Christian music

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Christian music is music created by or adapted for the Christian church.

Little is known of the earliest music of the Christian church except a few New Testament fragments of what are probably hymns.

Table of contents

1 Early Biblical references
2 Gregorian chant
3 Hymns
4 Contemporary Christian music

Early Biblical references

The gospels of Matthew (26:30) and Mark (14:26) state that Jesus sang a hymn with his disciples immediately before his betrayal. The apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians (5:19) exhorted the church at Ephesus to speak to each other "in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord". In the book of Colossians (3:16) he also encouraged the church at Colossae to teach and admonish each other with "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs".

Gregorian chant

''Main article: Gregorian chant

Around the 8th to 10th centuries, Gregorian chant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied singing, developed in the Catholic church.

Hymns

Main article: Hymn

The tradition of Christian hymns in the English language is closely tied to Protestantism. Protestant hymns can range from the Reformation organ pieces of J. S. Bach to the American folk hymns found in The Sacred Harp.

Contemporary Christian music

Main article: Contemporary Christian music

The most recent common form of Christian music is Contemporary Christian music, or CCM. This draws most of its influence from secular music of the late 20th century and is the most popular kind of Christian music in the Western world. Although there are many Christian music acts in the mainstream music industry, the term CCM usually refers specifically to artists within the Christian music industry that are played on Christian radio.

Religious music
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