Simplicity of Worship, the ancient rule

[JM]

Simply singing is not agreeable to children (Jews), but singing with lifeless instruments and dancing and clapping is. On this account the use of this kind of instruments and of others agreeable to children is removed from the songs of the churches, and there is left remaining simply singing" "The use of music was not received in the Christian Churches, as it was among the Jew, in their infant state, but only the use of plain song"
Justin Martyr, 139 A.D.

The Introduction Of The Organ Among The Baptist.

This instrument, which from time immemorial has been associated with cathedral pomp and prelatical power, and has always been the peculiar favorite of great national churches, at length found its way into Baptist sanctuaries, and the first one ever employed by the denomination in this country, and probably in any other, might have been standing in the singing gallery of the Old Baptist meeting house in Pawtucket, about forty years ago, where I then officiated as pastor (1840) … Staunch old Baptists in former times would as soon tolerated the Pope of Rome in their pulpits as an organ in their galleries, and yet the instrument has gradually found its way among them…. How far this modern organ fever will extend among our people, and whether it will on the whole work a RE- formation or DE- formation in their singing service, time will more fully develop.” (David Benedict, Baptist historian, Fifty Years Among Baptist, page 204-207).

 

[Dixibehr50]

Orthodox generally do not use organs because it does not fit with our services.

BTW, I have degrees in woodwinds and keyboards.

 

[Aussie Pete]

Simply singing is not agreeable to children (Jews), but singing with lifeless instruments and dancing and clapping is. On this account the use of this kind of instruments and of others agreeable to children is removed from the songs of the churches, and there is left remaining simply singing" "The use of music was not received in the Christian Churches, as it was among the Jew, in their infant state, but only the use of plain song"
Justin Martyr, 139 A.D.

The Introduction Of The Organ Among The Baptist.

This instrument, which from time immemorial has been associated with cathedral pomp and prelatical power, and has always been the peculiar favorite of great national churches, at length found its way into Baptist sanctuaries, and the first one ever employed by the denomination in this country, and probably in any other, might have been standing in the singing gallery of the Old Baptist meeting house in Pawtucket, about forty years ago, where I then officiated as pastor (1840) … Staunch old Baptists in former times would as soon tolerated the Pope of Rome in their pulpits as an organ in their galleries, and yet the instrument has gradually found its way among them…. How far this modern organ fever will extend among our people, and whether it will on the whole work a RE- formation or DE- formation in their singing service, time will more fully develop.” (David Benedict, Baptist historian, Fifty Years Among Baptist, page 204-207).

Spurgeon rejected the use of instruments as did Watchman Nee. We have a guitar only at our meetings. (Very small). It is a blight on modern Christianity that the church has great musicians but a lot of the song content is pretty much worthless. I went to a service recently that was so loud, I asked where I could go for healing of my hearing. Why churches have to follow the world down its road to destruction is a mystery to me. It's supposed to be a narrow road and loving the world makes one an enemy of God.

 

[Jonaitis]

I am for the simplicity of worship singing.

 

[nonaeroterraqueous]

I favor not being too critical of people's method of worship. Some want an organ. Some would rather chant. Some prefer guitars and a drum. The only music not worth uttering is the song of our complaint.

It is not for me to judge another man's worship. He wasn't singing it to me, anyway.

 

[JM]

I favor not being too critical of people's method of worship. Some want an organ. Some would rather chant. Some prefer guitars and a drum. The only music not worth uttering is the song of our complaint.

It is not for me to judge another man's worship. He wasn't singing it to me, anyway.

Okay, so this is cool with you?

'Absolute theological bankruptcy': Union Theological Seminary students confess climate sins to plants

 

[TheOldWays]

Okay, so this is cool with you?

'Absolute theological bankruptcy': Union Theological Seminary students confess climate sins to plants

I doubt he meant that kind of thing. His post seemed to be referring to music in worship and not substance.

 

[dzheremi]

The use of instrumental accompaniment in my own Church is limited to time-keeping instruments only, and even then only as a concession to the reality of language loss among the Coptic people (or so I have read), as the chants themselves have developed rather intricate turns that made sense in Coptic at a time when everyone knew its cadence, but were increasingly forgotten or changed with the encroachment of Arabic, which was made official in the Coptic Orthodox Church in the 13th century. This is why you can find earlier fathers (I think St. Clement of Alexandria, though I'm not remembering at the moment which particular writing) who preached about the cymbal being a favorite of the Egyptian pagans but not used in churches...welllll...eventually it was, because the Coptic people weren't about to reinvent the wheel if they already had perfectly good time-keeping instruments since time immemorial, like the cymbal (the most common instrument you'd find in Egyptian services, hopefully used sparingly and sparsely) and the sistrum (which you can find among the Ethiopians and Eritreans due to the ~1,600 years of Egyptian influence on their Church before they were granted autocephaly from Alexandria in modern times).

While this is not an ideal situation (I am sure the people would have rather retained their language as an everyday spoken language), it is by now simply a part of how the Church sometimes worships, and it would be strange to suddenly remove it. Imagine the Eastern Orthodox without their ison/base tone by which they build their own chants! Our Church is similar, though the concern is more with rhythm and intonation than 'tone', since we are one of the only churches that does not use the eight-tone 'octoechos' system used by literally every other traditional church except for us and the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox (who have their own musical system which is unique to them, attributed to the 6th century saint St. Yared).

Still I don't think anyone can say that it is not simple and austere, even if I personally prefer non-accompanied chant (and that is still the standard). And plenty of services have both, as in this night vigil (Midnight Prayers service), which begins unaccompanied and then adds the cymbal beginning with the hymn "Khen Oushōt" (With the split), the explanation of the first canticle, at ~5:43 in the recording (made at the monastery of St. Macarius in Wadi Natrun, Egypt in 1999):

I don't really blame them, as this one is one of the more difficult hymns to sing that we nevertheless sing quite often (others are more difficult, but only sung on specific days, whereas this hymn is part of the Midnight Praises for every Sunday). It is certainly possible to do it unaccompanied, but sometimes the rhythm changes as a result, as in the example below (though this could be a regional variation that I am unaware of; the Egyptian Church still preserves a lot of regional variations in chant forms that a lot of other churches have kind of 'smoothed out', if you know what I mean):

Either of these ways seem rather simple to me, though maybe unlike what St. Justin himself witnessed, as he was in Palestine, not Egypt. It has been theorized by people much smarter than me that the current shape of the services did not begin to be formed until the rise of monasticism in Egypt (and from there the world), as we are a heavily monastically-inclined faith. This suits the Egyptian quite fine, just the Palestinian can worship as they always have, with the liturgy of St. James (the earliest of the extant Christian liturgies) still being used by the Syriac people, and that of St. John Chrysostom for the Greeks, and so on. (Since Palestine is one of the places where everybody gathered and still does, it is kind of hard to generalize about what is done there.)

There's a lot variation out there that thankfully still eschews modern instrumentation, and hence keeps the rule of simplicity but remains adaptive to circumstances, such as language loss/shift. (Granted, this is all from an Oriental Orthodox perspective, not Calvinist...though I was raised Presbyterian, if that counts. You guys are good people in my book.)