Christian music

=== Instrumental accompaniment ===
[[File:Ninth Symphony original.png|thumb|A page (leaf 12 [[recto]]) from Beethoven's manuscript. Catholic monks developed the first forms of modern Western musical notation in order to standardize liturgy throughout the worldwide church,<ref name="Hall100">Hall, p. 100.</ref> and an enormous body of religious music has been composed for it through the ages. This led directly to the emergence and development of European classical music, and its many derivatives. The [[Baroque]] style, which encompassed music, art, and architecture, was particularly encouraged by the post-Reformation Catholic Church as such forms offered a means of religious expression that was stirring and emotional, intended to stimulate religious fervor.<ref name="Murray45">Murray, p. 45.</ref>]]
In the West, the majority of Christian denominations use instruments such as an organ, piano, electronic keyboard, guitar, or other accompaniment, and occasionally by a band or orchestra, to accompany the singing. But some churches have historically not used instruments, citing their absence from the New Testament. During the last century or so several of these groups have revised this stance.

The singing of the [[Eastern Orthodox]] is also generally unaccompanied, though in the United States organs are sometimes used as a result of Western influence.