Volume 30, No. 10                                               
March 6, 2005

The Clef of the Rock

   It was a high note in the history of music, and we owe it all to Guido of Arezzo, an Italian monk who lived between 990 and 1050.

   More than anyone else, Guido was responsible for our current system of musical notation, the arrangement of symbols that allows those who read music to perform a piece as the composer intended, even if they’ve never seen or heard the song.  It was an astounding development that transformed music.

   Long before Guido, there were several simple systems of notation, but they didn’t work very well.  So the monk set out to improve the most common one, which used “neumes” — squiggly lines that told singers when to go higher or lower.  Though the neumes worked okay for those who already knew the song, they weren’t much help to those who didn’t.  At the time, most singers learned music by ear, from singing with others.  It took years to memorize a musical repertoire.

   Then Guido refined the staff, the parallel lines on which notes were placed to indicate their pitch.  Today, the staff has five lines — E, G, B, D and F — which our music teachers drilled into our heads with Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (or Fudge). But back then, the staff had just two lines.  He added two more.  Suddenly, the staff clearly showed the relationship each note had with all the others around it!  

   Like most musical innovations, this one was firmly rejected by the older generation.  Guido was kicked out of two monasteries before Pope John XIX heard about the controversy and invited him to Rome.  When Guido taught the pope how to read music, he was hailed as a hero.  Soon after, he hit upon another mainstay of music: naming the scale degrees.  He called them ut — later changed to do — re, mi, fa, sol and la.  Te was added later.

   With the basic framework in place, other changes soon followed.  The five-line musical staff became standard in the 1500s, the current shape of musical notes was established in the 1600s, and many of the words and signs that describe tempo were finalized in the 1700s.   

   If love is the music of the spiritual realm, it’s Jesus who showed us how to make sense of it all.  Those of us who’ve experienced it often take love for granted but, to those who don’t know the notes and can’t decipher the signs, it’s as mystifying as a foreign language or a complex mathematical formula.

   If you think about it, the way  early singers mastered their music is the same way most of us learn to love.  We learn by heart from those around us.  We follow their lead, trying to handle the highs and lows, struggling to find the proper tone or tempo, and doing our best not to hit any discordant notes. Still, much depends on the quality of those who instruct us and, even when their example is sound, it takes years of practise to perfect.

   But learning the music of love is made easier when we let the clef of the Rock determine the pitch and tone of our life. Not only did Jesus embody love, He added dynamic, new lines to what had been known before.  It’s not that Every Good Believer Deserves Favour.  Instead, “It’s God who saved us and chose us to live a holy life.  He did this, not because we deserved it, but ... to show his love and kindness to us...  And now He has made all this plain to us by the coming of Jesus... who broke the power of death and showed us the way to everlasting life...” (2 Tim. 1:9,10)

   In essence, the New Testament is a guide to love that allows us to recreate the rich symphony of life, just as its Creator had intended. Even those of us who didn’t have good role models can understand and project love in a clear, strong way because Jesus shows the relationship we have with each of the others around us.  He brings new rhythm and harmony to our lives.

   On the scale of love, we’re transformed from one degree of glory to another because “as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him.” (2 Cor. 3:18)  We become love, and that’s music to his ears.

By Rick Gamble, published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the Followers of Christ church family in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications.  To receive these free weekly articles via email, send a note to sgamble@bfree.on.ca