Some Thoughts on Music

Tonight we had our first meeting of the year for vocal majors. I went to the same meeting last year and was just as bored... :) At the end of this one however, I was very touched. They shared some beautiful thoughts about music that I really appreciated.

Isaiah 12:2

"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation."

2 Nephi 32:9

"But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul."

Joseph Young Sr. History of the Organization of the Seventies

"This subject came under the especial notice of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, who organized the first choir in the church, and who was a constant attendant at their singing schools. He recommended the Saints to cultivate as high a state of perfection in their musical harmonies as the standard of faith which he had brought was superior to sectarian religion. To obtain this, he gave them to understand that the refinement of singing would depend on the attainment of the Holy Spirit. That the combined talent of the sainted compositors, when united with those inspirations, will bring the compositions of tunes, that have their origin with the sacred choirs that sing the new song, in the presence of God and the Lamb, who join their symphonies with the compositors, that dwell with the Saints on earth; and when the music performed here, is acceptable to their spirits, they then cooperate with the choirs, in our earthly courts.

"When this subject is studied and sought after by the singsers of the Saints, with their whole hearts, their songs and anthems, and their ministrelsy, will soften into celestial melody, melt the hearts of the Saints and draw them together, as the magnet needle is drawn to the loadstone. When these graces and refinements and all the kindred attractions are obtained that characterized the ancient Zion of Enoch, then the Zion of the last days will become beautiful, she will be hailed by the Saints from the four winds, who 'will gather to Zion with songs of everlasting joy.' Then Zion will be free; and to God and the Lamb will be the glory, to Saints the boundless joy"

King Lear, by Shakespeare

"I cannot heave my heart into my mouth, my love is much richer than my tongue. And so God gave us music. And when the angels of heaven are bursting with joy, words are not enough--they sing!"