Does Emotion in Music Have Meaning? Part 1

Does Emotion in Music Have Meaning?  Part 1

            I have much hesitation about writing on emotional meaning in music.  Some believe that the word spirit (pneuma 4151) is referring to the human spirit while others believe that this word is referring to the spirit of Christ or The Holy Spirit. The Bible verse that they refer to is1Corinthians 14:15 which states, “What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.”  Adam Clarke referred to the Greek word pneuma as the “Spirit of God” Clarke’s Commentary, vol. 6 by Adam Clarke, p. 275 Henry J. Foster considered it to mean the “human spirit”. The Preacher’s Homiletic commentary, by Henry J. Foster, vol. p.309   Joseph S. Exell referred to it as meaning the “Holy Ghost”.  The Biblical Illustrator I Corinthians Vol. II, p. 350   D.D. Whedon believed that pneuma referred to “My higher spiritual emotional nature.” Commentary on the New Testament ,Vol. 4, p. 100 by D.D. Whedon   R.C.H. Lenski  believed it to mean “…my own spirit, the material part of my being in which my ego centers which is able to receive impressions from God.”  The interpretation of St. Paul’s First and Second Epistles to the Corinthians by R.C.H Lenski, pp. 591-592  Many of the Bible expositors made no attempt to identify the word pneuma.

            As one can see, the meaning of the word pneuma has a drastically different meaning if it is interpreted as the human spirit rather than the Holy Spirit.  If one interprets it to mean the human spirit it could be referring to singing with emotion i.e. emotional meaning.  If, on the contrary, one interprets it to mean with the influence of the Holy Spirit it possibly would mean singing with the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit.