Article May 12, 1951 Issue

THOUGHTS ON MUSIC

KENNY L. BAKER

"Music is divine. Mind, not matter, makes music; and if the divine tone be lacking, the human tone has no melody for me," writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 11 of her Message to The Mother Church for 1900. Only the consciousness that expresses God in pure and harmonious living is capable of bringing to mankind the true sense of music, the divine tone our Leader loved. She well knew the importance of music in our lives, and she turns our attention away from the dang and clamor of materiality to "the music of Soul" when she says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 106), "Music is the harmony of being; but the music of Soul affords the only strains that thrill the chords of feeling and awaken the heart's harpstrings."

Real music, then, must be that which is the expression of Soul, possessing the divine tone that alone satisfies spiritual sense. True music has its origin in Mind, Spirit, Love, Truth, and is governed by divine Principle. It expresses the harmony of Soul and the warmth and tenderness of everlasting Love. Humanly perceived, the music of Soul has universal appeal and is enduring and satisfying, finding endless and varied expression in our experience. But music from which the divine tone is missing, and which appeals only to the so-called physical senses, is not the music that is the harmony of being. The ofttimes discordant and inferior tones of mortal music lose their appeal when we begin to understand the harmony of Soul and see it for what it is, the activity of Mind.

But how do we hear this music of Soul? Is it by means of the human ear? Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 213): "Sound is a mental impression made on mortal belief. The ear does not really hear. Divine Science reveals sound as communicated through the senses of Soul—through spiritual understanding." And she adds, "Mental melodies and strains of sweetest music supersede conscious sound." Thus we see that it is by means of spiritual understanding that we hear and enjoy the music that Mind makes.

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