Concerts

From SPARK

A concert is a musical performance before a live audience. One or more singers or instrumentalists, or both, are involved. A concert does not involve theatrical acting. If there is a large group of instrumentalists playing a piece of music, there may be a conductor to direct them so they are unified and play as a unit.

Music is found universally as far as researchers know. But music is not a universal language. The definition of what music is varies from culture to culture. Also, its function and structure varies. In many cultures, its function is more important than whether it is aesthetically pleasing. In some cultures music may be related to the spirit world, and people want to know if the music heals.

One’s perception of whether it is aesthetically pleasing or not is learned. Every culture has an "octave," but cultures divide it into varying number of steps. Some are divided into seven steps; the Western world divides an octave into eight steps. What sounds like music to a Western ear can sound like awful noise to another's ear, and vice versa.

Structural differences like this, and in harmony, rhythm, and form, create different musical systems we can learn to appreciate, but we are most comfortable with the heart language we grew up with. Our ears need to be trained to hear and accept other patterns than our own.

Considerations:

• Are concerts a form used in the culture?
• Presentations usually are most effective when they follow the forms of the culture and look like someone indigenous to the culture designed them.
• Using non-indigenous Christian music to share the Gospel can

• make Christianity seem like a foreign religion,
• encourage seeing Christianity as separate from one's life,
• make it unappealing, especially to nonbelievers,
• encourage dependence on outsiders for new music material, and
• stifle creativity because it's usually impossible for an indigenous person to create in a foreign system.

• Find out if creating or performing music is reserved for a particular class or group of the culture.
• See About Live Media regarding time considerations