"Cantate Domino" Review

by Brian G. Daigle

​A dear mentor once told me of a lecture he gave to a typical undergraduate audience at a large state university. His lecture was on the existence of God, the basic Judeo-Christian assertion that there is one, true God, and that this God has truly (even if not fully) revealed himself to us, and that if we would want to live good and happy lives, we must ultimately know, love, and worship that God above all things. When his lecture was over, a young man raised his hand in the front, stood up amidst the assembly of his peers, and began to give a variety of self-reports about his own disbelief in such a God, or any deity whatsoever. This young man, like many such young men and women entangled in our present-day college and university systems, was a proudly devout atheist; he had no qualms sharing this peculiar creed with the speaker and room full of his fellow university students.

As was his custom, the speaker listened quietly, humbly, and waited for the young man to finish. When the young scholar finished, the speaker very simply took a step from behind the podium, walked beside it, laid his elbow on the podium in an interested but leisurely posture, and said, “Well, thank you for telling us so much about yourself, now would you be willing to tell us something about God. Better yet, would you be willing to sing to us of your atheism.” The young man had no defense. He went silent, perhaps seeing that his rationalism had run its natural course. At the least, it was a witty and unexpected request: sing to us of your atheism. But it was more profound than that. In his aged wisdom, the speaker knew something the young man did not yet know, something Homer knew: we will either sing or rage, and if we want to sing, we must know and respect the divine. Furthermore, how can we do such a joyful, vulnerable, and historic act as public singing (especially acapella and alone) when we have not that deep wellspring from which to draw the courage and joy needed for such a venture. The only other alternative is to rage, or at least protest. And what comes of protesting against the divine? Tragedy, not comedy.  
 
The great Homeric tragedy, The Iliad, begins, “Rage - Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls, great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion, feasts for the dogs and birds, and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end. Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed, Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles.”

The great Homeric comedy, The Odyssey, begins, “Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns, driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.”

Sing. Rage. These are the first two words of Fagles’ translations of both epic poems. And these are the two courses for humanity. These are the only two directions civilizations may take. And it is true of individual lives as well. We will either build homes and families and schools and religious institutions and companies that rage or we will build ones that sing. Homer knew, in his two great epics, that these were the two paths down which our lives are ever traveling. Each day we awake, each conversation we have, each decision we make, we are either becoming a people who sing or a people who rage. We are either maturing into songbirds or devolving into brutes. We are either moving toward love or toward hate. As St. Augustine tells us in his Confessions, we are either moving toward integration or disintegration. We are either becoming whole in holiness or we are being fragmented in folly. We are either becoming virtuous or vicious. And what is both a central catalyst and fruit of the direction we take? Singing.

Singing is both a formative discipline and a fruitful decoration. Singing is both a path by which we become healthy and happy as well as a key symptom of being healthy and happy. Our classical tradition teaches us this, which is why music was central to the seven liberal arts, the artes liberales, being established securely in the quadrivium. What area of life does music not touch? To be human is to be musical.

Music is political. “Musical innovation is full of danger to the State, for when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them.”  And “let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its law” (Plato)  

Music is education. “I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning” (Plato)

Music is soul work. “Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful.” (Socrates)

Music is moral. “Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.” (Plato)

Music is imaginative. “And I think that you must have observed again and again what a poor appearance the tales of poets make when stripped of the colours which music puts upon them, and recited in simple prose.” (Plato)

​Music is power. As Peter Kreeft states, “Music is more powerful than reason in the soul. That is also why Plato made music the very first step in his long educational curriculum: good music was to create the harmony of soul that would be a ripe field for the higher harmony of reason to take root in later. And that is also why he said that the decay of the ideal state would begin with a decay in music. In fact, one of your obscure modern scholars has shown that social and political revolutions have usually been preceded by musical revolutions, and why another sage said, 'Let me write the songs of a nation and I care not who writes its laws.”
 
Even still, our Christian tradition takes it further. The Church has clearly affirmed that music (in a variety of forms and styles) is a fundamental means by which God imparts grace to his people and to the world. Furthermore, it is an essential act of Christian worship. From the preface to the Trinity Hymnal: “Since the dawn of creation and throughout history, singing has characterized God’s people in worship. Mandated and exemplified in the Bible, singing is integral to corporate worship and is itself an act of worship. Psalms and hymns are a fundamental means by which believers respond to divine grace, communicate their praise, affirm their faith and proclaim spiritual truth.” Luther states, “Music is a beautiful and glorious gift of God and close to theology. I would not give up what little I know about music for something else which I might have in greater abundance. We should always make it a point to habituate youth to enjoy the art of music, for it produces fine and skillful people.” Calvin teaches, “The use of singing may be extended further: it is even in the houses and fields an incentive for us, like an organ, to praise God and to lift our hearts to Him, for consoling us in meditating upon His virtue, goodness, wisdom and justice, which is more necessary than can be expressed. Firstly, it is not without reason that the Holy Spirit exhorts us so carefully in the Holy Scriptures to rejoice in God that all our joy may be reduced to its true purpose, for He knows how much we are inclined to rejoice in vanity. So our nature causes us to look for all means of foolish and vicious rejoicing. On the contrary, our Lord, to distract us and draw us away from the desires of the flesh and of this world gives us every possible way to occupy ourselves in that spiritual joy which He desires for us. Among all other things which are proper for recreation of man and for giving him pleasure, music is the first or one of the principal and we must esteem it as a gift of God given to us for that purpose.” Do we want our children to know theology? Our singing is our theology. Gordon Fee states, “Show me a church's songs and I'll show you their theology.” Do we want to glorify God and refresh the soul? “The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.” (Johann Sebastian Bach) Additionally, Karl Barth is helpful, “The Christian church sings. It is not a choral society. Its singing is not a concert. But from inner, material necessity it sings. Singing is the highest form of human expression. . . . What we can and must say quite confidently is that the church which does not sing is not the church. And where...it does not really sing but sighs and mumbles spasmodically, shamefacedly and with an ill grace, it can be at best only a troubled community which is not sure of its cause and of whose ministry and witness there can be no great expectation. . . . The praise of God which finds its concrete culmination in the singing of the community is one of the indispensable forms of the ministry of the church.” And Isaac Watts, the great hymnist, proclaims, “Let those refuse to sing who never knew our God.” As those who affirm both the classical and Christian traditions, we cannot help but affirm music, and that is precisely what Cantate Domino has sought to do.
 
This publication aims at a full expression of each of the sentiments expressed in the above quotes. Beyond that, what Preston gets deeply right in this project is multi-level:

1. Singing cannot be separated from belief. We sing what we believe, and what we believe determines what and how we sing. Singing is creedal, it is catechetical, it is discipleship. It is educative.  
2. The Psalms are necessary for the songbook of God’s people, in any setting. There is no shortage of commentaries on the Psalms, and there is no shortage of theologians who have loudly proclaimed the immense importance and centrality of the Psalter for right Christian believe and right Christian practice. It was a delight when first reading Cantate Domino to see the Psalms play so central a role in this publication.
3. Singing is prayer and it is liturgical. And in that sense it fully engages the imagination and all Christians have in their capacity to enact within the culture and climate that surrounds our musicality: time, symbols, colors, story, Sacred Scripture, the Sacraments, food, friendship, emotions, etc. This publication affirms that.
4. Chanting must be recovered. While other musical styles may be heartily and sanctifyingly adopted by Christians, chant is peculiar unto itself and must be recovered not just among clergy but among the laity as well.   
5. Christian institutions must care deeply about musical literacy. Christian institutions can go astray, or stay on the straight and narrow, but a number of means. When Christian institutions guide and guard their musical decisions and expressions, they have utilized not just one of the most powerful art forms toward Gospel fidelity but also one of the most important human disciplines.
6. Christian children must sing. Chesterton said that “That is the one eternal education: to be sure enough that something is true that you dare to tell it to a child.” What can be more eternal than music? What can we be more sure of than the power and importance of great music? What can be more daring than to educate a child? Music isn’t an elective; it is necessary for human flourishing; it is deeply important for brain development, for moral formation, for ordering the soul, for academic competence, and for rhetorical excellence. And, therefore, every school would do well to ensure their students depart with the utmost musical literacy as the school can provide.
7. We really should hold such powerful songbooks in our hands. Preston has done well to ensure that not only a stout songbook has been created but that it would be printed, even with its additional freight costs, publication pricing, and design complexities. Singing is an inherently bodily activity, and so further incorporating the body with a hand-held songbook is not just purposeful, it is prudent. It gives physical and metaphysical weight to the activity of singing, and it creates an artifact which can get worn down by generational love. This wear and tear is not just an avoidable nuisance; it is a subtle reminder of incarnate love.

Having attempted a similar kind of school-wide songbook during my time leading Sequitur Classical Academy, I am impressed by Preston’s determination to incorporate so many beautiful elements in a single publication. For that accomplishment alone, this is a worthy book for any personal or school library. In my own theological journey through Rome, into Geneva and the Canterburian presbyterate, and now back to Rome, I have spent considerable time with several dozen hymnals and prayerbooks. It is something of a hobby for me. This particular publication offers to the reader lively samples of what can be found in some of the best of what has been published in several great hymnals and prayerbooks throughout history. And it has been particularly formed for school-aged children and those who are called to form them within local academic institutions. Classical Christian schools in the Reformed tradition would do well to take grip of this project and thereby allow many of the treasures therein to take their grip on faculty, families, and students. Even those not confessionally within the Reformed tradition will enjoy the balance of this book and its many prayers, Psalms, and hymns which belong to any Gospel-loving Christian. I am thankful to have had an early glimpse into this project and offer my respect and praise for what has come from Preston’s heroic efforts on an even more heroic topic: singing unto the Lord, cantate domino.  

Interested in purchasing this songbook? 
Hardcover is available HERE 
Spiral-bound is available HERE.