Beautiful Music Together!

Music is all around us: we hum a tune, whistle while we work, tap our feet as the parade goes by, and sing lullabies to our children. Music makes an exciting story even more thrilling, a sad one more somber and a happy one more exuberant! Without music, our world would seem very strange.

God has made our world full of musical sounds; birds, babbling brooks, rain, wind, and waves at the seashore all contribute to His symphony. Of course, not all we hear is music, a lot is just plain noise! Both music and noise are made up of sounds. But there is a difference. Sounds by themselves are not music. Someone has to pick and choose certain sounds to give us a pleasing tune to listen to. This composer, as he is called, is telling us his feelings by the melodies he chooses. He does this with the different counts he picks and by differing rhythms or playing fast or slow, loud or soft, in big rich sounds or in thin far away sounds. He is as a painter using his melodies as objects and scenes on a canvas. We learn to follow the melody as it grows from a simple tune to a great song or symphony.

What is the difference between music and noise? Music has meaning and reflects the composer's ideas and feelings. Music has melody, a string of notes that follow each other to make pleasing sounds. The first melody of a song may lead to another melody, or to the same melody played by a different instrument, faster or slower, louder or softer, perhaps even with new notes added to it. Music also has rhythm. There are many kinds of rhythms. But they are all regular and steady. They can be counted on.

Music is a composition of sounds that have regular vibrations, put together so they have rhythm, melody and meaning. In making music out of sounds, the composer plans them the way an architect plans a building so the finished work will be both strong and beautiful. He shapes his sounds together the way a sculptor shapes a statue. He fits them to each other the way a cabinetmaker fits the parts of a fine table. The composer arranges his sounds in a kind of order, the way a storyteller arranges his story, so that one part leads to the next and there will be a beginning, middle and an end. When the composer has done all these things to make sounds into a finished piece of music, we call it a composition!

There are many kinds of music. Some is written for soloists, some for instruments, some for duets and trios. In all these forms of music the composer chooses the sounds he thinks will best express his idea. Often he picks a theme or tune or melody and makes several variations of it.

The idea of music was spawned in the mind of God! Is it any wonder then, we can find many correlations to life and His idea of marriage as well? He is the Great Composer wishing to express His feelings, His ideas in and through a special composition. Not a duet written for two, for God's music is written for three. A Christian marriage is arranged around God and His desires for that couple. To have "perfect harmony" we must learn to trust Our Composer and reflect His feelings, the story He wants to tell through our lives. He has the Program Music already written, it is now just a matter of following the score. Some music is written for Treble Clef instruments (the high sounding ones) and some for Bass Clef instruments (the low sounding ones), but together in marriage they comprise the Grand Staff (both clefs written together) and are capable of putting forth a great amount of music - even an orchestra full!

Written music often has many markings and notations along with many complicated combinations of notes. We don't need to be overwhelmed with all these, though, because just as piano keyboards are divided into black and white keys to make it easier for the pianist to identify the right key for the desired sound - we have the Bible to make black and white sense out of all these different markings and notations so the desired sounds and melodies of our lives will be played as God desires. Tomorrow, we'll take a look at how to read our music.

Until then...

Have a blessed day,

Lori