Adding Layers

Adding words to a song makes it more specific.  The sounds of music are like broad strokes on the canvas.  Lyrics are the details.  They bring the fuzziness of emotions into focus, or increase the effect.

When you add somber lyrics to a somber tune, it intensifies the effect.  When you add worshipful words to a glorious melody, it makes you want to worship.  You can also add irony and tension.  If you mix the two (happy tune, sad lyrics) you can add shades of meaning, ranging from comical to satire.

This is why music says it better.  If you say “I love you” to your spouse, that says a lot.  If you sing it to your spouse, that adds the extra emotions.  (Valentine’s Day hint…)

Creating a Response

We write music to convey something.  The human who creates the music shapes the meaning.  And this applies, I think, to individual performances as well.  One band can mean one thing with a song, but another band plays it and it conveys something else.

We also have our own response.  Art is about expressing Truth beautifully.  As such, the same music can have different meanings to different people.  Rock music is a good example.  To some people, it means to express freely.  To others, it is connected with rebellion.  Always remember the context!  And when you use context well, it empowers the song you write.

Remember, oh you writers of music, the power you wield.

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Music is powerful to us humans.  We consume – no, devour – music for everything.  We play it for celebrations, we use it for sorrow, we use it to vent, we play it to romance.

Music at its core is a language.

Compare it to a spoken/written language.  Music has letters (notes), words (musical phrases), sentences (verses), and together they make stories (songs).  A song tells you something.  That something is its meaning.

Vehicles of Meaning

I read the phrase “language is a vehicle of meaning” and I immediately thought of music.  Music does the same.

For example, if I write a bouncy, light, skippy tune, you might think of something happy.  If I write, a dark, somber, plodding tune, you may feel something sad.  This effect is extremely powerful!  I can make you feel something with just timed sound.

However, I think there are some limits.  I can’t really make you think something specific, like say the day Dad took you to the ball game, or the feeling you felt when your best friend moved.

Music superimposes itself on us.  It uses our past.  If some soul had never, ever heard any music, they probably could guess the bouncy tune was happy, but they would not know that it was written to resemble the way a family dog bounced on everything.

This idea is important though.  There are certain emotions you can convey well, such as happiness, sorrow, longing, anger, or reverence.  Outside of these emotions, you would need some other experience or opinion.  If you heard a certain tune every time your parents were angry, then you would associate that tune with those events, even if the song does not deal with that.

Always search for the purpose of a song.  Especially the intent of the writer and performer.  The whole meaning of a song includes the human intent and the human interpretation.

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When the Church creates art, it is expressing what the soul wants to say to God.  It is our expression of what God has revealed to us to be Truth (as in absolute Truth).  This can be in a worship song of adoration, a novel based on a biblical story, or a painting of a sunset.

So how is it that we glorify God with our art?

From my standpoint, I see three big ways art from the Church glorifies God.

Building Up

When art builds up the community of God – His Church – then the art brings glory to God.  Some examples include worship music and books dealing with our relationship with God.  When a local church sings praises to God, the people get closer to God.  When we read a book that shows us how to pray, then we are encouraged and given knowledge.  These things build the community.  As the community is strengthened in God, He is given the honor for it.

Reaching Out

When art reaches people outside of the Church – as in leading people to Christ – then the art brings glory to God as well.  When the Church grows, the fame of God increases.  He receives the credit.  Examples here include movies or plays that intentionally reach out to people.  If someone goes to a church Christmas production and realize that a relationship with God is what they need, then God receives glory.

Personal Expression

Art leads the soul to some Truth, and there God is given glory too.  This category is quite broad, and it also gets into some gray areas.  What I mean here are the works of art that point to God.  Much of Christian music can fall into this category.  Hawk Nelson doesn’t make music that is designed for worship.  They play music from a biblical standpoint, pointing out spiritual truths, or looking at life through the lens of their faith.  Much of literature (novels, poetry, stories, etc.) could fall in here.  Thomas Kinkade paints a beautiful picture, but he doesn’t paint (I don’t think) to reach out.  He paints because that is how he expresses beauty.  And that beauty, in some way, reflects the beauty of God.  When we see that, we thank God for beauty, and that glorifies Him.

This is most certainly an incomplete list.  And many of the examples could fit into more than one category.  Think of the Psalms.  Most of them could fit into the first and third categories easily.

The point is this: each category has a place in the realm of art from the Church.  Just because your music isn’t sung on Sunday mornings doesn’t mean it isn’t Church music!  Isn’t it wonderful that we have so many ways to glorify God?

So go, create!

Read Part I

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Consider this scene:

A military man is riding home with his family on a train.  His country is on the brink war, as its enemies stand ready at the gates.  As the train rolls close to home, the enemy attacks, unprovoked.  As the train arrives, the attacks come closer, as his home is close to a military base.  This man must stay and protect his country, but somehow he must save his family.  He sends them away, with a passionate embrace, praying he may once again see them.  But he knows he must defend them if they are to live.  He turns and takes his place on the line, praying he will not fail this test.

What does this make you feel?  Why do you feel that way?

Hopefully, the answers were 1) that you feel a little torn and very hopeful that the man comes home again, and 2) because if you were that man, you would do all you could to save your family.

Consider your favorite movie.  Why do you feel strongly about its story?  What does it do to you?  What does it make you want to do?

So, here’s the point of all: stories have strong influences on us.

Our entire lives are full of stories.  When we were small, we were told bedtime stories and fairy tales.  These simple stories carry with them the basic desires and needs of our very souls.  To be daring, to be swept up, to save, to make right, to love.  When we speak with friends, we tell stories.  Stories of our day, stories about days past, stories of days that could be.  When we engage in leisure activities, we engage with stories.  The cinderella sports team, the hero of the video game, the heroine of the novel, the love story of that song.  Even now, you are writing a line in your life’s story.

Okay, so why is this important?

As humans we relate to stories.

If I see a brand with a great story, I will be more willing to engage that brand.  People join the military to be a part of something bigger than themselves.  In other words, to be a part of a larger story.  This is the drive of the human soul, to be a part of the Great Story.

Now, what does this all mean?

One way to make a great product is to tell a great story.  Great books sell because of great stories.  Great art says something.  Great music tells us something.

If you are writing a novel, start by thinking up a great story.  Don’t worry about grammar now.  You’ll have plenty of time to worry about that later.  For writing a song, come up with a great idea to say (or an old idea said a different way).  The lyrics will come.

If you tell a great story, people will come.

So tell me a story.  Make me believe again.  Draw me in.  Give me something I can’t put down because I have to know how it ends.  If you can do this for your brand, you will attract the right people.

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