Historical and Biblical References To Music

From Greece, Rome, the Bible and others, ancient writings are filled with testimonies of music’s power to perform miracles of healing and transformation.[1]  Non-western cultures have their own legacies of musical miracles, as anthropologists and ethnomusicologists have been discovering.  “Drawing on medicine, eastern wisdom and the latest research on learning and creativity, author and musician, Don Campbell, in the ‘Mozart Effect’ reveals how exposure to sound, music and other forms of vibration beginning in utero, can have a lifelong effect on health, learning and behavior.”[2]  Music is a profound mystical science.  “The musical keys and the twelve tones—like the twelve disciples of Christ, the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve astrological signs, the twelve gates of New Jerusalem—are deeply intuitive ways of knowing oneself.”[3]  Boshman believes that “music is good medicine and it can bring healing.”[4]  Boshman also quotes from scripture that “music is commanded by God to be kept in our daily lives as well as part of our worship to Him.”[5] (Ps. 96:1),  (Ps. 147:7), (Eph. 5:18-19), (2 Chron. 5:12-14).[6]   God, our creator, must consider music important to mention it in the Bible over 839 times.”[7]  In fact,  according to Boshman,  there are over 989 quotations of scripture that relate to music.  For example, “God’s intention when He said, “let there be light” was to create music too.”[8]  Music is part of the light spectrum because it is sound and vibration.  Musician and scholar of musical forms, Dr. Steven Halpern, utilizes the concept of the “musical scale and the ‘rainbow’ colors of the spectrum”[9].  In addition, he correlates the parallelism of R.O.Y.G.B.I.V. colors with the “chakra system”[10] (center of spiritual power in the body) and the solfeigge of the C Major Scale.  “To some, it is evident that every sound gives forth a color equivalent.  Likewise, the vibratory movements of musical notes and phrases combine to express meaningful patterns or shapings, called archetypes.”[11]  “To see the forms that sound produces is a miracle.  Hans Jenny’s cymatic forms remind us that every tone, frequency and instrument creates a wide variety of patterns.”[12]  Reflecting on the past proves that music can serve as a vital function in our lives.  After all, music was imbedded into our foundation from the very beginning of our existence.

     Stories carried down to us tell about how sensitive and skilled the ancients were in using music as a healing art.  For them, music was not just a form of entertainment; it was also a source of health containing chords of rhythm and melody that would harmonize and rebalance the human organism by draining away its impurities.  The use of music for healing goes back to Pythagoras and biblical times.  “Aristotle believed flute music could arouse strong emotions which often led to a cathartic release.”[13]  Pythagoras of Samos, a very wise teacher of ancient Greece knew how to work with sound.  “He developed the concept of healing through melodic intervals and rhythms in the fifth century B.C.”[14]  “One of the most important proportions to Pythagoras the philosopher and mathematician was called harmonical proportion since it included those in music concerning harmony and melody.” [15]In his mystery schools in Delphi and Crotona, he taught his students how certain musical chords and melodies could produce responses within the human organism.  “He demonstrated that the right sequences of sound played musically on an instrument can change behavior patterns and accelerate the healing process.”[16]  In the Old Testament, we read about the power and therapeutic values of beautiful music.  “Saul, an ancient King, was troubled by an evil spirit” [17] and was advised   “to find a skillful harpist. “[18]   Note here, that it was purely on the presentation of an anointed song by a skillful musician that Saul was delivered from the evil spirit.  It was not a tranquilizer that subdued the disturbing influence.  Even in the revival under Nehemiah, music was a focal point.  Appointing singers was one of the first things he did after the city of Jerusalem was rebuilt.  (Neh. 7:1).[19]  Nehemiah was aware of the place music had in the church and so he appointed and anointed the musicians. “(Neh 7:67-67),  (Neh. 11:22b-23)”[20]   Under Hezekiah, when God moved again in Israel, one of the first things to be restored was the song of the lord and the anointing of the music,   “he appointed the singers and the musicians just as Nehemiah did (2 Chron. 29:25), (2 Chron. 29:26-28a) “[21]  “J. S. Bach was one of the first representative composers to devise a harmonic balm in composition. 

In 1742, a certain Count Kaiserling sent his emissary, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, to obtain some keyboard works with a ‘sufficient’ soft and lively character and a constant sameness of the fundamental harmony to enable him to sleep.  And so were born the Goldberg Variations, a series of 30 harpsichord pieces.  Needless to say, “they have been soothing troubled minds and bodies ever since.”[22] From these examples and others, it is clear that the ancients sensed the power and value of beautiful music and knew how to use it to promote harmony and well being in their lives.  Likewise, today we can discover the therapeutic and spiritual potencies of music.