Part of the power of music, is that it aids us in drawing people in to the One True Story, the Good News about Jesus and our Redemption. Let us reduce that story into it’s most basic parts and then discuss how the elements of music are used to give eloquence and vibrance and emotion, making the story engaging and compelling.
A story has three basic parts: Beginning, MIddle and End.
Beginning: In the beginning God created humans and placed them in paradise.
Middle: Satan and humans rebelled, ruining paradise.
End: Jesus began the restoration process that someday will end with our happily ever after with God in a restored paradise.
As you can see, the feeling of the beginning and end is similar, kind of an A B A form, so let’s further reduce the story into two contrasting parts: Heaven and Hell.
Now let’s put them in a table with various elements of music, the organization that makes it music instead of noise:
Some have argued that we should avoid the uncomfortable parts. The tritone was called “the devil’s interval” and various syncopated beats have been called “the devil’s beats” and so on. However, for whatever reason, the story is not compelling unless it has tragedy, evil, … a bad guy. The same holds true for music. We need to learn to master the constant ebb and flow of the tension and resolution in our story, if we are to be great storytellers and communicators of the Gospel through our craft. The stories need to be real and ring with truth and honesty as well as love and hope.
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