Musical Sound Communicates Meaning Part 14

Musical Sound Communicates Meaning Part 14   

              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.    

Thought for the Day-     

I have found over the years that the greatest problems in church music are not caused by exactly where a minister of music draws the line musically, but rather by music ministers who no longer draw any lines musically.