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?