Although the use of the musical reference in
the fourteenth chapter of I Corinthians is in the middle of another discussion,
it is still a musical reference. Verse
six explains that distinct speaking brings about clear communication. Likewise, verse seven explains that clear
production of musical sounds brings about a clear musical message or
meaning. Therefore, one may safely
conclude that music is at least a meta-language in that it communicates meaning
in an analogous manner to language.
Musicians are cautioned by this verse that clear production of musical
tones will insure a clear message much like clear language communicates an understandable
message.
I
want to make it clear that I am not saying that clearly spoken language and
clearly produced musical tones function exactly alike. As I said before they function
similarly. Therefore, I conclude that
music functions only as a meta-language.
The import of the use of this musical reference in I Corinthians 14:7 is
that clearly produced music can and does communicate meaning to the performer
and the auditor. Therefore, the music
part of music does matter because it communicates real understandable
meaning. A careful look at verse seven
reveals that the inspired Word of God teaches that music that gives a clear
distinction in its sounds has the potential to cause the performer and the
auditor to “know” i.e. gain information and meaning from the musical sounds.
If
music was totally benign, knowledgably mute, sealed in a “bubble”, and
therefore helpless to communicate any meaning, the writer of this first letter
to the Corinthian Christians would not have used the Greek word ginosko (1097) which means “to perceive”
or “to understand”. As I said earlier in
this discussion, music alone (music without text) is not capable of
communicating clearly like a spoken known language, but it does have the power
and ability to communicate meaning—thus the term meta-language is applied here
to music being able to “say something” or communicate meaning.
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