The Sacred Nature of Music

Christina Aguilera's widely panned performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the start of Super Bowl XLV reminds us of the sacred nature of music. The world's religions have long recognized the power of song in worship. On Super Bowl Sunday 2011, it became clear that, even in fiercely secular America, a song can still assume a sacramental aura demanding obeisance and a standard of execution above the ordinary.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" may be the only song in American life that can turn the most passive listener into a raging zealot. Singing it off-key can be sacrilegious. Forgetting the words might qualify as heresy. Aguilera transgressed in both respects -- slightly in the former, greatly in the latter -- and repented immediately with a revealing explanation: "I got so lost in the moment of the song that I lost my place. I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through."

Aguilera's confession stops just short of an apology. She fervently affirms, however, not only her "love for this country" but also the "true spirit of its anthem." In addressing the anthem's "true spirit," she identifies the very part of the song that points beyond itself -- and even her own much-anticipated performance -- to something bigger. In short, she identifies its sacred nature: that inviolable part of the song that (one hopes) will remain intact despite her transgressions.

Professional football may be the closest thing that the United States has to an organized state religion. After an "advent season" of Wildcard Weekends, Divisional Playoffs and Conference Championships, this year's Super Bowl Sunday seemed bigger than Christmas, drawing a record 111 million viewers. The object of worship is not so much the game, the players or the coaches as it is the commerce sustaining them. The steady stream of much-hyped, half-time commercials reminds us that capital is the golden calf. Aguilera's opening anthem on one of America's biggest feast days was roundly criticized because it fell short of a proper offering.

It would be interesting to see what a cultural historian might say about our veneration of the national anthem 500 years from now. She might note that it seemed to matter little that the tune originated in a mid-19th century English gentlemen's club. (In that respect it is literally, strictly speaking, "un-American.") She might marvel at the fact that the average person on the street could not say who composed the lyrics, when and for what; or that most people did not realize that there were additional verses beyond the first stanza. By those lights, our future cultural historian would surely exhaust countless hours trying to make sense of the curious penalties and outcries that could emerge from an unexceptional performance of a "sacred song" that nobody really seemed to know.

Five hundred years ago, Spanish settlers commented with marked curiosity on the sacred nature of certain types of music among the Aztecs they encountered. Toribio de Benavente, a Catholic priest of the Order of St. Francis who arrived in Mexico in 1524, noted the special role of music in praising the Aztec gods. Bernardino de Sahagún, another Franciscan priest and a leading intellectual of 16th-century Mexico, recorded for posterity the alarming penalty for a musical misstep during a high Aztec feast day. "If one of the singers made a mistake in singing," Sahagún recalled, "the chieftain ordered him seized and the next day had him summarily executed."

Thankfully, Aguilera will emerge from this crisis relatively unscathed. But it is interesting to note our parallel (if more civilized) response to a musical fumble on one of our most celebrated feast days. The Aztecs of ancient America demanded the best music on days that celebrated Huitzilopochtli, Tezcatlipoca and Tlaloc. Modern America demands no less on an event brought to us by Bridgestone, Doritos and Volkswagen.

The national anthem on Super Bowl Sunday serves to remind us that music matters and that, under the right circumstances, we can take it very seriously. It is a great irony that the genuinely sacred songs of our churches, on Super Bowl Sunday and every other Sunday of the year, garner considerably less passion from us. What glorious sounds we might hear if we cared even half as much about the Psalms that Christ sang, the hymns that unfold in the very presence of the living God, the Sanctus that literally joins our heavenly and earthly choirs in an unending song of praise. Those are the songs that -- far and above all others -- demand a true obeisance and standard of performance above the ordinary.

Taking a cue from Aguilera, I can only hope that God has not judged my love for Him according to those times when I have sung badly or begrudgingly at Mass. Or worse still, those occassions when I have refused to sing at all. Christina Aguilera might have flubbed the national anthem but her repentant attitude sets a good example before us. It would not hurt to take notice of that, too. Laus Deo.

 

 

 

Comments

[sean from boise]

12:57 PM on 02/18/2011

There is a saying that the person who sings prays twice. Song can take words and add profound meaning to those words that the simple words just don't have the ability to express.

[sean from boise]

12:55 PM on 02/18/2011

The sacred quality of music has the ability to transcend into the secular. The Star Spangled Banner is a great example but there are other songs too. I am a church musician and I have seen amazing tributes to people in memorial services that would not have happened with Amazing Grace or other hymns. As a Christian, I live in the world so in my experiences I bring the world to a sacred place. In my memorial service people will recognize who I am both through secular and sacred song.Music has a way of touching our heart in such a way that it inspires us, it can make us cry, it can reveal the powerful sense of the sacredness in our lives. The debut of Stravinsky's "The Rite Of Spring" is an example of what music can do. During the first performance the music's syncopation and harmonies caused a riot and grown men and women were throwing chairs and fighting. I played for aa child's funeral in which his dream was to make it to a Mets gane before he died of a muscular disease. He finally had his chance and died a week later. His favorite songs were "new York, New York" and "Take Me out to the Ballgame". We had these songs and hymns at his service but these songs were what people remembered most about him and allowed them to rejoice in his life and better described the young man.

[eileenflemingWAWA]

07:39 PM on 02/14/2011

It was not until the Super Bowl that I had even heard this young woman sing her heart out; and what I witnessed was GRACE under pressure and I heard pipes that no doubt reach the heavens!

The Divine does not ask for human perfection- but does desires that we become who we were created to be and LOVE God and Love ALL people and Creation.

PS: I am now a loving fan of Christina Aguilera!

[ZubinTomato]

02:26 PM on 02/14/2011

Silly premise. Are "Antichrist Superstar" by Marilyn Manson and "Deutschland Uber Alles," the anthem of the Storm Troopers, "sacred" in nature?

What I think the author might be meaning to say, and in this I would agree, is that music has the potential to take us to transcendent places, akin to where religion is always claiming it can take us, but fails miserably in my opinion. But music CAN do it. Through music and other forms of artistic expression, and other hobbies passionately pursued: perhaps rock climbing or hang-gliding, we are exposed to higher dimensions of our existence, and we are drawn somehow closer to the "unknown."

[ManuOB1]

02:04 PM on 02/14/2011

What about when Rosanne committed the ultimate blasphemy some years ago?

[Indy609]

09:10 AM on 02/14/2011

I got a few good smiles out of this piece. Let's keep our senses of humor.

[butchcliff]

06:23 AM on 02/14/2011

The only reason she got 'lost in the moment' was she was too busy over-emoting the anthem.
Trying too hard to show off her voice. She's not a spiritual singer. Give me Elvis anytime to be
the voice for Gospel singing.

[Trueheart]

05:06 PM on 02/13/2011

My husband said it quite succinctly: she threw in so many extra notes that she lost her melodic co-ordinates, and once that happened, the lyrics turned into babble.

[merlinspinoza]

04:18 PM on 02/13/2011

my perspective: Christina wanted to be devotional; closest devotional she knows is Blues or Soul

real devotional is in Church or ancient tradition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqXI7S29tK4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daln96TLMfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igDsu5QWhpo&feature=related

real devotional is like St Valentines music
______________________________________________________________
on the flip side [when LPs had 2 sides] an Anthem is Pavaroti territory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQOHELWFy84

PHD dissertations probably are written about "bombs bursting in air" this old anthem aint good for the brain and for america's foreighn policy

America the beautiful as the anthem is one of many "change we can beleive in" things

O beautiful for spacious skies,

Above the fruited plain!
crown thy good with brotherhood

the second verse i wouldnt use either; kinda ignores the american indians

third verse

And mercy more than life.

May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,

a comment about white person singing like an african american, i would reserve until i have Secret service protection

suggestion for Christina :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VqoxOcEqpk

Bluegrass version of the Anthem, a great change of pace? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW-w0KgE-8s&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBuMFDHkrH8&feature=related

who shall wear a starry crown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU513Bkp29I&feature=related i'm just a pilgrim on this road boys

importance of words "deutschland ueber alles" doesnt mean germany above other nations it means germany [united] above party and regional differences

[Enliberate]

03:24 PM on 02/13/2011

Her performance didn't strike me as all that bad. I know it was the Holiest of American Holidays, i.e., the Super Bowl, but it's an old English drinking song with some mediocre poetry. She sang with feeling and did not over-ornament (melisma). She flubbed a line. After all, it's not a liturgy. Or is it?

[NostradamnIsuck]

01:34 PM on 02/13/2011

You get what you paid for..
Of course Christina was going to add riffs and flourishes...that can hardly surprise anyone..
There were betting lines on how long the song would take, and how long she would hold the word brave.
I picked over for both and cleaned up.

[ninetailedfox]

01:13 PM on 02/13/2011

.............Anyways I read somewhere that techno/dance/rave music gets its roots from Native American drums. I found that fascinating when I read it. Might explain my attraction to such types of music.

[Bob Wood]

11:48 AM on 02/13/2011

The national anthem is one of the most difficult songs imaginable to sing. You have to start almost too low for your voice...because you will have to end entirely too high for most voices. That's what made it, originally, an old barroom song. Drunks probably didn't even notice they couldn't sing it. The song is also entirely too militaristic...celebrating rockets glaring red and bombs bursting in the air means there's nothing to be celebrating...even if the flag is still there. America the Beautiful seems like a better choice of anthem. Anyhow...Christina took a shot...she probably forgot the words because she was too busy trying to fit in all the fantasy notes (which detracted from the song too)...but even professional singers forget lines now and then. It's called being human. Nobody should be paid $250,000.00 to sing a song...nobodies that good, but I don't blame her for taking the money. I blame whoever was dumb enough to offer it...(sigh)

[sand cat]

01:08 PM on 02/14/2011

Long ago, I suggested we change the national anthem to "Money" (The best things in life are free... but you can keep 'em for the birds and bees...). Easier to sing, and certainly more appropriate for the national ethos, and especially the Super Bowl.

[Bob Wood]

01:23 PM on 02/14/2011

Admit to greed and avarice ? I agree with you...but we can't admit greed and avarice. Maybe lust...but not greed and avarice...(sigh)

[ArjenBoatsma]

11:39 PM on 02/15/2011

No kidding, did she get paid a quarter of million to perform the national anthem? Heck, I could have butchered it for a fraction of that price.

[Bob Wood]

10:12 AM on 02/16/2011

In all fairness to Christina...I don't know what she was paid. I read the figure in one of the posts here and she's a big enough star to garner such a figure. It's plausable. I'm with you though...we could've done a duet and just as well...for a lot less...(sigh)

[TruEngineHearing]

10:31 AM on 02/13/2011

Huh ?... "Professional football may be the closest thing that the United States has to an organized state religion." Wrong on many levels... in my baseball dominated home, actually all levels.

[Billy Fritts]

03:55 PM on 02/13/2011

Ive seen Jesus Christ use music and song in Church to bring siners to the alter--

[paleoimage]

10:30 AM on 02/13/2011

music does matter... but, it's a shame we selected such an awful composition as The Star Spangled Banner in the first place and an additional travesty to allow hip hop "urban yodeler's, like Aguilera to butcher it with self-indulgent and inappropriate vocalizations.

[Liberalibrarian]

03:17 PM on 02/13/2011

urban yodelers LOL I love it.
That whole (Aretha Franklin you're not) massacre of music by running up and down the scales for each and every everlasting note just takes away the beauty of many songs for me...It's called a melody. It's there for a reason. (and yes, I do know my music--studied piano for nine years, choir and theory...)
faved paleo ;)

[Hookedonfashion]

07:25 PM on 02/17/2011

I totally agree with you. Just sing the song as written and we can start the game much faster. We might even enjoy listening to the anthem, which I haven't for about the last 30 years.