(Notes from the Symphony of Life Seminar, by Frank Garlock)

Lecture 3

POP GOES THE MUSIC

I am going to give you something that you can use that will be a tremendous help to you. We as Christians should have songs of testimony that are filled with God and what He has done. Even songs of testimony should be directed to God and not centered in me. We should have songs that are not primarily about our feelings. This lecture is called "Pop goes the Music." Galatians 5:16 says, "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."

THE REASON THAT SO MANY PEOPLE LIKE ROCK MUSIC IS THAT IT APPEALS TO THE FLESH. Rock music appeals to the ADAM or carnal nature. There is a story told by an old Indian man that talks of the two natures within each of us. When asked which one wins the battle, the old Indian said it was the one that is fed the most. That is true, but what God wants us to do is not to feed the old man but to crucify him. Galatians 5:24 says, "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." When we do that, we will not like or listen to the wrong kind of music.

WHAT ARE THE PRINCIPLES OF GOOD MUSIC? This is what we are going to talk about. The one word that symbolizes all good music is VARIETY or BALANCE, not necessarily equal proportions. The two main elements of music are:

TENSION

RELAXATION

Symphony music has a mixture of tension and relaxation. As one listens to any major symphonic masterpiece, they can hear the balance between tension and relaxation. There are times when the music builds to a climax and then there are other times that it gets soft and relaxed. All good music is like that in balancing tension and relaxation. The elements of tension are always under strict control. Remember the illustration that we used about something being 50% salt. That would be too much. In the same way, music with too much tension is out of balance. It needs to be under strict control.

EVEN THOUGH THERE ARE MANY KINDS OF ROCK MUSIC, THEY ARE ALL BAD BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL SENSUAL. Rock music is like taking a basket of bad apples and putting one good one into the basket with the bad ones. The good one will never make the bad ones good, but the bad ones will make the one good one bad. Rock musicians have even taken classical music and put a rock beat to it to make it more appealing. I heard "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" with a rock beat. It completely destroyed the music. They have done the same with Bach, the New World Symphony, Gospel music, Master the Tempest is Raging, and even children's Sunday School songs.

Galatians 5:17 that we read earlier says that the flesh and the spirit are contrary one to another. Good music has the elements under strict control. Here are the elements of tension and the elements of relaxation:

TENSION

1. Rhythm 2. Repetition 3. High tones 4. Dissidence 5. Volume

RELAXATION

1. Melody 2. Variety 3. Low notes 4. Consonance 5. Softness

THE TROUBLE WITH ROCK MUSIC IS THAT IT IS MADE UP ALMOST ENTIRELY OF TENSION (99%). Rock music has taken the elements of tension from several previous popular styles:

1. Blues 2 Rag Time 3. Dixie Land 4. Bee Bop 5. Jazz

Rock music takes the elements of tension out of these styles and combines them all into one style which is 99% tension. One musician spent one whole week listening to 1000 rock record long-play albums and found only three songs with a legitimate modulation in them. Most never even changed keys.

An article on rock music says, "Rock is so loud that you can't disturb it, it creates its own environment, creating its own surroundings, it's over powering, and it's primitive ritualism. One either fights it and leaves, or immerses oneself in it in a trance like state. Rock is more than just music, it is connected with a number of political, sociological, aesthetic and other questions." They are saying that rock is built almost completely on tension, it overpowers those who listen to it. NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO TO IT, IT WILL STILL AFFECT YOU. IT IS GARBAGE. It is deliberately written to be sensual, it is calculated by the Devil and the world to trap you.

We have seen what the Bible said in I Samuel 16:23 about the effects of music upon King Saul when David played for him. Every human is made up of three parts and they are placed here in the order of importance in spiritual life:

1. Spirit - the most important part of a man. 2. Soul - the nest in importance. 3. Body - the least important

When these are in the proper perspective a man will have freedom and walk in the Spirit. The spirit of a man is where the Holy Spirit dwells. The Soul and Body are to be in subjection to the spirit and ultimately the Holy Spirit. True freedom in Christ comes from following the laws of the spirit and submitting to the authority that is over us. What would it be like if all the motorists on the freeways were allowed to travel at any speed that they wanted? Would that be freedom? No, it would be disaster. What would happen in our lives if the body was in authority with the soul and spirit being second and third in the line of authority? The Bible calls it Sensuality. Ephesians 4:17-19 says, "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart."

The result of walking in the flesh is 1) having the understanding darkened, 2) being alienated from the life of God, and 3) having the heart blinded. Romans 1:24 describes the state of those that walk in the flesh and away from God, "Wherefore God also gave them up unto uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:" The end result will be that God will give a person up to uncleanness in defiling their body, and to vile affections in craving things that are wrong. God is not looking for talent as much as He is for faithfulness. Anyone can be good and faithful. Romans 1:28 says that God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Because they lived sensual lives, they polluted their mind and their spirit.

THE TYPE OF MUSIC YOU RESPOND TO SHOWS WHAT IS INSIDE YOU AND WHAT PART OF YOU IS IN CONTROL IN YOUR LIFE. Ephesians 5:18,19 says, "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." We are to be filled with the Spirit. We are to be singing and making MELODY. The melody is the part in music to which your spirit responds. The word MELODY comes from two Greek words that means a singer of praises, or odes to God. Even the word melody means to praise God. This means that our MELODY should be as accurate as the Christianity that it portrays.

What are some perversions that are used even in the singing of a melody in Christian music? 1) Using the technique of a jazz musician to scoop into the notes rather than hit them dead on. This also goes along with a tenant of the rock culture that there are no absolutes. 2) Singing Christian music with a breathy voice. One can picture a woman singing with a breathy voice singing into the mike in almost a whisper, and slurring the notes as she sings. This is a sensual form of music. It makes the listener too close to the singer. One is in the intimate zone of a person that has to whisper. The melody should be as accurate as the music it portrays.

The MIND responds to the HARMONY, just as the spirit responds to the MELODY. The Soul is the joining place between the spirit and the body. If you know what a scale is in music, try to imagine a scale being played up to the seventh note, and never arrive at the final, or eighth, note or the root. The result is that you cringe at the sound. The human ear requires the harmonic sound to conclude with the tonic note or the eighth note of the scale.

The RHYTHM is the part that appeals to the BODY. Any music that is worth listening to has rhythm that is no different than the pulse in the body. When the pulse becomes either dead or over worked it becomes out of balance. Christian music should be that which has the pulse under strict control. When you have wild Christian music where the beat is out of control, then it ceases to be Christian music no matter what words are placed with the music. At that point it becomes sensual. The beat or sensuality completely cancels out any message that the words are trying to portray and it literally becomes blasphemy. Real Christian music is FIRST MELODY, THEN HARMONY, and THEN RHYTHM and all of these under strict control.

A rock song that illustrates how the basic premise of rock music is sensual because of the beat is as follows:

Give me the beat boys and fill my soul. I want to get lost in your rock and roll, And drift away. Don't want no melody, don't want no harmony, But give me the beat boys and fill my soul I want to get lost in your rock and roll And drift away.

THEY GAVE IT AWAY!!!! They don't want any melody, THAT IS THE SPIRITUAL PART. They don't want any harmony, THAT IS THE INTELLECTUAL PART.

ROCK MUSIC IS ANTI-SPIRITUAL and ANTI- INTELLECTUAL music. THEY WANT THE BEAT. They want the FLESH that they can get lost in. THEY WANT TO GET LOST IN SENSUALITY. A Christian should not want this if he is a new creature in Christ as the Bible says. We should be new creatures with new desires and that means that we should want a NEW SONG. A Christian should only want God's best, that which makes him be what God wants him to be. It makes all the difference in the world. The question is, "WHAT DOES GOD WANT ME TO HAVE?" What we need to do is to ask God to change our desires. Do as it says in Ephesians 5:10 - "Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord."

(Written from notes taken from the Symphony of Live Seminar by Frank Garlock)

In Christ, David Williams - Forum Host

Expect the final lecture soon: "A New Song"