Comments ( 5 )

1. bszobPosted on 10:58 am July 10, 2005

   ... or even what he'd think of the lutheran magazine 'modern reformation' that recently did an entire issue on the psalms as blues. the gist: there is a time to sing woefully. excellent study of american blues music therein. i'd highly recommend it.
   
   http://www.modernreformation.org/mrtoc0105.htm
2. DadPosted on 2:47 pm July 11, 2005

   Note precisely the key word "free"; Luther himself eloquently pointed out in his intro to Psalms that they give us a prayer to express every emotion in life, including the lowest: but the goal was to "pour out the soul" before God; thus, by the end of the "blues", i.e., by the last verse, the unloading had brought freedom and the psalmist was singing. There is a means and a goal to psalmic freedom, and a false dichotomy cannot be made between the two: expressions in the mud are to lead out of it, not to wallow in it, as one often finds in both blues and country. Great to think along with you guys! And ModernReformation is not lutheran: it's inter-evangelical, its main editor being a Calvinist; nevertheless, it's often great reading! Keep it up! Love, Dad
   
3. RobPosted on 8:32 pm July 11, 2005

   I reckon I've sung my share of sad songs and it mostly had to do with the cares of this world.
   
   What was the context that this was quoted from? It seems to not stand on it's own legs.
4. EmiliePosted on 8:35 am July 13, 2005

   the country music and blues etc. points are certainly valid, but dear old Martin says nothing about the text, he speaks about the act of singing itself, which uplifts like nothing else on earth... I think that rather than clarifying his point, Martin's use of "singers" is a bit of a stumbling block. His point was made with simply, "singing has nothing to do with the affairs of this world; it is not for the law [it is] merry and free from sorrows and cares." That would be accurate. Singers add human emotion to an otherwise holy act (or at least, I think singing is holy - this coming from a singer), and the world secularizes anything it can get its hands on - like music. I've had numerous music teachers say that music has additional expressions that simple speech can not possibly capture. Music can affect emotions over and above speech like the Holy Spirit intercedes for us where we are incompetent.
5. NathanaelPosted on 10:09 pm July 14, 2005

   Good point; thanx for the clarification Emilie!
   
   Rob, I found this quote in a collection of Luther's comments on various subjects called Table Talk. This was an isolated quote grouped with other comments he had made on the topic of universities and the arts.