My role was to be the screamer in college marching band as a
lead trumpet player. I was loud and I could play high notes.
Screaming meant I was the guy who stacked chords and made an enemy of
whomever sat in front of me. I won’t lie. I loved it.
Music has a beautiful way of speaking on a level higher than
words. I've always liked the phrase, 'music is a universal language'. I think music
fills the gaps in our human emotions. Music has the ability to bring you
up or put you down. Music in its simple complexity of pitch, tone, and
wavelength, something only science can explain, resonates within us on a level
deeper than spoken words.
In college, I played for these moments. I played for the
moment of intensity that covered your arms with goose bumps. I played for
the moment of resolution, when you exhale because the dissonance is over.
I played for the interlaying of instrumentation that made chords
thick, rich, and delightfully overwhelming. I played for the melody that
makes you beg for more. Music spoke speaks.
As a screamer, I particularly enjoyed the resolution of a chord—the movement
from dissonance (an unstable sound) to consonance (a stable sound).
…When a resolution is delayed or is accomplished in surprising ways—when the composer play with our sense of expectation—a feeling of drama or suspense is created. ~ Roger Kamien, a professor emeritus of musicologyI twitch when a chord isn’t fully resolved.
The season of Lent can carry a tone of unresolved dissonance—a
longing for holistic resolution. Reconciliation.
On Ash Wednesday, we began the season of Lent with Psalmist's plea:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love…Remove my sins…Hide your face from my sins…Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence…Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Psalm 51Prior to receiving ashes on our foreheads, we confess—in the company of God and of one another, we confess. With each and every petition the chord builds, suspending the 4th, adding the 6th.
Lent is a time of intentional dissonance. It is a season of
self-examination, reflection, penance, and renewal. For forty days we
examine the layers of who we are. We call ourselves out on the things that
separate us from the love of God. We make efforts to better ourselves,
our habits, and our minds and bodies. We live in structured dissonance,
longing for the resolution.
The Good News for us is that the resolution has already happened.
God, in the person of Jesus has died, been buried, and raised. Our
journey through the season of Lent isn’t about waiting for the resolution to
happen, but about living in the resolution that is already being played out.
It is about the recognition of dissonance in this world, and ridding
ourselves of the things that distort the resounding Alleluia (yes, I said it)
of Christ. The choirs of angels and heavenly voices are ringing.
The trumpet is blowing. Christ will come again.
Take notice of this Lenten season. Rid yourself of the
dissonance of this world and stack the chord. Be a screamer.
Proclaim the crucified and risen Christ (yes, even in the season of
Lent). Don’t anticipate the resolution. Participate in it.
“Oh Lord open my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.”
(Psalm 51)
