What Makes Good Music?

The year 2007 marked the 300th anniversary of Charles Wesley's birth. I was asked to give a presentation to a UMW circle, and upon the occasion, decided to bring together two of my passions - music and theology. I talked about the historical background of Charles Wesley, discussed his background as a writer of poems and hymns, looked at the number of hymn texts by him in the United Methodist Hymnal (there are 51 between that resource and The Faith We Sing), and I shared about him as an evangelist.

One of the interesting things that I remember about Charles Wesley was that they took the texts they wrote (poetry) and set them to music popular in their day. Bar tunes were not unusual settings for Wesley hymns. In fact, I'm certain that a few tunes in our hymnal originated at the local pub. The fact that the Wesleys did this made me want to teach a similar practice to this UMW Circle. So, we looked at a hymn from our hymnal written by Wesley. We looked at the text, and loved it, but we were unfamiliar with the tune. So, we looked at the meter of the poetry, turned to the back of the hymnal, and tried the text with other tunes which were more familiar, but also fit the text. Does text and tune fit together?

Finally, since this congregation happened to be one in which people were divided over traditional vs. contemporary music (and anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I think those terms are over-used, over-rated, and unhelpful), so I laid out my guidelines for what makes good music. Here they are, in case you were interested:

1) Does the text teach you something sound about your faith (i.e., is it good theology)?
2) Is the text easy to understand (do words get in the way, or do you have unfamiliar words in common language)?
3) Is the tune singable (can you catch the tune easily, does it have too many skips and jumps, etc.)?
4) Do the text and tune go together?

It's my belief (at least it was in 2007, and I think it still is) that if a hymn, praise chorus, or other form of worship music fits these criteria, it's good music, and should be used in any and every church. If worship music does not meet these basic criteria, stop using it!!!

Ultimately, though, it's good music if it glorifies God well and puts us in touch with the One who loves us. And with that definition, the sky's the limit!