Prolegomena To A Theology

of Music
Jay W. Witkey

SYSTEMATIC MUSICOLOGY
Musicology—variously defined as the systematic, scholarly, or scientific
study of music—is basically a product of the nineteenth century. As a self-
conscious area of study, it was one of the numerous disciplines which
developed in the wake of the disintegration of philosophy under the pressures
of scientific method.1 Of the many varieties of musicology which have
developed since Guido Adler's pioneer essay, "Umfang, Methode und Ziel der
Musikwissenschaft" (Scope, Method, and Aim of Musicology literally
"Science of Music," 1885), historical musicology has been the dominant. In
fact, to non-musicologists "musicology" usually means the study of music
history. Actually, historical method has represented only one of many ap­
proaches to musicology. The non-historical variants have, in practice, been
lumped together in a casserole of methodologies incongruously known as
systematic musicology. 2
The earliest systematic attempts to study music were done within the
context of philosophy. Pythagoras theorized about the acoustical bases of
music; many of his empirical observations are still quite valid. He and his
followers also speculated about the concept of the "Harmony of the Spheres"

The Faculty Address of Dr. Jay Weldon Wilky was delivered, April 27, 1971, in the
Alumni Chapel, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Wilkey
joined the faculty of the School of Church Music, Southern Baptist Seminary in 1963. Re is
currently Associate Professor of Church Music. He is very active in church, community, and
cultural affairs of the entire community. He was awarded the Β .Mus. degree (summa cum
laude) by the Eastern Mexico University. He earned the M.A. degree from the State
University of Iowa in 1957 and the Ph.D. degree from Indiana University in 1965. He has
done additional work in Union Theological Seminary; the Institute of Comparative
Musicology, Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan; and the Institute of Ethnomusicology,
U.C.L.A., Los Angeles, California.
1. For summaries of the development of musicology, see: Frank L. Harrison et at,
Musiocology (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1963), pp. lOf. Glen Haydon, In­
troduction to Musicology (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1941), pp. 4f. Also, Willi Apel,
Harvard Dictionary of Music, Second Ed. (Cambridge: Belknap, 1969), pp. 558-559.
2. For the most complete discussion of systematic musicology, see: Haydon, op. cit. Also,
Charles Seeger, "Systematic Musicology," Journal of the American Musicological
Society, IV (Fall, 1951), pp. 240f.

507
508 REVIEW AND EXPOSITOR

and the relationship of earthly music to that astrological perfection. Plato

accepted the Pythagorean speculations and went still further with his own
practical, moralistic applications, especially in the context of the two large
dialogues, The Republic and The Laws, to formulate what might be con-
sidered the first "Prolegomena to a Practical Theology of Music." The
Church Fathers and medieval philosophers followed in the traditions
established by Pythagoras and Plato, as have most philosophers and
theologians down to contemporary times, including such men as Luther,
Calvin, Descartes, Hegel, Schopenhauer,3 as well as those two contemporary
"art buffs," Barth 4 and Tillich. 5 Within the present musicological context,
the acoustical studies are continued as part of the psychology of music 6 and
the philosophical and moralistic speculations in the context of the philosophy
of music education. 7
The largest branch of systematic musicology in terms of numbers of
specialists is probably the so-called "theory of music." As an attempt to
discover and codify the basic principles of music composition as illustrated in
the materials of music itself, it is a phenomenological method of study. As
such, it avoids the dangers of non-musical jargon and the weakness of over-
dependence on non-musicians for its most significant discoveries, as has often
been the case in philosophical and psychological studies of music. The
weakness of music theory is the inability or unwillingness of the scholars to
define principles elemental enough to describe the phenomenon of con-
temporary music. When the theoretician defines his basic principles, the
contemporary musical prophet bursts that atom completely. 8 By the time the
theoretician is able to retrench and redefine, the prophets have burst another
atom. In fact, contemporary music theoreticians are about three generations

3. The most complete historical survey of such writings is: Julius Portnoy, The
Philosopher and Music (New York: Humanities, 1954).
4. E.g., Church Dogmatics: A Selection,ed. <S trans. Bromiley (New York: Harper
Torchbooks, 1962), pp. 159 : an excerpt from Church Dogmatics, III, 3, pp. 297f.
5. Tillich dealt with such matters in numerous writings, probably most concentratedly in
Theology of Culture (New York: Oxford, 1959).
6. Three important contemporary sources, reflecting differing points of view, are: Paul
Farnsworth, A Social Psychology of Music, Second Ed. (Ames: Iowa State, 1969).
Robert W. Lundin, An Objective Psychology of Music, Second Ed. (New York:
Ronald, 1967). Leonard B. Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music (Chicago:
Chicago, 1956).
7. E. g., Nelson B. Henry, Basic Concepts in Music Education (Chicago: Chicago, 1958).
Charles Leonhard & Robert W. House, Foundations and Principles of Music Education
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959). Abraham A. Schwadron, Aesthetics: Dimensions
for Music Education (Washington: MENC, 1967). Ralph A. Smith, ed., Toward an
Aesthetic Education (Washington: MENC, 1970).
8. This basic phenomenon is described in its historical perspective by: Matthew Shirlaw,
The Theory of Harmony (London: Novello, 1917); Joseph Yasser, A Theory of
Evolving Tonality (New York: Musicology, 1932).
 PROLEGOMENA TO A THEOLOGY OF MUSIC 509

behind the actual practice of composers at the present time. 9 Music theory
qua theory appears to be almost dead; contemporary practitioners are vir-
tually indistinguishable from those historical musicologists who. concentrate
on the contemporary scene.
The fastest growing branch of musicology today is that which borrows
the methods of anthropology and ethnology, usually known as
"ethnomusicology." In its origins ethnomusicology or comparative
musicology was primarily concerned with the study of music in nonliterate,
oriental, and folk cultures and the comparison of this music with that of
occidental culture. As ethnomusicology is presently developing, the primary
emphasis is on the function of music in culture, western as well as non-
western. Just as the anthropologist is beginning to apply his methods most
fruitfully to the study of various segments and subcultures of the western
urban world, the ethnomusicologist is expanding his field, absorbing the
rather small discipline of the sociology of music in the process. 10
In summary, musicology has developed no one methodology of study; it
has borrowed its methodologies from many sister disciplines—principally
historiography; secondarily philosophy, psychology, phenomenology, and
anthropology; but also acoustics, sociology, 11 and linguistics. 12 Historical
musicology stands alone in importance; the others form a conglomerate
known as systematic musicology. Although individual "systematic"
methodologies assert "independent existence" from time to time, the basic
unity, however nebulous, will probably prevail : Systematic musicology is the
systematic attempt to study and verbalize the phenomenon of music, the
phenomenon of the musical experience, and the functions of both within the
context of society.
Oddly enough, especially when viewed against the Pythagorean and
Platonic origins of musicological study, there was no revival or new
development of a theology of music in the nineteenth century. Although
modern theologians have often referred to the religious significance of the arts,
principally literature (theologians become quite adept at reading, but few
learn to listen), none has treated the subject of music in a systematic way. Erik

9. One of the most "contemporary" theoretical studies is: George Perle, Serial Com-
position andAtonatity, Second Ed. (Berkeley: California, 1968). While very helpful in
the understanding of Schoenberg and his immediate followers, it offers very little help
for the understanding of Stockhausen or Boulez, much less Cage or Penderecki. Even
those last two bastions of esoteric theory, Journal of Music Theory and Perspectives of
New Music, otter little heljh
10. The three most comprehensive contemporary treatments ot ethnomusicology are:
Mande Hood, The Ethnomusicologist (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971). Alan P.
Merriam, The Anthropology of Music (Evanston: Northwestern, 1964). Bruno Netti,
Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology (New York: Glencoe, 1964).
11. E.g., Alphons Silbermann, The Sociology of Music, trans. Stewart (London:
Routledge, 1963).
12. Charles Seeger, "On the Moods of a Music-Logic," JAMS, XIII (1960), pp. 224f.
Also: Idem, "On the Formational Apparatus of the Musk Compositional Process,"
Ethnomusicology, XIII (May, 1969), pp. 230f.
510 REVIEW AND EXPOSITOR

Routley, to be sure, has written about music profusely, often brilliantly, but
never systematically. Church musicians have developed systematic ap-
proaches to the practice of church music, but none have given more than a
cursory mention to the idea of a theology of music. (If few theologians have
learned to listen perceptively to musical sounds, even fewer church musicians
have learned to verbalize their ideas, either orally or in print, preferring to
translate their vague feelings into musical tones in the hope that "omebody
somewhere somehow might understand them.)
In this essay I propose to outline a theological approach to the systematic
study of music. In the tradition of systematic musicology which appropriates
and adapts methodologies and structures from sister disciplines, I shall ap-
propriate certain aspects of systematic theology, especially its structure, in my
attempt to introduce the potential "Umfang, Methode und Ziel der
Theologisch Musikwissenschaft." In this process I shall attempt to make
three distinct contributions to musicological scholarship: (1) to make
preliminary observations about the probable methodology of such a "theo-
musicology," (2) to outline the probable scope and aims of the discipline, and
(3) to provide a broad bibliography of the various musicological and related
disciplines which might be instrumental in the further study of this proposed
discipline. As a final reminder and disclaimer, I stress that I am proposing a
theologically informed approach to the study of music, not a tonal incarnation
of theology, though hopefully a serendipity will be a tonal practice of theology.
In short, I am proposing a theo-musicology, not a musico-theology.

THEORY AND METHOD IN THEO-MUSICOLOGY

Data. The first step in outlining a methodology is to define the source of
data or "formative factors" as John Macquarrie 13 calls them. The primary
source in theo-musicology is man's experience of music : his experience in the
acts of composing, reading, studying, performing, and hearing music. A
secondary source of information is the report of another's experience, but in
either case the study will be based finally on the actual or vicarious experience
of the individual theo-musicologist who lives and works in a given community
of Christians. In essence the above states that the study will be empirical, that
the data will be conditioned and understood within the context of a particular
culture in time and space, and furthermore that this conditioning will reflect
the peculiarities of a particular Christian community. While a Buddhist or
even Humanistic theo-musicology would be possible ; the assumptions in this
essay are Christian.
As a theo-musicologist the type of experience which is characterized as
"revelation" or the experience of the Holy is of special value. Revelation
might involve an unusual experience of the Holy or a more general recognition
of the mysterium tremendum fascinane, u such as the believer expects to find

13. Of particular guidance in the following two sections was: Principles of Christian
Theology (New York: Scribner's, 1966), pp. 4f.
14. These terms are used with reference to the seminal work: Rudolph Otto, The Idea of
the Holy (London: Oxford, 1923; originally 1922).
 PROLEGOMENA TO A THEOLOGY OF MUSIC 511

in worship (or as Barth experienced in hearing Mozart's musici. Especially in

the context of musical experiences, revela tory-like communications may come
to the receptive hearer in a subliminated. or subconscious manner, but this
type of experience is obviously of no use in the construction of a theology of
music. The revelation of value to the theo-musicologist presupposes, the
cognitive recognition of the Holy—in the Judeo-Christian context, recognition
of God's grace, His acceptance of us, in spite of ourselves.
Many musical experiences might seem to be revelatory, yet not be ad-
missible to a Christian theology of music. All experiences must be evaluated
against the norms of Christian revelation—the supreme norm being the
person of Jesus Christ. In the life and work of Jesus the Christian sees the
absolute revelation of the Holy. All potentially revelatory experiences must be
compared with one's experience of Jesus Christ.
Having confessed, the above dogma, one is then forced to admit that the
relativity of each individual's experience of Jesus Christ gives little normative
value for the evaluation of musical experiences. The second and somewhat
more objective norm is the Bible, which contains the principal records of Jesus
Christ—one might say the "normative memories"—as well as records of many
other theophanies from those of Abraham to those of John on Patmos. For the
task of the theomusicoiogist, the scriptures offer primarily the reports of these
normative experiences, which may guide in the evaluation of present musical
experiences qua experience; and, secondarily, the scriptures offer limited
information about the musical life of Israel and the early Church.15
The third and most important norm for a theology of music is the
tradition of the Church. The particular tradition in which the
theomusicoiogist works provides the context in which he experiences, un-
derstands, and theorizes about the musical data; this tradition determines
how he understands the scriptures and the person of Jesus Christ Therefore,
the limits and possibilities of revelation, the more concrete meanings of the
Christ event historically and existentially, the attitude toward the various
scriptural theophanies, and their possible relationships to contemporary
musical experience are finally determined by the various traditions of the
Church. Also, in various times and places, different traditions have made
pronouncements on music which provide important secondary sources of data
for the construction of a theology of music.
Philosophical assumptions. For better or worse, the dominant
philosophy in America today seems to be "contextualism." A descendant of
the pragmatism, pragmaticism, and instrumentalism of Peirce, James, and
Dewey, the essence is that the truth of any proposition, the goodness of any
act, or the beauty of any phenomenon is determined, in the last and final
analysis, by its context. Does the idea, deed, or artifact "work" in the par-
ticular context? Is it appropriate or expedient? If a methodology of study is to

15. A large, but flawed study is: Alfred Sendrey, Music in Ancient Israel (New York:
Philosophical, 1969). A small, but insightful study is: Erik Routley, Music Leadership
in the Church (Nashville: Abingdon, 1967).
512 REVIEW AND EXPOSITOR

produce any meaningful content in contemporary American society, at some

level of operations it must be contextualistic.
However, inherent in the sources and norms of data outlined above and
in the structure of theo-musicology to be presented below are also formistic
and organistic assumptions. 16 The methodology of formism or realism,
which sees truth as an abstract reality, more real than physical existence itself,
provides a helpful, though dangerous, structural tool in the construction of
trinitarian theology, although since the time of Arius the Church periodically
refutes its tempting flight into Platonism. Nevertheless and unashamedly, the
methodology for the validation of data given above and the trinitarian struc-
ture to follow are basically formistic.
Organ icism, whether in a Hegelian idealistic or in a capitalistic or
Marxian materialistic form, bears its dangers. Organicism sees truth, good, or
beauty in the harmony and inevitability of the subject, whether universe,
world, philosophy, or art work. This philosophy seems to underlie the Nicene
understanding of the Incarnation, the Pauline conception of the Church, and
the Johannine conception of the Kingdom of God—all will be discussed
presently. At the same time, organicism shares much with the Pythagorean
view of the harmonious universe, Gnosticism, and even the now popularly
revived "science" of astrology.
In summary, the proposed theo-musicology will be ultimately con-
textualistic because it is formulated in midtwentieth-century America by a
contextualistic American; it will bear formistic and organistic overtones
because such are inherent in the norms for evaluating the sources of data and
in the structure of traditional Christian theology.

SCOPE AND AIMS IN THEO-MUSICOLOGY

I propose a traditional trinitarian structure for a Christian
theomusicology, following for a model the ancient Apostles9 Creed. I shall deal
with the various phrases of the Creed in the spirit of Karl Earth's little book,
Credo, which I have found to be of immense aid in the preparation of this
essay. In the outlining of the Creed, I shall attempt to show the areas of
musicological research which are appropriate or analogous to the trinitarian
structure. In all cases the particular area of study is already recognized and
pertinent studies are noted. However, additional study under the guiding
principle of this trinitarian structure would hopefully produce fresh per-
spectives.
LO "I believe in God": Primordial Being: the Idea of Music
LI "God the Father." Under the rubric "God the Father" we understand
God as the source of all life and of all being. Analogously, the theo-
musicologist is concerned with the being of music. The basic questions are
"what is music?" and its corollary, "what is not music?" Man has produced

16. In the use of the terms contextualism, formism, and organicism, I follow: Stephen C.
Pepper, World Hypotheses: A Study in Evidence (Berkeley: California, 1942). Idem.,
The Basis of Criticism in the Arts (Cambridge: Harvard, 1945).
 PROLEGOMENA TO A THEOLOGY OF MUSIC 513

many answers to these questions, all of which have ultimately proved in-
complete. The task of the theo-musicologist would be to seek the answers in
the light of his belief in God as the gracious source of all being, including
music. 17
L2 "Maker of Heaven and Earth." God is not only the Source or Final
Cause of the heavens and the earth, he is also the Efficient Cause and actual
Creator. The subject of creation is of primary concern to the musicologist The
historical musicologist and theorist have tended to deal with the question of
musical creativity from the perspective of craftsmanship; the
ethnomusicologist, on the other hand, finds the assumption of inspiration
common in traditional societies. 18 A related subject is that of revelation vs.
human expression. 19 If one may assume "inspiration/9 does this inspiration
reveal the Divine a n d / o r the culture, or the individual composer, or
both/afl?
1.3 "God . . . Almighty. " Although God is the Source and Creator of all
being, He is holy, mysterium tremendum fascinaos, transcendent, sublime.
These concepts point to the most general and abstract level of meaning in art
and in music: the symbolization or auralization of Beauty (following
Baumgarten, Aesthetica, 1750), the Sublime (following Burke, On the
Sublime and the Beautiful, 1756), the Significant (following Langer,
Philosophy in a New Key, 1942), or Awareness (following Cage, Silence,
1961). The definition of the Absolute has long been a central and unending
task of the aesthetician. The Christian theo-musicologist must define the
Absolute in the light of the supreme revelation of the Holy in Jesus Christ.

ILO "And in Jesus Christ": Expressive Being: the Musical Object

ILI "His only Son." In spite of his transcendence, God has become
immanent in the man Jesus and continues to be known through the witness of
the scriptures and the Church, by the power of the Holy Ghost In spite of the
mysterium tremendum, we experience the Holy as a Thou. Insofar as we
experience Pure Beauty, the Sublime, Significance, a state of Pure Awareness,
we experience it through a particular being, a Thou. 20 The theo-musicologist
must seek to define this happening—to explain how the aural phenomenon of
music can represent in the consciousness of the participant the Absolute, the
Thou, of musical meaning. 21

17. For a historical survey of such questioning, see: Portnoy, op. cit., and Pepper, Basis.
Also: Gordon Epperson, The Musical Symbol (Ames: Iowa State, 1967). For a
contemporary view, see: John Cage, Silence (Cambridge: M.I.T., 1966; originally,
1961), pp. 3f.
18. Merriam, op. cit., pp. 165f.
19. Wilfred Meilers, Caliban Reborn (New York: Harper & Row, 1967).
20. Martin Buber, I and Thou, Second Ed., trans. Smith (New York: Scribner's, 1958;
originally 1923).
21. Of help in approaching this difficult subject will be the Meyer book already cited for a
general rationale ; for a contemporary interpretation, the Meilers book ; also Leonard B.
Meyer, Music, the Arts, and Ideas (Chicago: Chicago, 1967).
514 REVIEW AND EXPOSITOR

11.2 "Suffered under Pontius Pilate. " Jesus lived a life as true man in
time and space, and, in so doing, taught by example what a life should be.
Analogously, the abstract ideas of Beauty, Significance, Awareness, etc., must
be translated into concrete aural sounds in time and space. In these specific,
culturally limited musics with their culturally limited meanings must appear
Beauty, Significance, or Awareness. Here we are concerned with the second
level of meaning in music—the level of medium. 22 How does music com-
municate meaning on this concrete, cultural level? Among the answers given
are ( 1 ) relationship to text (i.e., the idea that music is meaningless without a
text), 23 (2) Cultural function (i.e., the association with a particular con-
current event), u (3) associative meaning (i.e., usually a personal memory,
related or not to a cultural function),25 and finally (4) strictly musical
meaning. 26 On this concrete level the theo-musicologist is concerned with
man as a symbol-maker 27 —Homo Symbolicus—and must define this
symbolic work in the light of the work of Jesus Christ.
11.3 "Crucified... rose again from the dead. " The tragedy of Jesus9 life
ultimately resulted in victory ; sorrow became joy. The human purpose of
music is to bring joy, to help alleviate some of the burdens of life, to help turn
the pain into pleasure. Leonard Meyer's study of musical meaning is based on
this tension-release, expectation-fulfillment principle as is John Dewey's
philosophy of art. 28 A related area of thought sees the joy in the actual
playing of the game itself, according to the rules, regardless of who "wins."
Man is Homo Ludens, man the player. 29
11.4 "He ascended into heaven. . . ." The final phrases of the second
paragraph of the Creed point to the everlasting kingship of the Christ. The
analogous musical concept might be that of the permanence of value—what
makes a piece of music valuable throughout the ages and across cultural
barriers? This persistent and perhaps unanswerable question is related to that
of creation (see 1.2) and the outcome of history (see III.4). A preliminary
hypothesis might propose that that music which speaks to the human con-
dition of man qua man and whose cultural particularities are most easily
translated, learned, or ignored can possibly become music of permanent
value. 30

22. The general dictum, "The medium is the message," is the central point of the theory of
communications proposed by Marshall McLuhan. See: Understanding Media: The
Extensions of Man (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966). For an interpretation and
adaptation to music, see: Jay W. Wilkey, "Marshall McLuhan and Meaning in
Music," Music Educators Journal, LVI (September, 1969), pp. 54f.
23. This tradition starts with Plato and continues throughout history. See : Portnoy, op. cit.
24. Merriam, op. cit., pp. 209f.
25. Meyer, Emotion, pp. 256f.
26. Ibid. The bulk of this book concerns musical meaning qua music and contarne sum-
maries of various views. For a broader, cross-cultural view, see: Merriam, op. cit., pp.
229f.
27. Langer, op. cit.
28. Art as Experience (New York: Capricorn, 1958; originally 1934).
29. Johann Huizinga, Homo Ludens (Boston: Beacon, 1955; originally 1938).
30. See footnotes 18,19,37,38,39, and also: Meyer, Music.
 PROLEGOMENA TO A THEOLOGY OF MUSIC 515

III.O "I believe in the Holy Ghost": Unitive Being: the Musical Experience
111.1 "The Holy Ghost." Ultimately, any person's experience of the
Holy, whether through worship, scriptures, or a special theophany, is an
individual matter. Similarly, one's experience of music is individual. Although
the cultural milieu and the particular context may strongly influence and even
seem to determine, if not to predestine, the way one hears, understands, and
evaluates, that ultimate understanding and evaluation is the perceivor's final
responsibility. The recognition of this cultural fact 31 emphasizes the frightful
finality of experience qua experience, yet knowledge allows a restraining self-
awareness of this inevitable bias.
111.2 "The holy Catholic Church. " The Church may be seen both as the
Body and as the Bride of Christ. The first metaphor points to the pragmatic
reality that, historically speaking, most people come to "know" Jesus Christ
through the instrumentality of the earthly church. As such, this doctrine and
its musical analogue are related to the incarnational concepts presented in II. 1
and II.2. The "bride" metaphor implies the reservation that the earthly
church is limited in time and space and is under the kingship of the Christ who
ascended into heaven (see II.4). The Baptist insight is that this Church only
exists in particular communities in time and space.
The study of the communities of musical experience throughout time and
space, throughout history and across cultural lines, is the corresponding
musical task. In the historical study of music, Lincoln Spiess 32 has provided
methodological guidance and Warren Allen a survey of the various
philosophical assumptions. 33 The most important sources in
Ethnomusicology are those by Hood, Merriam, and Netti.
111.3 "The communion of saints: the forgiveness of sins." In these
phrases the believer comes to the most personal aspects of the creed. When
one communes with saints, whether those of a particular gathering here and
now or with those of the Church Universal, the implication is clear that the
communing one is at home—i.e., he is also a saint. This assumption is then
verified by the more specific phrase "the forgiveness of sins." The general
belief in forgiveness assumes the specific forgiveness of the individual com-
muning one.
Experiencing personal salvation is a therapeutic function of Christianity.
Music can and should perform therapeutic tasks in the life of man. Just as the
doctrine of forgiveness is related to the life and work of Jesus Christ, the study
of music therapy is related to the study of music as an instrumentality of the
symbolization of meaning in life (see II.3). Music therapy as a discipline is
closely aligned with the ministerial tasks of the music ministry and needs to be
developed in a serious and scholarly manner within the Christian context. 34

31. In addition to the works of Farnsworth, Lundin, and Silbermann, see: John H.
Mueller, The American Symphony Orchestra (Bloomington : Indiana, 1952).
32. Historical Musicology (Brooklyn: Mediaeval Music, 1963).
33. Philosophies of Music History (New York: American Book, 1939)
34. The standard general work in the field is: E. Thayer Gaston (ed.), Music in Therapy
(New York: Macmillan, 1968).
516 REVIEW AND EXPOSITOR

III.4 "The resurrection . . · life everlasting." Every reader of John's

Revelation and every singer and hearer of Handel's Messiah knows that " . . .
the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his
Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." The dogma is clear that at some
time the kingship of Christ shall be known forever and everywhere. There will
be no distinction between Christ and Culture. With Richard Niebuhr we
confess that Christ is "The Transformer of Culture/' 3 5
The obvious musical analogue to Christ vs. Culture is sacred vs. secular.
The analogous faith is that the sacred-secular distinctions will dissolve, that
the sacred function will transform the secular material. This transforming
power of Christ is often overlooked by the "conservative" church musician,
who then allows himself to be captured in an absolutist, elitist position which
he is rarely able to defend in a rational manner. Nevertheless this has been the
typical stance of the published, "scholarly" church musicians of the twentieth,
or of any, century. 3 6 The basic weakness of these men has been that they
generalized on the basis of practical experience and were blinded by their own
personal successes, which were due more to their charismatic personalities
than to their sound philosophy. While avoiding this rigid, inflexible position,
the church musician must also be wary of the nominalistic position which
blindly identifies Christ with Culture. The secular tools must always be
compared with the norm of Jesus Christ (II.2 and II.3). Though the Christ
appeared as a man, he was not just any man. There was a difference between
Jesus and Barrabas even though the crowd did not understand the difference.
More significant directions of study might be indicated, for example, in
some of the work of Robert Stevenson, 3 7 who is able to view history from a
broader than usual perspective, and in the study of the gospel song and
revivalism by James Downey with its cultural perspective. Μ Secular
musicologists specializing in Americana tend to take a most sympathetic view
toward the "vernacular music" of the church; w church practitioners will
perhaps soon overcome their identity crisis and do the same, but hopefully on
a sound cultural and historical, musicological and theological basis.

35. Christ and Culture (New York: Harper, 1951).

36. E. g., Austin C. Lovelace and William C. Rice, Music and Worship in the Church
(Nashville: Abingdon, 1960). If the above book represents the present "conservative"
church musician, the following book represents the previous generation : Archibald T.
Davison, Church Music: Illusion and Reality (Cambridge: Harvard, 1960). The
material actually dates from 1935, 1940, and 1948.
37. E.g., Protestant Church Music in America (New York: Norton, 1966).
38. "Revivalism, the Gospel Song and Social Reform," Ethnomusicology, IX (1965), pp.
115f. Idem., 'The Music of American Revivalism, 1740-1800" (unpublished Ph.D.
dissertation, Tulane University, New Orleans, 1968).
39. The turning point in this attitude was provided by: George P. Jackson, White
Spirituals in the Southern Uplands (Chapel Hill: North Carolina, 1933). For more
recent assessments, see: Gilbert Chase, America's Music, Rev. second ed. (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1966). H. Wiley Hitchcock, Music in the United States (Englewood
Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1969), pp. 91f.
 PROLEGOMENA TO A THEOLOGY OF MUSIC 517

CONCLUSION
What is the potential contribution of this proposed theo-musicology?
First, as a structure of musicological study, it is more comprehensive than any
of the present systems. In scope and aim, it includes the basic questions asked
in the various musicological disciplines—historical musicology,
ethnomusicology, aesthetics, psychology, and theory of music—and provides
the philosophical foundations for the practical disciplines—performance and
teaching. Likewise, theo-musicology could absorb any of the methodologies of
study currently used, subject to the formative factors outlined above. Most
significantly, this system places the present disciplines in a structural
hierarchy which might help to clarify the relationships between them.
Secondly, as a methodology derived from Christian theology, the various
aspects of musical study might be placed in a perspective more conducive to a
mature practice of the music ministry. Assuming a mature understanding and
experience of the Christian faith, the individual might be better able to see
how he is to "act out" this faith in music. Furthermore, it might be that such
musicological study would prepare the student to understand theology better.
(Of course, one must be modest in his claims here. )
Finally, this structure may serve to clarify somewhat the troublesome
problem of meaning in music. On the highest level of abstraction, meaning is
governed by one's definition of the Absolute (1.3)—e.g., Beauty or Awareness.
On the concrete level, meaning is expressed in and through a medium par-
ticularized in time and space (II.2). But on the third and experiential—and,
we might add, contextualistic—level, meaning becomes diffused by the in-
dividual's particularities (III.l): his time and space (III.2), his therapeutic
needs (III.3), and his attitude about the eventual outcome of history (III.4).
In the final analysis, the contextualistic effect of all these particularities
depends upon the Absolute one accepts. In theology the moot question is: "Is
God the Almighty, or is he not?" In the aesthetic realm, we ask: should we
express Beauty with Mozart, the Sublime with Beethoven, the Significant
with Stravinsky, or Be Aware with Cage? Like the people of Israel, we are
asked to choose whom we will serve. Or shall we attempt the answer of Johann
Sebastian Bach and serve them all?
 ^ s
Copyright and Use:

As an ATLAS user, you may print, download, or send articles for individual use
according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international copyright law and as
otherwise authorized under your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement.

No content may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the
copyright holder(s)' express written permission. Any use, decompiling,
reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a
violation of copyright law.

This journal is made available to you through the ATLAS collection with permission
from the copyright holder(s). The copyright holder for an entire issue of a journal
typically is the journal owner, who also may own the copyright in each article. However,
for certain articles, the author of the article may maintain the copyright in the article.
Please contact the copyright holder(s) to request permission to use an article or specific
work for any use not covered by the fair use provisions of the copyright laws or covered
by your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. For information regarding the
copyright holder(s), please refer to the copyright information in the journal, if available,
or contact ATLA to request contact information for the copyright holder(s).

About ATLAS:

The ATLA Serials (ATLAS®) collection contains electronic versions of previously

published religion and theology journals reproduced with permission. The ATLAS
collection is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association
(ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.

The design and final form of this electronic document is the property of the American
Theological Library Association.