A Moving Sound

Sound from the Key Terms in Material Religion, by S. Brent Plate, talks about the difficulty of displaying sound visually. There could be a graph charted based on the duration and the pitch of notes.¹ The immaterial nature of the sound would be lost however. To chart notes on a graph would essentially be writing the song on staff paper. There are certain characteristics that are left out when the composer transcribes his limitless passion into a limited structure for the public. To properly study sound there must also be a study of “space—and relationship—between them.”¹

Sounds sets the atmosphere and is one of the five sense humans use to connect with the world around them. If I blind folded someone and took them outside, on Albright’s campus, they would feel the wind and heat from the sun but they would also be able to hear the sound of cars rumbling down the road, birds chirping in the trees, squirrels scampering across campus, and chattering of student which would all indicate to the person that he/she was outside.

The sound clip above belongs to a group of preachers that joined in with harmony. The setting of this sound clip is in a cafeteria during a lunch break. I walked down stairs and a four preachers were already down there singing. As more people joined in the sound reached and gathered more people to join in until everyone gathered. This is not quite like the call of the church bells that are mentioned in the chapter but the singing featured in the clip did move people to the cafeteria. Granted, they were coming to the cafeteria for lunch anyway, the sound still had an effect which caused people to join in rather than stand and watch.

The song is a well-known song that is sung often in many of the churches that these preachers attend. Because the song is well-known everyone is able to join in and because the song has been sung for many years the song bridged the gap of generations. I am a 22 year old senior at Albright College but through the sound of music I was able to join in and connect with the 62 year old pastor that was also singing. The song moved the crowd physically but also emotionally. After we finished singing that song there was a “praise break” then we went right back in singing another song that led to another “praise break.”

1 S. Brent Plate, Key Terms in Material Religion (New York: New York, 2015), 215-222.