A Biblical Understanding of Musical Elements

What is musical sound? A standard definition of music is “intentionally organized sound.”¹ It is “the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession…to produce a composition having unity and continuity.”² Another definition is “a universal, human, dynamic, multi-purpose, sound signaling system.”³ Furthermore, Elena Mannes, a renowned musicologist, gives this definition of music. “What is music? In essence, it is vibration. This vibration–this sound–has incredible physical power.”⁴ The deaf percussionist, Evelyn Glennie, explains that “music is energy…it’s possible to feel vibrations through the whole body…this is a very crucial part of what I do.”⁵

Musical Sound Requires Distinct Understanding

God uses lifeless musical instruments as an example of communicating a distinct intelligible sound (1 Corinthians 14:7-8). We expect musical instruments, such as the flute, harp, and bugle, to make a sensible sound so that there can be a response (1 Corinthians 14:7-8). Further, God desires music to be sung in an intelligible and a distinct manner, enabled by His Spirit so that both the text and music can be understood for the intended response (1 Corinthians 14:15). John MacArthur writes, “for music to be music it must be intelligible in its own way; it must make musical sense.”⁶

Music Consists of Basic Elements

Musicologists display varying thoughts regarding the identity and number of basic elements that formulate music. God created these basic elements during creation (Genesis 1:1; Colossians 1:16-18). Man organizes them, takes them in proportion, and unites them together, resulting in musical composition and style (Genesis 4:21; 2 Chronicles 29:30). Musicologists generally agree that the foundational musical elements are melody, timbre, rhythm, harmony, form, and expression.

Perhaps the most recognizable compositional element is the melody. It can be defined as “a series of pitches laid out one-by-one in a distinct rhythmic profile” or “organized into phrases.”⁷ It is “the main theme of a musical piece, the part you sing along with, the succession of tones that are most salient in your mind.”⁸ Timbre (tonal color) is the element resulting from overlapping vibrations (overtones) that differentiates vocal and instrumental, instrumental variations (flute, clarinet), and male and female voice characteristics, including nasality, resonance, breathiness, and range. Rhythm refers to the duration of a series of notes and to the way they are grouped to form a musical phrase.

Harmony is the relationship between different pitches. It often refers to a parallel melody or chord progression that supports and shapes the primary melody or motif. Musical form refers “to a work’s structure or shape, the way the elements of a composition have been combined … to make it understandable to the listener.”⁹ Musical expression involves both tempo (the music’s rate) and dynamics (volume) to shape the composition’s content.

Musical Style

Musicologist Roger Dannenberg writes, “Musical style can refer to a period in history, a composer, a performer, a texture, a genre, or an emotion. Essentially, every aspect of the melody that communicates something to the listener is an aspect of style. In that sense, style is everything in music.”¹⁰ Author and Pastor, Garth Bolinder states that within the church, “musical style is perhaps the biggest force driving people’s emotional response to worship.”¹¹ Although there are a plethora and an overlap/fusion of musical styles and substyles, musicologists typically identify three distinct styles categorized by their associated culture: classical (high culture), folk, and pop (or mass culture, also known as low culture).¹² Some classify musical styles more generally as classical or folk (traditional) and non-classical (contemporary). The nonclassical/pop music genre is broad and includes styles such as rock, country, rap, heavy metal, hip hop, jazz, blues, Southern Gospel, and Contemporary Worship Music. Secular and Christian musicologists base these stylistic distinctions on harmony, melody, rhythm/beat, and vocal style. In worship music, Christian musicologist Donald Hustad states that “there are differences between the composition style of the ‘serious’ sacred song (classical/folk underpinnings) and that of the witness song’ (gospel, soul, country, and rock).”¹³

Pop Music

Interestingly, pop musicians and producers Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding suggest that pop music is not a genre but “a marketing category that encompasses everything that is commercially successful, regardless of sound.”¹⁴ Even the mainstream media concurs.¹⁵ Gaillot states that pop music’s sound and focus are about marketing and writes that pop music “is a term for whatever’s grabbing the world’s attention and dollars, at any given time. It’s unabashedly commercial, accessible, and aiming to please … and yet, pop music and the market are one, shaping and reinforcing one another.”¹⁶

Pop and Classical/Traditional Music Characteristics

Certain compositional elements distinguish pop music styles from classical/traditional music. Sloan and Harding write that “both pop fans and pop haters have at least one thing in common: they can immediately identify a pop song as ‘pop.’”¹⁷ While the classical/traditional melody and harmony display complexity, variety, and form, the pop melody and harmony seem simplistic and repetitive. Although he advocates using it in worship, Harold Best, former Dean of the Conservatory of Music at Wheaton College, writes that pop/rock styles are “stylistically static” and there is virtually no “nuance, variation, ebb, and flow.”¹⁸ The harmony usually serves as a basic chordal accompaniment to a catchy melody. Sloan and Harding attribute the catchy tune to the “hook.” This device is based on a few notes that often repeat and make the melody memorable. Its goal is “to catch listeners.”¹⁹ The hook used in pop music “represents a fundamentally different approach to composition than that used in classical music, where the objective is often to unravel a musical idea (motifs) over the course of a piece.”²⁰

Syncopation’s Characteristics and Effects

Perhaps rhythm is the most significant element that distinguishes classical and traditional styles from pop styles. Pop/rock music displays strong rhythmical elements, often accompanied by electronic amplification. This strong beat is usually involved with syncopation. This refers to how frequently a composition’s rhythm emphasizes the subdivisions between each beat rather than the beat itself. According to Sloan and Harding, pop music displays high levels of syncopation, which “violate listeners’ metric expectations, spurring a feeling of uncanny pleasure.”²¹

In addition to a strong beat, high syncopation levels emphasize weak beats and syllables over strong beats and syllables. According to music theorist and cognitive scientist David Temperly, this creates “metrical instability or even ambiguity.”²² For example, John 3:16a would sound like this: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” Instead of this: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” In 4/4 meter, it would be like this: 1, 2, 3, 4 instead of this: 1, 2, 3, 4. In traditional/classical music, the metrical system is aligned in a way that stresses the strong beats and syllables.

Conclusion

Understanding musical elements and their relationship to and effects upon distinct musical styles is beneficial in discerning godly listening habits. Although God created these elements perfectly, musical compositions and styles are flawed as they “are humanly engineered … and these factors have been present in music of all styles and in all periods of history, throughout the world.”²³ This implies that music is moral and not amoral. Thus, we as believers should seek to use music that reflects the beauty and glory of God. “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Psalm 29:2).

Previously in this series:

The Christian and Culture – Proclaim & Defend

A Biblical Understanding of Worship – Proclaim & Defend

A Biblical Understanding of Music – Proclaim & Defend

A Biblical Understanding of Musical Controversies – Proclaim & Defend

A Biblical Understanding of Culture and Music – Proclaim & Defend

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Erik Hanson holds a DMin. in Preaching and Leadership and serves as Assistant Pastor at Stanfordville Baptist Church in Hallstead, PA.

Photo by Олег Мороз on Unsplash

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4. Elena Mannes, The Power of Music: Pioneering the Discoveries in the New Science of Song (New York: Walker Publishing Company, Inc., 2011), 6-7. [↩]
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