Instrumental Worship Music of the Season

6 Responses to Instrumental Worship Music of the Season

1. Roger says:

   December 16, 2010 at 9:35 am

   Simply beautiful and inspiring. Thanks Jay.
2. Blituri says:

   December 17, 2010 at 7:22 pm

   But, it drives half of us up the wall and out the door: the ancient Greeks were careful not to impose a BURDEN (songs) on large classes of its citizens.

   The Magi were Chaldean sorcerers: musica, magica:

   2 Tim 3: 12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
   2 Tim 3: 13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,
   deceiving [wandering stars], and being deceived.

   SEDUCERS
   1114. goes, go´-ace; goao (to wail); properly, a wizard (as muttering spells), i.e. (by implication) an imposter: seducer.

   Goês
   A. sorcerer, wizard, Phoronis . epôidos Ludias apo chthonos E.Ba.234, cf. Hipp.1038; prob. f.l. for boêisi Hdt.7.191.

   Ep?d-os Singing to or over, using charms to heal wounds,
   b. Subst., enchanter, a "Burden"
   2. Pass., sung to music, “ph?nai”

   2.juggler, cheat, “deinos g. kai pharmakeus kai sophist?s” Pl.Smp.203d;

   Sophis-t?s A. master of one's craft, adept, expert, of diviners, of poets,
   “meletan sophistais prosbalon” parapai?n khelun” (play the lyre)
   with modal words added, “hoi s. t?n hier?n mel?n”
   (Melody in a holy place)

   You remember that a Levite who went NEAR or INTO a holy thing or place would be executed.
3. Paul B says:

   December 22, 2010 at 2:46 am

   Thanks for sharing that Jay. Christmas time brings out the best in (many of) the artists we know and love. This is a great example.

   I first learned this song (as far as I was aware) in Dutch, here in Belgium. So hearing it in English still sounds a little foreign to me (then she goes and adds – back – the Latin). I am left wondering, did the angels sing to the shepherds in Greek or Aramaic or what? Maybe some celestial tongue that 'each could understand in his own heart's dialect'.

   Have been enjoying your posts in this series. Interesting flavour to the 'dialogue' that you get in this context. The 'good will' surfaces in spite of ourselves at times, it seems.
4. Jay Guin says:

   December 22, 2010 at 8:59 pm

   Paul B,

   I'd guess Aramaic, as the shepherds were likely not very fluent in Greek. Hebrew's the next most likely guess. But who knows?
5. aBasnar says:

   December 23, 2010 at 1:45 am

   Where have all the verses gone?

   This is such a beautiful hymn, we sing every year – because of its great lyrics! – and here jsut ONE SINGLE VERSE remains, being streched over 3 minutes! Is it music or "liquid harmonies" that edify or is it the Word of God communicated through song?

   Probably a lot of confusion lies in a misunderstanding: Edification (lit. fr. Gr.: Building a house!) is not stirring up good emotions (rather: like building a house it has to do with skill, a plan and labor). I had grand feelings when I listened to Richard Wagner's operas, but there was not a drop of the Spirit within. Satan can stir up emotions, but he cannot edify. Edification comes through the word. If you replace the Word by Music and skillfull presentation thereof whose work is it?

   Alexander
6. James says:

   December 26, 2010 at 7:14 am

   So many of the hymns about the Incarnation have been truncated to one stanza. As we sang several in our worship gatherings the past few weeks the volume drop at the beginning of verse two was always noticeable. Almost no one seems to sing more than one stanza at Christmas, and it is truly a shame, as most of the songs are trying to tell a story, and point to the purpose of his coming, and often that message is incomplete when verses are dropped.

   It's not just at Christmas, though. I'm from West Texas, and a great many Christians there have never sung the third stanza of a four stanza song in their lives. When they move up here (NY) where people (at least in this area) like to sing every line of a hymn, they are struck at how many songs they'd sung all their lives yet never even heard some of the lines.

Comments are closed.