Words of Worth
Jubalatte Bible Study I
The Christian Performance
1.5 The Audience
Audience: The assembled spectators or listeners at a public event such as a play, film, concert, or meeting. From Latin audientia, from audire - hear ~ Oxford Dictionary
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Ears that hear and eyes that see -- the Lord has made them both. Deuteronomy 11:13
They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Proverbs 20:12
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Stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word and say, "Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the Lord! Jeremiah 7:2
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Clearly, the Lord wants people to hear his sound - to hear his word.
Ponder a Moment
What is the intent of the performer/s?
Should the Christian performer’s goal be for the audience to hear Jesus Christ through the music? For the audience to sense the Presence of God?
Music expresses that we are made in the image of God.
Music expresses the gamut of human experience. Human lives brim with feelings—love, joy, peace, sorrow, anger, struggle, wonder, repose, angst, relief, victory, to name a few.
Music expresses the mind and intellect. The brilliance of a Bach fugue, the complex harmonies in a late Beethoven string quartet, the capabilities of our brains to collaborate with composers…these are bewildering.
How can we performers present an image of Christ dwelling within our lives to the audience?
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Scripture reading
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Read: Psalm 16
Read this chapter twice.
First, read as if you were hearing King David sing these words to his God.
Read again, making this psalm a prayer from your heart to the Lord.
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For Discussion
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Look at each verse in the context of your musical life.
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For example:
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v.4- What advice can you find for your relationships with those who do not believe?
Could this mean that you will not pay back and you will not speak ill of them?
v.5-6- What could this mean about realizing the talent you have been given?
v.9-10- Has your performance (jury, audition, etc.) ever felt like you were facing your grave?
v.11- Remember that the Lord is directing you on a path for Good.
Mind Flash
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Be the audience in a time-warp through music history. Imagine the grunting at the hunt-beating of a drum-blowing through a reed-plucking a string-clashing cymbals in a temple-chanting in a monastery-singing in polyphony -fiddling at a fair-dancing minuets-conducting with a cane-donning opera wigs, trumpeting at the court-bowing violins-penning symphonies-inventing clarinets-pedaling pianos-expanding orchestras-plodding opera elephants-tranquilizing gymnopedies-rioting at the Rite-raining on Quartet for the End of Time–integrating serialism-springing Appalachia-waiting for 4’33”-mesmerizing Lux Aeterna… … … … … …
What common threads are woven throughout?
Ponder a Moment
What is the relation of the performer to the audience?
The performer is the giver. The audience is the receiver.
Paul wrote in Acts 20:35, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’’’.
Jesus Christ tells us the relationship between the Christian performer and audience:
"Let your light so shine before men, that they see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:16
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Audience Etudes
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Write a prayer or meditation about an upcoming performance.
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Pray for your audience.
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Before you walk on stage, pray this psalm that David wrote for the dedication of the temple:
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“Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me;
O Lord, be my help.
You turned my wailing into dancing;
You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
That my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever."
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Psalm 30:10-12
Audience Exercises
- Choose 3 or 4 sections of a piece or different pieces of music you are playing. Identify a specific experience or emotion for the musical phrase. Think of a time in your life, or a scene in a book, or a story in the Bible, or a poem, or a work of visual art, which shares that same theme.
- Mentally play your chosen section as part of that story.
- Then pick up your instrument and practice telling that story to your audience. Draw them into your story.
- Play as to draw the audience closer to God.
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