MUSIC by Lina Hall

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Jul 4, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 26.

MUSIC.

By Lina Hall

MUSIC is the language of the soul, the expression of its emotions. Therefore, as all other language, it is a power, a great power, for good or evil.

As there is but one source of good and one of evil, so good music is of God and bad music of the devil. Music must either exalt Him who is the Author of all good, or honor the enemy who has so well succeeded in perverting all of God's blessings.

What makes music good or bad are principally three things: (1) Its Aim; (2) Its Performance; (3) Its Composition.

I. Its Aim.

We must not lose sight of this fact, that the original end of all music was to honor the Creator and thereby be a blessing to His creation.

Ah, who can without strong emotion think of those myriads of angels worshiping around the great white throne, or, again, of the ecstasy of that song of triumph of the redeemed—the Song of Moses and the Lamb! Ought we not to learn to sing to such noble sentiments in anticipation? Therefore, music that does not express true emotions is not honorable to the Lord, such as praise, devotion, love (not passion), sincerity, majesty, sympathy, scenic beauty, childish joy, or even playfulness.

Good music arouses feelings of rectitude, but the result of bad music is fleshly lusts, indolence, worldly love, etc.

II. Performance.

Good music can be spoiled by being performed in a frivolous or faulty manner. Therefore, sacred music should be performed by such as are in harmony therewith. Why does the organ adapt itself so well to sacred music? It is because its keys can not so easily be struck in a frivolous and light manner.

Whence comes this idea that church or praise music must be very fast and light, or it is not praise? The old Hebrew way of singing the Psalms is so solemn and grandly religious, that the hearer is impressed with the grandeur of its thoughts without understanding one word of it.

Little by little we have drifted into the worldly, and our taste is so far perverted that we call for the light rather than for the solemn; the frivolous and worthless, rather than the grand and worthy.

Luther's hymns are known for their slowness and reverential expression. Listen to a congregation of thousands singing the inspiring hymn that gave Luther courage to stand alone against the world: "Ein fester Burg ist unser Gott!" The children are impressed with true sentiments on hearing such tunes.

It is to be very much deplored that hymns are sung so fast that they can hardly be discerned from other light, worldly tunes. Slowness in singing is not dragging behind time. Majestic clearness, majesty, and sweetness in music is an art that the evil one has replaced by his way. The time should be true, but true time must not be confounded with fast and frivolous time. The singing in church should be a rebuke to irreverance and worldliness.

III. Composition.

True composition must agree with the aim of the music; this makes its character.

Much could be written on this phase of the subject. Listen on passing saloons or other amusement places. Here the phonograph emits a tune, with such a confusion of voices, and noises, even whistling, stamping, etc., that its aim can not be mistaken. Or, again, it is a tune sung so as to arouse baser passions or nonsensical hilarity. Its character is confusion, anything but beautiful harmony. Such like pleases—the world. Nay, even some who profess to know better things seem to be charmed by it. O, let us return to the true in our devotion. Let music be a means of giving the sorrowful comfort, the despairing hope, the weak ones strength. In one word let it be as a pure sacrifice laid at the feet of the Father and the Lamb. In these days when every art is cast into the shrine of false gods, let the Lord Jehovah receive from His own the unmixed tribute of this beautiful art—music.

LINA HALL.