If you would like beautiful sacred and classical music for free, here are some resources. Consider bookmarking this post and come back to it when you want to listen to some good music.
Sacred:
In the ecclesiology section of my website, I have a number of resources for sacred, reverent, and free conservative psalm and hymn music. Lord willing, I will keep those resources updated as links change. So for free sacred music, please click here.
Classical:
Netherlands Bach Society: They are playing everything that Bach wrote, over time, and making it available for free. Their YouTube channel has no ads in their videos (as of the time I am writing this).
So you know, I have a real soft spot for the baroque and for early classical music.
May these resources be a blessing to you, as you offer God holy praise in psalms and hymns, and enjoy the beauty of His design seen in classical music.
–TDR
Thanks for these resources. What do you say to people who say Christians shouldn’t listen to Classical music? There are Christians who believe this. I think it is mainly based on ignorance. It’s one thing if they don’t do it themselves, but another thing if they don’t think any Christian should listen to Classical music.
Hi Anonymous,
Many believers do not consider and have not considered the transcendentals and among them, objective beauty. Beauty reflects the nature of God and classical music in general corresponds to or correlates to the attributes of God. The classical composers wrote out of that understanding of beauty even if they were not believers. It was the understanding of beauty of that time. I could say a lot more, but that’s the general answer I would give them, and then I would elaborate on the nature and attributes of God and how that classical music fulfills those.
I have not met anyone personally who was against classical music. I would have to see what his arguments were and then respond to them. I can’t think of anything in Scriptrue that says it is prohibited. That doesn’t mean it is a substitute for psalms and hymns in the Lord’s church, of course; we are talking about private listening at home. Composers like J. S. Bach wrote at the bottom of their music that it was dedicated to the glory of God–rather different than modern rock composers.
Thanks.
Your post and Anonymous’s comment made me think of something I had not thought of in a long time. My Dad used to call classical music “longhair music”. When I read this post, I thought nowadays I could probably “google that” and find out what that means. Best sources seem to say it was a term that developed in the 19th century. In the late 19th century long hair (on men, I assume they mean) was a mark of intellectuals. To some extent people thought classical music belonged mostly to the intellectuals and/or upper classes. Not much to do with your post, but your post spurred me to look up something that had not entered my thoughts in years.
Thanks for the links/resources.
Hi Robert,
I lived as a child in the sticks of a small Indiana town, what one might call a hick (like they called Larry Bird, the hick from French Lick), and my family watched Hee-Haw for entertainment, which I’m not endorsing. However, I started listening to classical music as a child. No one told me it was elitist, but I get the criticism. Simple folk music, populist music, brings more attraction, something for a hoedown, a shanty, honky-tonk, or ragtime, with a popular rhythm and a catchy tune. The expressions of popular music clash with classical music, which proceeded from the transcendental understanding of beauty, taking into consideration the nature of God. The roots of Western classical music arose from the early Christian church and was intended to communicate the transcendence of God, and disassociated itself from secular music. I understand the roots of populist music like the growth of Methodism in England, where the poor used their own tunes, considered authentic, how they felt, in defiance of high church music, which was accorded inauthenticity because it wasn’t “their” music. Much more could be said.
Robert
That is what my mom called classical also. Thanks for the memories.
Jim