Instruments that accompany singing and those that replace it

“Pagan sacrificial music typically featured the frenzy-inducing sound of the loud double-reed instruments and the rhythms of orgiastic dancing. Words were superfluous. Temple music was different from pagan music in all these respects: words were primary to it, and they governed the rhythms; instrumental accompaniment was by stringed instruments that supported the monophonic vocal line…….never covering or distracting attention away from the words.”[1] It is critical to understand exactly what instrument was the primary source of the controversy. It was not stringed instruments like the harp that accompany human singing. It clearly and unequivocally was the organ, an instrument designed in 204 BC, in Alexandria for pagan worship that caused the conflict.[2] Even later during Christian times, “the organ came to be a symbol of strife among Disciples.”[3] The introduction of the organ in the church in the sixth century was also extremely controversial because it replaced human singing. It clearly had a different purpose than stringed instruments which aid human singing. After its introduction many religious leaders argued strongly against “the” instrument. Reference to the organ by church leaders like John Calvin can usually be differentiated by the word “the” before the word “instrument.”

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[1] Stapert, Calvin R., A New Song for an Old World, Musical thought in the early church, Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2007, page 153.

[2] Wellesz, New Oxford History of Music, 408.

[3] Lester B. McAllister and William E. Tucker, Journey in Faith: A history of the Christian Church (St. Louis: Bethany Press, 1975), 244.