WORSHIP MUSIC - HOW DO WE DETERMINE WHAT IS "GOOD"?

Update 8/10/09 - Yesterday I caught a church service on TV which was being led by some special musicians.  The Spirit came through powerfully and I wondered who they were.  It was Keith and Kristyn Getty, who are producing theologically nutritious material set to modern musical sensibilities.  I blogged about this duo earlier.  Click here.   Also see this article.  And check out this Keith and Kristyn YouTube playlist.  (Words here).

(Original post) - Chuck Colson draws on an article in Touchstone magazine by Donald Willliams titled "Durable Hymns."  Colson cites certain "marks of excellence:

Among these marks of excellence is biblical truth. Lyrics need not to be literal Scripture, but they do have to be faithful to it.

Another mark of excellence—theological profundity. Think of how the words to this great hymn encourage us to worship God with our minds:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes

By contrast, some contemporary choruses are often “so simplistic and repetitive

that theological reflection never has a chance to get started,” Williams says.

A third mark of excellence is poetic richness. For instance, the use of a question in the hymn “What Child is This?” helps us capture “the wonder of the Incarnation.” In “Amazing

Grace,” the word “wretch,” Williams notes, is “a simple but evocative” choice.

A fourth mark is musical beauty. In great music, “there are certain contours, structures, and cadences that make for a singable melody.” And the right harmony “can make that melody more memorable . . .,” he writes. For instance, “Be Thou My Vision” “rises and falls like an ocean wave or a sine curve.”

Tragically, Williams notes, “more recent praise choruses seem to ignore all the rules of good composition, giving us not well-shaped melodies but just one note after another.”

Now, some songwriters are creating excellent music today. But, warns Williams, only those musicians who are musically gifted, and historically, biblically, and theologically trained are qualified to help churches choose the best new music “as a supplement to the church’s rich musical heritage.”

I couldn’t agree more. And—in the end—all sides of the music wars can agree that we want to praise God by singing hymns and spiritual songs that are biblically true, theologically profound, poetically rich, and, yes, musically beautiful.