I am part of the Roman Catholic Church, and music has been a part of my religion since medieval times. Gregorian chant was what was heard in medieval Catholic churches and was the first music to be written down using an early form of staff notation, which modern musical notation is descended from (Unit 11 Reading Packet pgs. 11-12). This monophonic music was used as a way to pray to and worship God. Nowadays the Catholic Church uses psalms and hymns as a way to worship God and the Saints with music. Other ways that music is used in the Catholic Church is by expressing someone strong belief and trust in the faith. Certain music is also used for certain occasions such as a wedding or a funeral that ties into God as well. A piece of music associated with the Catholic Church is the song “One Bread One Body.” This hymn is sung throughout the portion of church where communion is given to the congregation. The hymn uses a syllabic text setting sung by a choir and the congregation. It is common to hear an organ, or a piano being played throughout the hymn. The hymn is meant to express how we are all one in the same with our Lord and how we should be brought together because of Him.

“I am the bread of Life” is a Catholic hymn sung in the Catholic Church.This was created by Suzanne Toolan .The characteristics of the music shows, Homophony. Their is Choir that stands out with the organs playing in the background. The key of the song is A major. This song express religious belief through the lyrics of the hym. This hymn is “based on the bread of life discourse in chapter six of John’s Gospel”. Part of the first verse It says “I am the bread of life.He who comes to me shall not hunger…No one can come to me unless the Father draw him.” This refers to John 6:35 in the Bible of what Jesus Christ was saying to his followers. This song means that through the Heavenly Father, Christ can forfill your needs and longings.

sources:

https://www.cjmmusic.com/songs/i-am-the-bread-of-life-song/

https://www.wnewsj.com/opinion/columns/83226/meaning-of-i-am-the-bread-of-life#:~:text=Jesus%20says%2C%20%E2%80%9CI%20am%20the,full%E2%80%9D%20and%20overflowing%20with%20blessing.

Hymn “I am the Bread to Life”:

The religion I choose to discuss for this assignment is Christianity. My family and I go to a church in New Hyde Park so I do have a lot of personal experience with the religion. Like most other churches, my church has a worship team. We have two; one in our mother tongue , Malayalam, and the other in English. In the worship teams, we have a couple of singers and 1 or 2 instrumentalists accompanying them. With the English worship team, I play the guitar and accompany them with the songs. During the service we go through the Order of Worship, but with the services that are in Malayalam, it sounds a bit more song-like as they tend to sound syllabic in reciting the words. Occasionally there are also these conventions/meetings where we invite other churches to worship with us and make it a night of worship. Typically we sing/play gospel-like music, hymns or other Christian music during the services. 

“So in Love” by Isla Vista Worship is a worship  group based in California and produce worship songs for joy and to spread the word of Jesus. In a C Major key, going at a tempo of 88bpm, the song begins with a mezzo piano dynamic and crescendos throughout the song until 2:50 where the beat drops and a choir joins in with the main artist. After the 3:30 timestamp, they decrescendo and fade out in the song. The choir provides support in the harmonies and I would say the texture for this song would possibly be polyphonic due to the different melodies of the instruments and the riffs in the background. There are also chords to the song that the band itself has uploaded on to their website of islavistaworship.com. Regarding the form of the song, They have 1 verse, pre chorus, the chorus and the bridge. They play the first verse, the pre chorus and the chorus first but there is one line they sing before singing the bridge and going back to the pre chorus. Im unsure if it would be considered part of the bridge or separate due to the fact that after saying “you have my heart” there is a slight pause before the bridge starts. All in all, this song is the type that would be played during a convention or a worship night due to the powerful emotion of praise that could be heard in the song.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6XxFE6bBycddGK0maWn0Pa?si=fa34d0bbcf214b8f

The religion I am choosing for this blog is Christianity. I am choosing this religion because I am Christian and take a lot of pride in that. Worship is a huge part of our church service every Sunday. The first hour plus is strictly worshiping the Lord. The Christian church I attend has the newest technology to make sure worshiping is an easy and amazing experience for everyone. They have two huge screens in the front of the church with the lyrics so everyone can see and sing along. We have a specific pastor for music and a whole band. Drums, flutes, trumpets, guitar, singers, and loud projecting speakers. We worship as a form of prayer. Singing these Christian songs is praying. It might not feel like praying because it can feel like you are at a concert, but worshiping the Lord is praying to him. 

One of my favorite Christian songs is “God’s Not Dead”(like a lion) by the Newsboys. This song is one of my favorites because it has a fast tempo. When you think of a “church song”, you normally think of slow tempo, high pitched soft music. The fast tempo in this song proves that church music does not have to be slow songs from hundreds of years ago. You can still worship and feel like you are at a concert. In the lyrics the song states “God’s not dead, he’s surely alive, he’s living on the inside and roaring like a lion”. Singing these words out loud is  preaching that you know God is living within you and makes you stronger. The song is a reminder to those who doubt that God is not there for them, but he will always be. 

I decided to do some research on the Christian religion to learn more about how they use music within their religious practices to express and share their beliefs. I myself am Catholic and I know that some Catholic beliefs in fact overlap with Christain beliefs since they originated in the same place.  According to the textbook, “Within Christianity, there are a variety of chant styles, including Russian Orthodox chant, the Byzantine chant of Greece, Ethiopian Orthodox chant, and Anglican chant.” Christianity was known as the dominant religion of Europe since the 4th century. This is mainly the reason why this religion has many chant styles since they had many religious followers located all over different parts of Europe that spoke different languages. The language was never a problem for religion because it can always be translated. These types of chants were spread through oral tradition and passed through generations of families. This also gave the chants the opportunity to be spread through trade. According to the textbook, “A monk or priest could then bring the chant to a distant community and teach it to the Christians there. This was risky, however, for music in the oral tradition usually changes over time and distance as individual musicians forget how it goes, commit errors, or make intentional alterations.” At the time these chants were being spread through Oral tradition when the Roman Catholic Church was becoming powerful over people in Europe. This led to many religious wars over who was or wasn’t catholic in catholic lands that were ruled by catholic royals. The ideas of Martin Luther impacted the power of the Catholic Church by stating his 95 theses. His main purpose was to write about what was wrong with the Roman Catholic Church. One of his concerns was how the Catholic hierarchy was preventing Christians from experiencing a direct relationship with god. 

A Christain chat that is well known since the late 1700s is “Amazing Grace”. It’s categorized as a Christian hymn written by John Newton. He wrote this song for Christians to sing and express their religious beliefs. It can be expressed as a harmonic singing song that creates a gateway for spiritual experiences. This song is part of the Georgian chants and part of Christianity. This piece of music expressed religious belief because the lyrics can be sung from the perspective of a person expressing how they communicate with god. Often people who follow. religion pray to their god to praise him or thank him, and this song is a perfect example of just that. 

A religion that uses music I’d like to discuss is Sikhism. It is a monotheistic religion that I personally follow and have family that follow it as well. Music plays a major role in our religion, during times of prayer at Gurduwaras (the house of prayer for Sikhs), we often play “Kirtan”. Kirtan is a major part of Sikhi and many different gurus (people who have devoted their lives to Sikhism) learn to play it. As Ajit Singh Paintal describes it in his document ” Sikh Devotional Music – Its Main Traditions”, “Kirtan is music which overflows with devotion for God, and sings his glory” ( Paintal 19).

A certain Kirtan I would like to talk about is the “Rehras Sahib”. It is an evening prayer for Sikhs and worships our god. It is actually not a Kirtan but many different gurus have converted it into Kirtans and often use different musical elements. For example, in this video I have linked below, you can hear tablas and harmoniums being used. The voice of the guru goes through many different pitches and changes timbre quite frequently throughout the composition. It expresses religious belief through building a greater connection with god during the evening time.

Music plays a large role in the religion of Buddhism. Most Buddhist practices involve chant in some form, and some also make use of instrumental music and even dance. Music can act as an offering to the Buddha, as a means of memorizing Buddhist texts, and as a form of personal cultivation or meditation. Music is mentioned throughout Buddhist writings such as “The Amitabha Sutra”, the scripture mentions how heavenly singing and chanting can be heard in the Pure Land, as mandarava flowers softly rain down from the sky. In the Pure Land, one can always hear birds making beautiful, harmonious music. Animated by a gentle breeze, the movements of jewel trees ring out in melodious chords, as if thousands of gentle tunes are being performed in harmony. Upon hearing their song, those present naturally recollect the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. In another Buddhist text, the “Great Perfection of Wisdom Treatise”, states that “For bodhisattvas to purify the Buddha land, they seek out beautiful music, wishing that sentient beings in that land can hear the music and soften their hearts, making them easier to transform. This is why music is given as an offering to the Buddha.” Music is very important to the religion of Buddhism as is shown how it is mentioned several times throughout its scriptures and writing. Music plays a variety of roles such as calming one’s mind and allowing the disciples to open their hearts to the teaching of Buddha. The chant/music of Buddhism is very synchronized. Each chant performed by the disciple are in sync and performed in a similar vocal tone. The chat starts off with a chime from a bell, the sound of the bell starts off loud and clear and then starts to gradually fade. We can also hear a drum-like instrument behind the voice being hit while the chant is being performed. Occasionally we hear a bell-like instrument ringing behind the voices. This music expresses religious belief because it incorporates the chant of the mantras. Instead of using lyrics, the Buddhists incorporate mantras so that they are able to memorize and better understand them. 

The religion I am choosing to talk about is Catholicism. This is a religion that I am familiar with, having gone to many masses at a Catholic church and receiving sacraments. Music is used in this religion. Like what we looked at in class the other day, Catholic churches would use chants. First, was the Gregorian chant which was the first notated piece of music. In these chants, there is no steady meter and other scales were used, not just major and minor. There are many different forms of chants, but they, “each [use] the human voice to sound a sacred text on an occasion of great solemnity,” (394). Music is played during masses at the church, during funerals, and during weddings at the church. A piece of music associated with my religion is “Ave Maria.” Today, this is a song used in Catholicism and in prayer at many funerals, especially in the United States. Musically speaking, it has a more complex chord in comparison with other songs and is written in B major. It has a polyphonic texture and starts in a duple meter but then shifts to a triple meter, but ends up back in a duple meter. Just like the purpose of the chants, this song is meant to give a sense of peace. It expresses the religious idea of being at peace after death. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpYGgtrMTYs

Religion: Hinduism 

How Is Music Used In Hinduism: Music in Hinduism has significant importance. Music offers Hindus a way to express their love for God, as well as offer prayers. It helps takes Hindus a step closer to finding their way back to God. Hindus sing songs to God while doing puja/hawan, when there is a religious festival, when the swami or pandit (priest), reads from the holy book(s), etc. 

Link: श्री हनुमान चालीसा Hanuman Chalisa I GULSHAN KUMAR I HARIHARAN, Full HD Video, Shree Hanuman Chalisa 

Song/Music: The musical piece that I chose is the Hanuman Chalisa. The Hanuman Chalisa is one of the most recited Bhajans (Religious song/prayer) in the Hindu Religion. 

Lord Hanuman is one of the most strong and most powerful Hindu Gods and is admired by Hindus across the world. Lord Hanuman was granted a boon of immortality, meaning Lord Hanuman is still amongst us today. Lord Hanuman also played a great role in the Ramayana (The Story of Lord Rama and his battle with Ravana, a demon). When Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya, Lord Rama asked Lord Hanuman to stay on Earth till the end and asked him to work for the welfare of the people. 

Therefore the Hanuman Chalisa is meant to benefit Hindu Devotees. By chanting the Hanuman Chalisa, Lord Hanuman himself will come to solve your problems. The Chalisa is meant to free us from our problems, fulfill our wishes, and keep/protect Hindus from evil forces. Lord Hanuman and the Hanuman Chalisa give Hindus the strength and courage to face challenges to their core. 

One musical element that I would like to focus on is the melody. For most Hindu Bhajans, the melody stays the same, except for when the singer is not singing, when there is a pause in singing the sacred text. The same thing happens here in the Hanuman Chalisa. Every time the singer takes a pause, there is a slight change to the melody when a stringed instrument, maybe a sitar, comes in. It adds substance to the Bhajan, and the melody only alters when the singer takes a pause, and this happens in most likely every Bhajan.