The other day I was lamenting/pondering that Christian music is so often cheesy/corny/poorly made/lacking musical talent/etc. I mean, if we have communion with the Creator of beauty and music, shouldn't the music in the Christian community be infinitely more beautiful than secular music? I concede that it is much easier to find beautiful, meaningful lyrics in Christian music, but the intrumentals...not so much. I mean, I love a number of Christian bands, but excellent Christian music is hard to come by, at least when it comes to more modern styles.
All that to say, this week was one of those times when God seemed to remind me that I have no idea about anything at all. This week I had the privilege of listening to Benjamin and Stephen Lynerd, Jazz musicians who use thier amazingness for the glory of God. Their songs (at least the few that I've heard) are fun to listen to, and amazingly several of them are Christian worship songs, not to mention the incredible talent of these brothers on the vibes and piano. A friend of mine said that the vibes seemed pretty lame when we saw them set up before the performance and I agreed. But after hearing and watching the Lynerds, I have a new respect for the vibes and a new hope in Christian music. It was absolutely amazing! The vibes just might be my new favorite instrument. I never thought the beauty of piano music could be improved but God proved me wrong yet again.
God: 2 billion 78 Me: 0
3 comments:
Chris Rice.
I agree with the Christian music thing. I personally think that they're hard to relate to lyric-wise, and maybe they're made to be easy to play for worship songs instrument-wise? I appreciate the darker, less Scripture-based lyrics because the lyrics seem more genuine and less parroted. For that, I wonder if it's because when it comes to writing a song, you can either make up your own lyrics, or kind of paraphrase what the Bible says, and it's easier to paraphrase. Not to say that songs shouldn't contain Scripture.
Maybe part of it is that when Christian/worship music is played, it has to have a purpose/message; it's hard to just play for the sake of playing. Glad these guys were good; it sounds like a cool instrument combo. Jazz is great.
In Phantom of the Opera, during Don Juan, there's a cool, very brief marimba solo about 1:10 in. When I started to write that, I was thinking it was vibes, but their similar, right?
And Chris Rice is great. He does a really good job of relating emotion combined with great musical skill.
colinash
yeah, I almost put in there that Chris Rice is pretty much the only Christian artist I've found who has that awesome balance. Nicole Nordeman gets there sometimes too.
I agree Joel, the darker songs do seem more genuine. I guess it just shows how limited humans are in expressing worship of God! We can only use words so many times before they start to lose their significance.
Oh, I tried to put one of their songs on this post so that you could listen to them but I couldn't figure out how to do it :(
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