by Timothy H. Steele
Music makers are both professionals and "shower singers," but it is that former group, including the serious student, who need to consider afresh how to steward one of God's great gifts to human beings. In Music, Professor Timothy Stelle helps us understand such stewardship as more than "adding a few prayers before a performance or writing Soli Do Gloria on a score." (33).
The Faithful Learning series in general, and this booklet in particular, provide a distinctly Christian approach to the academic discipline of music. I was impressed with how much depth (history, theory, and approach) was squeezed into forty pages. While the average shower singer will feel this is TMI, budding musicians and especially students of music will discover it is a rich introduction "to the busy world of disciplined thinking about music and disciplined music making." (14-15)
Steele points us to Calvin who wrote,
[Music] has a secret and almost incredible power to move our hearts in one way or another. Wherefore we must be the more diligent in ruling it in such a manner that it may be useful to us and in no way pernicious. Calvin, Geneva Psalter, 366
Shower singer or serious musician, Steele helps the reader grapple with two important questions: (1) "Will my study of music help me love and serve God better?" (2) "Can my learning in the discipline of music help me to live more faithfully?"
Steele won't push an opinion on you, but working through these pages he will help you begin to answer those questions with a resounding, "Yes."