Sound Doctrine

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made Romans 1:20

I believe that God's presence and character, as described in the Bible and embodied by Jesus, is manifested in sound, and manipulated by musicians as a response. My inklings in this direction were initially piqued by a statement by Herbert Whone, published in his book The Hidden Face of Music, in which he declared that minor chords are declarations of a need for God, while major chords celebrate union with God. This struck me as simplistic, but basically true, whether one believes in God or not. We use minor keys to express anguish, a loss of a sense of unity, while a major key speaks of a certain contentment, be it myopic or expansive. These are human, pan-cultural feelings we all experience regardless of a faith or knowledge in anything greater than ourselves.

If musicians put notes together to create modalities and chords, where do these pitches come from? The answer lies in any tone. Stop a spoken word in the middle of a syllable and sustain the pitch and you will find yourself singing. This single pitch is known as the fundamental, and when examined by hard-working, discerning ears, reveals a makeup more complex than itself alone. This pitch is accompanied by overtones, which always appear in the same relationship to the fundamental. Each pitch, produced by a voice or instrument, is more than a single frequency, but a complete harmonic entity in itself.

In this example, the first pitch is the fundamental, a low C, probably unsingable by anyone, but is certainly heard on a large pipe organ. The other pitches are its overtones, which would reverberate clearly in many large church buildings around the world. The first overtone, #2, is its octave. Interestingly, when one considers the development of music in human history, the singing of a male and a female voice in unison, which probably began when the music of speech was first discerned and turned into melody, is at the octave. They seem to sing the same notes, but they are usually an octave apart. Instruments, especially flutes, which are among the earliest instruments known to Man, also sound for the most part at the octave. Students of Western music know that one of the first consciously applied uses of multi-note harmony was organum, the singing of a melody in parallel fifths. This was undoubtedly inspired by the next overtone, #3, sounding a fifth above number two. Robust music activity over time would bring in the conscious use of overtones, which produced ever richer and more complex harmonies, which seem to always be inspired by the combined abundance of an ever expanding musical legacy and a more acute attention given to the generation of overtones.

 

It is the appearance of #4 in the harmonic series that casts this exploration in its most interesting light, bringing us back to the opening quote from Paul's letter to the Romans. This overtone is a major third, and when added to the ones below it creates a major chord. Thus the production of a single tone, whether produced in nature or by human activity, actually makes, to the intently listening ear, many tones, the first four strongest of which constitute a major chord. Could God be telling us something here? Could our yearning to locate and experience the unifying force in the great diversity of creation find direction in this tonal manifestation?

a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20

Let us say that God is omnipresent outside of us, in sound. How might this relate to our inner being, especially in relation to other beings in the presence of God? Does sound have any truths to teach us? When we take two pitches that constitute a major third (union with God), a C and an E, for instance, and sustain them with correct tonality (more easily done with voices, or on violins or flutes, for instance, than a well-tempered keyboard-a fact worthy of a whole other discussion!), most human ears will hear a G sound quite on its own. These three tones constitute a major chord, symbolizing union with God. I can't help picturing two people, or two groups of people, meeting in some semblance of contentment, with God showing up to complete and bless the proceedings.

Now let us take the E and the G from that triad and sound their minor third interval (the absence of God). This relatively mournful sound, which begs, in the sad, angry or grimly resolute heart, a B to create an E minor chord, actually produces a C, bringing us back to the C major triad. How cool is that?! God, who, in Christ, has promised never to leave us, no matter how bad our situation, has this promise encoded in the very sounds musicians use to express our true feelings and experiences.

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