Musical Meaning in Musical Sounds part 4

Musical Meaning in Musical Sounds part 4   

1Cointhians 14:8 states, “For if the trumpet (salpigx 4536) give (didomi 1325) an uncertain (adelos 82) sound (phone 5456) who shall prepare himself to the battle?”  This verse has become an esoteric reference to the blowing of the shofar to give meaning to all members of the ancient Jewish encampment.  Again St. Paul made reference to meaning that musical sound gave to the common man.  As I said earlier the musical references to the aulos (836) which was a type of flute or pipe and the word kithara (2788) which was a hand held lyre were used because Paul no doubt knew that the people commonly understood that musical sound had meaning.   Also he knew that if the musical notes played on the flute and pipe were not produced accurately the meaning of the sounds would be altered. 

So Paul considered the reference to the blowing of the shofar (7782) i.e. the ram’s horn to be a good reference to the importance of understanding simply because the blowing of the shofar, and its musical meaning, would help to prove his point.  His audience knew that the shofar was chosen for sounding because of its ability to emit clear sounds.  The Greek words didomi, adelos and phone, which were well translated here in the AV, connote that if the trumpet were to give indistinct sounds the meaning of the sound would be uncertain.  In this verse, admittedly, the meaning could have been that the association that the distinct sounding had was the issue rather than the message of the musical sounds themselves.   It will suffice to say that Paul and his audience respected the meaning of accurately produced notes and that music did have meaning.  What is not absolutely clear is whether or not the formal properties of the music had meaning as music alone or how much of the music’s meaning was associative.