第一煲湯：教會音樂史反省

為什麼用一煲湯來應容呢？因為有一些放在家很久的乾貨，拿來煲湯時原來好正，原來不用落街買，不用年年送乾貨給朋友，尤其是那些移民外地的人。

好，入正題：我中小學都係做好多音樂，入到大學更讀西方音樂史，不過好少好少將這東西與信仰放在一起（可能學術界主要係講視覺和文字），謂一一次係讀德國（偏馬克思主義）學者Adorno，當回應他文章On Popular Music時, 我寫低過以下的東西後，便忘記了：

"He is rejecting the possibility that popular music and its types may be a development of music under industrialization, just as Baroque music is considered to have grown out of the Renaissance."

"Plainchants, most often taught nowadays in music history as the origin of European music, was used for reciting scriptures during Medieval Mass and Office. Words or phrases would be set to certain melodies and was often used whenever it reappears in other chants only with slight variations. Early records of plainchants showed primarily descriptions for the rituals during the chants, and it was not after centuries of practice that the musical element gained its own importance. If serious music was able to grow out of Plainchants after hundreds of years, then perhaps something good will eventually grow out of popular music. Maybe, it already has."

雖然文章裡我有些偏袒流 行音樂，我其實對流行音樂有極大的保留，不過這就是思考有趣之處，因為的而且確十世紀初期教會音樂（plainchants）也是 非常公式化，但後來卻發展至Baroque音樂。從歷史開始，看音樂本身的特性、有歌詞和沒有歌詞音樂的不同、個人和群體信仰經驗等這些東西，大概是一些 會接觸到的課題。

無論如何，以往這方面的思考令我相信今日香港基督教音樂圈子值得回望舊人曾走過的路。未來這星期我要去浸大「王劉燕容基督教崇拜與藝術教育中心」的資料中心看看，預備一下怎樣進行。