Cantus Firmus

I have always appreciated the terminology employed by Dietrich Bonhoeffer as he described life to his friend. He spoke in musical terms, and in so doing ushered in the idea that life cannot be reduced to one note or a monotone. The cantus firmus, which means "fixed song," is a pre-existing melody that forms the basis of a polyphonic composition. Though the song introduces twists in pitch and style, counterpoint and refrain, the cantus firmus is the enduring melody not always in the forefront, but always playing somewhere within the composition. For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, life was a great work of sounds and symphonic directions, and the cantus firmus was the essence, the soul of the concerto.

With these terms, he wrote: "God wants us to love him eternally with our whole hearts, not in such a way as to injure or weaken earthly life, but to provide a kind of cantus firmus to which the other melodies of life provide the counterpoint... Where the cantus firmus is clear and plain, the counterpoint can be developed to its limits."(1)

As he penned these lines, Bonhoeffer, who was facing execution and the looming end of his life, confessed life to be an awe-inspiring symphony, a melody to behold with attention and appreciation for a great array of intricate choruses. In this intricacy, there is no better song composed than one that finds as its ground bass a wholehearted love of God. Where the enduring melody of life itself is a tune written and played for God, the composition can resound unto the heavens. It is this type of melody that endures even beyond the chorister who sang it.

When Jesus spoke of life, he, too, spoke of multiple realms, of life as it is on earth and in heaven. Like a great composition, there are layers to faith and belief, Communion and the Kingdom, story and song. There is a sense in which all of our stories are the same, written by the great composer of music and sound. And yet, each song is also uniquely our own. For me, as no doubt for you, there have been minor sounds when God seems absent or life seems removed from any chorus of hope. Then again, there have also been moments when the cantus firmus of truth and love resounds in major tones and God comes near in the doxology.

So how do we tell the story of a human life? How do we put into words counterpoints and melodies and tempos? Like the one after God's own heart, perhaps we start with the song at the center of our own souls, as we listen for the arrangement in our neighbors':

"By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me-
a prayer to the God of my life" (Psalm 42:8).

God's presence is the cantus firmus, set in the deepest center of a life, discovered and embraced over a lifetime. God's love is the enduring melody that puts our stories to song.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), 303.

Dan Lucarini -- Why I Left The Contemporary Christian Music Movement

A former Worship leader tells his story why he left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement.

Dedication by Dan Lucarini This book is dedicated to the authors, pastors, music ministers and others who came before me. They never ceased to warn us about the dangers of rock music to a Christian; but we did not take heed. They had the courage to confront others in the church who defended every controversial and sensual music style; but in return we heaped scorn upon them. When they dared to oppose the contemporary music invasion into the church service itself, we called them legalists and worse. Many have sacrificed popularity and seen their ministry opportunities limited, because their consciences dictated they must take a stand.

Forward

Music has often been a "hot potato" in the life of the Christian church, and the subject may never have been more controversial than duringthe past fifty years. At one end of the spectrum, there are those who tell us that the only words that should be sung in the church are those forming the Old Testament Psalms -- and that they should be sung without any musical accompaniment. At the other end, there are those who say that any kind of music -- rock, pop, jazz, punk, country and western, rap, or whatever 'turns people on' is perfectly legitimate for use in worshipand evangelism. Dan Lucarini never approached the first of these extremes, but he came within touching distance of the second, and it is from his deeply involved experience of the modern music scene, secular and otherwise, that this book is written. The author's honest sharing of his own spiritual and musical journey prepares the way for his assessment of what he sees to be a major problem in today's church -- and makes it more difficult to deny that he in on to something. This book will undoubtedly raise many hackles, but Lucarini's direct and uncompromising style is harnessed to a gracious spirit concerned with nothing else but God's glory. This is nowhere more evident than in his warm and wise treatment of the subject of worship and ministry. John Calvin once wrote, "We know by experience that music has a secret and almost incredible power to move hearts." The reformer was right -- and we should therefore give its use in the life of the church serious and God-centered attention. I pray that this book will help us to do so. John Blanchard