The Divine Language of Music: Beauty and Influence
Summary
In our exploration of the Christian and the arts, we delve into the profound impact and intricate beauty of music. Historically, the ancient Greeks established standards of beauty, such as proportionality and harmony, which are deeply embedded in music. Music, with its mystical allure, transcends mere sound, evoking a profound emotional and spiritual response. It is fascinating to observe how music communicates even in silence, as seen in the use of American Sign Language to convey hymns to the deaf, highlighting the universal language of music.
The phenomenon of perfect pitch exemplifies the precision and complexity of music, where individuals can identify specific tones in everyday sounds. Music is not just a sequence of tones but a harmonious blend that can evoke a wide range of emotions and influence behavior. From the ballads of my youth to the modern genres, music has always shaped cultural and social interactions. It is a powerful tool that can soothe, excite, or even incite, as seen in historical and contemporary contexts.
Music's influence extends beyond human interaction, affecting even plants and animals, as some studies suggest. In films, music enhances the narrative, creating suspense or joy, demonstrating its integral role in storytelling. However, music's power is not always benign. It can lead individuals down dark paths, as seen in the testimonies of those influenced by violent or explicit music genres.
The distinction between music and noise lies in the principles of aesthetics—melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre. These elements create the structure and beauty of music, allowing for infinite variations and expressions. Jazz, often misunderstood, exemplifies the complexity and spontaneity of music, adhering to mathematical relationships even in its improvisation. Western music typically relies on tertian harmony, while other cultures may use different systems, yet all adhere to a form of order and proportion.
As we continue to explore music, we recognize its profound impact on our lives, shaping our emotions, behaviors, and even our spiritual experiences. Music is a divine gift, a reflection of the Creator's order and beauty, inviting us to engage with it thoughtfully and reverently.
Key Takeaways:
1. The Universal Language of Music: Music transcends barriers, communicating emotions and messages even in silence, as seen in the use of sign language for hymns. It is a universal language that connects us to each other and to the divine, reflecting the beauty and order of creation. [01:08]
2. The Power of Perfect Pitch: The phenomenon of perfect pitch highlights the precision and complexity of music, where individuals can discern specific tones in everyday sounds. This ability underscores the mathematical and aesthetic principles that govern music, inviting us to appreciate its intricacies. [01:52]
3. Music's Influence on Behavior: Music has a profound impact on behavior, shaping cultural and social interactions. From ancient times to modern days, music has been a powerful tool for influencing emotions and actions, demonstrating its potential for both positive and negative effects. [04:38]
4. The Distinction Between Music and Noise: The principles of melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre distinguish music from noise. These elements create the structure and beauty of music, allowing for infinite variations and expressions, reflecting the divine order in creation. [15:36]
5. Jazz and the Complexity of Music: Jazz exemplifies the complexity and spontaneity of music, adhering to mathematical relationships even in its improvisation. This genre challenges our understanding of harmony and melody, inviting us to explore the depth and diversity of musical expression. [20:49]
Youtube Chapters:
- [00:00] - Welcome
- [00:22] - Introduction to Music and Aesthetics
- [01:08] - Music and Sign Language
- [01:52] - The Phenomenon of Perfect Pitch
- [02:40] - Visual and Auditory Perception
- [03:18] - Mathematical Precision in Music
- [03:49] - Melody and Harmony
- [04:38] - Music's Impact on Emotions
- [05:20] - Music and Youth Culture
- [06:58] - Music and Dance
- [08:17] - Music in Everyday Life
- [08:52] - Music's Historical Influence
- [10:09] - Music in Film
- [11:13] - Music and Behavioral Influence
- [13:50] - Cultural Impact of Music
- [15:36] - Elements of Music
- [20:49] - Jazz and Musical Complexity
- [23:28] - Conclusion and Next Session Preview
Study Guide
Bible Study Discussion Guide: The Christian and the Arts - Music
Bible Reading:
1. 1 Samuel 16:14-23 - The story of David playing the harp to soothe King Saul.
2. Psalm 150:3-5 - A call to praise God with various musical instruments.
3. Colossians 3:16 - Encouragement to let the word of Christ dwell richly, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
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Observation Questions:
1. How does the sermon describe the role of American Sign Language in conveying music to the deaf? [01:08]
2. What is the phenomenon of perfect pitch, and how does it relate to the complexity of music? [01:52]
3. According to the sermon, how has music historically influenced cultural and social interactions? [04:38]
4. What are the basic elements that distinguish music from noise, as discussed in the sermon? [15:36]
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Interpretation Questions:
1. In what ways does the sermon suggest music acts as a universal language that transcends barriers? [01:08]
2. How does the concept of perfect pitch illustrate the mathematical and aesthetic principles of music? [01:52]
3. What are some examples from the sermon of music influencing behavior, both positively and negatively? [04:38]
4. How does the sermon explain the complexity and spontaneity of jazz music, and what does this reveal about musical expression? [20:49]
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Application Questions:
1. Reflect on a time when music had a profound emotional or spiritual impact on you. How did it shape your experience or behavior? [04:38]
2. How can you use music as a tool to connect with others and share your faith, similar to how sign language is used to convey hymns? [01:08]
3. Consider the music you listen to regularly. How does it influence your mood and behavior? Are there any changes you feel led to make? [04:38]
4. In what ways can you incorporate music into your spiritual practices, such as prayer or meditation, to enhance your connection with God? [08:52]
5. How can you appreciate the diversity of musical expressions, like jazz, in your worship or personal enjoyment of music? [20:49]
6. Think about the role of music in your community or church. How can it be used more effectively to foster unity and spiritual growth? [13:50]
7. Identify a specific way you can use music to serve others, whether through sharing a song, playing an instrument, or creating a playlist that uplifts and encourages. [08:17]
Devotional
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Quotes
As we continue now with our study of the Christian and the arts, we recall that, historically, there have been those in the ancient Greek tradition who have argued for certain standards of objectivity for beauty such as proportionality, harmony, simplicity, and complexity that I’ve mentioned briefly. And today we’re going to turn our attention now to one of the art forms – and that’s to music – and see how some of these principles of aesthetics apply. [00:00:01]
Any time I think about the phenomenon of music, I find it almost quickening within me a sense of a mystical response to the profound mystery that’s involved in the very making of music. And I think also of the conferences and seminars that we do and have done over the years at Ligonier, where we have people who use American Sign Language to communicate the messages and so on and the words of the hymns to a group who attend who are deaf. [00:00:33]
And it’s always amazing to me to see their response to the words, to the contents, and the way they use their hands and their shoulders and their facial expressions to communicate with each other in a soundless world. And I thought, what a tremendous, tremendous burden it would be for the human person to lose their ability to hear altogether, because sound plays such an important role in our daily lives, and that every sound that we hear has a pitch to it. [00:01:16]
And again, I stand in awe at musicians who have what’s called perfect pitch, in which – there aren’t many that do – but they can not only tell the sound or the note, the tone of a note on a piano or on a violin or on a trumpet, but I heard of one lady that would say, “Well, my cat purrs in B Flat.” And that’s true; they can identify the tone that a bird chirps in or a cat purrs in because there are certain definitive what they call “colors” to each tone that the ear picks up. [00:01:52]
But music is not made up of one tone; music is made up of all kinds of tones, either played in a sequence – do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do – we’ve taken just certain individual tones and put them in a sequence and produce a melody, or we can take tones, three four, five tones, or whatever, and play them at the same time and produce a harmony, which may be pleasing or unpleasing to the ear. [00:03:49]
But again, we hear tones of sounds daily with birds, with the wind as it whistles across the landscape, and the sounds that we hear have a powerful ability to impact the heart and the soul – that is, to affect our moods, to affect our behavioral patterns. And even Plato in the ancient world was very much concerned about the popular music of his time because of the tremendous impact it had, obviously, on the behavior of the young people of Athens. [00:04:38]
I find that fascinating because when I look back to my own youth, I think about how much of our youth culture was conditioned, if not determined, by the popular music of our day. And we were all, as it were, slaves to the radio shows that played nothing but popular music. We knew all of the disc jockeys, and all of them offered the opportunity for us to call into the radio station and ask a special playing, you know, “For my girlfriend, Vesta, please play me, ‘When I Fall in Love,’” and so there would come Nat King Cole on the air. [00:05:20]
And so it’s just amazing to me how much impact music can have on individuals, and that impact doesn’t stop when we go through adolescence. It continues throughout our entire adult lives, and it begins before we’re adolescents; I’ve watched infants begin to move and simulate a dance pattern as they’re listening to different forms of music. And people use music intentionally to create moods. [00:07:38]
But this is not new; from all history, we’ve seen that people understand music has a powerful influence on people’s behavior. Think back to the Old Testament and the explosive temper, the madness that was suffered by King Saul, and yet, in order to calm his spirit, he would bring David in to play music for the king because his music was soothing. You’ve heard the old saw that music soothes the savage beast, and so music can be used to calm the spirit, to excite the sensuous desires of people. [00:08:52]
Now when we talk about music, we are talking about something different from noise. There may be a specific tone that a jackhammer emits when it’s tearing up the sidewalk, but we don’t usually associate it with music. Music is a little bit more sophisticated in that, and here’s where we run into these principles of aesthetics that I’ve talked about already, principles of proportion, harmony, and so on. [00:15:02]
Now in music, the basic elements that make up music as we know it involve the elements of melody, harmony, rhythm. What else? Anything else? How about timbra? It’s pronounced completely different from what you think it would be pronounced when you spell it, t-i-m-b-r-a, timbra – texture, form, so on. These are the inherent elements of music as we encounter it. [00:15:36]
Now timbra has to do with how the sound is influenced by the instrument or the mode in which it’s expressed. For example, if you hear the tone of B Flat played on the piano, it sounds one way and it’ll be pitched exactly at B Flat; now if you hear a B Flat played by a violin, it’s the same note, the same tone, but it sounds different because the timbra of a violin is different from the timbra of a piano. [00:16:18]
And we see one of the things, for example, is that western music is basically, not always, but basically tertian. That is, western music is built on tones of thirds, a simple C Major chord, C, E, G. It’s built, first of all, of a major third, and then on top of that, a minor third, and that’s the way all the major chords are built; and the same way, if you want to make it a minor chord, then you have a minor third, and on top of that is a major third, and you have your basic chord. [00:22:18]
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