MUSIC AND MORALITY

Homily given by Fr. Dennis Koliński, SJC

St. Peter’s Church, Volo, Illinois

12 August 2007

“From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother.”[1]

For any of you here that are over 50, this gospel passage should remind you of the 60s. The cultural revolution and turmoil of that era often pitted children against parents in a generation gap that was fueled, in large part, by a revolution in music that took the West by storm—Elvis Presley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. At the time, it seemed like an exhilarating time with so many new things, including new sounds to usher in the new era. But how many people back then thought about the effect those new sounds would have on us?

The sense of hearing is a source of pleasure, but with a hidden danger, which is a doorway to vice. Each of us is faced daily with the dilemma of using this God-given gift as He had intended to cultivate virtue or misuse it and fall into sin. God gave us the senses to experience the world and enjoy its pleasures, yet because of the effects of Original Sin we have a tendency to use them in a manner not intended by God. We know that we need to practice custody of the eyes but how many of us think about practicing custody of the ears? We all know how words can be sinful—gossip, blasphemy, swearing, detraction. But how many of us ever consider not the content, but the medium itself, the sound? We take our sense of hearing so much for granted that we generally think of it only as a passive capacity of our bodies. Beautiful music has a great power to raise the soul to God and inspire devotion. Yet how many of you are aware of how easily music can also lead one down the path of sin?

In the sixth century, the Christian philosopher Boethius, wrote: “Music can both establish and destroy morality. For no path is more open to the soul for the formation thereof than through the ears. Therefore, when the rhythms and modes have penetrated even to the soul through these organs, it cannot be doubted that they affect the soul with their own character and conform it to themselves.”[2]

It takes little effort for any of us to understand the effect that music has on us. We just don’t think about it. Music is a universal language, which all human beings intuitively understand. And because of this we automatically and instinctively identify certain feelings with certain types of music. No one needs to tell us that a certain piece of music is “sad” or “joyful”. We just feel it. Certain music makes us melancholy. Other music makes us want to dance. When you are with the one you love, a march certainly wouldn’t arouse the same emotions as a romantic melody. One of the best and most obvious examples of how music intensifies our emotional experience is the soundtracks accompanying movies, which are purposely composed to evoke specific moods.

Yet even though we all know this, few people today—including many devout Catholics—are not discriminating in the type of music they listen to. The popular music of our day is so pervasive in our culture that few people even question it. Some Catholics have been known to object to certain songs because of their content but it’s also extremely important to realize that it is not simply the lyrics that affect us. The music itself permeates every fiber of our bodies and because the soul is intimately united with the body, it enters into the deepest recesses of our souls, influencing us in an even more profound way. Words must first be understood by the mind in order to affect us, but music is immediately grasped by the emotions.[3]

To understand this, we have to look at the nature of man. The human soul is a spiritual substance, the life-principle of our living bodies. God gave it certain faculties, which we call the powers of the soul: the intellect, the will and the emotions, which theology calls the “passions.” Some people tend to only think of the passions as sinful but God gave us these emotions to use and also help us in our personal sanctification. It is only when they react in a disordered manner that they lead us into sin. Therefore, the passions do not exclude moral virtue, but rather are consistent with it. Virtue is a good quality found in the powers of the soul, by which one is disposed to act, so when the emotions, one of these powers of the soul, move within us as God intended, they are virtuous. But when they move inordinately they lead us to sin.

Philosophers in many civilizations throughout history have known this for ages and have claimed that good music disposes man to virtue whereas bad music disposes man to vice. But why does music have such a strong influence in disposing one to virtue or vice? Several centuries before Christ, Aristotle, one of the greatest philosophers the world has ever known, wrote this: “ . . . emotions of any kind are produced by melody and rhythm; therefore by music a man becomes accustomed to feeling the right emotions; music has thus the power to form character, and various kinds of music based on the various modes, may be distinguished by their effects on character—one, for example, working in the direction of melancholy, another of effeminacy, one encouraging abandonment, another self-control, another enthusiasm.”[4]

“The connection between music and the formation of virtue becomes clear when we realize that the two cardinal virtues of fortitude and temperance and the many other related virtues are primarily concerned with the ordering of our passions according to right reason.”[5] And this brings us to the music of today. One music historian who has covered the popular music scene since 1967 once wrote that from its very inception rock music has been “all about disorder, aggression, and sex: a fantasy of human nature, running wild to a savage beat.”[6] I think that we really all knew that. We just didn’t want to admit it. Therefore, the question each one of you must ask yourself is this: “Is the music I are listening to, or letting my children listen to, affecting our emotions in a way that cultivates virtue or vice? And the choice to freely expose oneself to one form of music or another, especially repeatedly and over a prolonged period of time, is itself a moral choice, which is either virtuous or vicious.

In his work the Republic Plato wrote: “Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.”[7] But because music is such a pervasive element of our culture, we usually think very little about what we listen to. One of the greatest dangers that can confront us is not realizing that we are in danger. Many people these days are talking about the breakdown of morality, the family and society in general, but no one sees the danger hidden within the music of our day, which has accompanied every single step of this cultural decay. What music are you listening to and what are you letting into your soul?