To the musician, music is a language which expresses things human and divine. In its highest expression music speaks of great universal spiritual forces—of power and breadth and depth of thought; of harmony, reverence, purity, tenderness, joy, serenity, and peace. It conveys satisfying ideas of design, order, and rhythm; of soaring freedom and balanced values; of grace, beauty, and charm. Often its greatest appeal rests upon its directness, simplicity, and sincerity. Thus form, color, and content, through the medium of sound, convey impressions that lead thought to the contemplation of God.
When music expresses universal elements of true thought, it uplifts the listener. But when it expresses cheap sentimentality or emotional frenzy, when it is raucous, sordid, or empty of musical continuity and ideas, it lacks sincerity and stands for nothing more than mortal mind manifest.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, recognized the language of music and wrote of it in her Message to The Mother Church for 1900 (p. 11), "Music is more than sound in unison." And a little later she says: "I want not only quality, quantity, and variation in tone, but the unction of Love. Music is divine. Mind, not matter, makes music; and if the divine tone be lacking, the human tone has no melody for me." Not only the composer, but the interpreter of music needs to express "the divine tone" if he would convey its true message to those who listen. And the listener needs to understand the language of Spirit in order to gauge the full meaning of its spiritual message.
