Music has always been closely associated with religion, and the worship of the chosen deity or fundamental belief. The understanding behind the psychology of music and religion is a topic for another time, but should be taken into consideration when thinking about the running history that music and church music have had in tandem.
When many think of organ’s, they generally associate it with Christian traditional church music.Though the organ hasn’t always been a part of church music, it continues to be closely linked with the traditional Christian church. Here are the basic evolutionary stages of church music.
Early
Because Christianity is essentially, in basic terms an offshoot of the Jewish faith, much of the music of the early church was taken from the Jewish believer’s background and former religion. The early Christian leader Paul is quoted in the New Testament as encouraging the believers in Ephesians and Colossians to implement psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs into their time of worship. There is evidence that the musical instruments used in early church worship times were primarily the voices of those gathered there, for many of the early Christian’s associated musical instruments with worldly things, opposite of their faith.
Gregorian Chant
The next basic evolutionary stage of church music is the Gregorian chant. The Gregorian chant is closely associated with Western Christianity and became an integral part of Mass and other church services. This type of worship music originated from the monasteries and the monks practice of attending nine services during the day in which they sang psalms as a group and then sang the chants in smaller groups. The Gregorian chants were written down or codified during the 1100s and 1200s in western and central Europe. As church music evolved from primarily chants to polyphonic music- music which has multiple textures and parts- the Gregorian chant continued to be included at the end of the each song.
Stay Tuned . . .
Visit our blog again to read part two of the history of church music and be sure to check out Viscounts church organ’s. We have a variety of options for you to choose from including our more traditionally influenced models, our hybrid organs, and our digital organs as well. Our organs are equipped with our world class Physis® technology that is unlike any other digital organ program on the market for it truly imitates the interaction of the organ pipes with each other and the organ’s environment. Learn more about Viscount the the chosen brand for church organs across the globe!