Music in the LC

[aron]

Originally Posted by holysmokes

I had a big aha moment when I posted in a church group about discovering some lovely Christian music I had discovered and wanted to share. I asked testing the waters if anyone had other offerings on music they liked. Nothing- 1200 members and nothing. Lots of veils taken away today folks. .

I thought this was an interesting topic, and perhaps worthy of some discussion. I said,

Originally Posted by aron

why is it that any Christian music pre-Nee can be held as part of the LC's "goodly heritage"; but after Nee began to write hymns they were from "degraded Christianity" and got rejected without consideration? Does this not yell, loudly, "Beware! Personality cult approaching!"??

To which I got this reply:

Originally Posted by Drake

Aron,

Anyone who has spent even a little time in the Lords Recovery knows that thousands of songs have been written post Nee, sung in meetings, recorded and distributed in cassettes and CDs, and now posted on the internet, and were a spontaneous overflow from the life, enjoyment, and light being experienced by the members. Those songs, in any number of "supplements" are a distinguishing hallmark of the Lords Recovery. Probably most ex-members here have favorites they still sing or hum and perhaps still chuckle over.

No where else will you find a such a collection or a practice and a true manifestation of "each one has" in song.

Drake

The original poster shared some music from "outside" on an online forum or usegroup (so I suppose) of 1,200 LC'ers. No response.

We all know: no outside music in the LC. They don't have the ground, so they don't have the anointing.

So my point was, why did Nee draw on hundreds of Christian songs, and then once he began to write his own, no one else could do so?

Yes songs were written within the LC, but they were nearly all paens to the ministry. If you look at the supplement, they were almost invariably encomiums to the 'light' that Lee was putting forth. Each song in the supplement was covering a Witness Lee message.

And no song came in from "outside". Yet at the start they took hundreds of songs from outside. Weird.

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by aron

Yes songs were written within the LC, but they were nearly all paens to the ministry. If you look at the supplement, they were almost invariably encomiums to the 'light' that Lee was putting forth. Each song in the supplement was covering a Witness Lee message.

And no song came in from "outside". Yet at the start they took hundreds of songs from outside. Weird.

The 'hallmark' songs that Drake refers to were produced mostly within a short-lived period of time in the LC where people had the freedom to do some song-writing. However, as awareness has already noted, so many of these tunes were 'borrowed' and set to LC lyrics, which amounts to plagiarism. Actually, it is would be true to say that plagiarism is a hallmark of the so-called Lord's Recovery. None of the major LSM works have a single page listing any sources. Not the Life-Studies nor the RcV.

It's interesting how much value LCers place upon the music that they have, yet none of it is anything people on the outside would ever find to be desirable. Furthermore, everything from the outside is rejected out of hand. It's shocking to think that the 'newest' LC songs are at least stylistically similar to the folk music of 40-50 years ago. Yet they don't give a second thought to the time warp they are stuck in. I'm not saying that everything has to be modern, but the fact that they reject modern is what makes it all so questionable.

[Drake]

Freedom > "it's interesting how much value LCers place upon the music that they have, yet none of it is anything people on the outside would ever find to be desirable."

Not my experience at all. I have witnessed dozens of people outside the Recovery attracted by the songs and hymns. One sister in my home held the hymnal to herself and declared "I absolutely must have this hymnal!". Actually now that I reflect on it many of the meetings were mostly singing with new ones calling their fav songs.

Aron argues that those songs were threaded with ministry. I would agree that the songs were filled with life, truth, desire to love and pursue Christ, the church and all the things that are edifying to the Christian life. So to that extent, yes.

Finally, I believe the songs that have been written in the last ten years exceed the quantity that were written in all previous. I was astonished at a new supplement I saw a few months ago. It's really big and the content of the new songs in it were rich and filled with life. Most written by young people from all over the world. And in case you are wondering the tunes were original. Personally I still like "we're chained here to this Rock" sung to Folsom Prison Blues and "I just existed empty not knowing what life was for..." sung to Killing Me Softly. But I get it.

Drake

[Evangelical]

Originally Posted by Drake

Not my experience at all. I have witnessed dozens of people outside the Recovery attracted by the songs and hymns. One sister in my home held the hymnal to herself and declared "I absolutely must have this hymnal!". Actually now that I reflect on it many of the meetings were mostly singing with new ones calling their fav songs.

Aron argues that those songs were threaded with ministry. I would agree that the songs were filled with life, truth, desire to love and pursue Christ, the church and all the things that are edifying to the Christian life. So to that extent, yes.

Finally, I believe the songs that have been written in the last ten years exceed the quantity that were written in all previous. I was astonished at a new supplement I saw a few months ago. It's really big and the content of the new songs in it were rich and filled with life. Most written by young people from all over the world. And in case you are wondering the tunes were original. Personally I still like "we're chained here to this Rock" sung to Folsom Prison Blues and "I just existed empty not knowing what life was for..." sung to Killing Me Softly. But I get it.

Drake

More quantity but less quality. Call me old fashioned but I think the quality of the old hymns are superior to the quality of bip bop jingles being produced by the young people. I don't think the young people have enough experience of life to be able to produce quality in terms of spiritual depth. And the tunes are almost as if they got a hold of their parent's vinyl collection from the Jesus Movement days.

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by Drake

Not my experience at all. I have witnessed dozens of people outside the Recovery attracted by the songs and hymns. One sister in my home held the hymnal to herself and declared "I absolutely must have this hymnal!". Actually now that I reflect on it many of the meetings were mostly singing with new ones calling their fav songs.

These people are also few and far between, and often the reason they like the music is just because it so happens to suite their palate. I was in a meeting once and we were singing the song O Glorious Christ Savior Mine. There was an older gentleman there who was a newcomer. He really liked the song, and we were excited that one of our songs caught on with someone. But then he tried to get us to sing In the Garden. No one knew what that song was so it wasn't sung. Had anyone known, they would have realized that it was the music, not the words that stood out to that person.

[Drake]

Originally Posted by Freedom

These people are also few and far between, and often the reason they like the music is just because it so happens to suite their palate. I was in a meeting once and we were singing the song O Glorious Christ Savior Mine. There was an older gentleman there who was a newcomer. He really liked the song, and we were excited that one of our songs caught on with someone. But then he tried to get us to sing In the Garden. No one knew what that song was so it wasn't sung. Had anyone known, they would have realized that it was the music, not the words that stood out to that person.

In my 40 years in the Lords Recovery and in many places it has been the norm not few and far between.

Drake

[LifeGoesOn]

I'll leave you saints with these nice tunes.

In the garden

https://youtu.be/fDUlgKH59mE

I was there when it happened

https://youtu.be/ps0AsvUyHRo

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by aron

We all know: no outside music in the LC. They don't have the ground, so they don't have the anointing... And no song came in from "outside". Yet at the start they took hundreds of songs from outside. Weird.

Originally Posted by Freedom

It's interesting how much value LCers place upon the music that they have, yet none of it is anything people on the outside would ever find to be desirable.

The GLA young people began to use contemporary Christian music (CCM) in their gatherings, and TC gave a tepid endorsement of it since is bore fruit among the young people.

This use of CCM became a major driving force during the lead up to the Whistler Quarantine Farce. Knowing that these GLA YP were enjoying new found liberties in the Spirit was far too much for Aneheim to bear.

[OBW]

Originally Posted by Freedom

Furthermore, everything from the outside is rejected out of hand. It's shocking to think that the 'newest' LC songs are at least stylistically similar to the folk music of 40-50 years ago. Yet they don't give a second thought to the time warp they are stuck in. I'm not saying that everything has to be modern, but the fact that they reject modern is what makes it all so questionable.

The tendency to reject the modern is not as uncommon as you might think. Christians as a whole have tended to view the current ways, trends, and music as questionable, at a minimum, all the way up to satanic. But the ways trends, and music that they are steeped in is about one generation old — what the previous generation was busy denouncing as satanic.

In that regard, the LC is not that different from other Christians. But the lag within mainstream Christianity has been shortening while it is lengthening within the LC. I would not declare that there is nothing new within the LC, but their writers of the late 60s through about mid-70s have gone mostly silent while there is almost no one taking up the torch for today. Virtually all of the putting of Psalms to music occurred between 1973 and 1977. During that time, the old supplement doubled in size. But very little since. 40 years without water.

So the group that claims new, fresh, and living is singing what their parents sang (and from before that as well). They are languishing. Nothing is springing from within them that is new. Talk about "tradition." They only sing what the dead have written. And they chastise others for having anything new.

If you want to play a garden party
I wish you lots of luck
But if memories were all I sang
I'd rather drive a truck