Musical spiritual roots
God is the greatest musician of all times, the greatest composer. (Karlheinz Stockhausen, Towards a Cosmic Music, p.114)
Many preachers of the day have said that fiddling and music came from Hell. But I say that there is no fiddling or music in hell. There is not a fiddler in hell or any music of any kind. Music belongs in heaven to cheer God, angel and man. If we could hear the music there is in heaven, it would overwhelm mortal man. The Lord gave us that organ that makes music so delightful to man and the Devil has stolen music, and many other things that were ordained of God for the benefit of man, and has turned them to an evil use. Brigham Young (Staker, Waiting for World's End, p. 158)
. . . The more esoteric theology explored by Brigham Young, the Pratt brothers, and B.H..Roberts holds the promise of an aesthetic sensibility even more deeply rooted than premortal intimations of the celestial. Either as eternally self-existent consciousness or upon the immensely distant “dawning of conscious life,” individual spirits are possessed of the “power of deliberation . . .the ability to appreciate seems inextricably bound up with the abilities to perceive and judge.” The recognition and love of beauty, in other words, may be a fundamental and timeless ingredient of the eternal human soul. (Terryl Givens, People of Paradox, 2007, P. 341)
What do you think?
I agree. I think it's part of the spiritual man (as opposed to the "natural man") to enjoy things of beauty, whether they are visual, auditory, or directed at any other sense.
ReplyDeleteThe other side of it is creativity: as creators of beauty. I think it's inherrent in every spirit to want to create something moving that others may enjoy.
Ooh, I like that last quote. Haven't you ever had that feeling, when listening to some musical composition that really speaks to you, that you're momentarily in a different world, capable of things you don't understand? Or capable of understanding things you can't presently even begin to comprehend. I do. The strange thing is (in my case) it's usually some strange type of music that only I like. If it's so different for each person, it must be an individual gift, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteI also wonder about types of music a lot. Like, what is heavenly music and what is just pretty but worldly at the same time? Is it all just strings, organs, and choirs after this life? I sure hope not, no offense. I'm not huge on choirs. I like in the quote from Brigham Young how he says "If we could hear the music there is in heaven, it would overwhelm mortal man." Doesn't that make you really curious to hear that music? It makes me think that we mere mortals have only skimmed the surface where music is concerned.
I had a friend who said that while most people were helping create the world, she was playing the oboe in the theme music. Makes you wonder just what the role of music is. Maybe it is for a far greater purpose than we could ever imagine, and we just get a little glimpse of its power here on earth.
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear the music in heaven. And Camilla, I think a heavenly choir experience might be a little different than an earthly one. Everyone putting their voice together in harmony to praise the Lord.... wow, that might be pretty awesome.
And maybe in hell you get a pop song stuck in your head for eternity. hehe.
ReplyDeleteoh, and I was just watching jr. dance to a song. The fact that he responds to music so early must mean something about the importance of music, too, right?
ReplyDelete"Music belongs in heaven to cheer God . . ." That is quite a statement.
ReplyDeleteNoSurfGirl, I am interested in the idea that the spiritual side of us is what enjoys beauty. Certainly the natural man version of music I've heard (rap, death metal, various pop musics) have much less beauty to my ear. Also, I like your idea that our spirits want to create something others would enjoy. Is creativity something of the spirit? Of course, one might ask, why does the Adversary not create, but just pervert, yet he, too, is a spirit.
Camilla, I, too, am attracted to individualistic, indiosyncratic, intimate music, and am in general put off by music produced by very large groups (though I love symphonies, but I see that more as the expression of an individual composer's mind). But I think that for me a balance will acheived as I become part of Zion--a group of souls who have become one with each other and God, though each has an individual name. And if I do this, I will be happy with it's musical expression. But I have to admit I am most attracted by individual music.
Merrilykaroy, here is something that might relate to Little Josh"
"Jenny Saffran and Gregory Griepentrog at the University of Wisconsisn compared eight-month-old infants to adults with and without musical training in a learning test of tone sequences. The infants, they found, relied much more heavily on absolute pitch cues; the adults, on relative pitch cues. This suggested to them that absolute pitch may be universal and highly adaptive in infancy but becomes maladaptive later and is therefore lost. 'Infants limited to grouping melodies by perfect pitches,' they pointed out, 'would never discover that the songs they hear are the same when sung in different keys or that words spoken at different fundamental frequencies are the same.' In particular, they argued, the development of language necessitates the inhibition of absolute pitch, and only unusual conditions enable it to be retained." (Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia, 2007, 129)
Perhaps our experience here in mortality masks our true relation to music, and it is only hinted at in our experience. That's why if I try to "talk" about it I can never get to the gyst--as in the study above, "talking" as we learn in this world, itself, distances us from what music really is to us?
Have you ever read "The Silmarilian" by JRR Tolkien? I'm not sure I got that name just right. Ron knows it. It's what Tolkien imagined how the universe was made. It all started with music. One entity created discord and became the evil power. Ron, illuminate me. I have long since lost that book.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really interesting idea, Dad. Are there more Chinese people with perfect pitch since their language is so tone-based?
ReplyDeleteMother, I happen to be currently reading Tolkien's "The Silmarillion" again, after many years. Here is how the book opens:
ReplyDelete"There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Iluvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made. And he spoke to them, propounding to them themes of music; and they sang before him, and he was glad. But for a long while they sang only each alone, or but few together, while the rest hearkened; for each comprehended only that part of the mind of Iluvatar from which he came, and in the understanding of their brethren they grew but slowly. Yet ever as they listened they came to deeper understanding, and increased in unison and harmony."
So the book starts with a creation story based on music, and various musical themes, which turns into a world, etc., and Melkor wanted to make his own theme, and became the source if discord and evil (Sauron was his lieutenent).
After about 50 pages the story moves into some lively tales of various characters, etc.
Adele, here is some more info about perfect pitch and Chinese from Oliver Sacks, the neurologist:
"Diana Deutsch and her colleagues . . . Observed in a 2006 paper that “native speakers of Vietnamese and Mandarin show very precise absolute pitch in reading lists of words”; most of these subjects showed a variation of a quarter tone or less. . . “For students who had begun musical training between ages 4 and 5,” they wrote, “approximately 60% of the Chinese students met the criterion for absolute pitch, while only about 14% of the US nontone language speakers met the criterion.” For those who had begun musical training at age six or seven, the numbers in both groups were correspondingly lower, about 55 percent and 6 percent. And for students who had begun musical training later still, at age eight or nine, “roughly 42% of the Chinese students met the criterion while none of the US nontone language speakers did so.” There were no differences between genders in either group." (Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia, 2007, 127)
I LOVE Oliver Sacks. Someone should do a post on him :)
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