Book reviews: About music, worship, instruments, the Bible

Our work in Papua New Guinea takes us into many different topics and knowledge areas. Occasionally I get to engage in some "pure" ethnomusicology--researching and documenting an indigenous music tradition, presenting results of my research at international conferences, publishing articles and reviews. I'm often in a teaching role, whether in village settings, in towns, or just making presentations to colleagues here in Ukarumpa. The teaching tends to be connected to "applied"  music work, leading to recording projects and vernacular songbook publication. On rare occasions, I even get to be a saxophonist and perform a contemporary classical piece.

One area that runs through a number of the jobs I do (and that continues to fascinate me as a personal interest) is the history of Christian worship and music. Recently I read several books that look at worship and music from a variety of perspectives. I believe every Christian should spend some time looking back at the history of how our faith developed, to savor the rich history and to understand better where we are now. So here is a brief review of some books that I recommend and encourage you to check out.

Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God's Narrative, by Robert Webber

In my senior year at Wheaton, I discovered that I had somehow missed taking a required course in church music. It wouldn't be offered again before I graduated, so I had to scramble to find a substitute. My adviser suggested I might take a class in worship with Dr. Bob Webber. That turned out to be one of the best things that's ever happened to me. A semester with Bob changed the way I think about Christianity and, I am sure, did much to set me on the path that has taken me around the world as an ethnomusicologist (it was at about this same time that I decided to pursue graduate studies in ethnomusicology).

Bob died in 2007, and Ancient-Future Worship was the final book he wrote, published after his death. Bob's passion was calling Christians to a historical understanding of worship that Evangelicals especially (though not exclusively) have tended to overlook in pursuit of what is new, "fresh," and entertaining. So what is worship?

In summary, here is what biblical worship does: It remembers God's work in the past, anticipates God's rule over all creation, and actualizes both past and future in the present to transform persons, communities, and the world. (p. 43)

Worship is doing God's story--placing ourselves in the Big Story that begins in the Bible and continues through us and into the future. In worship, we celebrate all that God has done in the world, not just in each individual life (though certainly we celebrate that, too!). The double centerpiece of worship is Word (Scripture) and Table (Eucharist), and these should guide the structure of any Christian worship gathering.

For me, reading Ancient-Future Worship was like a conversation. Some books are like an argument, and as I read I'm thinking of the reasons why I disagree with what's being said. Other books I basically agree with, and the reading goes quickly with little mental interaction. But as I read (and enjoyed) Ancient-Future Worship, I found myself often agreeing, but also sometimes saying, "Now hold on a minute, Bob!" It kept me on my toes and had me thinking through the content as I processed it. I'm glad I can hear it in his voice, and with his contagious enthusiasm and joy.


A Brief History of Christian Worship, by James White

"Brief" is certainly the key word here: almost 2000 years of history in 180 pages! But what an enjoyable whirlwind tour of Christian history. There were many times when I wished that White had said more than he did (and elsewhere, in his many other publications, I'm sure he did say more). Getting such a quick glimpse of the panorama of Christianity throughout history was, for me, inspiring and challenging. In a lot of places, White's explanation of historical developments in Christian history had me responding, "Oohhh, so that's why my church experiences have been they way they were!" In some ways, reading this book was like seeing my own past afresh, with new understanding.

White taught Liturgical Studies at the University of Notre Dame (among other places), and the teacher in me wants to continue studying this material and then share it with students, too. For now, I'll content myself with recommending this book here.


The Story of Christian Music: From Gregorian Chant to Black Gospel, an Illustrated Guide to All the Major Traditions of Music in Worship, by Andrew Wilson-Dickson

After reading Webber and White on worship traditions and history generally, I turned to Wilson-Dickson's Story of Christian Music. This is designed as a textbook, with short chapters and many, many color illustrations. The history of Christian music is largely the history of Western music, so reading this book was for me a review of music history classes I've loved in my university and graduate studies. It had been quite a while since I'd gone back into a chronological study of music history, and it was great fun. The disappointment was only that I don't have recordings of some of the compositions mentioned in the text, and I really wanted to be listening as I read about the works.

Wilson-Dickson's thinly veiled opinion is that something went terribly wrong at about the time of the Puritans, and Christian music hasn't fully recovered even now. That's slightly less extreme than composer John Tavener's belief that the Middle Ages were the pinnacle of Christian music and it's all been downhill since. But it's hard to disagree with the assertion that we've traded a heritage of majestic artistic celebration for disposable pop songs. And it's hard for me not to feel discouraged as I see the Christian pop song culture now overtaking indigenous artistic traditions in Papua New Guinea, with Christians chasing after the glamour of what they likely view as the way Christian music should be and always has been.

I hope that Wilson-Dickson will someday update the text and publish a revision. As it is now, it ends in the 1990s, with Take 6 and Graham Kendrick. Though he attempts to include music of the "global church," that means only Africa. Asia, the Pacific, South America, and many minority traditions throughout the world are absent. None of these omissions take away from the wonderful survey he's written; they are merely the areas I would want to develop in future editions.


Musical Instruments of the Bible, by Jeremy Montagu

And finally, a book that looks at every mention of musical instruments in the Bible. Montagu, an instrument collector, museum curator, and scholar, looks at the biblical references and commentaries in various languages, along with archaeological evidence and iconography. There's much that we can't know about the instruments in the Bible times, but it's fascinating what Montagu is able to reconstruct, from solid evidence to well-considered guesses. He mentions difficulties he's noticed in English translations, as the translators use the available knowledge to set the original terms into the target language--especially complicated in passages such as Daniel 3, where, Montagu suggests, even the original author may not have known the exact instruments he listed.

Of the books reviewed here, this one is the most specific in content, and it is also a relatively short, quick read. If you've wondered what David's harp might actually have looked like and what other instruments then and now it may be related to, this would be the book for you. It's also really interesting simply as an example of historical musicology, even apart from the wide panorama of the Bible story it provides.

I heartily recommend any of these books to you. And if you do read any or all of them, I'd love to hear what you thought!