Praise the LORD with the lyre, make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!

Sing to him a new song, play skilfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

(Psa 33:2-3 RSV)

A few mornings ago, my wife and I were sitting on the front porch. It promised to become a beautiful early spring day. The air was still a little crisp with the cool of the past night, but the warmth of the sun just above the tree line compensated wonderfully. We could see hints of green on the limbs of a few trees. Hostas were peeking up through the soil. The forsythia at the edge of the lawn looked like almost solid balls of brilliant yellow.
Within minutes we heard a bird begin to sing about thirty yards from us in the edge of the woods. Soon we were able to locate the source of the song, a mockingbird perched on a low limb. For probably twenty minutes without pause, this little bird sang an unending, and to my ears non-repetitive, tune it knew, complete with ornamental trills and turns, octave or more leaps, exploring its full vocal and dynamic range. It was impressive. It is probably an example of the human tendency to anthropomorphize animals that one of us commented that the little grey bird sounded as though it, too, recognized the beauty of the day and was celebrating it with its most joyous birdsong.

Later that day, as I sat in the trombone section during a rehearsal of the seventeen piece big band I play in, I found myself identifying with the little mocking bird (my wife identified it as such; the virtuosity of the breed suggests its name). Music – without distinction by genre – is integral to my life.  Depending on my mood, while I work I listen to anything from classical to classic rock, from the blues to blue grass to rhythm and blues, from swing to salsa. If I don’t have access to a player, I listen to music in my head. When they were younger, my children would notice that my foot was tapping almost imperceptibly or my fingers were keeping time and would ask, almost implying by their tone that this was but another evidence of my weird dad-ness, whether I was hearing things again. But, like the little bird, music means the most to me when I am making it. When I play well (and I was playing well that evening), especially when I play with a group that coheres as a musical unit and even more when the group performs for an appreciative audience, I experience a king of satisfaction and joy, almost a euphoria, that I rarely experience otherwise in life. Musicians, amateur and professional alike, know what I mean.

Of course, scientific studies have shown the power of music. Listening to music engages more sections of the brain than any other human activity (https://www.npr.org/2011/06/01/136859090/the-power-of-music-to-affect-the-brain). Playing music offers even greater benefits. It alters the brain physically producing (1) improvements in long-term memory; (2) faster audio, tactile, and audio-tactile reaction times; (3) greater efficiency in integrating multi-sensory information; and (4) stronger executive function (https://www.inc.com/john-rampton/the-benefits-of-playing-music-help-your-brain-more.html), and (5) improvement in audio-motor connectivity (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170727105218.htm), among other benefits.

One body of research has demonstrated that empathetic people process music “as if it’s a pleasurable proxy for real-world human encounters and show greater involvement of brain regions associated with reward systems and social cognitive circuitry” (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201806/empathic-people-use-social-brain-circuitry-process-music). In children, music study improves speech perception and the ability to understand emotions expressed in the voice (https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/36967/unpacking-the-science-how-playing-music-changes-the-learning-brain).

Apart from these practical benefits of music, whether heard or performed, music has the capacity to point to God. I affirm the following statement attributed to author Kurt Vonnegut:

“If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC”

In many ways, I would argue, it is one of the most God-like, creative of human activities. An intriguing rhythm, a beautiful melody, a rich harmony, a compelling structure, stirring dynamics, and expressive phrasing – singly or in any combination – reach deeply and immediately into the psyche, often speaking more clearly to human longings, human nobility, human needs for beauty than words could ever express.
We need more music in public education. We need to cherish and nurture and participate in music in our churches. We need the transformations that God can bring about in human lives through honesty and joy like that in the song of the little mocking bird.

I am including in this blog a recording of one of the tunes the band (Reflections Big Band) rehearsed the evening after the mocking bird’s morning recital; you can hear more on our FaceBook page [“reflectionsbigband”] or our web site [“reflectionsbigband.com”].