Defining & Purposing Music
Artisanal God Part 2
Precariously cascading across the expanse, elegant key strokes form lyrical thoughts, offering their sonorous refulgence to the open air. A long question is asked, indulging in tension, with a curt-but-satisfying response, bringing tension to resolution. Questions turn into a dance — if not a mad dash — and find themselves on thematic display in cathartic opulence. Tension, release. Tension, release. Tension, music.
Straight, flowing, and crystalline, a long tone billows from the inner most place of an honest voice, reaching for it’s audience with candor. It beckons but is lonely. More voices toll in beauteous companionship, moving along in the same manner defying the notion of synchrony, but they differ position. Harmony, unison. Harmony, unison. Harmony, music.
A calm breeze slices through sweltering suburbia. Birds and cars hum their instinctual tunes, irrespective of one another. Locomotives chug and churn as they chance pace in their industrial race. Construction workers perform their percussion as hammers hit nails and materials fall into their places. Lawn mowers regale as their songs tell the stories of the neighborhood. Timbre, ambience. Timbre, ambience. Timbre, music.
“Music is the space between the notes.” -Claude Debussy
“Music is the cup that holds the wine of silence. Sound is that cup, but empty. Noise is that cup, but broken.” -Robert Fripp¹
“Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.” -Ludwig Van Beethoven
“Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.” -Plato
“Music: the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity.” -Merriam-Webster²
Defining music is a task undergirded by futility. At a cursory glance, it sounds so easy, it’s just music, right? But one will quickly find that trying to define music is more the naming of a pre-suppositional melting pot of non-universal attributes than it is a concrete thing. That is to say, it’s easier to say that the sky is blue and above us than it is to define what it actually is. Is music melody, harmony, tone, timbre, form, dynamic, texture, and the like? Do all or any of those elements need to be present in order for something to quantify as music?
Without realizing this, we ask and answer this question everyday. As Christians, we tend to suppose that narrow is the gate and difficult is the test to qualify something as music. Stripping away our preconceived notions and presuppositions, let’s look at what the Bible has to say towards the purpose of music.
Beginning in Genesis 4:22, we see Jubal, a descendent of Cain mentioned in the genealogy. Jubal is listed as “the father of all those who play the lyre and the pipe.” The sense being described here is that Jubal, the first listed musician, invented instrumentation. We can derive from this that instrumentation is a permissible and noted part of our music making and that music even predates Noah’s Flood. Furthermore, Jubal’s trade as a musician is treated with the same equity as the professions of his brothers, Jabal the herdsman and Tubal-Cain the smith. This validates music as a profession and one found in the earliest days of civilization.³
The next mention of song in the Bible is found in Genesis 31. Jacob is attempting to flee his father-in-law Laban, but Laban gets the upper hand. In his dialogue in verse 27, Laban asks Jacob why he didn’t mention to him that he was going to leave. Laban tells Jacob that he would have sent him off “with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre?”
This shows that the first explicit use of music in the Bible is actually for secular purposes, in this case as a song of departure. The first explicit use of song for worship that we see in the Old Testament is in Exodus 15 with the Song of Moses. In the song Moses and the people of Israel extol the name of the Lord, calling his mighty deeds, crediting Him with their salvation, and praising His victories.
By these two examples we see that music is permitted both in a cappella and accompanied forms. We also see the basis of music as part of cultural ritual and corporate worship. Throughout the rest of the Old Testament we see music used for a wide variety of purposes. Coronations (1 Kings 1:39–40), consecrations (2 Chronicles 5:11–13), dedications (Nehemiah 12:27–28), entertainment (Isaiah 5:12, Amos 6:5), funerals (2 Samuel 1:18–27), military victories (Judges 5:1, 1 Samuel 18:6–7, 2 Chronicles 20:28), military procession (Joshua 6:8), evoking emotion (Eccesiastes 2:8–10), and other means not directly tied to private, familial or public corporate worship.⁴
But there is a strong basis towards the worship of God in song. Most obvious is the anthology of Psalms in the Bible. The book of Psalms is really a collection of five volumes of accompanied poetry — ergo, songs. Of the 150 Psalms, approximately 105 have known authors with ~45 unattributed.⁵ All 150 of these psalms are concerning the Lord and act as songs for worship though varying in intention and content. Some psalms are for praise, others lament, others wisdom, trust, liturgy, doctrine, abiding, and other topics with varying emotional content.
But what then does this all mean?
If musical form and purpose aren’t limited, what biblical principles guide us in our music making?
The renewal of our minds and hearts. Romans 12:1–2 reminds us to be transformed by the renewal of our minds, which tears us away from earthly longing and teaches us to discern the will of God. More specifically, to help us discern what is “good, acceptable and perfect.” This is further corroborated in Colossians 3:2 in the call to “set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on Earth.” The definition of these things we find in Philippians 4:8 —
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” -Philippians 4:8
These are the thoughts by which our musical intentions and lyrics should be guided by — for music of all purposes. The renewal of our minds will transform our hearts, which will guide us in the creation of our music to be edifying.
“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” -Luke 6:45
This means that if our discipleship is lacking and falling into sinful patterns, so will our songs. Anything we create needs to come from faith in God, be it songs for corporate worship, the car radio, ambient drones, classical piano pieces, or anything really. Romans 14:23 reminds us that “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” When music is being created, we need desperately to examine the purposes of our hearts, lest we fall into sin.
Music is a beautiful gift of God that needs to find itself in the morning of our sanctuaries to the evenings of our Spotify playlists. We must make more music of every kind and all purposes that God may be glorified.
- https://www.dgmlive.com/news/winesilence-cups-music
- Webster, Noah. New Collegiate Dictionary. A Merriam-Webster. G. & C. Merriam Co., 1963, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/music.
- Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible. Baker, 1988. Page 1501
- Torrey, R. A. The New Topical Textbook. Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1998.
- Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible. Baker, 1988. Page 1794
