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[Worship] Indigenous music

I read with great interest a series of articles you posted to the
worship discussion list way back in August.  I find the ideas
fascinating.

I am a church planter in a small town in Washington state.  Anything I
read is pondered as to its feasibility in my situation.  The idea of
helping "local people (i.e. new believers) themselves produce Christian
songs in the local language and music systems" is an interesting concept
when "Christian" culture, with its music, architecture, icons, and
carpet color, permeates our culture.  Yet I know too well how this
"christian" culture many times hinders, though sometimes helps
evangelism.  

One question arises.  In mission fields, do the locals create music
whose "systems" or structures duplicate the music that is native to the
land?  If yes, I am sure you have run into local music where the
construction of the notes and rhythms had been designed with a negative
message in mind.  I don't mean that it was satanic.  An american example
would be the music of Frank Zappa.  He believed that everything was
meaningless, and so he constructed meaningless music (which I for some
reason enjoy btw.)  Some of it is quite good.  And yet, one can tell
that there is a worldview that underlied the choice of notes, sounds and
rhythms.  Similarly, modern grunge/ alternative comes from the
presupposition of angst, hopelessness and depression.  It is beyond the
lyrics and embedded in the music.  

I believe the reason that this occurs is because musicians and those who
listen to their music have a vocabulary of meaning that is given to
them.  In america, that vocabulary is in the equal tempered scale,
fairly cyclic rhythm patterns, and tendency to resolve tension in both
melody and chord structure.  

Departures from these norms are usually not unintentional.  Zappa's
music arose out of the fruits of modernism and postmodernism.  He used
12 tone rows and random sounds to express the non-resolution of our
world.  He was a nihilist who believed the only thing that was true was
what was in front of us.  He was fascinated with the rhythms and sounds
of speech and so he used them as his rhythm patterns in guitar solos,
rather than straight eighths, triplets, or syncopated eighths.  By
adding new musical "words" to our musical "vocabulary" he "spoke"
something through his music; even songs without lyrics.  To write music
using this "vocabulary" will either intentionally or unintentionally
communicate a similar message in our culture.

Please note, I am not stating, nor implying that our system of music is
more godly; that it expresses the "resolution" of God, blah, blah,
blah.  I am only stating that our system is our basic vocabulary, and
that additions or subtractions communicate meaning that may not be
godly.

Which leads to the dilema of developing indigenous worship music in our
culture or in any culture.  If a grunge guitarist from the high school I
work at were to get saved, would he write songs that matched the grunge
culture he listened(s) to.  If so, would they unintentionally carry the
emotional baggage of musical "vocabulary" they originate from?  I think
so.  My western ears are accustomed to resolution.  Grunge tends to use
a lot of parellelism, i.e. moving your hand up and down the neck 1/2
step or more while playing a bar chord.  Also, the vocal style
originates from the feelings of the singer, which tend to be depressed
and hopeless.

Again, remember I am not being critical.  I like some of this stuff.  I
do question, though, how much we can borrow from our culture without
carrying the baggage with it.  I wonder how you deal with this in
missions work where you must run into musical styles which originate
around the worship of a deity other than Yahweh and whose style
communicates something about that deity.  Would you be able to use that
style to develop indiginous hymnody?  What has been learned about this
through experience?

Thanks for your time reading this and responding.

Jeffrey

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