I have for several years contemplated the issue of music and its ability to move the soul. This question came to my mind the other day as i walked past a violinist who was plucking out a very simple tune under an evergreen tree. There seems to be something very honest about music, especially instrumental music, that i can only describe as honest. It seems to confront the soul and speak truth to it, confronting it, or encouraging it if need be, in a way that nothing else can.

What I am particularly interested in is the difference between live music and recorded music. Few would argue that recorded music is superior to the same music live, but there is still some level of ability in the recorded song to move oneself. My question is this: is recorded worship music glorifying to God?

If in fact the praise album playing in the cd player is glorifying to God, then it seems the artist's worshipful spirit is somehow captured and reproduced in his work. If not, then what is different in the way that God's Spirit can be moved versus how man's spirit can be moved. For a person listening to music is certainly moved by the album.

It seems, then, that--inless we can get a reason for God's spirit being imune to such items--God receives glory from pieces of art as they capture some aspect of the human spirit in worship.

Thats rather cool.