Sacred Music

The modern world is very noisy. Whether it’s because of traffic, machinery, human voices or piped music, silence is difficult to find. The modern ear is perhaps so accustomed to this ‘noise pollution’that it often fails to register consciously the continuous background hubbub. But this doesn’t mean that our minds are unaffected by it – indeed, it is commonly accepted that this noise adds to the tension andstress of life.

Violent external noise might also be away of drowning out the interior noise of an unhappy person. However, some noises are known to have a beneficial effect. Although Mozart and Schubert might not have liked the idea of their music being played as background to conversation in coffee shops and railway stations, it is known that classical music has a subconscious soothing effect in these situations. If music can have such an effect in the hectic public spaces of modern life, how much more effective must it be in places of worship,where the mind is already in a highly receptive state. Of course, just as in a coffee shop, the quality of the music selected will affect the quality of the experience of the listener.

For the rest of this article please see: http://www.life4seekers.co.uk/onlinemagazine/life4seekersmagazine/index.html (page 39)