Emotion and Meaning in the Musical Experience-part 6

Emotion and Meaning in the Musical Experience-part 6

            Remember, no one musics in a bubble and no one listens to the music part of music in a bubble.  Almost universally Christian musicians believe that the words of religious music affect everyone, but much disagreement and disbelief surround these musician’s beliefs about the effect of the music part of the music upon the hearer.  Thus a multiplicity of beliefs spring up among those who are in control of, perform and lead others in religious musicing.  I contend that the music part of religious music and ipso facto the emotions that it invokes in the listener imparts spiritual understanding (or misunderstanding) to the worshiper and or the seeker.  So, I cannot see any way that a   musician can music or a worshiper or seeker can experience musicing without it arousing passion in all who hear, see, and experience it in any way.           

            1Corinthians 14:15 teaches, “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.”  So, I ask, “What is it then?”   How does one sing with understanding if the formal properties of the music are incapable of imparting any understandable meaning?  I am not satisfied with the lackluster answer that only the words have any power whatsoever to impart understanding to the worshiper.  My reason is simply that the word sing in the AV is derived from psallo (5567) means “to twitch or twang” which connotes the stridulous sound produced when one touches the strings of a musical instrument.  What this proves is that 1 Corinthians 14:15 connotes much more than mere singing but rather the sounds produced by the music part of the music as well as a vocalist merely singing i.e. ado (103).