Once again the subject of a trap set in church and in formal concerts was mentioned to me with disparagement. When I was younger and caught up in the formal, elite world of the arts, I was in full agreement that a trap set had no place in church nor in any kind of "classical" arts-oriented event. Associating a trap set with popular and rock music, I believed in the compartmentalization of musical styles and quickly put a trap set in with the less educated or popular world. It was the same world I placed professional wrestling, cartoons, comic books, and laser art.
My maturity, however, in this area, rather than pointing me toward sophistication has actually sent me into other thought processes where I began to ask the questions of why and how and the ultimate unnecessary polarization of the art forms. Why reject one thing while accepting another? Is it due to preference or is there another reason? For several years I decided that the arts were simply shaped by one's own preference for a certain style. That is still true to an extent but I no longer believe it is that simple. One person enjoys Country/Western, another rock, another hip-hop, another classical, and the list of genres continues. But this does not answer the problem of using drums and a trap set in a concert setting or in church.
When we study history of cultures, we find that drumming is a natural expression of rhythm and music. The Bible often talks about drums and we find references to drums in military actions, entertainment, theatre, and for particular rituals. Drums were and still are used in communication and for emotional expression through music and into every day life. As I walk through a crowded room or sit in a meeting or attend most events, it is common to hear subtle drumming of feet, hands, pens, or the arrhythmia of typing on a computer. Careful listening even reveals the steady sounds of texting on a cell phone! Drumming is all around us and is a normal part of our culture and our daily living. But why do the drums continue to polarize our audiences, our churches, and even our educational curriculum?
I believe it comes back to two reasons: 1) Concert halls and churches were traditionally designed for natural acoustic performance without drums, and 2) Drums became associated with Black music at first and now with popular music. There is a general prejudice, or perhaps bias is a better term, among academic musicians for natural acoustics and for natural performance over sound amplification. Trained vocalists, for example, resist the need for microphones and would much prefer to perform without sound enhancement in a great hall designed for natural acoustics. Academic musicians often quickly become uncomfortable when a microphone is placed in front of them.Their many years in a practice room perfecting their skills and working hard to merge musical details with great expression can be destroyed with a bad microphone, a poor room, or a poor sound technician. Drum usage in a concert hall with voices or other instruments generally requires microphones for soloists. Putting a trap set in St. Paul's Cathedral, for example, almost seems a desecration of that beautiful space.
When Rock music began to influence society, it was an outgrowth of what the Black community had been doing for years. Elvis Presley among others used drums in his songs, danced, and sang in a freer style than previously performed by White musicians. It set the world on its heels and inadvertently helped with race integration in our country. But in the middle of this transformation, we still have the drums, or in this case, the drum set. The drum set became associated not necessarily with Black music but certainly with Rock and Popular music, a concept unacceptable in concert or church settings. Many of those in academia and in churches quickly relegated the drum set to its role in commercial music for the recording studio or for those events where sound amplification was required either for instruments or voices.
The market place, however, began to prevail and demand for the "new" sound (which was not really new at all) in concert halls and churches began to infringe on the attitude of resistance. Unfortunately instead of the concepts merging into a unified musical world for both concerts and church services, many remained strongly resistant and ran the other direction. We continue to have these battles although they seem almost passe' and predictable at times. Certainly such disagreements are valid, but in the end the people supporting trap set usage in concerts and churches are ultimately victorious due to public acclaim. In other words, with exceptions, people like the drums and are comfortable with trap sets in churches and in formal concerts. The division is no longer necessary and those holding onto an old ideal may end up in the catacombs of a heritage gone by such as the telegraph or the drive-in theatre.
Yet I will admit to respecting opinion or preference on this issue. A good friend once told me that he recognizes that using a trap set in a worship service is Biblical and seems to be a strong draw for growth and ministry, but he still does not like it. I appreciate his view which is based on personal taste and preference. What I disagree with are those who reject drum usage based on some sort of arbitrary code of excellence that has no historical or objective merit. The trap set is here to stay and to deny its role in the church and in the concert hall further drives a wedge between academia and the market place. To take it another step further and provide a distant internuncial, if the drums at one time were associated with African-American music, then as we integrate the races and the cultures in our country and work to refine our society with broad acceptance, then that inevitably ought to include an acceptance of all musical styles and instruments in both churches and concert halls. Obviously this is a tall order and a noble but difficult long-term result of musical inclusion.
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