You Know What I Miss? I Miss Good Religious Music.

I love music. It's one of the very few things I miss about being Christian and going to church on Sunday. When I was a kid - heck, even when I was an adult and serving as a Mormon missionary - it was almost never the speakers[1] that interested me. It was the music. I don't sing very well, but I still enjoyed singing. "Onward, Christian Soldiers" was a favorite, as was "How Great Thou Art". "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" was rarely sung, but it was an excellent song for contemplation. "I Am A Child of God" was a happy song, and "Oh, My Father" was far more sedate, but both carried important lessons about my place in the universe. I loved the music.

Now I'm a pagan, and it seems like we've got exactly two things going for religious music: Diddly, and Squat.

Okay, I exaggerate. There are a few "old standards". Chants, mostly. "We All Come From The Goddess". "We Are The Flow." Uhm... Actually, I got nothing else, here. I know there are a few others, and I could probably do a Google search and turn them up, but that's not the point. We've got chants. They've got a place in a ceremony, certainly. They're easy to pick up, true. They don't need any more musical accompaniment than a drum[3], and they don't even need that.

They also get very old, very quickly. Also, they're rarely the sort of thing you would sing for fun, or out of a sense of joy and wonder.

The other really popular option is, of course, filking Christian music. This can work - particularly when it rises above the level of doing a word search of the lyrics and replacing "God" with either "Goddess" or "Gods". The major problem I see with this is that, unless it's a really good rewrite, it just makes the neopagan group using it feel like, well, like Christians. Without penises (penii?). And that's just trading one monotheistic world view for another.

Also, substituting "Goddess" for "God" in a song throws off the rhythm, which makes the song sound forced. Seriously. try it out with "How Great Thou Art":

O Lady my Goddess,
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all
The works Thy Hand hath made,
I see the stars,
I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy pow'r throughout
The universe displayed;

When through the woods
And forest glades I wander
I hear the birds
Sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down
From lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook
And feel the gentle breeze;

Refrain:
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour Goddess, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour Goddess, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!

That's not actually terrible in print, but there's still some problems. First, the title "Goddess" lurches out, unwilling to cooperate with the tune. It's not badly off, but it's off enough to be noticed and to feel awkward when singing it.

Second, what's this "saviour" business doing in a pagan-oriented song? We don't have saviours. We don't need saviours. We take responsibility for our own actions. So we need to insert a new title for the Goddess in here. And that just potentially exacerbates the first problem.

Finally, we have to lose the entire final verse:

When Christ shall come,
With shouts of acclamation,
And take me home,
What joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow
In humble adoration
And there proclaim,
"My God, how great Thou art!"

I mean, really. What are you going to do with that?

Are these insurmountable problems? No, not at all. But they have to be addressed, to rewrite the Christian song into something that works for a neopagan song.

I know that part of it is just relative ages of the religions involved. Christianity is what, around 2000 years old? And its dominated western civilization for what, 1700 years or so? They've had time to come up with some really good music[4]. Inspirational stuff, written by professional composers with patrons who paid pretty well for a dramatic Requiem that would outdo the one played at his neighbor's father's funeral. Whereas, modern neopaganism has been around for 60-80 years (depending on the specific branch). We haven't really had a lot of time to develop a library of music for the ages.

So, do I have a point to this, or am I just complaining? Well, fortunately, I'm going somewhere with this. There's plenty of good pagan music out there, and plenty of good pagan-friendly music. Some of it can easily be used for music in the circle, as an alternative to the tried-and-true chants[5]. So, I plan to discuss the bands and songs I like, and (possibly more importantly) explain how I use them (or plan to use them) in esbat and sabbat circles.

Oh, and I take suggestions. If you want to make any.

[1] Mormon services don't have a traditional sort of sermon or homily. Instead, the Bishop[2] asks a few people from the congregation - typically several weeks in advance - to prepare a talk on a particular subject for a specified period of time (15-20 minutes). Except on the first Sunday of the month, which is Fast and Testimony Meeting - or, at least, it was when I last attended. On that Sunday, it's open mike night as anyone who wants to stand up and "bare their testimony" (i.e. talk about how much they believe the Church is true) can do so. It's a really clever idea, actually, although it can be rather boring as well.
[2] A Mormon Bishop is a lay minister, occupying a similar position to a parish priest in Catholicism or the minister in a Protestant congregation.
[3] Drums. Oh, Gods, the drums. Don't get me started on the drums. What is it with neopagans and drumming? Just once, I'd like to see an open zither circle. Or a pagan improvisational jazz circle. Or even just an open "musical jam" circle, inviting anyone who wants to bring any instrument they want to join in. Why is it always percussion?
[4] And some really bad music as well. Fair is fair, after all.
[5] Maybe I should be somewhat explicit here: I like a lot of those chants. But I'm bored with using the same ones over and over and over and over again. Also, I miss music in my religious practice, and want to add some.