How to Read Your Music (pt 2)

The dictionary describes music as the "art of putting sounds together in beautiful, pleasing, or interesting arrangements". Yesterday, we saw how God, our Great Composer, is busy creating a perfect piece of music for us. If we follow what is written, all the notations, markings, and notes of our lives will correctly reflect His views, feelings and ideas, blending in perfect harmony with the One who created us. This is very important, especially if we are the instruments working off the 'Grand Staff' as in marriage with both a treble clef and a bass clef. Following Our Composer's written desires kept for us in the Bible, we may be assured we will play our piece with dexterity, thought and correct expression.

Much music is written in chords, which are three notes played together in harmony - what a picture of the husband and wife who put the Lord first in their marriage ("a three-fold chord is not quickly broken" - Ecclesiastes 4:12b). There will be many major chords played and even a few minor ones. Major chords sound out strong: the things a marriage is based on; the Word of God, salvation, a good New Testament Church to serve in. There may be a home to keep and children to bring up, happiness, joy, and blessings! Occasionally, there will be minor chords as well; times of sickness, pain, death and heartaches. But remember, these chords are triads - three notes played together at the same time. The Lord is with us all the way.

Sometimes in marriage we can hit a dissonant note causing our perfect melody line to become disturbing to those around us. Disagreements and arguments, while they may occur, need to come to a 'resolution' quickly ("let not the sun go down upon your wrath" - Ephesians 4:26b). A dissonant chord occurs when two notes are too close - competing for the melody line. A wise wife knows when to take a 'step down' in order to make things harmonious once again. Accidentals may occur occasionally in a piece of music as well. These are sharps and flats, those changes in pitch that are not a part of the key the music is written in. Sometimes we may get on the sharp side - not keeping our tongues under control. Or sometimes we take on a flat disposition - moving down half a step with a negative, critical spirit. The solution? Get back to God's original key signature with a 'natural' sign - which means we are not changed in pitch by a sharp or flat!

Rhythm is the pulse of the composition - the under girding. Our marriages need the stability that the Lord provides in His Word so we don't run ahead of His plan or lag too far behind the tempo he has set for our lives. Occasionally, we may feel life is a bit on the allegro side and long for a nice slow down - andante style. Remember, He knows just what we need in order to be a great piece of music.

Scales need to be practiced - how fun! Up and down, up and down. Will we ever get it right? There are things in marriage that we seem to go over and over again, hitting clunkers on the way up and again on the way down. Irritations, hurt feelings, angry words, can be overcome by relying on God's power to change us and not our spouse. Don't give up! Eventually, the clinkers will disappear, we'll gain speed and dexterity and the ups and downs of life's scales will seem much easier.

While sight-reading is important in the playing of music, it is "faith reading" that is important in the Christian life. We are not to walk by sight but by faith. Without faith it is impossible to please Him as the Bible says. That may occasionally require us to follow on even though we've lost sight of the melody line in our lives.

God sometimes does a bit of transposing, changing from one key to the next, and sometimes there may be an inversion in the melody, where it is turned upside down. Sometimes we may feel stretched as he throws in a few augmented chords or sometimes we may be humbled and reduced in size as he adds a diminished chord here and there. And just as composers do when writing a beautiful sonata, the theme is just introduced at the beginning of our new lives together. As the years go on, the development phase takes place in which the harmony is unfolded and our love for each other deepens, further on the recapitulation stage occurs. That's the original theme repeated and broadened until the ending or the coda one day occurs. The music that the Lord has composed just for us will have been played expressly and beautifully, loudly and softly, lightly or vigorously, just as He had planned. The original melody line will be hummed by our children and others; that true "Melody of Love!"

Have a blessed day,

Lori

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