Does my music sound like a night club?

I got some feedback last week about some music I had played at an event a few months ago.  Apparently, someone complained to the venue that I was “outside of the box” and played music that “sounded like it belonged in a night club.”

You may have noticed that I have worked hard to avoid some of the controversy about church music that I am often so tempted to write about.  Most that read this blog are not involved or interested in those petty squabbles.  But I thought it would be interesting to discuss this particular issue.

The song in question was an arrangement of “A Child of the King” which is a 19th Century hymn.  It is considered a folk hymn with simple harmony but is a great song.

Apparently, the most offensive part part of that performance occurred in the first line.  Here are the words and original harmony of that line.

Eb
My Father is rich in house and lands

Bb                                                        Eb
He holdeth the wealth of the world in his hands

Here is something similar to what I played:

I have a few thoughts about this.

1) The harmony I used is defensible from a theory perspective.  It follows generally accepted rules of functional harmony that have been around for decades.

2) This harmony is hardly progressive.  I did not come up with it on my own.  I have been influenced by great musicians who use it including teachers John Innes and Kevin Bales.  They did not come up with it on their own either.  It is at least 70 years old.

3) I am not an expert on night clubs, but I really wonder what night club you would go to that has this kind of music.  Night clubs play popular music such as rock or dance music.  Those genres are far from this.  In fact, this harmony is widely considered to be very old fashioned.

It is coincidental that I wrote last week about the fact that artists have to choose between producing what they think is good art and producing what people want.  Someone actually mentioned this arrangement in the comments, and this is indeed a great example of what I was getting at.

First of all, I firmly believe that the modified harmony is better than the original harmony.  That is not because I came up with it; in fact, I can hardly take credit at all.  It is better because of what we know about how music works.

That being said, if you play through the music above, you will see that it is far more dissonant than most music in the church.  The average musical novice might not like it.  They are probably more comfortable with I, IV and V chords.

But church music should be high quality music, and high quality music is not going to just use I, IV, and V chords.  It does me no good to bemoan the inferiority of church music if I am not willing to stick out my neck a bit and try to improve it in ways I think it should improve.

Second, I think that the nightclub association is bogus.  In fact, I know of no association of that harmony with anything that might be anti-Christian.  And I see no reason why that harmony is not appropriate in a church setting either.

I am interested in your thoughts though.  Play through the music above and let me know if you think it is too dissonant and/or somehow inappropriate for church.