Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Musical Meaning in Musical Sounds part 1

Musical Meaning in Musical Sounds part 1
 

        One of the objectives of developing a Christocentric music philosophy is to incorporate musical principles into systematic beliefs about the nature and value of a musician’s music praxis.  Every Christian must recognize that if the words of the songs we sing are truly biblical then they embody truth.  These music texts represent truth because the message of the “words” is true.  They represent what Francis Schaefer called “true truth”. 
       If the texts of Christian music must be constant and reliable then it stands to reason that the styles of singing should be constant i.e. consistent with the message of the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ and the entire God Head.  First Corinthians 14:7 teaches, “And even things without life giving (didomi, 1325) sound (phone 5456), whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction (diastole 1293) in the sounds (phthoggos 5353), how shall it be known what is piped or harped?” 
Some explanation of the words giving sound and distinction in the sounds is in order at this point in our discussion of I Corinthians 13:7.  The words that have been translated “giving sound” are referring to musical instruments that produce sounds and they specifically refer to the sounds of the aulos (836) which was a type of flute or pipe. The word kithara (2788) refers to a hand held lyre.

 

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