Inspirations 1: Bethel Music
For me, the biggest drive to write music comes from the desire to make something that touches people's hearts, and is profoundly transformative to their lives and work. As a result, I write music that stirs something in me with the hope that it will do the same for others. What I'm going to begin here is a blog series discussing my inspirations, both musical and extramusical, partially to help me formalise my thoughts on this, but also because I think it might be interesting!
I'd like to begin with Bethel Music. Lyrically, their music speaks to me on many levels, but it's more than their chosen subject matter that resonates with me; musically, their songs have drive, dramatic shape, and a strong emotional impetus, which combine together to produce a style that is deeply affecting.
I think part of what I love about Bethel is the amount of care that they pour into their output. It's clearly not just about creating fantastic music, but also about doing it well - with polish, in a way that people can immediately and easily enjoy and immerse themselves in. The scope and scale of their most recent videos display their desire to impress as well as output quality songs.
The production and engineering in their work is consistently excellent, too - this is an area where Christian music sadly often lags behind the mainstream - but Bethel are thankfully ahead of that curve.
I'm all too aware that my current musical output isn't particularly adventurous - my desire is no longer to be groundbreaking or avant garde - but this in itself presents a greater need for a focus on my own production in order that my music can achieve greatest impact and do itself justice. Bethel do this very well. They don't do anything particularly new musically but their finesse in production and focus on the detail allows their music to really hit home. It's a skill that I'm still learning and improving, but the more I write and practise my production, the more impact my music will have.
The way that they compress and mix their snare drums, frequently using two kits (often combining a snare hit with a tambourine hit) is one such example. The compression gives the snare a slightly punchier attack whilst having the effect of lengthening the duration of the snare hit itself. The addition of a tambourine in the mix also adds to this sensation of a reverberant snare. Although at times, they do add reverb to their snares to increase the epic sensation of a tune, their general tendency to inhabit such a sound-world gives any given album or collection a distinctive feel.
While attention to small detail is important, Bethel are also masters of larger compositional details like structure and pace. They aren't afraid to repeat a section in order to give the music more time to gradually build, and they know how to pace a specific track so that their songs peak at exactly the right time. These points are equally as important in a film music context as a worship music one; music must build gradually to hit the emotional peaks at exactly the right pace. Building sections mustn't rush or drag; finding the middle ground is crucial.
If you listen to my own track, And then, the mountains moved, you may notice a few of these points being applied. Most importantly for me in this track was getting the pacing right. It's rare that I'll start a track at such a dramatic level, but here it felt right to open with that epic string sound, with the deep, reverberating drums. I wanted to plunge the listener straight into a world where they could imagine a mountain shifting. Then, suddenly, this epic sound dissipates and we're left with a delicate piano. After the unrest and energy of the opening it comes as a pleasant tonic, and slowly begins to grow until, finally, everything slows down as the piece concludes.
Next in this Inspirations series, I'll be looking at an Estonian composer whose music has such elegant simplicity whilst retaining an emotional gravitas that demonstrates his skill and class.
In the meantime, let's keep writing, keep practising, and keep inspired. Thanks for reading (if you've made it this far), and hopefully I'll see you next time.
- JJO