A Picture Paints A Thousand Words

From lush meadows to majestic mountains, and from the depths of the grand canyon to the beauty of a starry sky the glory of God is inescapable. Some have even considered a walk through a forest a religious experience. Music is God’s idea and both a part of nature and a medium to convey meaning. Exactly how much meaning can be conveyed by music?

First, art music is capable of communication. Camille Saint-Saens composed a suite in which various animals at a carnival are introduced (The Carnival of the Animals). Prokokofiev's Peter and the Wolf introduces each character and tells a story. (This story is often heard with a narration, but can stand alone.) Furthermore, Vivaldi composed four pieces: one for each season of the year. Although it also includes text, Joseph Haydn's Creation (Schöpfung) Oratorio begins with a piece entitled "Chaos" in which the intruments attempt to depict the time before creation. The choir then, with a very bright chord, says: "Let there be light!" Each of these pieces, however, communicate at least a part of a picture even without using words.

Just as the heavens declare the glory of God, the natural order in music can declare the glory of God. The harmonic series is a phenomenon in which various pitches are produced by the plucking or striking of one string (or any other production of a pitch). One may physically calculate the frequency at which these harmonics occur. J.S. Bach is often ascribed with the discovery of this phenomenon. The fact is that the closer` that music comes to the harmonic series, the more harmonious it sounds, and the further away it gets, the more dissonant it sounds. Much more could be said (and studied) concerning the harmonic series. Rhythm is also built into the frequency produced by each pitch. Piano tuners tune by listening the the "beats" that are produced when striking two notes simultaneously. Other elements of music are also found in nature.

Second, even though music is an able medium to convey concepts even apart from words, a limitation placed thereupon. This limitation is the same as the limitation upon any form of art or even nature itself which has a superior beauty to anything man can imagine. No painting can capture the majesty of a mountain or the vastness of an ocean. Even this majesty in nature cannot communicate the specific knowledge necessary for salvation. (One may not, however, dismiss the importance of natural revelation. Psalm 19 says that the heavens declare the glory of God!)

It is thus appropriate that the apostle John begins his epistle with “In the beginning was the Word.” It is of utmost importance to believers that this Word was manifested to us. It was neither a painting nor a piece of music which God chose as the primary vehicle for his message, but the eternal Word.

It is often said that a picture paints a thousand words. However, one word of God painted thousands of pictures at creation. One word of God has caused many dead in their sins to be raised again. I would thus submit that the primary focus of music in the church ought to be songs, hymns and spiritual songs which accurately communicate God’s word.

Yet we established that there is some value in natural revelation. If music can be considered as part of natural revelation in how it communicates about God, what place should it take in our worship? What place should it take in our everyday lives?

Musical Hypnosis

I have sung in many choirs over the past few years and have enjoyed blending my voice with others. An inevitable consequence of rehearsing with the choir, however, is that my mind (and my vocal chords) cannot seem to let go of the melodies we sing. This is certainly not strange, because the entire purpose of rehearsal is so that we do not need to sing a song as if it were our first time singing it during the performance.

Most likely because I am a music nerd, I am unable to forget songs and whatever we sang in choir haunts me all week. Perhaps this is merely because of my memory, or perhaps because the tune is catchy. When these two factors (the memory and the catchy tune) converge, woe is me, for my entire mind is put into a strangle-hold so that I cannot hardly use my mind for anything but to play the song back over and over again in my mind. (I find some relief from that urge right now as I write this, but I also needed previously to sit down at the piano for a few minutes after which I have a different melody prevailing in my mind and the choir song for next week is forgotten at present.)

I wonder if there is an aspect of certain music which causes us to be "infected" with "ear-worms." I certainly have never had an urge to hum Schoenberg or even to try to hum some of Bach's fugues. I'm sure I'd attempt the latter if I had two mouths, but I have only one, which makes only one sound at a time. (I could always try to perfect the skill of whistling and humming two different notes, but until then I will have to satisfy myself with one measly melody.) It is no difficulty for most people to recall some of the more famous tunes, such as Beethoven's 5th Symphony or Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Other classical pieces which are just as grand haven't the memorable melody and aren't as easily remembered.

I believe that the primary reason for a piece to be remembered over another is repetition. If I were to hum the words to "This is the song that never ends," you would probably nearly strangle me, because it would repeat through your mind for hours. I remember going on a ride at Disneyworld (it was really the dumbest ride there, but hey! the line was short!) called "It's a small world." I don't remember much about the ride itself except that the melody penetrated and even debilitated my mind for the next days.

So now you ask: "What's your point?" Repetition could be a good thing, because it could serve as an aid to memory. Every teacher knows this fact. There comes a point, however, where repetition goes beyond affecting the memory and enters into the subconscience. (I am not in any way trying to say something along the lines of "if you play the Beetles' music backwards, it will make your brain do funny things." I am also not saying that the message which enters the sub conscience cannot be visible to the discerning eye. The message is usually quite apparent.)

So I wonder if there isn't an aspect of some music to be avoided in which the music is so repetitive that it starts to turn the mind off rather than encourage its use. Regardless, one need not look very far in contemporary music (conservative and CCM alike) to find songs which have short, catchy phrases which are repeated indefinitely. What happened to introducing an idea and developing it throughout the song?

Thank you for allowing me to vent my frustrations. Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy has captured my mind and hopefully Handel's Messiah will recapture my mind and carry it to Theological refreshment.