A Brief History Of Music In Worship
Throughout its history, the Christian church has used music to proclaim the gospel and to return thanks and praise to God. The history of this musical expression teaches us a great deal not only about the culture and everyday life of earlier Christians, but also about their unique experience of and insights into the Christian faith. These lessons can, in turn, enlighten, emend, and inspire our own worship of God. The history of the church's song teaches us, for example, how embedded in culture this song has always been. It inspires us by pointing us to Christians who have dedicated their whole lives to the artful craft of rendering musical prayers and proclamation for the service of God in worship. And it reminds us of the tremendous power of music to either enrich or corrupt our faith and the witness of the church. As Christians living today, we have the rare privilege of learning about Christians in faraway lands and times. This section tells the story of a host of Christians, Easter…
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Chapters & Articles in A Brief History Of Music In Worship (17)
Music was an important element of both temple and synagogue worship. Undoubtedly this music and its forms influence…
From the beginning of the New Testament experience, the believer's response to Jesus Christ has included song. Most…
Very little can be said with certainty about the music of the first three centuries of the church beyond texts used…
Christians in North America are often unaware of one of the largest and most devoted segments of the Christian chur…
Music for worship in the Byzantine Orthodox tradition is thought to be a direct descendent of the music used in the…
Almost the entire Orthodox liturgy is sung, most often to centuries-old melodic formulas. In addition to chanted li…
While small segments of the Russian Orthodox Church have continued to use only traditional Byzantine chant in their…
Millions of Christians who live in Egypt and Ethiopia have inherited a rich tradition of worship practices. Each of…
Missionaries from Europe and North America brought to Africa many Western forms of music and worship. In the last s…
The Middle Ages in the West saw the gradual dominance of the Roman rite over the local rites that had developed bef…
Music in early Christian worship consisted of melody only. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, more complex music, f…
The reforms in music which attended the reform of worship in the Reformation ranged widely from the rejection of al…
The revivalist tradition is rooted in pietest hymnody. It is characterized by an emphasis on the relationship of Ch…
The preceding article traced the outlines of the revivalist music tradition in both Europe and America. The followi…
One of the richest contributions to church music in America has undoubtedly come from the heritage of the African-A…
Through much of the nineteenth century, worship in liturgical churches followed largely low-church convictions. In …
The trend toward a return to primal traditions in theology and worship practice was intensified in the mid-twentiet…