hand it could serve as a drug,
to get high, at the expense of silencing reason. It is no secret that repetition in
excess (either melodic, rhythmical, harmonic or for that matter repetition of
text) is used to induce hypnosis.
3. The call to musical vegetarianism, the original music of heaven, is a very
in-teresting parallel.
Although we do not know for sure what the music of heaven sounds like, we
do know that the elements of music we have today were originated in heaven.
We also know that Lucifer used to be the Chief Conductor of the angelic
musical ensembles. Consequently, we cannot afford to take musical matters
lightly. In order to beat Satan at his own game (music) we need to ally
ourselves with Christ, who already won the battle for us.
Do you know what the term the Adventist advantage means? It was
determined by the medical community at large that the Adventist lifestyle
significantly increases the lifespan and significantly reduces the incidence of
terminal diseases. Of course, this is not reduced to alimentation alone. Other
factors are of equal importance, such as balance between work and rest (the
Sabbath included), and others.
God calls us, His people, to seek that music He Himself can bless in our lives.
We need more than knowledge to choose the best music to listen to or to
produce. And that additional element is called discernment. Interestingly
enough, a vegetarian diet enhances the brains ability to make distinction
(discern) between good and evil. But that is not all. The true judge in our life,
the only One, is the Holy Spirit. And only through prayer can we receive
Him.
So, do you want to have the ability to discern what is the best music for you
indi-vidually and for your church? Here is the key: get knowledge (inform,
educate yourself) and get the right spirit, the Holy Spirit, through prayer. We
need to pray with earnest that God will show us what kind of music to choose
for His glory.
Let us not be deceived: God cannot and will not bless our choice of music, if
we choose to disregard the light He has given us. Our musical taste buds need
to be educated and sanctified, in order to like what is right. It is part of the
transformation a person goes through, as more and more light is entrusted to
him/her.
If you think you can baptize a piece of music by merely changing the label,
think again. Baptism is only the outward sign and affirmation of an internal
transformation. There needs to be a transformation of essence, of character,
before you can change the label. I am glad pastor Larry mentioned in his
sermon, a few weeks ago, that several of our beloved hymns were taken from
secular tunes. Yes, even A Mighty Fortress Is Our God was a bar song. But
I do not know if you are aware that even that song underwent a rhythmical
transformation when sacred words were added.

II. Let me illustrate now the next dilemma: traditional or contemporary?


Scene #1: Lets take a young lady: I want to marry this neat young gentleman.
Parents: What do you love about him?
Lady: Well, he is handsome and cute. What I like about him is that he has conservative values. He likes to be in charge.
Parents: How about you? Do you feel appreciated, respected?
Lady: It is true that He does not tolerate other opinions, especially differing ones, but he
is so handsome
Parents: We think you should not marry him then. This could escalate into verbal or even
physical abuse
Lady: No, I want him, he is so cute after all I will marry him with or without your
consent!
Scene #2: A young gentleman: I want to marry this young lady. Shes so beautiful and so
sexy, especially when shes wearing those revealing clothes
Parents: What do you love about her?
Gentleman: I dont know, she dresses so hip. And she is a very exciting person.
Parents: How about her religious beliefs?
Gentleman: She is a nice person and says she is a Christian. She likes a lot of partying
and dancing though
Parents: We want you to think hard about what you are going to do with your life. She
can stir you in a worldly direction, you know
Gentleman: I definitely want her to be my wife, thank you. And by the way, I know better
what is best for my life.
Here we have two young people who wanted to marry someone against the advice of
their parents, only to end up years later, maybe a couple of kids down the way, in divorce.
And a lot more lives destroyed by a stubborn attitude and an unwise decision.
My appeal to you is let us use the common sense and wisdom of the Bible old things and
new things. And to the often quoted Psalm verses Sing to the Lord a new song and
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, lets add Psalm 47, 7 sing praises with
understanding (or as another translation says sing a wise song).
We have a responsibility as a church to be Gods witnesses, and to help people come from
where they are to where God wants us to be. Jesus sent His disciples to be fishers of men,
and He taught about the net of the Gospel. He never used hooks to catch anyone. Let us
not use hooks (even musical ones) in Gods work.
The soul that is thirsting for God and for the truth, will not care as much for the type of
worship service, but will look for a family of believers that care for them, for their needs,
where they are. Let us go out to them by extending and expanding our outreach
ministries. Let them know we care.
Gabriel Dumitrescu, January 15, 2000

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