Musicians, Freethinking

From Philosopedia

MUSICIANS, FREETHINKING

"It Ain't Necessarily So," wrote Dan Barker, formerly a fundamentaist Christian minister, now co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and author of Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist (FFRF, Inc., 1992). Barker also is a professional jazz musician and songwriter living in Madison, Wisconsin. He has produced two freethought musical CDs for FFRF: Friendly, Neighborhood Atheist and Beware of Dogma. His wife Annie Laurie Gaylor is editor of Freethought Today.

Barker was expressing the view that most think that religion has inspired such great music, that secular music doesn't compare. Religious writers, he agrees, have produced much beautiful music - Schubert's "Ave Maria" has a haunting and appeal melody, although he finds the words are underwhelming; and Vivaldi was a priest who composed some wonderful sacred melodies. He then adds,

• But religion has also inspired a lot of junk. I find the droning pentatonic “Amazing Grace,” a song adored by millions, to be banal and manipulative, and the lyrics insulting. (Knowing that the composer, the “wretch” John Newton, was a Christian slave trader does not help.) If religion gets the credit, it should also get the blame. Like the face that only a mother could love, some truly horrible hymns, insipid worship songs, awkward anthems, macho militaristic marches, and tiresome, simplistic chord progressions have been spawned by religion. With much of it, beauty is in the eye of the believer.
• Not all religious music is what it seems. Some of it was inspired not so much by faith as by hunger. Often, the only way a composer could make a living was to write for the powers who were commissioning the music: the king and the church. Some sacred music was originally popular secular music recycled for religion. Some religious music was actually created by nonreligious composers, and some of it was written by composers who later became unbelievers. Of course, a lot of secular music was composed by believers.
• Granting the place of sacred music in history, is religion the only real inspiration? Is music written by nonbelievers less beautiful? What did Sousa think about the operas of Verdi or the symphonies of Brahms? How did he feel about Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending or Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue? What would he have thought about “Somewhere, Over the Rainbow” or “White Christmas”? Are these not “great things”?

Nonbelievers, in fact, have immensely beautified (not beatified) the musical landscape. “Inspiration” turns out to be a purely natural phenomenon. A brief survey of the lives and views of some beloved composers and songwriters will dispel the myth that only religion can inspire truly great music.

He then lists exmples:

CLASSICAL MUSICIANS, FREETHINKERS

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

Hector Berlioz (1803–1869)

Georges Bizet (1838–1875)

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)

Aaron Copland (1900–1990)

Edward Elgar (1857–1934)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953)

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)

Robert Schumann (1810–1856)

Richard Strauss (1864–1949)

Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)

POPULAR AMERICAN SONGWRITERS, MUSICIANS, FREETHINKERS

Irving Berlin (1888–1989)

Stephen Foster (1827–1864)

George Gershwin (1898–1937)

Ira Gershwin (1896–1983)

Jay Gorney (1896–1990)

Yip Harburg (1896–1981)

Scott Joplin (1868–1917)

Jerome Kern (1885–1945)

B. J. Leiderman (1956- )

Cole Porter (1891–1964)

Richard Rodgers (1902–1979)

Stephen Sondheim (1930– )

MUSICIANS WHO POSSIBLY WERE FREETHINKERS

Harold Arlen

Hoagy Carmichael

Edward Eliscu

Dorothy Fields

Oscar Hammerstein

Lorenz Hart

Alan Jay Lerner

Frederick Loewe

Henry Mancini

Johnny Mercer

Harry Warren

Barker concludes,

• I have limited this survey to classical and mainly “Tin Pan Alley” American songwriters. The views of songwriters of folk (such as Woody Guthrie), country, rock, jazz, Latin, hip-hop and other more recent styles will have to wait for another article. Sousa thought nonbelievers can’t write great music, but we know that ain’t even remotely so.

{If you have documentation of others to include, mailto:dbarker@ffrf.org; FFRF}