Contemplating the biblical view of rest, thinking of working, resting, and then our future Sabbath rest where our tensions will be resolved.
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I enjoy this piece. I’m not a musician, and I don’t knowing anything about musical composition, but it reminds me of, “The Grail & The Lotus,” by Robbie Basho. I have a few thoughts concerning your worry about people not learned in musical theory being able to understand your piece…
A friend of mine and I have discussed, at some length, the struggle on where to draw the line in regards to the intellectual clarity needed to receive Christ. How smart do you need to be to truly accept Christ? The question of “need” predisposes us to a number of deterministic conceptions of cognitive ability that must be taken into account, if you’re trying to honestly answer this question. With that in mind, I sincerely believe that a major part of the answer lies in the continual process of Truly Accepting—I’ll try not to capitalize too much here. There are points in life when you have to lay bare what you mean to yourself, and your true acceptance of Christ comes from a personal communion of your identity in His. A lot of people might not understand what the second half of that sentence means—even I couldn’t for most of my early adult life—but everyone should be able to personally interpret the first half. Right? So then what does it mean to “lay bare” what you mean to yourself?
A way to answer, that condenses what we’re talking about here, might be found in the idea of the pre-existing melody. Let’s assume the “pre-existing” part is simply emotive quality. Obviously, much of the beauty of music lies in how it can communicate without explaining. Sound, arranged in a way that we find moving, is something that is found in every people and area of the world. (Neurologists have found that music can unlock areas of the brain—allowing people with neurological disabilities to respond to it or find release through it—that other forms of interaction cannot give.) What is important to note here is music’s ability to “communicate without explaining”. Perhaps this is what is meant by “leaving space” in order to give people room to come to It on their own. Well-written music can perhaps then be described as the “absence of conscious insight,” or, Pure Communication. It can give people the illusion that they are making up their own mind about a piece, even if it has been intentionally designed for them to be emotionally moved by it. Moved where? To some place inside that shows a person his or her true self?
There are different strokes for different folks, but it is the job of the musical composer to craft a piece that expresses the emotional essence of ideas so that the listener is moved without having to understand the ideas that helped design the music. If they are moved by listening, they may want to consciously research, or deconstruct, the piece using musical theory in order to better know how they became moved and what the chosen design of the musical piece means symbolically. Or, maybe they are moved into an emotional space where they feel the need to resonate the feeling they’ve been given as being empathetic, patient, or humbled.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Is energy itself the pre-existing melody? If so, then perhaps it is the response itself, to the music, that is the manifestation of the counterpoint to the polyphony in his or her self. Music can be written to lead the listener unknowingly into a realization within his or her self of what counterpoint means. It can confront the listener with the essence of identity by making the counterpoint not one to be “consciously” written into the music, but one to be faced within the heart of the listener. It can be a meditation on what we, the listener, are responding to.
Kyle– wow, thanks for your thoughts on this…I guess a road I would not want to go down is one that separates emotion from intellect. Now I’m not saying that you are (it’s definitely not something you explicitly stated above), but is “Pure Communication” something more than emotion? I suspect you’re saying it is- as in the listener doesn’t think about the fact that she is thinking…she’s just thinking. A completely authentic and non-ironic act/response. Am I on the same page? Thanks again for taking the time to post your thoughts.