1. Growing up, I've mostly attended Baptist Churches. In a Baptist Church service, music plays a dominate role. In fact, the first half of the church service, before the actual sermon, consists of prayers and hymns followed by an offeratory solo of some sort. The music is used as worship and is considered to be an offering to God. Because of this belief, the general rule is to not clap for any hymns, ensembles, or solo pieces. The glory should go to God not the performer. Music also helps people get into the mood for worshiping. Lyrics typically remind singers of biblical messages or offer praise to God.
2. Aesthetics. In your experience, do the prevailing religions of your surroundings influence what is found aesthetically pleasing in music? Is there any way in which the values of those religions inherent in the way music is built or experienced?
I've thought on this question for awhile and I'm having some trouble with it. I'm not sure how the values in the Christian religion influence our ideas on how music should sound. The style of the music used in our church services (traditional services and contemporary services)comes from the culture. The aesthetics of the music is determined by the culture. The style that is used is the style most popular with the group. In this way, the group can relate more through the music and worship. An example would be a traditional service, it mostly targets the older generation and uses hymns that they would have grown up with. The values of the christian religion doesn't influence the music to sound this way. If it did, then other styles such as contemporary music wouldn't have entered the church. However if you went back to the roots of our religion and music, there are some influences. In Josquin des Prez’s Ave Maria, the use of 3/4 time symbolizes the trinity.
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