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As the old saying goes, “The devil is in the details.” But according to the Catholic church of yore, he's also in “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” “West Side Story,” and the theme to “The Simpsons.”
If the 50-year transition from swing to hip hop by way of rock n' roll didn't hep you to the relentless churn of popular music, try upping the historical scale by a factor of ten to compare our modern-day notions of what makes for good music with what rocked the church fathers of the 16th century. And guess what — things were different then.
By the standards of Pope Paul III and his peeps, the music of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir would be deemed sinful. In fact, the entire history of American music -- from “Yankee Doodle Dandy” to “The Real Slim Shady” -- is founded on a musical structure which the church at one time called “modus lascivus,” or “the lustful scale.”
In order to better understand how musical tastes have evolved in the past half-millennium, let's travel back nearly 500 years to the city of Trento, which today you'll find in northern Italy. But in 1545, it was the capitol of the Bishopric of Trent in the Holy Roman Empire, and served as the site of the first session of the “Concilium Tridentinum,” aka the Council of Trent, among the most important rule-making powwows in the history of the Catholic church.
Attending the Council of Trent would have been a bit like sitting in on a U.S. senate hearing... that is, if senators wore wide-brimmed, red galeri and jibber-jabbered in Latin. Among the many subjects debated by the Council of Trent was what constitutes good music — and for the patriarchs therein assembled, the answer was most definitely not: “It's got a good beat and I can dance to it.”
For one thing, the holy rollers of Trent decried the C major scale, the most common key signature in modern western music (and one which is explicitly evinced in children's songs like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “Do Re Mi”). Even in the 16th century, the C major scale was becoming popular in folk music, and it held the dubious distinction of encouraging people to dance and, well, touch each other; ergo, modus lascivus. Also, harmony was right out, because it was too sensual and made lyrics hard to understand.
Another no-no was the tritone, that dissonant musical interval which spans three whole notes, and which the church called “the devil's chord.” Although common nowadays in songs ranging from “Maria” in “West Side Story” to the forementioned “Simpsons” theme, its use back then would have earned a medieval player or singer a stern, ecclesiastical rebuke faster than Homer Simpson can say, “Doh! (Re Mi).”
In the modern, developed world, it is hard to imagine even the most pious of zealots finding fault with a nice harmony or C major progression. That the church's role in dictating musical taste was diminished in ensuing centuries isn't surprising. But the vast gulf which yawns between the musical mores of then and now is an unavoidable reminder that our popular culture is a restless, roiling sea... and where its waves will wash us in another 500 years, no one can predict.
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Notes is supported by the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado, partnering with the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado to promote the values of mutual respect, religious diversity, inclusiveness, compassion, and justice.
Craven Lovelace produces Notes, a daily cultural history of popular music, for KAFM 88.1 Community Radio, kafmradio.org. You can visit cravenlovelace.com for more of his musings on the world of popular culture.
If the 50-year transition from swing to hip hop by way of rock n' roll didn't hep you to the relentless churn of popular music, try upping the historical scale by a factor of ten to compare our modern-day notions of what makes for good music with what rocked the church fathers of the 16th century. And guess what — things were different then.
By the standards of Pope Paul III and his peeps, the music of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir would be deemed sinful. In fact, the entire history of American music -- from “Yankee Doodle Dandy” to “The Real Slim Shady” -- is founded on a musical structure which the church at one time called “modus lascivus,” or “the lustful scale.”
In order to better understand how musical tastes have evolved in the past half-millennium, let's travel back nearly 500 years to the city of Trento, which today you'll find in northern Italy. But in 1545, it was the capitol of the Bishopric of Trent in the Holy Roman Empire, and served as the site of the first session of the “Concilium Tridentinum,” aka the Council of Trent, among the most important rule-making powwows in the history of the Catholic church.
Attending the Council of Trent would have been a bit like sitting in on a U.S. senate hearing... that is, if senators wore wide-brimmed, red galeri and jibber-jabbered in Latin. Among the many subjects debated by the Council of Trent was what constitutes good music — and for the patriarchs therein assembled, the answer was most definitely not: “It's got a good beat and I can dance to it.”
For one thing, the holy rollers of Trent decried the C major scale, the most common key signature in modern western music (and one which is explicitly evinced in children's songs like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “Do Re Mi”). Even in the 16th century, the C major scale was becoming popular in folk music, and it held the dubious distinction of encouraging people to dance and, well, touch each other; ergo, modus lascivus. Also, harmony was right out, because it was too sensual and made lyrics hard to understand.
Another no-no was the tritone, that dissonant musical interval which spans three whole notes, and which the church called “the devil's chord.” Although common nowadays in songs ranging from “Maria” in “West Side Story” to the forementioned “Simpsons” theme, its use back then would have earned a medieval player or singer a stern, ecclesiastical rebuke faster than Homer Simpson can say, “Doh! (Re Mi).”
In the modern, developed world, it is hard to imagine even the most pious of zealots finding fault with a nice harmony or C major progression. That the church's role in dictating musical taste was diminished in ensuing centuries isn't surprising. But the vast gulf which yawns between the musical mores of then and now is an unavoidable reminder that our popular culture is a restless, roiling sea... and where its waves will wash us in another 500 years, no one can predict.
-------------------------------
Notes is supported by the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado, partnering with the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado to promote the values of mutual respect, religious diversity, inclusiveness, compassion, and justice.
Craven Lovelace produces Notes, a daily cultural history of popular music, for KAFM 88.1 Community Radio, kafmradio.org. You can visit cravenlovelace.com for more of his musings on the world of popular culture.
