by Kieran Fitzsimons
Editorial Introduction Over the past twenty years or so we have become increasingly aware of the part played by human sexuality in our understanding of the dynamics of church life. In this piece by Kieran we are invited to think about music within the life of the Church and the way it too affects all of us at a primal level. Recognising this power of music in church settings is the key to understanding and, when necessary, neutralising some of the destructive passions aroused by differing musical styles (and different styles of singing and playing). In this way music can be released to play its part in enriching the act of worship and bringing us closer to the divine.
1. I’m a retired school music teacher and cathedral musician. For 20 years I’ve been using recent study and research into how music affects people – such work has profound implications for music in education and in the Church. I’ve also been struck by what Stephen Parsons and Fiona Gardner (among others) have written recently about issues of power and control in the Church, manifest in horrible sexual deviancy.
2. I believe that there are connections here, because unhealthy appetites for power and control are seen in music too – I’ll outline two real examples. Also there’s the same tendency towards institutional ‘cover-up’ and what I call ‘polishing the outside of the vessel’ (Matt 23) when wrong is done in either context – Safeguarding or music.
3. I’ve known many churches where clergy (‘high’ and ‘low’ alike) wanted to control music and musicians in what Fiona calls ‘asymmetrical’ relationships. One ‘high’ vicar got through six organists in ten years and tried to ‘micro-manage’ a professional musician by very detailed instructions on how to use the organ. She complained to the bishop, who supported her and told the vicar to stop it. He didn’t. Other organists got the same detailed instructions but now marked ‘confidential’.
4. Another vicar, very ‘low’ (his ‘Con Evo’ church was growing in numbers, especially attracting students), also got through organists – I was ‘organist 3 of 4’ in six years. He turned against each one, and his curate (who did appreciate music) said on record that he’d had to ‘intercede’ for each – there was false accusation. We might say ‘faults on both sides’, but remarkably the young man before me was both a good musician and a sincere ‘Con Evo’ – pew bible open during readings in the service, and so on. Even that didn’t satisfy the vicar. He used the pejorative term ‘emotional’ about anyone whose views didn’t suit him but always sang very loudly – the way people do at football matches. I felt sure that this showed an emotional need, but I didn’t know what it was.
5. We need to ask how and why such things happen, irrespective of ‘high’, ‘low’, or any other Church identity. Music (like sex) has primal influence. Our understanding of this, and of people’s musical development, is transformed by new methods for detecting the response to music of very young babies. An unborn baby’s hearing is fully developed by about half-way through gestation, so when Mum plays her choice of music, the baby hears it too. Newborn babies respond more to that music than to other sounds. Such insights are not new; wise people (especially mothers) have known them intuitively for perhaps thousands of years. Now science backs them up.
6. Babies are more sensitive to melodic patterns than to pitch itself. If a familiar ‘tune’ is played, moved up or down by a few semitones, the baby is comfortable; but if the set of intervals itself is changed there can be a strong reaction. Composers handling their melodic material know many techniques (e.g. repetition, sequence, and development) which help to make a piece of music effective; now we can start to see how and why.
7. Some non-Western cultures or societies show much more awareness than ours of ordinary people’s musical potential. In the early 1950s, American researchers (John Messenger et al.) spent time with the Anang Ibibo tribe in Nigeria and were amazed. All the tribespeople, including small children, knew a huge range of traditional songs and dance routines. The researchers couldn’t discuss ‘non-musical’ (or ‘tone-deaf’) people, because the Anang language had no equivalent concept – I hope it still hasn’t.
8. That American research was published in 1958, but I only read about it 50 years later in a new book, Psychology for Musicians (Lehmann, Sloboda, and Woody, 2007). Perhaps it was neglected because at first there wasn’t ‘hard science’ to back it up – now there is. I’ve seen it cited in other places since. It may be worth mentioning that John Sloboda is an emeritus professor at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and was previously Professor of Psychology at Keele University – an unusual ‘trajectory’. He has contributed to ‘the literature’ on Church music.
9. Rev. John L Bell, of the Iona Community, writes about ‘vocal disenfranchisement’ (The Singing Thing, 2 volumes, 2000 and 2007). I believe him that this is a largely European – and especially British – problem. As many as one in four British adults believe that they can’t sing, always because they were told this early in life by someone whose opinion they trusted.
10. All of the above strongly suggests that if our development (emotional, sexual, or musical) hasn’t been healthy in early life, seemingly irrational adult behaviour may result – in the examples I’ve given, a ‘high’ vicar defying his own bishop, and a ‘low’ one turning against a sincere Evangelical musician. The second, as I found out later (too late), had been brought up in a strict religious sect, in whose services women had to sit apart from men. Perhaps not surprisingly, both vicars (‘high’ and ‘low’) had a restrictive view of what females could do in the Church.
11. These examples may show resentment – what Stephen calls envy leading to ‘festering jealousy’. It might become disguised, even hidden beneath consciousness. Of course, such insight is from recent study, and may be news to many church officials – especially the older and more influential ones. It wasn’t in their own study or training.
12. I’m keen to try and spread more modern awareness, and to contribute to better understanding of how Church music affects us all – in whatever kind of church. That would also mean challenging the false conflation of good music with ‘privilege’ – and the myth of ‘non-musical’ people. I don’t think that such a challenge would be ‘dumbing down’. I respect capable, sincere cathedral music colleagues, but my experience in schools is that ordinary children can be drawn up to high expectations. This is also possible with adults – though in a way ‘the younger the better’.
13. If readers are interested, I can present some ‘Case Studies’ more fully. During a bit of university research in late 2001 I consulted Robin Rees, whose 1991 PhD and 1993 book Weary And Ill at Ease had included three such studies of churches with problems and conflict about music. Robin concluded each ‘case’ with questions which an individual reader, or a group, might consider and discuss – something which we could potentially do via the ‘blog’, helped by the scientifically-informed understanding now available to us. Knowing the ‘how and why’ of unwelcome past issues may help us to improve on them.
Kieran Fitzsimons