{"id":2223,"date":"2016-09-01T01:09:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T01:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/2016\/09\/01\/where-does-music-come-from\/"},"modified":"2017-12-14T03:46:28","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T03:46:28","slug":"where-does-music-come-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/where-does-music-come-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Does Music Come From?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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One of the things I really like about Kinship Christian Radio is the music.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Yes, you\u2019re allowed a \u201cduh\u201d in response to that last sentence both because I have written that before and because pretty much everybody<\/i> likes music.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Well, we all like good<\/i> mu<\/span>sic, but we dislike \u201cbad\u201d music just as much or more than we like \u201cgood\u201d music. (To this day, my reaction to \u201cMuskrat Love\u201d by The Captain and Tennille is as violent as if I had been administered a steaming stein of Syrup of Ipecac.)<\/span><\/div>\n
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The thing is, somewhere there is someone who likes that \u201cbad\u201d music just as much as you like your \u201cgood\u201d music and is probably quite convinced that it\u2019s your <\/i>music that\u2019s the bad stuff and not theirs.<\/span><\/div>\n
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So, what constitutes good music is subjective from person to person and even within individual people.\u00a0 My favorite song last year is not my favorite song this year. (Granted, some music like \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d is timeless.)<\/span><\/div>\n
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Currently, I very much like \u201cSpirit Burn\u201d by Audio Adrenaline.\u00a0 When the music swells and the beat picks up, and they sing \u201cGlorify your name!\u201d if I\u2019m in my car, I am singing that line as loud as I can.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I even think it would make an excellent theme song for a revival that would sweep across the whole nation.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cGlorify your name! <\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Let your kingdom rule over our hearts! <\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Father, show your face! <\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Let the light of heaven shine from us!\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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It has an emotional impact on me, as well as an intellectual, and a spiritual <\/i>effect.<\/span><\/div>\n
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But where does music come from?<\/span><\/div>\n
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What is inside us that wants, even needs<\/i>, to sing?<\/span><\/div>\n
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Music is a human universal. Every culture that currently exists on the planet and (as far as we know) every culture that has ever existed has practiced music. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Disclaimer: At one time, there were reports that a culture called \u201cThe Ick\u201d (I am seriously NOT making that up.) did not practice music, but that has since been disproven. <\/span><\/div>\n
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So, since every culture on the planet pract<\/span>ices music, it\u2019s no surprise that every religion on the planet also involves music.<\/span><\/div>\n
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But that doesn\u2019t answer the question of where it comes from. Why do we do it?<\/span><\/div>\n
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There\u2019s been lots of conjecture by scientists who have desperately tried to force music to fit into the evolutionary mold, but it just doesn\u2019t work. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Mark Changizi has written a book called, \u201cHarnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man<\/span><\/em>\u201d in which he contends that music evolved to mimic the way we move and impart that information to others. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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And, even though Changizi says that in doing so music therefore conveys mood, his explanation and his theory fall flat (pun intentional) because music is much more than simple mimicry of our movements and moods.<\/span><\/div>\n
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There really is no satisfactory answer\u2014not from a purely analytical, scientific standpoint. Music is far richer and more complex than it would need to be to convey the simple concepts Changazi is talking about. And it really would have no clear-cut evolutionary benefit.<\/span><\/div>\n
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At its very core, music is spiritual.<\/i> <\/span><\/div>\n
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That\u2019s why when Bear Rinehart of NeedtoBreathe sings \u201cGod of merrrrrrcy, sweet looooove of mine, I have surrendered to your design\u201d in \u201cMultiplied\u201d, I am with him. I\u2019m ready to surrender to God\u2019s design, too. <\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cMay this offering stretch across the skies\u2014and these hallelujahs be multiplied!\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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And when Third Day sings \u201cSoul on Fire\u201d (which I’m pretty sure is the unofficial Allen Jones theme song) I want to be a soul on fire, too. <\/span><\/div>\n
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That\u2019s why when there\u2019s that drumroll as Kari Jobe sings \u201crolls of thunder\u201d in \u201cRevelation Song\u201d a chill goes up my spine and I am in absolute awe of the God of the universe.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Michael Graziano is a professor of Neuroscience at Princeton University and an admitted atheist who has written an article for the Huffington Post entitled, \u201cWhy is Music a Religious Experience?\u201d In it, while talking about Mozart, he comes within half a hair\u2019s breadth of admitting what I\u2019ve been getting to since the beginning of this piece.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cIn the deep logic of the music, I sense a presence. My brain generates a mind state, a persona, and attributes it to the music. Not the mind of Mozart the man, but a kind of soul that invests that particular piece. The piece has a persona. It has a palpable spirit, and I feel as though I can have a personal relationship to that spirit. The social, interpersonal, emotional machinery of my brain has been recruited.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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Music comes from the soul.<\/span><\/div>\n
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And it makes even an atheist come this close<\/i> to actually admitting that we have a soul.<\/span><\/div>\n
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We need to sing because we have a soul. Music is our soul crying out and we cry out because God designed us to cry out to Him. We are designed to worship our God and we are designed to worship in spirit and in truth. <\/span><\/div>\n
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And in those songs that connect with our very soul, with our very spirits, true truth can come out and our spirits connect with the Holy Spirit of God.<\/span><\/div>\n
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And that is glorious indeed.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Today\u2019s Praise<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
Come let us praise Him
\nLet us kneel at the throne of our God
\nThrough His son our salvation was bought
\nWith mercy and grace
\nCome let us bow down
\nIn His hands are the depths of the earth
\nWith one voice we proclaim His great worth
\nLord our God<\/span><\/b><\/b>And we will seek Him
\nOur rock of salvation
\nMorning by morning
\nWith thanksgiving we come
\nAnd we will bow down
\nWith creation we cry out
\nIn daylight and darkness
\nWe sing to the Lord<\/p>\n

Great is our God
\nGreat is our God
\nGreat is our God<\/p>\n

Lord of all nations
\nWe will stand at the end of our days
\nIn Your courts and declare Your great ways
\nIn spirit and truth
\nWe long for Your kingdom
\nBring Your thunder and gather the earth
\nAll who tremble will tell of Your worth
\nLord our God<\/p>\n

And we will seek Him
\nOur rock of salvation
\nMorning by morning
\nWith thanksgiving we come
\nAnd we will bow down
\nWith creation we cry out
\nIn daylight and darkness
\nWe sing to the Lord<\/p>\n

Great is our God<\/p>\n

Come let us praise Him
\nLet us kneel at the throne of our God
\nThrough His son our salvation was bought
\nWith mercy and grace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\u201cGreat is our God\u201d by Plumb<\/i><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
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