This book challenges the now commonly held view that music and art can be divided into ‘high’ and ‘low’ with the resulting mainstream notion that ‘high’ is the outcome of wealth and prestige and ‘low’ belongs to mainstream population. Does music possess aesthetic value? Is it all to be reduced to a matter of taste? Is there music that makes us think; demanding our attention and contemplation? Does music simply exist for our listening pleasure, easily heard and a passing distraction necessitating a new replacement popular item after its superficial interests are exhausted? Julian Johnson lectures in music at Oxford University, his book is not written from a Christian perspective, it is a ‘secular’ but there is much that is relevant to Christian churches in what he writes. Some music is composed, performed and recorded simply to please the market driven consumer, such has its place serving sometimes as background noise and entertainment but there is music written that endeavors to provide a different and more profound function. It works in different ways and could be described as reminding the listener of the transcendent in the midst of the distractions of the transience and busyness of the rushing world. The intelligent and persuasive arguments presented here corroborate Christian truth. The critique of contemporary society and its relativism along with the inanities of the TV culture should be welcomed by any who are thoughtful among us. I obtained this book because of its title, not because I have been a great fan of classical music but because I enjoy music of all kinds and am profoundly concerned at the dumbing down of Christian testimony in the churches and this is no more evident than in the music generally sung in services and meetings. We must beware of the tendency to devalue art and classical music in our day, either by segregating it to the province of the intellectual elite or by linking it with notions of ‘relax with the classics’ and a help to a spurious spirituality. We need education in true values and this book provides insights to that dimension from another perspective; it provokes the reader to seriously consider whether they need Classical music.
