Metacommunication, Metalanguage, and Paralanguage’s Connection to Musicing-Part 2

Metacommunication, Metalanguage, and Paralanguage’s Connection to Musicing-Part 2 

                     The musical nuances that we discussed yesterday are what I call triggers of emotion. It is sometimes defined as relating to nonphonemic (denoting any perceptible distinction between one speech sound and another), irrespective of whether the sounds are phonemes (distinct units of sound) or allophone properties only (speech sounds that represent a single phoneme). Musical paralanguage may be communicated consciously or unconsciously by the musicer.  What this means to worship leaders is that since musical sounds produced by the music part of music and the observable nonverbal communicators of the musicer (i.e. the worship leader, praise team or musical director) trigger emotional states in the hearer.

Professionals who have studied metacommunication since Gregory Bateson coined the term seem to agree that: 1. these nuances do trigger emotional states in the hearer and  2.  The triggers may be communicated either consciously or unconsciously by the performer.  So, the naive worship leader or praise band performer may unconsciously communicate meaning to the worshiper or the un-regenerated person who attends the worship service that is not conducive to the worship experience.  The implications that a particular musical (or non-musical) trigger arouses from the listeners repertoire of former non-religious experiences may bely the very thing that the worship team is attempting to do—give honor, praise, and adoration to a triune God, edify the believer, and create an atmosphere that may be used by the Holy Spirit to draw the un-regenerated to Christ.