Several years ago, while researching for a paper, I came across an article which helped me to understand music in completely different light. The article, whose title and author now elude me, argued that not all music is fit for worship because music is itself a language. This means that not only to the words themselves convey meaning, but the notes do, too.

This may seem obvious to many. We listen to music because it has an ability to move us in a way that reading poetry does not. We hear the upbeat rhythmic pumping of our favorite tune and want to dance. We hear the mournful, heart wrenching chords of a ballad and we are driven to tears. Melodies, harmonies, and rhythms all carry some meaning with them. However, I think the amount of meaning is grossly underestimated.

Those who have studied music more in depth understand how composers use music to paint pictures and tell stories, even in the absence of words. Much of this can be experienced without studying, but only once you can break down the music does it become more apparent. It is amazing the way that symphonies and ballets tell stories without lyrics, or how a composer can show an entire scene through carefully placed accents, swells, and falls.

Yet, even seeing this, I don’t think we yet grasp music as a language. This of music as a sponge: it soaks up meaning through associated lyrics, emotion, situations both of the composer and the listener, and memories. Tie those all together and even the opening chords of a sonata can transport a person to another time, another place, and even another mental/emotional state. It is like pulling a book off the shelf, whether and old friend or a despised volume, and remembering everything in it and around it.

This is the true power of music, and why it is helpful to think of it as a language in its own right. It communicates powerfully on conscious and subconscious levels. This is also why we must be so careful with the way we use music. It might be fun to set scripture or poems or other things to fun little tunes from our past, but what will that tune carry with it to a listener or to you? Music used for worship should be varied, but are there some forms of music or perhaps specific songs or styles that ought to be avoided because of the implications they might have for the congregants’ ears?

Just as we watch the words coming from our mouths, so to must we examine the music we surround ourselves with and share with others. The intended meaning may be misconstrued, warped, or lost all together. Music is one of the most powerful tools we have, so we must treat it as such.

Pax,

Paul Hart Cochran