Tonight I'm settling in to watch Fantasia 2000. I love this movie, both this and the original. I love the idea of taking music and building a short film around the music itself. This gets me to thinking about the nature of music itself; why I love it so, and why music has played such a vital role in the world. I cannot think of a culture of man that hasn't had music of some form. Each culture has different purposes for the music, but music is one thing all humanity has in common.
It also occurred to me that the book of Psalms ('songs') is the longest book in the Bible, which I think shows how central music is to our lives and how important it is in God's plan. I think it would be fascinating to look at the importance of music in Biblical times, and to see what we could learn from early musicians that would enhance our worship experience and draw us closer to God. I have a section in the front of my Bible which has some word studies, so I'll start here. It lists what music was used in. It starts with farewells. In Genesis 31:27, Laban is confronting Jacob about his sudden departure. He says: "Why did you slip away secretly? I would have given you a farewell party, with joyful singing accompanied by tambourines and harps."  (Funny thought, I don't believe I've ever heard tambourines and harps ever played together. I'll have to make a note of that to look up later.)
Another use of music was for entertainment. Isaiah describes this of the Israelites: "You furnish lovely music and wine at your grand parties; the harps, lyres, tambourines, and flutes are superb! But you never think about the Lord or notice what He is doing." (Isaiah 5:12) Not a good example for us to follow, but music was uses that way. Still is.
A third reason is for funerals, which isn't much different from now. In Matthew, Jesus is asked by the leader of a synagogue to bring his daughter back to life: "When Jesus arrived at the official's home, He noticed the noisy crowds and heard the funeral music." (Matthew 9:23) Of course, He raised the girl to life. I wonder what happened, though, when the crowd realized that she was alive again. The funeral music probably quickly turned into festival music! Oh these things we'll never know because we weren't there.
I think this is the beginning of a series of posts for this blog...I will continue this thought tomorrow. But this type of thing definitely brings me joy. I feel more engaged and more alive when I'm talking about music...God created this in me for a reason, and it is up to me to find out why.