Music heals the soul
“One who sings prays twice.”
– Augustine of Hippo, 4th century (or so they say)
I am going out on a really, really, long limb and willing to bet that there has never been a time in human history when music did not exist. I imagine the earliest humans, trying to figure out food, fire, and communication, also playing with and learning sound and resonance. Two sticks beating together not only create sound but a vibration through the arms. Beat those sticks in a cave and you can feel the beat in your body, creating a different sound. Beat them in a valley and the valley echoes the beat back.
The earliest mention we know of a melody dates to 2,000 years before the Christian era (BCE) from Egypt. The oldest melody recorded is the Hurrian Hymn no. 6, which dates to 1400 BCE and was discovered in Ugarit, Syria, in the 1950s. You can listen to it here.
Music is even older than religion—any religion. And I can’t imagine a religion that does not have a musical tradition. In religious and spiritual traditions, music is a prayer.
In February 2023, for 12 days, students at Asbury Theological Seminary experienced what they are calling a revival. Others are careful to avoid this historically loaded term and call it an awakening, or an outpouring. Such an event, especially a spontaneous one such as this, is considered by many to entail particular attention by the Holy Spirit, who blesses and speaks to those who are present in a unique way.
Following a chapel service in Hughes Auditorium on February 8, students remained together continuing to play music, sing, and pray. Many remained through the night, and it then continued non-stop for an additional 8 days. On day 9, the university set a schedule. Overflow venues had been set up in other locations. Tens of thousands of people from Christian universities and churches lined up to participate. While the experiences people shared are vast and diverse, one thing remained constant: prayer linked with music.
I will not make a judgment on the sincerity or reality of peoples’ experience of this event. I am mentioning it because it is a recent example of the power of music to bring people together—to bring minds, bodies, and souls together—and to join our being with that of thousands of other people. Whether we sing old hymns or popular worship songs, joining our voices with others is a powerful bodily experience. We resonate with those present and also those around the world, for thousands of years, who have also sung in this way. Listening to a symphony in a space artfully created to make sound resonate a certain way in the body can be a similar experience.
When we add music to prayer, our whole body integrates. Historians tell me Augustine did not write that expression, but in his Confessions he does say similar things about music and hymns bringing him closer to the experience of God’s love. I’ve heard the same things said of megachurch music and, from an old friend, of the experience at Woodstock ‘69.
Music heals, restores, unites, and elevates us. No religion or tradition has a unique possession of the power of music.
