Art Reading Scripture

Medieval Music Manuscript, Cluny Museum, Paris France

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, spiritual songs to God. Colossians 3:16

We know ancient peoples played musical instruments. Psalm 150 names at least seven: trumpets, lute, harp, tambourine, strings, pipe, and loud clashing cymbals. The earliest mention of musical instruments (which may be simply referred to as "sound tools") comes from Genesis 4:21, "Jubal; he was the ancestor of all those who play the lyre and pipe." Certain biblical people showed talent for music and singing: Miriam, David, Heman, Jephthah and Chenaniah. "Chenaniah, leader of the Levites in music, was to direct the music, for he understood it." Solomon is said to have composed "three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five." 1 Kings 4:32 Little is known about musical composition, instruction, or notation in the ancient world. Guesses include directing singers through a series of hand gestures or spoken commands, or notation systems that have been lost or hidden in written texts. One of the great losses from time's passage is that while we know ancient people sang and made music, we have no idea what it might have sounded like.

In the early 7th century the Archbishop St. Isidore of Seville, considered that, "unless sounds are held in memory of man, they perish, because they cannot be written down." Even still, music and memory is how many come to learn songs. Children and others who have not taken piano, voice or other musical lessons still sing. Bible Camp singing does not require a song book, and few, if any, need to visually read the notes to sing "Take me out tot the ballgame." It took another 200 years from the time of Isidore's lament before monks began to develop systems of readable musical notation.

The musical manuscript from the Cluny Museum in Paris comes from perhaps the 1400's, but is just beginning to look like what we might understand as musical notation. One particular thing to notice is that, more than simply black printing on a page to be translated into sound, the page is itself visually appealing for the reader of the notes. It includes an illumination of the ascension with Mary dressed in blue and the disciples gazing up into heaven. The page of notes and words is bordered by vines bearing fruit and birds. On the one hand, the creation of illuminated manuscripts was a slow process. If one was intent on creating a page for reading, it was important to make it visually beautiful as well. On the other hand it also might point to the idea of singing, musical performance, as engaging more than simply the translation of sound. For the performer, the act of reading engaged the delight of the eye as a stimulus to expressing the sound.

Keep the faith. Say your prayers. Love like Jesus.

Pastor Tim Bauer