On Friday afternoon in the Sydney Recital Hall Judy and I were part of the audience for the first concert of the Australian Chamber Orchestra since the pandemic caused such events to be cancelled.
Sitting there listening to the beauty of a Mendelssohn string quartet (arranged for string orchestra) I marvelled, as so often, at the seamless sound created by eighteen musicians who simply know their part thoroughly and listen to each other and haven’t even a conductor to control the rhythm and keep them together.
Then I was struck by the mystery of just what music is: How is it that these particular instruments are somehow caused to produce sounds that have a particular effect on us humans (and sometimes other creatures too, I believe)?
The concert had opened with William Barton performing his own composition based on the song Kalkadunga, which he wrote when he was 15. He is famous for playing the didgeridoo, but this time he used a combination of voice and guitar to simulate didgeridoo sounds, with the orchestra’s subtle accompaniment blending beautifully. One section consisted of him singing unaccompanied, and both language and tone were unmistakably indigenous, evoking an image of tribal elders expressing their spirituality in song. How does it happen that such a combination of voice and guitar could speak so deeply?
No doubt people can speculate on the effect of a person’s emotional and spiritual state at the time, make guesses about the associations certain things have in people’s experience, but it all becomes pointless in the face of the miracle which is music. Thinking of the mystery of this reality, it seems strange that some people baulk at accepting the mystery of God.
Two days later in our 9am service of worship there was a similar experience: We saw a beautiful sequence of pictures of scenes from nature whose particular beauty had been perceived by various members of our congregation, and skilfully captured on camera. The effect was enhanced by the gentle tune of “What a wonderful world” in the background. How is it that particular aspects of nature are seen as beautiful, speak to us of God? Again, this is mystery, mystery which enriches our lives.
by Bruce Hanna
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