Instrumental Music

Instrumental Music in Public Worship: History Surrounding the Westminster Assembly

FROM: “INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH”

By John L. Girardeau (Still Waters Revival Books, [1888] 2000), pp. 132, 133.

Before the Westminster Assembly of Divines undertook the office of preparing a Directory of Worship, the Parliament had authoritatively adopted measures looking to the removal of organs, along with other remains of Popery, from the churches of England. On the 20th of May, 1644, the commissioners from Scotland wrote to the General Assembly of their church and made the following statement among others: “We cannot but admire the good hand of God in the great things done here already, particularly that the covenant, the foundation of the whole work, is taken, Prelacy and the whole train thereof extirpated, the service-book in many places forsaken, plain and powerful preaching set up, many colleges in Cambridge provided with such ministers as are most zealous of the best reformation, altars removed, the communion in some places given at the table with sitting, THE GREAT ORGANS AT PAUL’S AND PETER’S IN WESTMINSTER TAKEN DOWN (emphasis added), images and many other monuments of idolatry defaced and abolished, the Chapel Royal at Whitehall purged and reformed; and all by authority, in a quiet manner, at noon-day, without tumult.”1 So thorough was the work of removing organs that the “Encyclopaedia Britannica” says that “at the Revolution most of the organs in England had been destroyed.”2

When, therefore, the Assembly addressed itself to the task of framing a Directory for Worship, it found itself confronted by a condition of the churches of Great Britain in which the singing of psalms without instrumental accompaniment almost universally prevailed. In prescribing, consequently, the singing of psalms without making any allusion to the restoration of instrumental music, it must, in all fairness, be construed to specify the simple singing of praise as a part of public worship. The question, moreover, is settled by the consideration that had any debate occurred as to the propriety of allowing the use of instrumental music, the Scottish commissioners would have vehemently and uncompromisingly opposed that measure. But Lightfoot, who was a member of the Assembly, in his “Journal of its Proceedings”3 tells us: “This morning we fell upon the Directory for singing of psalms; and, in a short time, we finished it.” He says that the only point upon which the Scottish commissioners had some discussion was the reading of the Psalms line by line.

ENDNOTES:

1. Girardeau cites this quotation from the Acts of Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 1644.
2. Girardeau cites Art., Organ.
3. Girardeau cites Works, Vol. xiii., pp. 343, 344; London, 1825.

No other type of music stirs the soul and is more widely loved among all groups of people than instrumental music. Solo guitar music is passionate, alive, and full of artistic expression. It crosses social boundaries including ethnicity, religion, and geographical region. Solo piano music is relaxing and soothing. Whether you listen as you relax or listen as you work, great instrumental music can help eliminate distractions, introduce a gentle rhythm to your system and leave you feeling refreshed and restored.

Finding free instrumental music online used to be extremely difficult, but the internet has changed all of that. New and established artists are now able to upload their favorite pieces online for people to download and enjoy. This has enabled artists to utilize the low-cost advertising methods of the internet to get their music out there where it can be heard and enjoyed. But…not all freely-available music is worth listening to. Different level of creativity, performance talent and recording quality can lead to wild variations in the quality of free music. So, quality is the first problem.

What’s been good for the internet has largely been bad for the mainstream music business. You’re likely to find it difficult to locate and purchase quality instrumental music in brick-and-mortar stores due to the limited selection that most music stores carry these days. Those stores which have survived so far generally focus more on stocking big-name best-sellers…and most quality instrumentalists these days fall into the category of “indie musicians”…so they are ignored. So, you may ask…why not simply go for peer-to-peer music sharing (stealing) services? Well, in addition to the moral issues…you have to be careful not to download viruses, spyware, and adware along with your music selections. So, availability is the second problem.

Virus-free music that is uploaded by up-and-coming indie artists is generally easier to find, but it often requires visiting several sites to download a large enough selection to fill up one CD. You’ll likely have to visit many artist websites individually find what you’re looking for. This can be an incredibly time-consuming process. So the third problem is accessibility.

But I’ve recently discovered two sites which offer all three…without fear of viruses and without the need to steal to discover new music:

quality
availability
accessibility

The distribution format is MP3…so there are no hassles with Digital Rights Management (DRM) issues, either.

For a delightful variety of fingerstyle and tapstyle instrumental music performed on acoustic guitar: FreeSoloGuitar.com

And for a great selection of beautiful new-age solo piano pieces: FreeSoloPiano.com

Now I can find music to suit my mood no matter what it is. These sites have quickly become some of my favorites for downloading free music.

A music lover
during his younger years, a persistent singer on prestige singing contest and received numerous award for his remarkable voice, a dedicated choir teacher aiming to produce well-trained children, youth and adult church choir. A responsible music conductor and music director in his place, for his undeniable musical expertise. Now, a well grounded music repertoire, currently taking up BMME Music Conservatory major in voice and minor in piano in Philippine Womens University for five years.

He is a certified craft.

This is Ray…………………………

And this is music…………………..

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Ray Santos releases his debut album entitled, “MUSIC OF MY HEART” which is distributed by Thirsty Rock Publisher in Arizona, U.S.A.

Be thrilled and get inspired with all original composition of chamber music by Ray Santos. Each music consists with a number of musical instruments played.

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List of instrumental music by Ray Santos

-Pagsilang ng Kristong hari
-The unknown
-Song of my heart
-The psalm of a musician
-Variation 2
-Journey
-Happy days
-The four musicians
-To my rose
-San Jose
-Variation 1
-Friendship

Our target audience are those who love to hear Classical music.So if you are one of those people try to listen to Ray’s new album,his music is considered now as the new classical music.