Lately I’ve been thinking about the idea of harmony. What a metaphor.
There are few sounds in life sweeter than perfect harmony. Just check this out:
“Steal Away”, from Celtic Thunder: the Show
In Romans 12:16, Paul uses the metaphor of harmony to describe how we should live with one another:
16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.[a] Do not be conceited.
But here’s the problem: most folks in general don’t know how to produce harmony. The don’t teach you that in kindergarten. You might learn how to sing a specific harmony for a specific song, but most folks don’t up and take a music theory class for kicks. So how is harmony made? There are a few major points about harmony that I think carry over into life.
- Harmony can’t be accomplished alone. Each of us has only one voice. Harmony needs at least two voices! Similarly, we need each other. We weren’t made to live alone, we were made to live with fellowship and community.
- Harmony is not all the same. If voices are going to sing in harmony, they can’t sing exactly the same thing–that’s unison. Similarly, we are all different and can’t expect to be able to do all the same things. We have different gifts, or sing different parts, as it were. Which leads to the next point:
- Not everyone can sing the melody. Again, that’s not harmony. That’s unison. In typical four part chorus writing, the altos and tenors tend to get “boring” parts, often staying on the same note for a very long time, without the extravagant skips and scales of the basses or the ornaments and grand leaps of the melody, usually sung by the sopranos. But a chorus with only sopranos and basses can’t produce the full, rich sound of a four part chorus. The altos and tenors are needed! All the voices are.
- Leave room for descants and canon sections. Not everyone is in the same place at the same time. Some of us come in earlier, and some later; some sing different words; some alternate with other voices. We don’t all sing at the same time.
For some reason, we don’t seem to get this in life. But they’re things I’ve come to realise in life. So try it. Cooperate and live in community. Sing your part, and realise that it’s not always the melody. And don’t judge someone else for coming in “too late”–that might be their part!
