Major keys + fast tempo = Happiness
Minor keys + slow tempo = Sadness
Dissonance = Fear
Music has an incredible influence and manipulation over our emotions and hormones. Music can lower levels of cortisol in the body (arousal and stress), and raise levels of melatonin (induces sleep). This explains why music has the ability to relax, calm, and give peace. It also can cause the release of endorphins and can therefore help relieve pain. Our musical expression of worship therefore has incredible power over people.
I have been considering this for a number of weeks and have managed to get my hands on some Doctorate Theses in order to try and deepen my understanding of music and it's effect on our emotions. I feel that this is important in the light of what we do as worship leaders and probably more so to extend my knowledge as a teacher of music. There are times in my life when I find it difficult to worship either by listening to music or by singing my own worship to God. Music has this overwhelming ability to bring pain to the forefront of our minds again, even when we have managed to bury it for years. I don't know whether that is the work of God's timing or simply the nature of the song I have chosen to sing.
I have been in many discussions regarding the effect of worship music on our emotions and how we need to be careful that we aren't manipulating people. I have to say that I don't have much time to entertain this conversation because it is already apparent that any type of music will do this and that might just have been part of God's design. I suppose this is an issue of the heart too. I love to see people weep or laugh in times of worship. I love the ability that our musical worship has of taking people on an emotional journey.
8 comments:
...from Christian Schubart's Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1806)
C Major
Completely Pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naïvety, children's talk.
C Minor
Declaration of love and at the same time the lament of unhappy love. All languishing, longing, sighing of the love-sick soul lies in this key.
Db Major
A leering key, degenerating into grief and rapture. It cannot laugh, but it can smile; it cannot howl, but it can at least grimace its crying.--Consequently only unusual characters and feelings can be brought out in this key.
C# Minor
Penitential lamentation, intimate conversation with God, the friend and help-meet of life; sighs of disappointed friendship and love lie in its radius.
D Major
The key of triumph, of Hallejuahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies, the marches, holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key.
D Minor
Melancholy womanliness, the spleen and humours brood.
Eb Major
The key of love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God.
D# Minor
Feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depresssion, of the most gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of horrible D# minor. If ghosts could speak, their speech would approximate this key.
E Major
Noisy shouts of joy, laughing pleasure and not yet complete, full delight lies in E Major.
E minor
Naïve, womanly innocent declaration of love, lament without grumbling; sighs accompanied by few tears; this key speaks of the imminent hope of resolving in the pure happiness of C major.
F Major
Complaisance & Calm.
F Minor
Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave.
F# Major
Triumph over difficulty, free sigh of relief utered when hurdles are surmounted; echo of a soul which has fiercely struggled and finally conquered lies in all uses of this key.
F# Minor
A gloomy key: it tugs at passion as a dog biting a dress. Resentment and discontent are its language.
G Major
Everything rustic, idyllic and lyrical, every calm and satisfied passion, every tender gratitude for true friendship and faithful love,--in a word every gentle and peaceful emotion of the heart is correctly expressed by this key.
G Minor
Discontent, uneasiness, worry about a failed scheme; bad-tempered gnashing of teeth; in a word: resentment and dislike.
Ab Major
Key of the grave. Death, grave, putrefaction, judgment, eternity lie in its radius.
Ab Minor
Grumbler, heart squeezed until it suffocates; wailing lament, difficult struggle; in a word, the color of this key is everything struggling with difficulty.
A Major
This key includes declarations of innocent love, satisfaction with one's state of affairs; hope of seeing one's beloved again when parting; youthful cheerfulness and trust in God.
A minor
Pious womanliness and tenderness of character.
Bb Major
Cheerful love, clear conscience, hope aspiration for a better world.
Bb minor
A quaint creature, often dressed in the garment of night. It is somewhat surly and very seldom takes on a pleasant countenance. Mocking God and the world; discontented with itself and with everything; preparation for suicide sounds in this key.
B Major
Strongly coloured, announcing wild passions, composed from the most glaring coulors. Anger, rage, jealousy, fury, despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere.
B Minor
This is as it were the key of patience, of calm awaiting ones's fate and of submission to divine dispensation.
Translated by Rita Steblin in A History of Key Characteristics in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries. UMI Research Press (1983).
Sorry this is so long but thought it may interest you! and check out the date! cool.
I know that when it comes to song, especially in worship, I can't hide my raw emotions.. it penetrates my heart deeply.. either with joy or with tears.. I love the way God made music to connect with our soul. good thinking batman.
I did my psychology thesis on this stuff...makes for interesting reading (not my thesis, but the acadmeic stuff around on the subject...well for some people it might :))
However, must admit, my attempts to analyse, be objective within a more academic vocabularly...left my soul oftentimes in a battlefield. A battlefield upon which my reason and judgement where waging war against my passion and my appetite...
Therefore let one's soul exalt our reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;and let it direct our passion with reason, that our passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes...
Kaz, such wonderful treasure to be found within these keys...I hope you experiment, creating your own orchestration of emotionally charged sounds...you too Claire x
Read this just...
According to William Temple, "Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose - and all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin."
Hi Claire, great post. Like sarah g* I studdied the 'psychology of religion and morality' as part of my psychology & sociology degree. I would have to say that I found the study of this topic liberating...I have come to the conclusion that what is described as god's 'presence', 'closeness' etc is the brain's response to sensory stimuli. In this case the stimuli would be music; the social dynamic of a group of individuals coming together with an agenda - to sing to, at, about, for god - is also an incredible influence. This is not to deny the 'reality' or impact of the feelings we may experience during worship, however we should be willing to conceed that these experiences may not come from divine intervention.
I really love what you are saying David and I love the fact that embracing this information does not take away from how we believe God to 'be'. Somehow it actually makes me feel more in awe of his creation of music, how it influences us and how he has created us to respond to it.
You have absolutely nothing new to say. You guess, you wasted my time, you are a fraud.
Stop wasting people's time with garbage,
/IAN ANDREW SCHNEIDER/
GARBAGE.
WRONG.
UNTESTABLE>
stop wasting people's time with unprovable guesswork you pass off as science.
/ias/
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