Finding God in Music

Have you ever listened to music in a different way than just plain listening to it? You know that fleeting feeling when you dig yourself in to the harmonies and melody of the notes and staffs, of the measures and chords; when you begin to disregard the lyrics of the song and listen to the soft caress of the acoustic guitar and the gentle touch of the piano; when you listen to the unified sound of an orchestra, the blending of beautiful choral voices. Haven’t you asked yourself how all of this beautiful tones come to form a single beautiful sound so pleasing to the ear that you can just close your eyes and let the music rapture your very being? I experienced that when I sang with my former choral group. I performed with an all-male group, myself being a Tenor. I miss reaching those extremely high notes and my conductor demanding me not to shift to my falsetto for the sole reason that it will ruin the blending of the other 3 voices. But how beautiful, how wonderful, how marvelous it is when we reach the epitome of the musical piece we were rendering.

I found sacred pieces the most beautiful of choral works whilst ethnic ones, wherein we as a choir had the specialty in, came in as a close second. My affiliation with choral music led me to delve into the classical realm of music. In the same time that I was introduced to the likes of Franz, and Filipino composers such as John Pamintuan, Fidel Calalang Jr., Anna Piquero and Eudenice Palaruan, I also came to know the beauty of the work born into the world from the minds of familiar names as Beethoven and Mozart. It was either I was listening to world-class choirs or I was being brought back to the past with the time machine of an orchestra, slowly, surely, bringing me to the royal courts of Vienna and Paris. Such was my amazement and awe with Classical Music, and how did I adore so much this beautiful form of art, without which our world would degrade into a much more bland and gloomy existence. I thought that this is the highest degree I would come to praise and magnify music, but still there was much more than just relaxing in your chair, closing your eyes and listening intently and attentively to each movement and transition of the notes. I found God in between those measures, I found God in between C Major and E minor, I found God in each stroke of the bow on the violin, and I found God in the resonance of the soprano timbre making itself one with the excellence of the tenor. Basically I found God in the most obvious place to find Him, in Music.

I first had this realization when I had the opportunity to perform Handel’s Hallelujah with the complete set of voices, female members of another choir present. It was a new experience for me, my ear being all too familiar with the male voice that it failed to recognize how much the female voice completes the entire soul of choral music. When we rehearsed together for the first time, it was as if I was lifted by angels, by the great seraphim even, to the closest possible presence of God. The unity of each note with its fellow musical notation was just heavenly. I understood right then and there how beautiful the music Handel composed is. I imagined that day when Handel finished his Hallelujah that the angels themselves sang in the heavens praising God for such an achievement. I tell you, it’s very much different when you perform the actual piece itself tan just listening to it. It feels that you are doing a world a great deal of help a more aesthetically pleasing existence in performing such awesome splendor, such majestic grandeur. How blessed did I feel that day.

Music has become the means of man to self-expression, much like the other forms of art are. But music is special in the way it connects to the deepest fibers of the human heart. When a loving song, a song for a particular beloved reaches our ears, it immediately strums the strings of the heart longing for its one and true love. Music also evokes tears, grief and pain, man’s effort to discard this emotion and at times a way for him to even wallow in that pain. Music has become part of the human person, of the human psyche, of the human being. It is much as part of us as the heart is. Imagine a world without music. Perhaps we might’ve just lost a part of our soul if that happens. Much like love, music makes the world go round. Music has become an imprint of cultures and identities. But ultimately, all good music points to the very beauty it emanates from, the perfect and highest degree of God.

Discovering God in Music becomes a way for us to discover ourselves also. We find our identity in the kind of music we listen to. I am in love with classical music and even with a little bit of pop and that is enough to say a certain degree of yourself, of who you are as a person. My love for classical music perhaps pertains to my rather reserved and reflective personality. I prefer calm and peaceful music to rather loud ones. Music points to our identity also. And in a way points to how we relate and familiarize ourselves with God, to how we know Him personally.

Music has become integral to the human attainment of peace and satisfaction. It accompanies man in his aspiration for greater beauty, that indeed such beauty exists and is very tangible, very much within his reach. That beauty so old and so new does exist and is very much alive, present in everything the eyes can see, the ear can hear, the tongue can taste, the skin can feel, the heart can grasp. That beauty is God. He is the total feeling of elation felt in the wonderful bliss of the concert hall, the complete sense of fulfillment among the different voices singing one song, the ultimate joy present in within the church walls as the faithful sing in resounding praise the glory of God in the highest heaven. God is everywhere. God is especially present in Music. Try and find Him, He won’t leave music’s thresholds but in fact will continue to transcend it until all of us are gathered to sing of the eternal praise of His name, His majesty, His glory, there together with Him in heaven.