Throughout history, one of the aspects that has consistently determined the ethos of a culture is its music. Since the earliest days of humanity, the use of organized sound has been essential to communication, expression, worship, and the development of civilizations. With such a deep correlation between music and culture, it is clear that the music of a people is reflective of—and also determines—the general attitudes of those people. Plato believed that, in certain forms, music could direct the public towards virtue; he also thought that the allowance of certain modes into the public ear could cause moral decay and even a political rebellion. The early church fathers also paid careful attention to what kind of music was used to praise God so as not to arouse the passions, but rather to direct one’s soul towards Christ. In the Orthodox tradition of Byzantine Chant, only eight specifically-constructed modes are used, each designed to elicit a certain spiritual response determined by what the text is trying to teach.
Even in our modern day culture, record producers and songwriters pay careful attention to the key, chord progression, and lyrics of a song in order to create emotional reactions from the listeners, many of which are not virtuous. While many believe pop music and the like to be very simplistic and lacking in talent, the vast majority of successful songs are carefully composed so as to create a directed and predictable response within the listener. With these examples from ancient to modern times, it is clear that the music people listen to can profoundly influence their emotions, thoughts, and even spiritual struggle. Therefore, it is important to view music not as a passive form of entertainment, but as a very real way of leading the human soul, either to wonder, beauty, and love of God, or to self-destruction, vice, and rebellion. Likewise, the state of a culture can be seen in the music it promotes.
It is generally agreed upon that the greatest and most advanced music of all time developed in Christian Western Civilization. From the early days of Byzantine Chant in the Roman Empire, to Gregorian Chant, to polyphony, Bach, and beyond, the pursuit of Christ and His beauty has led humanity to create unbelievably incredible sound and art. The earliest forms of what is now known as Classical music started in medieval Europe when composers wrote works for the church and high courts during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. This time period also aligns with the creation of amazing visual and literary artwork, the legacy of which still persists to this day. Listening to works like Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, and Allegri’s Miserere is enough to lead even the most atheistic among humanity to ponder the deeper meaning and beauty of the world.
However, listening to the music that is generally popular now, one may question how, in an age of such ‘progressive values,’ our music, and art in general, has managed to plummet. We are, for all intents and purposes, in the midst of a technological equivalent to the Renaissance period. Looking at history, one would think we should also be living in an artistic equivalent to the times when Palaestrina or Vivaldi were composing amazing works, leading the human spirit to ascend. Rather, we find ourselves in a place where popular music glorifies unthinkable things, such as drugs, rape, promiscuity, and all other kinds of degeneracy. Contrary to the music of the previous times, when people used it as a means of lifting themselves and humanity out of their fallenness, modern music appears to want to bring us further down into our state, to bring our mind and spirit into the depths of vice. And I do not think this is an accident. Ask anyone why they enjoy listening to music, and they will almost always answer that it makes them feel a certain way. It is clear that whoever can control music can also control—to a certain extent, of course—the minds and feelings of the listeners. Plato knew that the music presented to a society, even down to the scales the music uses, could have enormous impacts on the ethos of that society. Is it then really a surprise that rap music, which generally glorifies drugs, anger, and misogyny, presents a cycle of poverty and violence? Or pop music, which centers almost exclusively around sex and promiscuity, the rhythms and melody of which are composed specifically to drill that feeling into a person’s heart (this is actually something I was taught in music school), causes a culture of unrestrained sexuality, hookups, and a general debasement of the human person? It could be argued that there are other factors as well, and there are, but music is certainly an incredibly powerful tool in this cycle. This is not to attack either of these genres either, as I believe they both hold the ability, like any other form of music, to lift people up. It is rather the abuse of these musical forms which keep our society in a state of constant degradation and vice that is the issue.
It is therefore only when music is created for the glory of God, whether knowingly or under the guise of beauty, that it has the power to lift up rather than to cast down. This is why it is so important for a culture to be careful of the music it promotes, and more importantly for people to be mindful that what they listen to can have a deep psychological and spiritual effect on them. Just like the great orators of old, it is up to music makers of today to be aware of the powerful tool they hold to sway human reason and emotion, and to use it to turn people’s gaze away from fallen things and towards beauty and virtue. This is how Western Civilization can be saved: by creating music and art, inspired by the goodness of creation and the Creator, so as to inspire others to desire and achieve greater things.
