This post was written by Randy Newman on March 12, 2009
There are a number of ways that music transforms us. It does not merely entertain. Or, at least, music should do more than that.
In my last post, I wrote about Jeremy Begbie’s book, Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music. I mentioned that one way music helps us grow is through the frequent use of a “home-away-home” pattern (thereby deepening our appreciation for things and promoting gratitude). A second way was through variations upon a theme. This helps us think more meditatively and deeply.
Here is one more lesson I learned from that helpful book.
In a similar way to the “home-away-home” pattern, music often employs a “tension-and-release” pattern. Western music does this differently than other cultures’ music but most do seem to create some kind of unresolved tension and then release it.
You may have heard the apocryphal story of Mozart (or perhaps it was Beethoven or Bach or any number of composers) who was up in bed and heard someone play an unresolved dominant chord on a piano…all as a ploy to get the composer up and about. Sure enough, the composer got out of bed, came downstairs, played the tonic chord resolution on the piano and then returned to bed.
Some composers are more masterful than others in delaying the resolution for several measures, minutes, or in the most extreme cases, entire movements, before allowing the tension to resolve. (Some modern composers never resolve the tension, perhaps implying that our world is chaotic and meaningless and therefore the art should reflect the reality. I’ll save that for others to discuss).
The point for our discussion of “sanctification through music” is that the experience of delayed gratification in music can have benefits for our soul - two in particular. First, this training to delay the release can build perseverance into our lives. Second, the increasing of longing for release may help us keep our spiritual focus on heaven, instead of settling in to our temporal home here on earth. I think this is worth pondering.
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