Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying: "I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously.
Exodus 15:1

Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
Psalm 100:2

Sing Praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
Psalm 47:6

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Matthew 26:30

The first of these Scripture passages is taken from the account of the crossing of the Red Sea just after God has utterly defeated the army of Pharaoh, the second and third are taken from the Psalms, and the fourth is taken from St. Matthew's account of the Passion, just after the institution of the Lord's Supper. These are amoung the many hundreds of references in Scripture to the faithful participating in sacred song, something that has long been a part of the Church, both in the Old and the New Testaments. Since the human voice is the only instrument created by God, it is a natural assumption that it was preferred over man-made instruments for sacred music. (In music history, vocal music was always considered superior to instrumental, until about 300 years ago, when instrumental music began to gain superiority.)

His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.
Genesis 4:21

This reference, which is the first in the Bible of musical instruments, occurs almost at the beginning of the Bible, though it still is placed after Adam's fall into sin. In fact, Jubal, who is named as the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe, is removed from Adam by seven generations on Cain's wicked side of the family. From this fact, one can deduce that all instruments invented by the hand of man are in some fashion tainted by the imperfection of sin that resides in their inventors.

These imperfections can still be found in today's instruments, though they are all but forgotten in this modern age. The development of Western Music has often been hindered by significant inconsistencies that are inherent in the theory of music and sound itself. These inconsistencies were first notated and defined by Pythagorus, a Greek musician and mathematician who lived about 500 years before the birth of Christ. Pythagorus is much more well known for his discovery of the math Theorem named after him that countless school children since have committed to memory. The imperfections are involved with and rooted in the way that sound "works", most specifically when a person attempts to tune an instrument containing a range of predetermined pitches (for example, a piano).

Taking a look at a modern piano, one notices 88 black and white keys arranged in a pattern that alternates with clusters of either two or three black notes. A closer inspection will reveal that this pattern repeats itself every twelve keys, so that regardless of where a person starts, moving twelve keys in either direction will bring that person to a note that is in the same relative position as the one from which they started. In music theory, these notes, though they are at different pitch levels (higher or lower sound, as the case may be) they are thought of as being the same note, and are said to be one octave apart. Having tuned one note to a specific predetermined pitch level, a tuner can now tune the rest of the notes on the piano that are in the same relative position. The problems begin to surface when the tuner begins to set the pitch levels of the remaining eleven notes. Looking carefully, and with some experimentation, a person will find that if, instead of moving 12 keys in either direction, a person moves 5 keys in either direction 12 times, they will not only arrive at the same note from which they started, but will have passed through every one of the twelve different notes on the keyboard.

This distance of 6 keys is an interval referred to as a fourth in music theory, and is remarkably easy to tune. One might think that the piano tuner's work has been completed: having set all twelve pitches, he can tune the rest of the piano from those pitches that he has set. However, the problem that was discovered by Pythagorus now rears its ugly head. If a person completed a series of twelve fourths, tuning each of them perfectly, the note that would be the end result, though it is in the same relative position as the note from which he began, would not be in tune with that first note. This difference, for whatever reason, is officially referred to as the Comma of Pythagorus and is just one of several inconsistencies that appear when attempting to tune a piano.

Theoreticians since Pythagorus have struggled with various tuning systems in order to try to account for these discrepancies. One of the first systems, or temperaments, was referred to as the mean-tone temperament. In this system, the majority of the discrepancy was "hidden" in a key that was hopefully seldom used by composers. This would mean, in effect, that one note out of every twelve on the keyboard was significantly out of tune in comparison with the rest. Composers that utilized this, and other systems like it, often took advantage of the "out-of-tuneness" of various keys. If the composer were writing a piece that he wanted to sound particularly mournful or depressing, he would choose a key that was more out of tune than he would if he were writing a piece that was particularly joyful.

In 1722 Johann Sebastian Bach published the first part of his collection of pieces entitled Das Wohltemperierte Clavier (The Well Tempered Clavier, or keyboard instrument). This collection, to which a second part was published in 1740, contained 24 preludes and fugues, one in each of the major and minor keys. In other words, the collection contained a piece written in every key that exists. This was the first collection of keyboard music in which every possible key was utilized, and was written to exploit a new temperament, the "Well Temperament". Modern pianos are set in the Equal Temperament in which the disparities are distributed throughout the scale, with each interval being exactly the same. As a result, all of the intervals on the piano save one, the octave, are very slightly out of tune. However, we are so accustomed to hearing it that it hardly makes a difference to our ears.

The human voice, the only instrument created by God, is, however, not limited or encumbered by these problems. The human voice is infinitely variable within its range, allowing a choir to always sing perfectly in tune no matter the key or the intervals involved. This is possible not only because of the variableness of the human voice, but also because God equipped the voice with built-in pitch correctors (ears) that allow the musician to correct the pitch to the proper level. While there are many instruments that allow for infinite variation in their range (particularly the stringed and unfretted instruments), none of these instruments are able to introduce words, texts, and ideas into the framework of the music. Only the voice, God's invention, is able to do so, which makes it vastly superior to anything that man has been able to produce.

Please consider lending your perfect instrument to our choir, which has just started rehearsals. We meet every Wednesday at 7:00 in the church. If you would like to join, but don't feel musically capable, I would be happy to work with you on basic singing skills (absolutely everyone can be taught to sing). Please call me at church (294-0640) or talk to me after services.

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to His holy name.
Psalm 30:4