The Logos of Music

By Timothy S. Flanders

I have been a musician for most of my life. My mother is a music therapist and was also my piano teacher from ages five to ten, and after this I studied percussion through my first year in college. Over some twenty years I have studied and performed a variety of musical styles from around the world including chant, polyphony, Classical, Romantic, Modern Classical, march/drum line, Blues, Bebop, Afro-Cuban, Latin, funk, swing, folk, trad/country, rock, hip-hop and also hard rock, grunge and punk rock. For many years I would have considered myself a music enthusiast who was able to appreciate literally all forms of music in some way, even so-called “noise music.”

Yet I was a music “relativist,” meaning that I never thought that one form of music was objectively superior to another form. In other words, I believed that musical beauty was relative. There was no objective truth about the beauty of music. By extension, this meant that beauty itself is relative.

But I have realised that this is a philosophical error. If beauty itself is an aspect of God, that meant that God Himself – Eternal Truth – was relative in some way.

This view of beauty and of music is generally held by people today, including many Catholics, and so I held this view when I became Catholic in 2013.

Since that time however, I have slowly come to realise that this “universalist” view of music misses the mark. Especially after I came to realise the nature of the liturgical crisis and was brought to understand what natural law is, I have changed my views significantly to accord with what I believe to be the understanding of the Church and her saints. I’ve also experiecned this effect of this truth in my personal spiritual life. This essay will attempt to summarise this view point in an attempt to be faithful to Catholic Tradition.

Having said all this, as with all my intellectual work, this is merely a hypothesis which I am continually testing to verify its truth or falsehood. Therefore I invite the reader to take all this as merely one man’s opinion, albeit attempting, by grace, to be a faithful Catholic. I invite your feedback which can be sent by using the contact page.

Finally, I must offer one more disclaimer and that is the fact that in this essay it seemed necessary to exhibit certain forms of music which I am arguing are spiritually harmful. However, I believe they can be studied objectively if the listener only takes in a small bit and keeps one’s heart detached from the audio that is studied. Having said this, there are a few videos and musical examples which may be disturbing for readers, and are noted in the text of this essay. Please be advised to use the virtue of caution and avoid listening to certain of these examples if you are particularly susceptible to their power.

Logos

First, if you are unfamiliar with the concept of “logos” and “Logos,” we need to define these things first. When we say “logos” (lower-case) we refer to the rational order of the universe. It was more or less universally understood by all societies that the world possessed some sort of rational order.[1] The Greek word λόγος can mean order, word, reason, peace, logic, and collection and is related to binding, rest, and law. Logos has synonyms in the Sanskrit ऋत [Ṛta] and the Chinese 道 [Tao].

The ancients of every religion believed that this was the truth about the world. We participate in this order by means of conforming our behaviour to logos, and this is known as morality. So we’ve got logos as truth and logos as goodness. But besides these first two there was something known by ancients as more mystical and mysterious that reflected logos in an unspeakable way, and this was known as beauty. It was something that people could intuit by means of their own rational nature as persons.

So we have truth, goodness, and beauty, the three transcendentals.

We might break it down and say that truth is the logos of what man knows.

Goodness is the logos of what man does.

Beauty is the logos of what man sees and hears in the natural order or makes if he creates beauty himself.

All of this is a participation in the universal logos which is that rational order of the universe. All of this can be understood by natural reason without any sort of supernatural intervention.

But in revelation, God reveals Himself as both the origin of logos and the Logos Himself. This is where we have “Logos” with a capital “L” as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Thus we can put our three transcendentals another way:

Truth is the Logos of the reality of God. Truth is the Logos: Who God is.

Goodness is the Logos of God’s will.

Beauty is the Logos of what God makes.

So there is a divine Logos and a created logos. Everything that is created has a logos, a rational order which reflects the universal logos and ultimately Logos Himself.

The Seven Note Scale

If we accept all this, we must conclude that music itself has a logos which is a reflection of this order. Its beauty can be a reflection of the divine by means of its logos which reflects the Logos. It has its own inner order.

An easy aspect of this to understand is the seven-note scale. Do you remember “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music? That’s the seven-note scale. It’s one fundamental logos of music.

This is an ordering of music which is built into its very nature. Moderns like Schönberg actually tried to change this logos of music and create a different scale, called the twelve tone system, which only produced ugly music. For example, try listening to this music which intentionally tried to change the logos of the seven-note scale and create something different:

Because this music departs from the very logos of music, it invokes in the listener a feeling of disorientation. Listening to these sounds the listener intuitively understands that something is not right. It is chaotic. If the intention is to produce the reaction of revulsion to ugliness, then this music succeeds. This music would be fitting to score a scene in a film where the villain triumphs over the protagonist. But Schönberg himself apparently sought to make this music as an act of rebellion against Logos Himself, but we will return to this historical narrative below.

But the seven note scale can be described as an intrinsic logos in music. We will touch on a few other such intrinsic elements in this essay, like rhythm, melody and harmony. But first, let’s look at what we might call an extrinsic logos of music: natural law and custom. For we can note a few things about music from what has been passed down to us, but first let’s look at a Catholic’s obligations to natural law and custom.

Assent to Natural Law and Custom

First, it is important to understand how the Church reveres custom and natural law. These are important sources to understand the nature of music and the Church’s Tradition. What is custom? It is something that is established in ancient times and passed down (mostly) orally between generations. It binds them together in common ways of life. Examples of customs include cuisine, dance forms, clothing, and of course, music. So how should Catholics revere customs?

St. Thomas quotes St. Augustine as saying:

The customs of God’s people and the institutions of our ancestors are to be considered as laws. And those who throw contempt on the customs of the Church ought to be punished as those who disobey the law of God.[2]

St. Thomas argues that custom has the force of law because:

a thing is done again and again… seems to proceed from a deliberate judgment of reason. Accordingly, custom has the force of a law, abolishes law, and is the interpreter of law.[3]

OK, so we should generally respect custom. What about evil customs? We will return to this question below.

First, let’s add natural law here. What is that? Natural law is that which is observed “at all times and among all nations” as something inherent in human nature.[4] Human nature itself is made through Logos (Jn. 1:1-2), so natural law is something deeper and more fundamental than custom, since it is according to logos by its definition. It is moral in its orientation. Custom may or may not be according to logos, or it might be so indirectly to morals as to appear indifferent to them.

For example: it is not a question of morals whether Chinese dress like Chinese or Europeans dress like Europeans. But it is a question of custom. And further, the importance of revering the local custom is an obligation of natural law. So we see that custom and natural law are related and overlap, but aren’t exactly the same thing. This is how Catholics should view these things, and this is the aspect of piety (the virtue by which we revere our ancestors) comes into play. This is how we approach the question of music. If we look at it with the reverence for custom and the orientations of natural law, what can we learn about the logos of music?

Most generally, that we must revere the music that was passed down to us by our ancestors. We should receive this with the virtue of piety and this is a general obligation on all Catholics. So popular music has already gone astray on the extrinisic logos of music when it uses music socially as a revolution against the wisdom of the ancestors. But the problem was that at the moments of these historical revolutions, they were also rebelling against actually evil customs. But we will treat that in its proper place below.

The Magisterium

Some Catholics ask the question: where did the Magisterium define the logos of music? Not finding such a decretal, they think a Catholic is free to have his own view on the matter regardless of custom and natural law.

There are a few problems with this approach. First, it ignores the historical fact that most doctrines of the Church are passed down orally long before they are written down or defined by the Magisterium (see my book on this topic). This oral tradition is authoritative before any Magisterial act would confirm that authority. In fact, the oral tradition is its own Magisterium, known as the “universal and ordinary Magisterium.” It was this Magisterium to which St. John Paul II appealed when he definitively closed the door on women’s ordination.[5]

Second, this view of Magisterial obligations promotes a view of the Church which is clericalist and a modern innovation. For centuries, our fathers received the faith, lived it, and passed it down. This included innumerable Catholic and natural customs – including music. No one was asking the Magisterium what sort of folk ballad they should sing to their children. They just sang the folk ballad of their fathers.

The historical fact is that these innumerable customs have been overthrown in our own day by enemies of the Church. In response to this, a Catholic is confused if he thinks he should ask the extraordinary Magisterium whether or not he should restore the music of his forefathers and promote such music. This assumes that he does not posses the basic virtue of piety and reason that all his forefathers did for centuries and that now the Magisterium should take on the role to arbitrate such matters.

Thus it is the wrong question to ask what the Magisterium has said, but rather look to the ordinary Magisterium of the customs of the faithful. If we are guided by the ordinary Magisterium which blends natural law and custom with the revelatory depositum fidei, it is superfluous to look for a modern Magisterial decretal on this matter. Just conform yourself to the inner obligation to assent to Tradition in general. Mine the Tradition, and pass it down. You don’t need anyone’s permission to do this and further, you are obliged to do this as a Catholic by your baptism.

Pre-Christian Customs

Another proof of this approach is in observing the way the ecclesiastical authority has spread the Gospel in every nation. Without exception, the pre-Christian customs in all nations which are according to logos – language, dance, clothing, cuisine, music – are retained and transfigured in Christ. This proves clearly that the Church asks Catholics to revere the customs of their fathers, even if those fathers were not Christian!

Now of course it is otherwise if any traditional custom of a pre-Christian nation has any demonic content or is in any way against logos. All of these are removed, over time if necessary (in the case of ingrained, intrinsically immoral behavior like slave-trading).[6] But all that is according to logos is retained, revered, and continues to be passed down.

In this way Catholic missionaries (unlike the heretical Protestants) saved and preserved cultures, and one of the most conspicuous elements of this preservation is of course music.

Thus we can look at numerous cultures and the greatest of pre-Christian philosophers to discern the nature of music as interpreted by the mind of the saints. So what is the logos of music? We’ve discussed the seven-note scale, let’s unpack more of the central theme of this essay.

The Logos of Music

Fr. Ripperger in his important treatise Introduction to the Science of Mental Health summarises the logos of music according to natural law and custom, which is confirmed by all the great philosophers from Plato and Aristotle, to Augustine, Aquinas, and even moderns like Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, and harmonises with what we know about music from the depositum fidei. This excerpt will provide a Thomistic basis to begin to unpack this logos (we will augment this analysis with the Augustinian phenomenology of Hildebrand):

The soul of a person is directed by music in three ways. The first is that it tends to strengthen the soul and directs it in the right thing… Plato observes that, if one never listens to music, it makes one hard and savage and yet, if one listens to music too much, it make one soft and gentle. The pleasure of music can have a tempering effect, not only on men but women. Yet, due solicitude must be taken to ensure that the pleasures of music neither make men effeminate nor cause lack of temperance in women.

We can begin to see why Plato said that it is false that the standard for good music is whether it causes pleasure. Rather, music, which is part of the divine providential plan, is ordered toward the good of the soul, i.e. towards rectitude and strength of soul (virtue). The criteria for good music and bad music cannot be based purely upon the fact that a particular form causes pleasure. Such a position is nothing short of hedonism.

Rather, good and bad music must be judged based on two distinct criteria. The first is its artistic merit, i.e. some music is more beautiful than others and some music is more capable of directing the appetitive life [i.e. governing the emotions with reason] than others. The second is the moral character: those forms of music which tend to erode moral virtue, either because of their lyrics or because of their melody and musical quality constitute a danger to people’s souls and their psychological health. Those forms of music which tend to build moral virtue are good insofar as their lyrics and musical style promote what is noble in man and in God’s creation. Insofar as it contributes to moral virtue and even intellectual virtue, music aids psychological health.

The second way in which music directs the soul, according to St. Thomas, is that it draws one up into the heights. By this, St. Thomas means that it tends to lift the soul to the considerations of those things which are above him. In this respect music can lift the soul away from earthly things to heaven. Music incites one to devotion and in this respect is good for weak souls[.]…

Yet, because music can aid us in attaining our final end, we can see why St. Thomas says that the third way that music directs the soul is by sweetness and delight… Since music affects the various faculties of the soul, it has an ability to cause spiritual joy (by lifting one’s mind and heart to the Object of joy which is God) and delight of the soul (by seeing the goodness of God as reflected in the perfections of the harmony of the music).[7]

Here is an excellent summary of the logos of music, meaning the rational order that God created within music itself, which reflects His Nature since in the beginning was Logos, and the Logos was with God and the Logos was God… all things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made (Jn. 1:1, 3).[8] This means that music itself, as we have said, was made by God through Logos and music has its own logos created by God for the good of man’s soul. Ripperger notes a few important points in breaking down this logos, and he particularly emphasises the view of all the philosophers that musical quality itself (not just the lyrics) can have an effect on the soul, good or bad. But if this is true, why is there such a disconnect between musical “taste” and this objective quality? To answer this question, we need to bring in the “Doctor of the Church in the Twentieth Century,” Dietrich von Hildebrand.

Objective Beauty vs. Subjective Satisfaction

Hildebrand is, in my view (and Pius XII’s, apparently) a doctor of the Church because he forwarded a unique philosophy which might be called “Augustinian Phenomenology.”  He used this philosophy (together with his late wife) to combat all the errors of this age – Liberalism, Communism, Nazism and Feminism – and demonstrate the beauty of Catholicism as the one true faith.

But more than this, his work helped (and will help) to balance the dominance of the neo-Thomism which grew out of the post-Tridentine era and became acute after Vatican One. In particular, we note his restoration of the centrality of the heart in Christian philosophy, which is central to the Holy Scriptures. He wrote a whole book just on the heart.

This centrality of the heart can help balance some of neo-Thomism’s excesses, namely an abstract and excessive emphasis on the intellect to the neglecting of the heart as the spiritual center of man. The Scriptures, in their continual reference back to the heart, shows this spiritual center to be of fundamental importance.

So what does this have to do with music? Simple: music moves the heart. But this movement can be positive or negative. With the structure formulated by Ripperger above, we can begin to see a good Thomistic plumb line for evaluating the movements of the heart in regards to music. In short, a good standard is this: where does this music lead my heart? Does it lead it to God? to my neighbour? to the joy and peace of beauty? or does it lead me to addiction? passion? sin?

But there’s something more here, and this is where Hildebrand really helps. He makes the crucial distinction between the objective content of beauty as such and the subjectively satisfying thing. This is summarised well by Julia Miller:

[Hildebrand] makes the distinction between the merely subjectively satisfying and the objectively valuable. That means that beauty is objective but whether it is subjectively satisfying to us changes. So to the question, “is beauty is in the eye of the beholder?” the answer is no, it is not. It is like saying truth is in the mind of the beholder, which is more obviously false because truth is something that is objectively there. If beauty is a thing, and it is truth, it has to be objective. There must be things that are beautiful and things that are not.

But we see differing opinions in what is beautiful everyday. A peer may think that a piece of artwork is beautiful and I may not think it to be such. Is one of us wrong? Well, the answer is yes. In this case it is not a matter of its actual beauty that cannot be argued or changed, it is a matter of it being either subjectively satisfying or not.

It is also important to consider that it is often a matter of mere taste, and is to some degree grounded in our human nature. It is okay that we find different things to be satisfying that are in our nature as unique individuals. If there is a discrepancy in what two people find beautiful it doesn’t change its nature; it is purely taste and what is subjectively satisfying to them.

The objectively valuable is not something that is contained or changed by any subjective ideas. It is not our own subjectivity that gives something value. Our own taste and subjectivity can never determine the nature of a thing (J. Miller, “The Breadth and Depth of Beauty,” emphasis in the original).

So the point is that a musical piece might be objectively beautiful, like Beethoven or Mozart. But that piece might not be subjectively satisfying.

For me personally, I prefer Beethoven to Mozart, but that does not change the fact that Mozart is objectively beautiful. I merely find Beethoven more subjectively satisfying than Mozart. This distinction is critical because as Miller shows, the definition of beauty in the dictionary in our modern world is literally whatever is subjectively satisfying. 

Hildebrand’s final book, a thousand-page treatise on Aesthetics (vol I and vol II), was devoted to debunking and correcting this philosophical error.

This confusion has led even Catholics to adopt philosophical errors regarding beauty, confusing that which is subjectively satisfying with objective beauty, and thus the error of “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” In the subjective sphere, beauty can be in the eye of the beholder, but that is not what makes a thing beautiful or not objectively understood.

Further, as Hildebrand shows in his Ethics, what is subjectively satisfying is not a reflection of its moral value or even its truth or falsehood. In the same way, the subjective satisfaction that any music gives is not necessarily related to its aesthetic value. Rather, a person must have a virtuous formation in order to properly perceive beauty. Just as sin has a metaphysical ugliness, a sinful person may find ugly things subjectively satisfying. And just as virtue is beautiful, a virtuous person is more capable of perceiving what is objectively beautiful. However, numerous counter-examples (such as composers of beautiful music that lead sinful lives) attest to the fact that this is by no means a necessary conclusion in every person. Musical talent alone can also allow a sinful man to perceive and create musical beauty.

Thus the factors that determine beauty are difficult to pin down. The fact remains, however, that Catholics today have their various preferences for music, but this does not determine if that music is beautiful or not. Rather, an objective analysis of that music according to logos will determine its beauty. To an attempt at that analysis we now turn. We will attempt to apply now our philosophical plumb line, trying to follow natural law and custom and the perception of logos from the philosophers: given that music moves the heart, where does that movement lead the heart? Does it lead the heart according to Logos and logos? or does it move the heart according to the aims of the world, the flesh and the devil?

We will begin with an analysis of music according to logos and contrast that with music against logos. Central to this analysis is a thorough treatment of the unique properties of African music, which will be treated below.

Music According to Logos: Sacred

As Ripperger observed already, summarising the Tradition, music is an eminently spiritual force. Hildebrand calls music “the most spiritual of all the arts.”[9] The Holy Scriptures testify to the spiritual power of music in the story of David and Saul. After Saul is rejected as king of Israel, the sacred writer indicates that an evil spirit tormented Saul as punishment, but he was soothed by music from David (I Kngs. 16:14-16, 22-23). Here we see the first universal form of music, that of sacred music. This is the form of music which most potently expresses the spiritual reality of Logos by means of its exquisite and sublime logos.

St. Pius X says that every culture should be able to recognise sacred music when they hear it:

[W]hile every nation is permitted to admit into its ecclesiastical compositions those special forms which may be said to constitute its native music, still these forms must be subordinated in such a manner to the general characteristics of sacred music that nobody of any nation may receive an impression other than good on hearing them.[10]

The saint identifies these general characteristics of sacred music as “sanctity and goodness of form… to the highest degree,” “holy” and “exclude all profanity” (meaning secular or popular music) and must be “true art.” These are the musical qualities which “draw one up into the heights” as noted by Ripperger. We must understand the context of this document in 1903, when Gregorian chant was being revived as even in Rome for the previous few generations theatrical, operatic and orchestral music was the norm across Europe.[11] Liturgical music had degenerated even in 1900 towards secular, emotional music (imagine!).

When we take these words of the saint and go to every culture in history, we find every culture possessing some form of chant and sacred music for their religious rites. The universal quality of this sacred music is certainly self-evident: it represents the most beautiful and sacred sounds that a given people think possible. It is often chanted by a sacred office, but can also be participatory. It indicates by its very auditory quality something sacred which is unlike anything in daily life. This is why every people has a sacred music, and its sacred character is self-evident to all, even foreigners.

A few decades after St. Pius X wrote these words, Pius XII observed that the same emotionalism was going on in 1955 and cautioned once again toward a proper use of sacred music:

Which music finds itself in religious ritual must not be based upon the pleasure it gives the congregation but upon whether it lifts the minds and souls of the congregation to God. It is very easy for musicians who are not properly refined or educated to assume that eliciting emotions from people is the same as causing a “religious experience.” This is why pastors of souls must be very careful about the kinds of instruments and music allowed in church.[12]

Note the bolded text, which will become crucial when we discuss Shamanic music below. But we see this distinction being made in the sacred music between the emotions and the intellect. Sacred music in particular must not only be “sacred” in the sense that it is unlike anything in daily life, but it must not be primarily about provoking emotions, which are in the appetites and are connected with this earth. But the intellect is the highest faculty in man’s soul. When the heart is properly ordered, the will is guided by the higher intellect which contemplates truth, and the emotions are drawn up to the heights as well. The result is joy and peace of heart. It leads one’s heart up to the divine and away from this earth.

Thus sacred music according to Logos truly lifts man up to the heights. We see this clearly in the fact that Gregorian chant and polyphony—two styles which are very different musically—both achieve the same affect in the listener, which is to raise the intellect to the divine. In the life of Palestrina, we see his pious mind which is one of penance, and it certainly shows in his music:

This piece of polyphony helped convert me to Catholicism:

The polyphony of Spain seems to show its particularly robust spirituality and national temperament:

Finally, the heretical Anglican regime (like Bach in his Lutheran context) sought to imitate the beauty of the sacred music contained in the Holy Mass, and succeeded to the degree that their heretical rites imitated the true rite of the Blessed Sacrament contained only in the Catholic Church. This is the collect for the Third Sunday after Epiphany set to music:

Put another way, we can consider the hortatory phrase in the Roman Rite: sursum corda “Lift up your hearts.” This is what sacred music does. If we consider the heart as the “spiritual center” of the person (according to the phrase of Hildebrand) where the intellect, will, and passions meet, we can see that sacred music has this quality of lifting the heart to God. Sacred music truly moves the heart but lifts it up to God Almighty. This is not merely an emotional experience, but a lifting of the heart outside of one’s self. When something moves your emotions, it tends to make you self-absorbed about your emotions. Lifting your heart, by contrast, points you outside of yourself. The emotions themselves are lifted up to God as well. The result is not emotional self-absorption, but a heart that weeps at the beauty of God. It is an experience that includes your emotions deeply, but is not primarily about your emotions.

The same thing is present in the other musical styles in the Church’s Tradition: the Slavonic chant and its Russian variant, with the Greek, Coptic, Ethiopian and Syriac chant. We may observe how the Muhammadans chant their Qur’an in imitation to the Greek chant, and it still retains its sacred quality despite being heretical.[13] The Jews too have a sacred chant which exhibits the same qualities from a purely musical standpoint.

Here is one of the beautiful chants of the east, dedicated to Our Lady (or listen to the same in English):

This Coptic Trisagion chant utilises the percussion of the “liturgical cymbals” (English then Coptic):

Here is the traditional Church slavonic, Russian chant, known today as “Old Believer chant” which in preserved in the very ancient Russian rites:

When one listens to chant from around the world, the common musical qualities become apparent: they all illicit an opening in the heart for the divine. Even if one hears a foreign chant, it is clear that what is happening is sacred.

Music According to Logos: Folk

We will distinguish sacred music for various forms of “folk music” which serves a different purpose within cultures. We use the term “folk” in the German sense of volk, i.e. a defining thing about a people or an ethnic group. This is essential to understanding the logos of folk music, for this form of music is deeply embedded in every culture and serves a cultural purpose.

We may say the main distinguishing factor between sacred and folk music is that the primary purpose of all folk music is focused on the community with or without a religious character. Sacred Music may be called “vertical music” and folk music may be termed “horizontal music.” In this sense this two fold distinction is a fulfillment of the Two Great Commandments of our Lord: love of God and neighbour. Sacred Music is an act of charity toward God, and folk music, as we will see, is primarily an act of charity toward our brother.

The most common form of folk music is usually called “traditional folk music.” These are songs that a culture has passed down from generations which are cherished by a people. These songs, far more than sacred music, are sung by a group of people. Hildebrand says this type of folk music “contains a unitive element, creates communal atmosphere, and brings people together.”[14] The primary purpose of this music, therefore, is a social purpose, not primarily aesthetic, expressing that love of neighbor.

The highest form of this traditional folk music is undoubtedly the religious folk song. Think of the tradition of Christmas caroling in the Latin Church. Caroling is not the same as the highest form of sacred music, but a strongly religious celebration of singing with joy together. Hymns can be sacred hymns and sung at Mass (or especially the Divine Office where they are appointed) and thus perform a role in sacred music. But there is also a strong tradition of religious folk songs outside the context of the rite. There is great value in singing pious songs together as this not only “brings people together,” but directs them up to God. The religious folk song is a means whereby man helps uplift his brother toward God.

Closely related to this type of folk music is the patriotic song. This is also sacred in the sense of the virtue of piety, whereby a man reveres his parents and the country of his birth.[15] This type of music can also be associated with the war song or marching song, which is also meant to stir up the virtue of fortitude in the irascible appetite in the context of war and keep up the morale of the soldiers, all important rational purposes.[16] As such we see this traditional folk music as serving an eminently rational purpose and having a strong communal character. Here’s a famous patriotic song from the United States:

Here’s a marching song that exhibits that jubilant, Irish fighting spirit:

Here’s a crusader chant which functions as a marching song to stir up the irascible emotions to fight the enemies of Christendom:

The power of this type of music is perhaps best illustrated by the life of St. Maximilian Kolbe. One biographer mentions what this saint did just as his train pulled away to the death camp:

The 320 prisoners in his transport were packed into freight cars that were bolted from the outside. As soon as the train began to move, someone intoned religious and national songs. It was Fr. Kolbe. Despite the crowded, suffocating conditions, and the realization that most of them were heading toward a cruel death, the songs helped them to forget their sad lot.[17]

When the time to obtain his glorious crown arrived, the saint was thrown naked into a cell with others to starve to death. What did he do? The power of music had a massive effect.

When the ten condemned of Block 14 arrived at the dark, dank “hole” where they were to die, there were already twenty prisoners who lay in torment in the next cell. The thick walls could not stifle their screams, moans and curses. As the heavy door slammed shut on the condemned, some began to sob. One of the heartless S.S. jailers sneered, “You will dry up like tulips.”

The Nazi jailers soon realized, however, that this time things would be different—the difference between night and day. Whereas, in the past, howling and curses reverberated from the starvation bunkers like a scene of the damned in hell, this time the condemned prisoners did not curse and tear at each other, but sang and prayed. Soon the condemned in the other cells joined in the singing of hymns to Our Lady. What had formerly been a place of torment and bedlam became a place of divine worship. As if in choir, they answered one another from cell to cell with prayers and hymns. The major cause for the difference? This time a priest, a holy priest, was with them to share their immolation, to counsel, encourage, and administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation [Confession].[18]

We see in these two scenes the power of traditional folk music whether religious or patriotic to bind a people together in the midst of the worst of times. This above all illustrates the religious folk song as an act of charity toward our brother.

But besides these forms of the traditional folk music, Hildebrand notes others with a less communitarian but still very rational nature of charity toward each other: lullabies, children’s songs, and also love songs.[19] These songs all have a rational purpose: soothing a child to sleep, teaching children to sing, and lastly, expressing the mystery of the human heart in love. An entire book of the Word of God is a love song which is a mystical type of Christ and the Church. But love songs abound in every culture. Here’s a beautiful love song from Sinéad O’Connor:

Another great form of folk is the folk ballad, which often tells a story. Here’s a traditional folk ballad from 19th century Ireland:

Eutrapelia

Besides the primary purpose of folk song being charity for our brother, the main elements of this music which distinguishes it from sacred music is that it utilises the virtue of eutrapelia. This virtue is an act of emotional pleasure for the sake of a rational purpose. St. Thomas explains that eutrapelia is “recreation” which helps us rest from our labors of the intellect.[20] Sacred music is primarily about the intellect or “lifting the heart,” and can even involve a struggle to focus on prayer and humility within the rite. As we have said it does not focus on pleasure, although it can include great spiritual joy.

Folk music, on the other hand, is about producing a moderated pleasure in the emotions for the rational purpose of recreation. In all of these examples, folk music brings people together to experience the joy of singing for some rational purpose. Folk music refreshes our brother who sings with us (charity) and also refreshes us with joy for the music (eutrapelia). There is a certain “fun” in it, but it is not irrational and chaotic, but leads to that peace and joy of heart with one’s brother.

We may further note that these songs have certain musical elements: often many verses of lyrics which are easily sung (or a story is told), an ordered rhythm which serves to emphasise the melody, and a pleasant and enjoyable tune that is memorable. These are the aspects of the folk music which have a musical quality in accord with logos.

Music According to Logos: Folk Dance and High Art

We may distinguish the “folk music” of the prior kind, which is primarily lyrical with these final types which are primarily instrumental: folk dance and ensemble music.

Folk dance music is primarily instrumental performed by a small group of musicians. It may set the context for actual dancing or merely clapping along. Americans are familiar with the fiddle, banjo or guitar employed at a “square dance” or the bouzouki (guitar-like), bodhran (drum), pipe or fiddle used in Irish music. This is the music which is used by a people to express their heritage and their culture with joy. The Irish used this music to help them in their struggle against the heretical regime of Anglicanism. At one point, it said, the heretics actually tried to outlaw the Irish owning instruments for this very purpose.

And here’s a tune from the United States from two great folk masters:

Folk dance music also serves a modest context for the courtship between unmarried individuals. All cultures have forms of social interaction which involve modest physical touch and a properly ordered dance tradition between members of the opposite sex to provide the rational context for courtship. Thus it too forms the purpose of eutrapelia but does so with primarily an instrumental sound rather than singing.

Finally we must note the ensemble music, which is the special inheritance of Christendom, as even after the Protestant revolt, European music developed from Renaissance polyphony (lyrical) to Baroque, Classical and Romantic (with modern forms as well). These are the famous symphonies, sonatas and concertos of Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and others. This music is performed by a large ensemble of highly trained musicians.

This form of music is unique to Europe since it represents the highest form of purely rational beauty, and thus all peoples throughout the globe learn and perform this music, implicitly showing its superiority on the purely aesthetic level:

We may note the logos present in this music which makes it different than every other culture: its unique complexity and depth with many layers of sound; its difficulty, requiring weeks of rehearsal; its incredibly rich melodies, rhythms and general atmosphere. This music is a testament to the cultural superiority of Europe to the rest of the world solely because of the Logos present in the One True Church.[21] When the Church permeates society, this is the beauty that results even after it rebels against Christ.

Having reviewed some of the music forms which seem to be passed down through custom according to logos, let us now to turn to the phenomenon of evil customs. This is that form of music that the fallen angels themselves have used over the centuries.

Music against Logos: Shamanic

For here we come to explain why and how our modern world is dominated by ugly music, and why I was converted from being a “musical universalist” to a more traditional form of musical theory in accord with what seems to be the Tradition of the Church. For I hope you will see above, all of the forms of music we have discussed so far not only have a rational purpose (whether sacred, communitarian, or simply pure beauty), but are also according to logos in their very form. Each of these types of music exhibits great order in the arrangement of sounds from the melody, harmony and rhythm. The key factor for this rational music is that it provokes great emotion, but this is subordinated to the intellect, and it is thus formed by logos. It moves the heart, but it lifts the hearts outside the person, to God and/or neighbour.

But there is another form of music which is very ancient but does not act according to logos. This is the form of music used in the cultic rituals of Shamanism. Shamanism is universal and can be found in all cultures throughout the earth. However, the music used in these religions has the same purpose against reason: to induce an emotional state in which reason is abandoned in favor of passions. It means to move the heart in order to make it absorbed with itself. Shamans in every culture use chaotic drones and repetitive drum beats to produce a state of “trance” or “hypnosis.” This form of music is used to provoke emotion and produce these states of mind and heart. This is what Pius XII referred to when he discussed provoking emotions and calling it a religious experience. Unfortunately, it is a religious experience for some, but not of the divine.

Voodoo music is a form of Shamanism which obtained in west Africa and was spread to the Caribbean and the American South after our forefathers succumbed to the poison of the Muhammadan slave trade. In the practice of Voodoo music, drumming is employed to be “possessed” by the “spirits” in an ecstatic state. The purpose of this state is to abandon the will to a “higher consciousness.” This “state” of course is in fact a surrendering to fallen angels or else one’s base passions, and not anything regarding natural law or God.

The biography of Marcel Lefebvre mentions his encounters with this form of African Shamanism and its use of music:

On some nights [in African] tom-toms and other deep drums beat out a diabolical rhythm, and the men who gorged themselves on warthog and palm wine held their secret meetings, their faces covered with masks, and then began to dance in the flickering light, contorting their bodies and leaping over the fire, as their wide-eyed audience grew in number… Behind the façade of these shady and unhealthy traditions that were sometimes frankly lewd, [Fr. Lefebvre] saw the power of the devil too clearly to have the least desire to start “dialoguing.”[22]

We notice here that these forms of music are a form of the vice of excess. Eutrapelia uses a moderate from of enjoyment for the sake of logos, whereas the forms of music employed by the demons are designed to induce a maximum amount of pleasure in order to suspend reason itself. This state is similar to the mortal sin of drunkenness, since the emotional passions then rule one’s will instead of one’s intellect. One’s heart is then completely absorbed with its own emotional experience, disregarding God and man. We see hints of this form of music in the Scripture (III Kngs. 18:29, Dan. 3:5), but the most conspicuous element in this music is beating and droning to the disorder of melody, harmony and rhythm. We will explain this in a moment.

First, we can see in this short video documentary of Haitian Voodoo rites the elements of music contained therein. As described by the narrator, this is an actual ceremony of voodoo in which “spirits” are invoked so that participants can become possessed by these spirits. As we know, these spirits are actually fallen angels, who deceive pagans into this bondage. But note the elements of music: rational folk melodies and folk dancing with chaste and beautiful colours are mixed with evil customs of musical urgency in invoking spirits and demonic possession. This shows a blend of both logos and anti-logos like oil and water. There is also the presence (later in the ritual) of commemorating the just rebellion of the Haitians (with led by Catholic Toussaint Louverture) against the tyranny of the French, which, like the Civil Rights movement discussed below, mixed a true revolt against evil customs with the evil of demonic Voodoo (Ven. Pierre Toussaint, who was perhaps more devout than Louverture, nevertheless honoured him by taking “Toussaint” as a surname).

Note how the ritual seems almost rational (although a bit chaotic) until (at 8:20) one of the participants gets possessed by a demon which causes personal chaos. In contrast to the others, this possessed person appears drunk. Her heart seems to be consumed with her own emotional experience and she thus disregards the other dancers and crashes into them. We must note this unholy blend of logos and anti-logos, a mixture which can only be untangled by divine grace, which we will discuss below.

“Beating” vs. Rhythm

Here we draw a distinction between what we term “beating” and rhythm. We use the term beating to specifically refer to an overwhelming percussive sound which becomes the central focus in the music. By contrast, rhythm refers here to an ordered arrangement of tempo and emphasis in music which finds a hierarchical place supporting the whole of the music.

Beating is a method to emphasise a throbbing sound above all, whereas rhythm integrates with the rest of the music. Rhythm is specifically the ordering of what notes happen at what time in the music. If the timing is chaotic or “off,” there is no rhythm. But notice this: rhythm is the fundamental basic element of music upon which the “higher” elements are built: melody and harmony, and the most rational: lyrics. Thus since the Shamanic music is designed to suppress reason, it emphasises above all beating to the exclusion of melody, and harmony. Kwasniewski puts it this way:

Rhythm is the most basic element of music, the most primitive. This is why the music of some primitive cultures consists mostly of drumming. More advanced cultures, presupposing the framework of rhythm, develop beautiful melodies above it. The most advanced, presupposing both rhythm and melody, develop a system of harmony. When you listen to a piece by (e.g.) Palestrina, Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, or Pärt, the rhythm, although discernible, is subordinated to the melody and harmony, which take “center stage.”[23]

To illustrate this point, listen to the first sixty seconds of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, First Movement:

Notice the rhythm here. Very forceful, dynamic, changing. The crescendo of the first melodic line is emphasised by the timpani when it reaches its apex, but the drumming and rhythm do not overwhelm the sound, but rather support it and form a structure upon which the rest of the instrumentation “floats” as it were.

Now listen to this “Hip-Hop” rendition of the same piece:

Notice the difference. The “beating” overwhelms the rest of the elements in the music, which quickly takes a back seat to the loud, repetitive beat. We will discuss Hip-Hop music further below.

Droning

The other element in this anti-logos music is droning. We use this term to distinguish it from melody, which is more rational. Droning is simply making various pitches which are very simple and designed to induce an emotional attachment of some sort, but not achieve any rational purpose. The greater the emotional effect of the sounds and pitches, the greater these sounds are properly “drones,” and not melody. The most effective form of droning is a simple pitch arrangement which “gets in your head” in order to repeat over and over as a form of the trance and suspension of reason. Then it is this droning that gets into your heart – it does not have the effect of lifting your heart outside itself. It makes your heart absorbed with its own emotions.

Again let’s notice a simple contrast in a traditional folk melody with a Shamanic sort of melody. Listen to Mo Ghille Mear:

This melody is simple for many voices to sing in a truly folk experience, but also complex enough to house a complicated lyrical lament with due honour to His Majesty, Bonnie Prince Charlie. This folk melody is deep and truly moves the heart of any listener.

Now compare this with a recent hit song in its melodic content (warning: the shallow addiction of this track can be powerful for listeners):

Notice how the melody of this song is extremely “catchy” but lacks any depth of heart. It’s just something that creates an emotional attachment. This is droning. It creates a shallow emotion, adds intense beating, and ultimately provokes a state of hypnosis similar to Shamanic rites. I remember when my kids heard this song once, they immediately wanted to hear it again and again, and then they would sing it over and over. It did not create a communitarian experience of joy and peace, but an emotional attachment.

Repetition

This leads us to our final aspect of this irrational music, which is its repetitive character. All forms of music repeat, but like the excess of beating, Shamanic music repeats endlessly in an effort to induce the trance. Over and over it spins the listener in an emotional high which produces the desired effect: the suspension of reason, the self-absorption of the heart, and the surrender of the will to “the music.”

Traditional music of all kinds has a proper form of repetition which is often something like ABACADA (like Mo Ghille Mear above) or else ABCADEFA (like Beethoven above) or such things as that. This type of formal repetition creates a musical story where the listener is carried outside himself, through the music, to the rational purpose for the song. It can also facilitate chaste, traditional dancing.

Now compare this type of form with the following hit song (warning for the same reason above):

This song repeats endlessly, designed to create an emotional state of rapture so that the dancers have nothing of form to their haze, but only surrendering to passions. Even the seemingly-repetitive Cuban dancing style (shown below) has a highly-skilled traditional dance attached to it, unlike the beating and droning of Shamanic forms.

Forms used in Shamanism and the Virtuous Mean

One can see how the Shamanic and Voodoo musical styles have been used by fallen angels in various cultures to seek to oppress the human race in bondage to Satan. For these musical styles affect the human mind in the same way as temptation: provoke the lower passions against the use of reason, so that the will is overcome by the force of emotion instead of Logos.

However, having said that there is a spectrum between full Shamanic possession by demons and the innocuous eutrapelia of traditional folk music. Elements of both sides overlap each other. A moderate amount of heavy drumming and a repetitive melody is certainly not intrinsically evil, as Archbishop Lefebvre notes. Even these pop songs linked above are not intrinsically evil in their music, but rather an immoderate use of this music can lead to emotional attachments or worse. Ripperger cautions:

Because music gives pleasure, if one gives oneself over to it without restraint, it tends to take on a life of its own. In other words, license regarding the pleasure of music leads to license in other areas of one’s life. As a result, those who seek to restrict one’s license are judged with contempt, e.g. those in authority and laws themselves. Parents will often find that a teenager who listens to music without restriction becomes difficult to handle and unruly.[24]

I only first began to see these things after I stopped listening to popular music for a period of time. Try doing that yourself, and perhaps you will have a similar experience as I did. I found that I had more silence in my heart wherein I could pray more throughout the day instead of having endless melodies “in my head.” I found I could grow easier in my prayer life without these monotonous melodies. Now when I listen to them I can more objectively notice the effect they seem to have on the listener, grabbing my emotions and trying to get me “hooked.” But like I said, it seems a very moderate use of some forms of popular music can be used for eutrapelia (we will discuss this more below). The problem is that much of it is designed for a Shamanic purpose. Therefore I avoid popular music if I can, but I also don’t trouble my conscience if I am forced to hear it at times, like at a wedding reception. I just pray for God to give me silence and that these forms of music may not penetrate into my heart. This is my approach right now and it seems to be effective for me.

In any case, I think there is a virtuous mean within that spectrum of music, especially when we consider certain forms of African high music.

African High Music vs. African Shamanism

Here we need to note a few things about African higher musical styles in contrast to the African Shamanism. As we said, Shamanic music has existed in every culture. However, certain aspects of African music made the later infusion of African Shamanic music in European cultures particularly potent.

First, we note that in African music there is a predominance of drums. This is probably due to the fact that the climate in Africa hosts an abundance of wild life, and thus an abundance of skins to make drums. However, due to this abundance of drums a unique sound seems to have been created in Africa more than on any other continent, and that is rhythm as a melody.

Notice here in the drum masters of Senegal how the blending of various rhythms in this drum orchestra form a much higher form of rhythm than merely the basis of melody. This rhythm is layered to include many different sounds, tempos, and pitches.

There is a strong rhythm here obviously, but it is also highly complex and changes throughout, guiding the listener into a rhythmic melody with traditional communitarian dancing instead of an emotional trance.

When I was in high school, I played in a percussion ensemble which worked to replicate this legacy and uniqueness of the African sound. We used these layers of rhythm to form a melody out of a complex rhythm.

In higher forms of African music, like in the use of the kora, this can include more complex melodies:

In the Ethiopian sacred music, drums and other instrumentation form the basis for chant and hymnody:

In Missa Luba, a distinctly African sound emerges for the Kyrie:

Notice, however, in these examples the use of rhythm is of a rational character. The heart is lifted out of itself in these musical selections. It is not drawn into a consuming relationship with the music, and closed in on itself in an emotional trance.

The point to emphasise here is that the Africans developed a unique and high musical style through the various African civilisations, like the Ethiopian or the Mali. But this seems to have had a much greater use of drums and rhythm than any other musical style in the world. Thus too it is fair to say that the African Shamanic music had a higher use of beating than other forms.

By the time African Shamanic music encountered European civilisation, this encounter proved to be particularly powerful. Since the European civilisation had marginalised its own Shamanic music, and was a more advanced civilisation due to Christianity, the stronger beating in the African form became a strong musical power which could affect the burgeoning European civilisation in the Americas. In addition, the higher drumming content in the African music – though it may have no Shamanic content to an African – could make a European hear Shamanism and experience its effects.

The Africans were no doubt acclimated to a strong use of drums. The Europeans were not. This caused the Europeans to develop an unhealthy fascination for African drumming, in a way that would bring about the birth of popular Shamanism as we will see.

New Orleans and the Caribbean

The Church authorities condemned the slave trade, but they were not able to stop individual Catholics from practicing it nonetheless. As a result the Europeans worked with powerful African nations to prey upon weak African tribes and capture people for slavery across the Atlantic. The Africans captured for slavery would have been more influenced by Shamanic music because they were not of the higher African civilisations, but rather less civilised tribes.[25]

Nevertheless, due to the influence of the Church, the slaves of the Americas were baptised and catechised, given rest days on Sundays and Holy Days, and slave children were set free, creating a whole nation of Free People of Colour in the Catholic areas of the Americas (no such thing existed in the Protestant areas). As a result, an organic blend of European and African styles of music was allowed to germinate and grow. By the divine grace of the Sacraments, the Shamanic content of this music was being cleansed over generations. The oil-and-water mix of logos and anti-logos in Shamanic music was being separated and subordinated to logos. Thus we see a number of unique styles grow in this time, which do not have a Shamanic purpose but are a new form of music according to Logos.

Below is the unique Afro-Cuban sound, illustrating melodic use of rhythm:

In this piece we see the unique Afro-Cuban rhythm which is a 6/8 base which is a repetition but particularly complex.

The dance is not a surrender to emotion, but a very difficult, rational process, which mimics the high African styles:

Compare this dance to something similar out of Africa:

Note there is a rational order to these dances, making them communitarian, and capable of eutrapelia, not the mob “dancing” of chaotic Shamanism shown in the video of Haitian Voodoo.

This Haitian folk tune combines African and European elements as well:

The New Orleans sound seems to have had been the product of the greatest Catholic influence in the history of this city, developing a unique processional style as seen in the jazz band march:

Notice how these forms do not show the same “let-yourself-go” Shamanic quality, but have a highly folk quality which brings people together for eutrapelia and even includes communal singing. Compare these in their rational musical content to an offertory procession from Sudan:

One can observe here the beautiful combination of reverence and jubilation. The dancing here is of a very rational nature, complex and coordinated, not like the false ecstasy of Shamanic music. We note here how Archbishop Lefebvre supported the use for the African Church of certain elements contained within the Shamanic music which were per se logos, not demonic, which could be incorporated into certain rites “especially funerals and weddings.”[26] He favoured a study of the Voodoo music in order to separate the logos from the anti-logos and “Christianize” the former.

Now to a European, this African use of rhythm is difficult to comprehend, much less participate in. If you study percussion academically, it may make it easier for a Euro-American or other Europeans to perceive these things objectively. To an African, it is almost as if the rhythm is in their blood, but their cultural upbringing is so steeped in rhythm that very few Africans seem to be without it.

In any case, we can still observe the rational character of this music, and in the history of Catholicism in the Americas, a certain blending were beginning over the generations to form Afro-European styles which were civilised, not Shamanic. This was the action of divine grace, not the result of central planning or any such thing.

Nevertheless, the strong practice of African Voodoo continued and was not eradicated. Since Catholics had succumbed to the slave trade, they had poisoned their own civilisation with the love of filthy lucre, and thus their influence to convert the African population was greatly tempered. By 1803, when Catholic New Orleans came under the dominion of the American Empire, there was a strong French African Catholic legacy in music and culture, but a strong Voodoo attachment remained. The Protestant influence on the city was to inject anti-Christian racial theories and further divide the Africans from Europeans, stifling the organic development of French-African Catholic musical styles, not to mention racial reconciliation. Meanwhile, heretics and other enemies of the Church were beginning to plot to use and abuse Africans and African culture for their own evil ideas.

The Unique African-American Logos of Music

Yet by God’s mercy, the slaves in the United States, although deprived of the one true faith under the regime of heretics, largely received the Protestant Gospel, which mitigated the destructive effects of slavery. These slaves were not able to raise themselves to the degree of civilisation as the Catholic slaves or the free people of colour, but their development continued nonetheless. Due to the influence of Christianity, a new form of African music emerged, just as it had in the Black Catholic areas of New Orleans and the Caribbean. When we consider the evil of Shamanism present among the western Africans and their slave descendants, the emergence of this new logos cannot be attributed to anything except the salutary effect of Christianity and the logos present in the rational nature of man.

This unique musical style is known as the Spiritual. These were folk songs with a Christian theme of both lamentation and hope, as the slaves placed their hope in “King Jesus” for succour in their misery. This then developed into a unique logos known as the “blues scale,” which combined the minor keys, expressing sorrow and evil, with a certain determination and hope filled with a Christian intention. Because of the great logos of this genre, these spirituals could not only be sung very simply, but could be arranged in immense choral arrangements as well. Listen to the lyrics and hear the blues scale in this arrangement of a classical spiritual:

Now notice the Gospel version, which uses a basic rhythm and dance pattern that is rational and non-Shamanic:

This very communitarian dance feel mimics the high African styles shown above, and even the offertory procession. When we compare this to the Haitian Shamanic ritual shown above, the chaotic nature of the latter is easily seen, both musically and in bodily movements.

This Blues scale and its unique logos of lamentation and spirituality in heard in this ballad of the old man addressed to death itself. The use of the Blues scale in this piece exhibits what many call “soul,” which sonically shows the depth of the spiritual topic in the lyrics. Listen to this peace and hear the heart of the singer and his meditation on death. It very much reminds the listener of the words of the Holy Ghost contained in Ecclesiastes:

Out of the spirituals was developed the Blues genre, as the Black community in the United States suffered from secuarlisation and industrialisation following Abolition. The Blues showed far more secular themes in lyrical content (thought with mostly innocuous lyrical themes of lamentation and heartbreak), but the logos of the music itself continued to show a very rational character in its basic form. This form still had great affinity with the high African styles of the African fatherland and some artists have explored this, such as Mamadou Diabate and Corey Harris.

But within a generation of Abolition, an unholy alliance was quickly being formed between lascivious Anglos and greedy Blacks. But in order to understand that, we need to take a step back and look at 19th century Europe.

The European Fascination with “the African”

The disintegration of western music gained ground in the 19th century with the popular anti-clerical songs of the Liberal revolutions which exalted man against the old order of Christendom. But this rebellion happened mainly on the level of lyrical content, not musical style. The rebellion gained momentum with Richard Wagner exalting adultery using his excellence in Tristan und Isolda (Hildebrand and Eugenio Pacelli loved this piece, showing its musical genius).[27]

But the movement started to gain speed with Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche believed that Logos should be attacked with the power of emotion and will and thus sought out the type of Shamanic music we are referring to here, especially in a fascination with “the African.” He was an intellectual genius, but he was truly an “evil genius” because he used his great intellect to create very convincing arguments to promote his ideas. By the time of Nietzche’s death in 1900, there was a growing obsession among Euro-American Liberals with “the African” because they believed that this culture was “primitive” and “sexually liberated.”[28]

Since the African slaves had suffered from a great deal of Shamanism, there was a half-truth to this stereotype. At the same time, because of Darwin’s racist theories, there was also a scientism in vogue when statedd the Africans were more primitive by nature. Any logos contained in African music was ignored, and a fixation on African Shamanic music was born among lascivious Anglos and other Europeans.

This unholy fascination was particularly prevalent in the United States, which combined the highest population of heretics with the highest population of Africans in the world and English economic theories as we will see. We see the Anglo-Abolitionists already using African abolition to promote sexual revolution in 1848.[29] Lamentably, a strong but secret legacy of white and black fornication (the “shadow families”) had obtained in the United States, which only coming out into the open after Abolition (see Malcolm X, Autobiography).

The Church has always been solicitous for the mitigation and abolition of African slavery as Leo XIII notes.[30] But after the abolition of slavery in the United States this unholy fascination by heretics for “the African” began to gain more momentum toward using African culture for the sake of their own ends. Moreover as we said above, the descendants of the slaves in the United States did not come from the high civilisations of African empires. As such, the musical styles passed down to the descendent Africa-Americans, besides the fact that their families were disrupted by the evil of slavery, were not culturally refined like the advanced African civilisations.[31] Nevertheless, the African-American “spiritual” and “blues” styles helped to produce an organic folk style for the former slaves who had been baptised. These could mimic the logos of the French-African Catholic styles in terms of logos.

The Beauty and Potency of Jazz

When Jazz was first developed, it exhibited this potential to blend organically a logos-based cultural music in the United States, based on the unique logos of the Christianised Black music aforementioned. In the Catholic context of New Orleans, as in the video above, this form of music had a rational content and purpose. The same was true for the higher forms of Jazz as they developed out of true musicians, both Anglo and African, developing the musical beauty by blending the European and African as in the Catholic gulf region.

Here’s an example of the beauty of Jazz which imitates the same New Orleans processional style, organically grown into “big band” sound of Count Basie’s piano:

Note the complex swing between the melodious lines of different parts of the band, from the piano and flute introduction to the punches of the horns. In Jazz, eutrapelia is most conspicuously on display through the use of improvisation within a complex rhythmic and melodic framework based on the Blues scale. Jazz allows performers and listeners to “have fun” by means of the music, in complex form of sonic eutrapelia.

Here’s a classic piece from the Anglo (and later Catholic convert) Dave Brubeck which utilises a unique 5/4 time signature. This piece features that unique African musical element, the “melodic rhythm” in a drum solo:

Here’s another classic tune from one of Jazz music’s greatest musicians. This piece emphasises the immaterial beauty of the unique logos contained in the Blues scale as improvised by each musician. This piece can rightly be called poetic in the sense the Hildebrand uses it in his Aesthetics. In the same way as the literary poet expresses his heart in the words of his poem, each musician in turn expresses their heart in this tune on their respective instruments. This sound has a particularly calming effect on the listener, and is thus used in film or for commercial purposes to relax people.

We also need to highlight Charlie Parker, the unquestionable master of the saxophone in the Bebop style. The Bebop style is another similar style to the “swing band” above, except that it exhibits a form of eutrapelia which is particularly exciting, fun and interesting. Like swing, this style is conducive to a chaste dance routine, but is characterised by its complexity which is particularly fast paced and “busy.”

Finally, this far-too-short trip through the greatness of Jazz would not be complete without that unquestioned master of the African “rhythmic melody” (though himself being an Anglo): Buddy Rich. This piece is one of his best. This is nothing short of a Jazz symphony, complete with movements of its own. The sound quality on this video is less than ideal (click here for the recorded version) but it is important to actually see this performance as well.

These pieces showcase the higher art forms present within Jazz, which catered to a refined artistic taste among Jazz enthusiasts. These do not lend themselves to a mob Shamanism, as in other forms. Nevertheless, the “swing” elements of these pieces were identified by nefarious forces early.

The Regime of Shamanic Music in the 20th Century

However, taken out of the Catholic New Orleans culture (or the Jazz enthusiast and his refined musical taste), this form could be seen by others unfamiliar with French-African styles as a form of Shamanic sexualisation. The marketeers in Jazz music immediately felt this power, and promoted it in dance halls as a form of Shamanism in the context of the malaise following the Great War in 1919. Because of the spectrum from full-blown Shamanic Jazz to more refined styles, people realised that if they invested in the most Shamanic elements of Jazz music, it could make a lot of money.

Play Shamanic-filled Jazz music. Add alcohol. Add immodesty. Add fornication.

And you make a massive profit.

Suddenly we had a new industry of Shamanic music by twisting the organic folk sound of New Orleans out of its cultural context and into a context of sin.

By the 1920s, cities across the United States and western Europe were in the grip of a “Jazz craze” which was simply a sexual revolution. The old legacy of black-white fornication and adultery from the slave era burst out in all its ugliness, mixing with the European obsession with “the African.”

Harlem became a mecca for Anglos to use African music for sexual exploitation. Rich Anglos were funding Africans to, in the words of Langston Hughes, “be primitive.”[32] Jazz music was capable of great beauty and rational content, but because of the influence of the love of money, these elements in the music were not emphasised by the marketers of Jazz. They wanted all of the most primitive elements of beating and droning emphasised above all else, and because of the free market and a loss of Christian culture, the most base and lascivious music was mass-produced and sold around the world. Thus began the commercialised Shamanic music that is popular music. By the 1930s and 40s, recounts Malcolm X, the Jazz musical and sexual revolution spread until Harlem, “swarmed nightly with white people from all over the world.”[33]

What Hildebrand observed in 1927 in general about the marketeers of art could certainly be applied to those making money on Shamanic Jazz music as well:

They do not possess a sensibility for true art and its authentic worlds of beauty… [I]nstead they respond especially to poor works of art that are bearers of triviality – the quality in the artistic sphere that can be described as analogous to “evil” in the moral sphere. Like people who love vulgar, nauseating perfumes and are insensitive to the fragrance of flowers, such inartistic, tasteless people take particular delight in artistically negative values.

Naturally, the emotional life of such a person, unlike someone with [an] artistic disposition, is marked by many negative qualities. These are trivial people, who are marked by sentimentality rather than depth of feeling in their lives as a whole, who are tactless and tasteless in their expressions and feelings… Let us not delude ourselves about the fact that in all spheres of art, by the far the majority that is produced is characterized by triviality, sentimentality, cheap and superficial effects, sensationalist titillation, saccharine tastelessness, and that a large part of these qualities are consciously intended and expressly aimed at satisfying these inartistic desires.[34]

The history of Jazz music, driven by the love of money, increasingly was “consciously intended and expressly aimed at satisfying these inartistic desires.” The forms of Jazz that were the most Shamanistic were promoted for profit, together with the moral depravity of Shamanism: sexual perversion. The higher forms of Jazz beauty were increasingly side-lined, until they are what they are today: still studied and performed by Jazz enthusiasts, but only in a niche market.

The Creation of the Backbeat

Central to this Shamanisation of popular music in the 20th century is the creation of the “backbeat.” This is a specific rhythm which inverts the natural order of rhythm in order to emphasise the beating of Shamanic music over and against any melody or harmony. We saw this conspicuously with the Hip-Hop Beethoven above.

By the use of the backbeat, this beating comes to the forefront of the music, and all other elements fade to the “background” of the sound, as it were. In the counting of a 4/4 time signature, the backbeat is bolded below:

One-TWO-Three-FOUR | One-TWO-Three-FOUR | One-TWO-Three-FOUR |

Here’s an early backbeat from 1938:

In this way the listener can “let go” to the emotion of the rhythm and enter into some form of Shamanic “trance” whether that’s almost-innocuous emotional attachment to the beating, or a full-on surrender to emotion and passion, with sinful results. Here’s another example in 1950:

In this example the drums enter in to emphasis this backbeat. Note the difference between this and big band swing sound of Count Basie above. The monotonous beating through this tune by Fats Domino creates the sort of repetition necessary to stir up a Shamanistic experience. Count Basie, on the other hand, utilised some swing backbeat, but with the complexity of melody and harmony which reflects a higher art, achieving beauty in eutrapelia. Count Basie’s tune does not lend itself to swing dancing for five minutes straight with alcohol as a preparation for fornication, like Fats Domino. Finally, the utilisation of improvised solos (with band accompaniment) focuses the listener on the soloist’s handling of the tune, not an intoxicating experience of emotion. Basie’s example is analogues to the New Orleans sound of celebration and communal eutrapelia than the grinding beating of these backbeats.

(Now again, we can see that in our context in 2022, these swing tunes are hardly sexual. In their own context in the 40s and 50s, they were. But because their Shamanic content is much less than our popular forms in our own day, they can be used for a chaste swing dancing today and still are.)

What is interesting about this is that the backbeat seems to have been created ex nihilo in the twentieth century. It seems that every other form of folk music from around the world has a natural rhythm which emphasizes the front end of the melodic line like this:

ONE-Two-THREE-Four | ONE-Two-THREE-Four |

Or like this:

ONE-Two-Three-Four | ONE-Two-Three-Four |

Listen to this classic American folk song to hear the natural emphasis on the front end of the measure:

Here’s an English folk song with the same thing:

Here’s a Flemish folk song:

Now note the rhythmic pattern in this traditional African style. It still lacks a backbeat, but emphasises the front of the measure, even with mostly percussion:

Here’s traditional Chinese folk music (at 8:30) with the same emphasis:

Here’s an Indian drum orchestra with the same natural rhythm:

Turning to Russia, we see the same thing:

(We should also note that many folk songs are 3/4 and thus incapable of having a backbeat unless it is shifted to 6/8.)

What these examples show is that the folk music associated with rhythms and dancing all show a pattern of some form of natural rhythm. A natural rhythm is what allows for chaste forms of community dancing and celebration with a complex structure. Even the Cuban and Haitian styles shown above have this natural rhythm. I have not been able to find a single example of folk music from any culture which has a backbeat or this element of beating, unless it is Shamanic music. This has led me to believe that the backbeat is the modern form of Shamanic music, used for the same purpose.

What we note here is that all these forms of folk music not only form a natural rhythm but also becomes a cultural heritage to be passed down from generation to generation. The Shamanic music of the twentieth century by contrast, is constantly changing as every new generation is targeted by the marketers of popular Shamanism.

Sexualised Popular Shamanism

By the time of Elvis and his creation of Rock N’ Roll with pelvic thrusts mimicking impure passion, a growing commercial industry understood that the sexualised nature of Shamanic beating could be harnessed for massive profits. In fact, as Kwasniewski notes, “rock n’ roll” and “jazz” were both euphemisms for sexual intercourse, or, more accurately in their historical context, fornication.” Much like the sexual abuse perpetrated by Anglos against their slaves for decades before Abolition, the musical abuse of African culture for the same purpose continued through this mass production of Shamanic-like music. Rock N’ Roll degenerated and melded with the Second Sexual Revolution in the 1960s, with a strong “White Liberal” element fighting for Civil Rights on the one hand and abortion on the other (this seems to be the origin of our modern Marxist-Democratic Party spirit).[35]

In the midst of this plunge into Shamanic music, the New Mass was promulgated, and numerous parishes adopted new forms of Catholic music which introduced these forms of music into the Holy Mass. Since these forms emphasised an emotional experience without the qualities needed for sacred music, they were not able to be passed down to the next generation. In parishes of the United States to this day, one can still hear those “sentimental” styles from the 1970s that young people today find to be “sappy” and trivial and less than spiritual.

Hip-Hop “Kulture”

Hip-Hop, much like Karenga’s “Kwanzaa,” was originally founded by Afrika Bambaataa in 1973 as a means to uplift Blacks out of what Leo XIII called their “long-continued unhappy lot [that] implores and demands succor.”[36] The faux “kulture” as founded by Bambaataa stood for “His/Her Inner Power Helping Oppressed People (HIP-HOP).” The idea is that every person has an “inner power” – talents, gifts, personality – which is meant to build up the common good (obviously mimicking a Catholic concept).

Certainly at its best, Hip-Hop as a cultural movement was an attempt to recapture what the power of spirituals and blues were to the former slave communities in the United States. The rhythm and poetry (RAP) had a highly rational potential, as this compilation from some of the Hip-Hop godfathers shows visually, lyrically and sonically:

This video shows the traditional elements of Hip-Hop culture in emceeing, DJing and visual arts. KRS-One mentions the values of Hip-Hop Culture in his text “peace, love, unity, having fun.”

Here’s the other element of Hip-Hop, “b-boying”:

One can readily see parellels to the African folk dancing in this with a personal improvisation analogous to the beauty in Jazz. This is a “b-boy battle” between Americans and Koreans.

But just like the commercialisation of Jazz and Rock, this too became corrupted for the sake of sexual revolution and profit. Part of this was the Marxist captivity of the Black community, which began in the 1960s when Blacks forsook their Christian faith and embraced Marxists ideas (especially after the deaths of Malcolm X and Dr. King). This was most conspicuous in the fact that Blacks used to name their children Christian names: Michael, David, John. Now they name their children faux African names: Ja-Kwan, Kamarion, and Quavion. This of course was an effort to reconnect culturally with their African roots, but without Christianity, the Black community fell prey to the lies of Marxism. Hip-Hop itself was a faux African culture, which left it vulnerable and unable to resist the temptation of filthy lucre.

We see this in the well-known emcee Tupac, whose first album showed some of the greatness of traditional Hip-Hop values meant to help the oppressed. The lyrics of this track will make any man weep:

In this second album too there was that sensitivity to the oppressed woman, which was that pale reflection of Christian chivalry that made Hip-Hop Kulture something of an artifact of Black Christian culture in the United States.

Nevertheless, he himself succumbed to the Marxist captivity of the Black community in the United States and produced music which departed from the traditional Hip-Hop values (or even African or Christian values). Through his music the “gangta rap” genre gained prominence in the 1990s, accelerating the rise of the comercialised Hip-Hop, which today is among the most Shamanic, glorifying the gods of money and fornication.

Another interesting figure in this regard is the emcee DMX. It seems obvious from the start of his career that he had implicitly or explicitly sold his soul to the Devil and yet immediately regretted it. As his series “Damien” illustrates with heart-wrenching clarity, the fallen angel came into his life and deceived him into sin, giving him great power through his music, but which ended in darkness. His heart crying for liberation from the devil is heard most powerfully in his tracks “Ready to Meet Him [God]” “Lord, Give me a Sign” and “Right/Wrong” or this:

In his memoir he justified his profane gangsta rap as a means to an end, to evangelise lost souls by attracting them with sinful music, yet sharing his Christian heart to them with such songs as these (which was not ineffective for some souls). Tragically, DMX succumbed to the darkness of drugs, demons, and the love of money, which destroyed his marriage and eventually led to his early death but not without, like Tupac, leaving a legacy of poetic struggle directly against the darkness which continues to inspire his loyal followers.

Christian Rap and other Popular Music

When we consider the Christian Hip-Hop genre, we see a similar phenomenon of logos as in the creation of the spirituals out of the Shamanic west African music. The Christian Gospel, even if Protestant, had a salutary effect on the musical quality, but because Hip-Hop was not musically-focused but lyrically-focused, this was shown primarily in the poetry of the songs. As with all forms of popular music, these lyrics did not compare to the lyrical beauty of traditional folk ballads and hymns in their aesthetic greatness. Nevertheless, when we compare the logos of the former, tortured examples of Hip-Hop, we immediately note a theme of light in our hearts upon reading the lyrics of these examples (K2S “After the Rain,” This’l “I Signed Up to Die”).

Nevertheless, what is interesting is that the popular Christian music – whether rap, rock, or pop – has a note of sentimentality and triviality to it. One factor in this is the shallow character of Protestant spirituality. But when we compare this to the Protestant spirituals, we note that the shallow sentimentality of Protestant popular music does seem limited in expressing the Christian soul in a culturally powerful way. It is as if there is something more inhibiting the growth of a true logos of Protestant music, even though it existed with the spirituals. I believe this is due to the fact that the logos of popular music is inherently Shamanistic, and thus intrinsically limited in expressing even the Protestant Gospel.

Because spirituals were not Shamanistic, they could provide a culturally durable form, as in the example (“Done Made my Vow to the Lord”) above. With the Christian popular (and even “worship music”) by contrast, the examples from the 80s and 90s are abandoned in favour of the latest emotional high produced by the latest hit Christian song. The Protestant “mega-churches” now bear out a particularly powerful Shamanic ritual in which their Protestant spirituality of celebrating an emotional experience lyrically converges with a musically-induced emotional experience, and all of this is misunderstood to be the work of “the Spirit.” Catholics seem to have dangerously imbibed this faux spirituality by naively embracing the Charismatic movement forms of worship. Nevertheless, some forms of Charismatic worship (for instance, that which I have experienced with the “Sword of the Spirit” community) seems ordered toward greater logos and Logos, due to its manifest fruits.

Meanwhile: Rock(s) and Pop(s)

While this was happening, the marketeers of popular Shamanism kept targeting the new generation with ever more Shamanic forms. The “music industry” was growing more and more into a massive profit operation designed to find talented musicians, exploit them and their listeners for maximum profit (popular artists began to recognise this and wrote their own songs against this exploitation or tried to warn other artists about it).

The exploiters of these musicians wanted to promote every form of Shamanic music which produced the greatest slavery and addiction in the listeners. Some of these musicians were highly talented, producing forms of “avant-guard beauty” which was culturally limited, meaning it exhibited some aspects of the logos of music above, but tended to create loyal followers rather than cultural monuments.

“Rock”

Bands such as Yes (“Close to the Edge“) and Pink Floyd (“The Final Cut“) and others produced higher forms of rock which required more refined tastes. Among the highest form of this “avant-guard” beauty in this category is undoudetly the Icelandic rock band Sigur Rós. Years ago I would pray the Luminous Mysteries to this album from Sigur Rós:

Others, which were more musically simple, had particular “folk poetry,” such as U2 (“Sunday, Bloody Sunday”), or expressed musically and lyrically the heart’s longing for the absolute (Eccl. iii. 11, Heb. text) as we might find in the Foo Fighters (“Everlong“) or express the wounded hearts of children after a generation of divorce and sexual revolution (Staind, “For You“). Indeed, we might consider historically the irascible nature of rock (as well as its phenomenon of “cult followings”) to be expressions of the wounds of the children of the “hippie” and other generations which embraced drugs, divorce and other breakdowns of family life.

Despite certain elements of logos in rock, the masses of 60s rock, Classic rock, and hard rock devolved into mass Shamanic rituals wherein concert goers gathered to imitate the Shamanism shown above from Haiti.

It is known that many rockers made formal pacts with fallen angels to achieve power through music, and the result was indeed demonic forms of music both lyrically and sonically. The “rock” genre tended toward Shamanism which invoked the irascible side of passions – anger – in order to produce the goals of Shamanism. Some of these rock artists, nevertheless, showed great artistry in their sounds (particularly in the use of the double, harmonised guitars, complex rock ballads, or rhythmic melody attempts such as the “screamo” trio Circle Takes the Square). Nevertheless the sound, in particular the vocals, manifested an unmistakable demonic feeling.

The “hard rock” category, broadly understood, took the backbeat framework but implanted deep within it the irascible logos of marching music. This music is meant for battle, and there is a certain use one might have of “clean” forms of rock music in battle itself. I have heard stories of tank operators blasting rock music while they are in the midst of battle. I remember attending a concert of a local, instrumental rock band (Lights at Sea) in which I was so moved by the music that I literally took out my pocket Psalter and began praying the Psalms, which are potent prayers of spiritual violence. Sometimes I will still listen to Lights at Sea when I am particularly tired and need to do a bunch of work, which helps “pump me up” to get the job done, exactly as irascible music should be used for.

Nevertheless I dare say that most uses of rock music are entirely Shamanistic, as shown in this Shamanistic, irascible ritual at many such concerts. If you mute this video you won’t hear the cussing and irascible music, but you’ll observe the “ritual.” The rock musicians function as Shamans do and the congruence with the Haitian ritual above is clear, even though it is irascible music, not concupiscible – a musical encouragement to “lose yourself” and lead your heart into complete self-absorption, disregarding God and man. In the following example one can play the video and mute the music, and simply observe the similarities between this “mosh pit” and the rituals of Shamanism.

Folk Music and Country

To a large degree, this can be seen as the traditional folk reaction to the shallow character of popular Shamanism. At first, this developed out of the American traditional folk music shown above. But the folk music of the interwar period, going into the 1950s, was nevertheless highly influenced by Marxism in its in lyrical content. The greatest folk artist going into the 1960s was himself closely associated with the American Communist party: Woodie Guthrie. This did not stop him from producing very good folk ballads, like “This Land is Your Land”:

The great folk artist of the 1960s of course was Bob Dylan. He began is career on his first album recording many of the great American folk ballads passed down to him, and quickly developed his own style on his first few albums, joining deeply into the Civil Rights protest movement of the period. This movement was a revolt against evil customs, but it was highly mixed with Marxism, particularly under Dr. Martin Luther King, whose ideas came particularly from the Russian heretic Leo Tolstoy and the Hindu pacifist Mahatma Ghandi and gave power to proto-gay rights activism by means of the Marxist, Bayard Rustin. Dylan’s music supported this Marxist mixing with the Civil Rights movement, but like Guthrie, still produced excellent folk Ballads (“A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” “North Country Blues“), even after he abandoned the folk genre and integrated more with rock forms (“Hurricane“). Other great folk artists continued to show the marketability of traditional folk music as we see in artists such as John Denver (“Thank God I’m a Country Boy”).

As this popular folk developed, the genre of Country gained prominence in the 80s and 90s, which continued to market to the rural culture of the United States. This had a highly traditional folk character even while integrating rock forms, even in the 1980s, as seen in the music of the Judds, and later Country greats like Garth Brooks. Part of this was the development of the square dance into a chaste bar routine. Unlike rock and pop, this form could actually become a new form of traditional folk dance music which was not as conducive to Shamanism.

But due to the love of money, this too was twisted further and further into more Shamanistic forms, particularly through the use of secularising lyrical content, and the rock backbeat. Despite this, even popular country rockers show the power of rural culture by the fact that this music is still highly marketable even while retaining a great deal of the traditional logos:

“Pop”

While rock music was developing forms of irascible Shamanism and the folk category was clinging doggedly to traditional logos, the “pop” category, which gained steam in the 80s, more and more invoked the concupiscible passions – pleasure, particularly tied to the conjugal act, not only in lyrical and visual presentation, but also in its musical forms. The fact that the popular music of the 50s eventually split into these two forms of “rock” and “pop” which represent the two sides of emotional passion (irascible and concupisible, respectively) is evidence of their Shamanic development.

Eric Holmberg’s erudite documentary Hells Bells exposes the demonic content which is plain to see for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear. Warning: this documentary contains content that is at a PG-13 level:

Is there any aesthetic value to pop music? One can readily see everywhere that same heart longing for the absolute (Andy Gibb, “Everlasting Love”) yet the problem with pop music is that, unlike swing, there appears to be no way to dance to it that is not both chaotic and lascivious. This seems to be due to its incessant and overwhelming backbeat. I think this reveals its intrinsic Shamanic quality.

Catholic artist Audrey Assad, who had a great deal of logos in her music and became quite popular among Catholics for the depth of music and lyrics in her first few albums (“Even Unto Death“), began exploring pop music as a musical genre with her band Levv. At first, her tracks evinced a great deal of spirituality (“Arrow“) but as the backbeat continued to dominate, it seemed clear from the lyrical content that she was consciously falling into mortal sin and rejecting God (“Blood on my Hands” lyrics). Now she has publicly apostatised and her marriage is ended. It is impossible to say what were the causes of this loss of faith, but it is probable to think that the environment and the music of pop at least facilitated something within her, since the lyrics of “Blood on my Hands” could never be performed in her former musical style, but only with its “popy, catchy backbeat.”

Does this mean that listening to pop music is intrinsically evil? Not necessarily, but it seems to lend itself most of all to Shamanism. Due to spiritual quality of music, it “floats” in many different atmospheres at once. Even the Haitian Shamanic ritual music has some logos in it, mixed with the poisonous intention of Shamanism. However, I have not been able to find any way to be exposed to pop music without it “getting it in your head” and ultimately disturbing my peace for a time until I can gain a prayerful silence again. It may be that pop music has an inherent quality in it which is designed this way. For this reason, I avoid it as much as I can.

 

Conclusions: What to Do

The amount of money behind mass producing this music is now in the tens of billions. The lyrical content has slowly degraded to open blasphemy and explicit sin. The musical quality has also slowly deteriorated from the sophisticated melodies of Jazz to the pure drums and drones of pop music and slag, comercialised Hip-Hop. The disintegration of western music has helped fuel the spirit of the destruction of Christendom, and as society has collapsed into the ugliness of sin, so has the music become uglier with each passing generation. Meanwhile, the Euro-American Church has sought to abandon its beautiful musical tradition in favor of the base, trivial, and ephemeral fashions of modern music. The regime of popular Shamanism has perfected its craft and holds the souls of many by the power of its music.

What to do?

As I said above, I would encourage the readers of this article to spend a period of time fasting from all music whatsoever. Spend some time in silence. Read The Power of Silence by Cardinal Sarah. Then add back in classical and sacred forms of music. When you find that you have gained something of the virtue of silence, then go back and listen to some song with a backbeat or some popular song. Observe how it makes you feel. Understand the dangers of the Shamanic qualities inherent in the music.

Then read more, at the end of this article you can find recommendations for articles and books on this subject. Some of them give practical steps to begin to acquire the virtue of “listening” to good music.

Then, introduce this music to your kids! I find that showing them YouTube videos with performers is a great way to show them visually the music while experiencing the sound. Here’s my top secret traditional folk playlist for my kids, and my top secret classical playlist for kids. Bring your kids to traditional folk and classical concerts! Sign them up for piano lessons and learn to play music. Sing with your children all the time.

I myself having done the period of silence and then sacred/classical only and found great spiritual benefit, found my prayerful silence being negatively affected as a result of writing this essay and going back to so many old songs to listen to only a few seconds or minutes in order to comment. I found I needed to go back to the silence so that I could regain this prayerful silence and restrict the use of even good and traditional folk music. Perhaps this is due to being a musician myself, or perhaps it is my own weakness, I don’t know.

But what is clear is this: the power of music is immense, and it is the “most spiritual of all arts.” Let us reject the popular Shamanism of today’s industry of filthy lucre, and restore the tradition of music inside and outside the Holy Mass.

Recommended Reading

Dietrich von Hildebrand, Beauty in the Light of Redemption

—–, Aesthetics (Volume 1 and Volume 2)

Roger Scruton, Beauty: a Very Short Introduction

—–, The Aesthetics of Music

E. Michael Jones, Dionysius Rising: the Birth of Cultural Revolution out of the Spirit of Music

Peter Kwasniewski, “Why I Threw Away My Rock and Rap Cassettes in High School”

—–, “Time to Start Your Library of Classical Music”

—–, Selected articles on Music

[1] For evidence of this claim from ancient sources, see C. S. Lewis, Abolition of Man (MacMillan: 1947), 95-121.

[2] Quoted in I-II q97 a3.

[3] Ibid.

[4] II-II q85 a1.

[5] “[Since] the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church… We declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer sacramental orders on women and that this judgement is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”

[6] On the intrinsic evil of slave-trading and the tolerance, by contrast of domestic slavery, see my book City of God vs. City of Man.

[7] Fr. Chad Ripperger, Introduction to the Science of Mental Health (Sensus Traditionis: 2013), 591-593. Emphasis mine.

[8] Translation my own.

[9] Dietrich von Hildebrand, Aesthetics (Hildebrand Project: 2018), vol. II, 366.

[10] St. Pius X, Tra Le Sollecitudini (Nov. 22, 1903).

[11] Sacred Polyphony was barely present in Rome during the 19th century, but O’Malley notes that Prosper Guéranger (1805-1875) “resurrected the Gregorian Chant almost from oblivion” Vatican I: The Council and the Making of the Ultramontane Church (Belknap Harvard: 2018), 76-77.

[12] Pius XII, Musicae Sacrae (1955), 4. Quoted in Ripperger, 593 n41.

[13] Much of the distinctive customs of the Muhammadans which are observed by western Christians, such as full prostrations and taking off one’s shoes inside a Mosque are in fact Christian customs which the Muhammadans imitated. The whole tradition of Sufism in Muhammadanism seems to be essentially the remnants of the conquered Christianity which surrendered to Muhammadan dominion.

[14] Von Hildebrand, Aesthetics, vol. II, 439.

[15] II-II q101.

[16] Von Hildebrand, 443.

[17] Bro. Francis M. Kalvelage, ed., Kolbe: Saint of the Immaculata (Academy of the Immaculate: 2001), 84.

[18] Ibid., 8.

[19] Von Hildebrand, 444.

[20] II-II q168 a2.

[21] We mean here to condemn the irrational Eurocentrism of the neo-pagan eugenicists who believed that the European race made them superior to other cultures. Rather, European culture is superior to all other cultures because of the grace of God—not of themselves—because Christianity has penetrated European culture more than any other culture. I myself am a Michigander, not a European. To the degree that the peoples of the Americas recognised this cultural superiority of Europe, and the Europeans themselves acted like Christians, Christendom was built here in the Americas, shown especially in the mixed-raced civilisations of the mestizos and the métis.

[22] Berard Tissier de Mallerais, The Biography of Marcel Lefebvre, trans. Brian Sudlow (Angelus Press, 2002), 129.

[23] Peter Kwasniewski, “Why I Threw Away My Rock and Rap Cassettes in High School,” (Feb. 28, 2019), <onepeterfive.com/rock-rap/>. Accessed January 9, 2021.

[24] Ripperger, op. cit., 587.

[25] The best account of this is undoubtedly Alex Haley, Roots (Reader’s Digest Association: 1974). Warning: this book does have two pages which involve a sexual scene of abuse by a slave master.

[26] De Mallerais, op. cit., 235.

[27] Alice von Hildebrand, Soul of a Lion (Ignatius, 2000), 211.

[28] See E. Michael Jones, Dionysius Rising (Fidelity: 2012).

[29] We refer to the Seneca Falls Convention, which is understood to be one of the founding movements of Feminism, centered around Abolitionist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

[30] Leo XIII, In Plurimis (1888).

[31] Comparing the musical styles of Egyptian or Ethiopian Christians or even the Muhammadan Mali with the primitive beating of African tribes bears this out.

[32] Langston Hughes, The Big Sea: An Autobiography (Hill and Wang: 1940), 325.

[33] Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X as Told to Alex Haley (Ballatine Books: 1964), 85.

[34] Dietrich von Hildebrand, Beauty in the Light of Redemption (Hildebrand Project, 2019), 46-47.

[35] A good investigation into the spirit of popular music is Eric Holmberg’s documentary, Hells Bells 2. Warning: this documentary is made by a Christian but does show the true character of popular music in its Satanic and sexual elements while censoring as much as possible for the sake of modesty. It is essentially “PG-13” if it were rated.

[36] Leo XIII, Longiqua (1895), 22.