Does
Instrumental Music Arouse Emotions in the Listener?
Job 17:6,
“He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.” The figures of speech in this verse gives us
evidence that, at least during the tome Job lived, Jewish musical instruments
were connected with emotions. It is
evident from the use of the Hebrew word topheth
(8611) here translated tabret was
connected to the emotion of mirth or joy.
We do not know with specifity from this mention of the topheth whether or not they considered
the actual sound of this instrument aroused the emotion of mirth or joy.
Topheth was doubtlessly a drum because
of the meaning of “smiting” or striking and because it is derived from the word
taphaph (8608) which is a primitive
root word that means “to drum”. From
this knowledge we safely hypothesize that the ancient Hebrews believed that drumming
aroused emotions. One of the hot
philosophical topics in this century is the heated discussion of emotion and
meaning in music. Since the use of
musical instruments have since antiquity been connected to the arousal of
emotions in the hearer Christian musicians should give serious consideration to
what kinds of emotions instrumental music arouses in the psyche of the
listener.
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