Leaver on the Theological Character of Music in Worship

I'm continuing to study the role of music in the Divine Service in hopes of leading a Biblical and Confessional study of the nature of the Divine Service and the role of music therein. It's been an interesting and an eye-opening journey that is far far from complete.

I thought I would share this tidbit with you; it certainly has me thinking. It's from Robin A. Leaver. Mr. Leaver is an internationally recognized hymnologist, musicologist, liturgical expert, Bach scholar, and Reformation specialist — he has taught at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, Westminster Choir College, Princeton, Drew University, Madison, and is currently  visiting professor at the Juilliard School, NYC, and at Queen’s University, Belfast.

The following is some of his introductory comments on the intertwined relationship of music and theology. Hopefully it will get you thinking as it has me. To God alone be the Glory (SDG). Leaver writes:

The intertwining duet of music and theology form the substance of Biblical theology. Although there is no specific chapter and verse in which is to be found a clear theological statement concerning the nature and function of music, there is nevertheless hardly a page of the Bible from which some musical inference cannot be drawn. Music is the accompanying counterpoint to the Divine message and in all the mighty acts of God music is never very far away. From eternity to eternity, from creation to judgment, from Genesis to Revelation, the sound of music is to be heard. At creation the "morning stars sang together." The people of God in the Old Testament were the singing church of the old covenant, whose responsorial art was begun with the Song of Moses after the birth of the nation in the exodus from Egypt. The birth of Jesus was accompanied by the song o the angels. And in the world to come all the redeemed will join together in singing the "Song of Moses and the Lamb." James Montgomery expresses it well in his familiar hymn:

Songs of praise the angels sang / Heaven and earth with Hallelujahs rang / When Jehovah's work begun, / When He spake, and it was done.

Songs of praise awoke the morn, / When the Prince of Peace was born; / Songs of praise arose, when He / Captive led captivity.

Heaven and earth must pass away, / Songs of praise shall crown that day: / God will make new heavens and earth, / Songs of praise shall hail their birth. (1)

As the Bible unfolds the records of the acts of God the continuous sound of music heard. That continuity is broken only once in the silence of Calvary. However, even here it has to be recognized that silence is not mere nothingness but rather an active constituent in the structure of music and its performance. (2) "Someone has said that all history is point and counterpoint—two melodies running side by side—God's and man's. Alone one of them is always incomplete, even God's. He preferred to die rather than be without us. Taken together there is meaning and beauty in their rise and fall, their temporal dissonance which is resolved into final harmony." (3) Music is therefore bound up with theology and theology with music.

Source: Leaver, Robin A., "The Theological Character of Music in Worship," part of the Church Music Pamphlet Series, Carl Shaclk, Editor. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1989, pp. 5-6.

1. Leaver's footnote (#8 in his text) is as follows: J. Montgomery, The Christian Psalm: or, Hymns, Selected and Original, Glasgow 1825, p. 455f. The hymn was first published in 1819; see J. Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, London 1907, p. 1068.
2. Leaver's footnote (#9 in his text) is as follows: See T. Clifton, "The poetics of Musical Silence", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 62, 1976, pp. 163-181. There were, of course, occasions when man's answering counterpoint ceased (see M. Harvey, Worship and Silence, Bramcote 1975, p. 6f), but these were mere pauses compared with the general silence of Calvary.
3. Leaver's footnote (#10 in his text) is as follows: O.P. Kretzmann, in Festschrift Theodore Hoelty-Nickel. A Collection of Essays on Church Music, edited by N.W. Powell, Valparaiso, Indiana 1967, p. v.