The Power of Music

Roy Hershberger

“Music is a higher revelation than philosophy.” Beethoven

As we go through different stages in life we often find ourselves coming full circle in many areas. As a professional musician I was driven to excel and grow in my skill. However, when other avenues of life opened up I set that passion aside for a time. These new avenues took me deeper into the life of the mind and philosophical musings, a necessary, rewarding, but in the end somewhat disappointing path. During that time I knew I would always return to music when the time was right. As I find myself being drawn again to pick up my guitar and search for those notes and tones that somehow bring a deeper meaning to life, I am struck more than ever before at the power of this medium. In addition I am discovering, perhaps for the first time, how superior it is to mere human reason.
     Music stirs emotions and effects mood like nothing else. We are all drawn to it consistently over and over again. Indeed, anytime there is a good opportunity to listen, true music lovers take time to pause in their busy day and contemplate its wonder.
     Lately I have found myself strapping on the headphones and just listening, something I used to do often, but have somehow grown to feel guilty about doing. My mind tries to tell me that there are more important things to attend to, but my spirit insists. So I sit or lie down and drink it in enjoying how the speakers in my studio quality headphones pick up every nuance and intricate detail of a well crafted, skillfully played, and tastefully produced musical arrangement. It feeds the spirit and soul in ways that nothing else possibly can.
     As I write articles like this one I sometimes listen to music. I often feel a creative connection between what I write and what I am hearing. Music has the power to somehow feed our creative energies in ways we don't fully understand.
     Studies have shown that listening to music stimulates brain waves and increases our ability to relax and concentrate, which in turn builds energy and creativity. In contrast watching TV has the exact opposite effect, actually decreasing our creativity and energy level.
     To quote Beethoven again, “Music, verily, is the mediator between intellectual and sensuous life...the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.”
     Indeed, there are more than brain waves being affected when we listen to good quality music. There can be little doubt that there is also a spiritual connection. Music is a bridge between our physical world and the greater world of the unknown. It has the unique ability to open our spirits up to the reality of God even when speech or the written word fails.
     Yet music that is poorly thought out, played in a half hearted fashion, or full of discord with no balanced resolve may be worse than no music at all. Poor quality music has little ability to lift us past ourselves or to communicate the reality of a greater more perfect universe beyond our own. Our world is full of mediocre material that is passed off to a largely artistically illiterate public as music. From the syrupy stickiness of commercial pop radio to bubble gummy alternative rock with a hard edge there is often little depth in what gets the most play time.
     Unfortunately, what passes for “Christian music” is often some of the worst in this respect. Christian radio as well as the so called “praise and worship” that flows out of our churches is too often bland and/or low energy leaving us hungering for some real meat to sink our musical teeth into. In contrast the underground world of Christian music is progressing at amazing rates. Young people with incredible talent are emerging in all genres with a perspective of realism, unstoppable energy, and heart felt intensity that is sure to shape the future, not only of the Christian music world but the music world in general.
     This should give us great hope that spiritual renewal is coming. In an age when philosophy and intellectual rhetoric is being rightfully understood to fall short when it comes to a deeper spiritual awareness and connection to God, music can point the way. It can open us up to Truth because it goes beyond the intellectual and touches us in our inner person.
     Could music be a key player in an age when rational thought seems to be a passé concept? The postmodern mind is quickly buying into the notion that truth is too illusive, or too subject to ones point of view to ever be grasped. Many have resolved themselves to a life of confusion, hoping to find a comfort zone of “not knowing,” thinking this is the only way to avoid falling prey to religious or philosophical “illusions” of truth.
     The key to this dilemma, this death of reason, may very well be to go straight to the heart. What better medium than music is there for such a task, for the true path to understanding truth is the progressive submission of the heart to the Truth maker. What's missing, as we emerge from the cold grips of the modernistic landscape, is a realization that Truth must first be relational before it can become intellectual. The residue of modernity has us still seeking Truth in a backwards fashion, for we must step into a relationship with Truth first before we can discover it in the form of mental illumination.
     Is it a coincidence that music, and the arts in general, are finding a rebirth in the Christian world? Or is this God's plan to bypass the weak human intellect and go straight to the human spirit with the message that Truth is a person?
     Though development of the mind and the discipline of a solid rational Christian philosophy is important, in the end it will not be able to answer all the questions, or meet the full spiritual needs of the human race. In coming full circle with my music I am starting to understand just what Beethoven meant when he stated that, “music is a higher revelation than philosophy.”

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