Since today is Trinity Sunday, I thought I would make mention of how the number three can be used in music, as you’ll see in a few examples this morning. First off, composers can use the number three in the designation of which key they chose to write in. Sometimes you’ll see at the beginning of music what looks like little pound signs or little b’s. Those are what are called sharps (#) and flats. In music that reflects the triune God, a composer might wish to use three flats or three sharps, which would basically designate the number of black keys one would use on the piano keyboard.

The other way a composer might wish to express the number 3 is by using texture. If you recall from previous Music Notes, musical texture relates to how many musical lines have been created. Think of it like Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass. Some pieces might include parts for just Soprano, Tenor and Bass – thus, a three-part texture. The postlude has a three-part texture, if you don’t include the pedal. The pedal line in this piece by Bach, functions only as a supportive entity.  The real fun, and main thematic material, is in the upper three lines, played by the hands. In music, we call this trio texture. The English translation for the postlude is, “We All Believe in One God,” which is taken from the Creed. The original chorale tune, off of which this piece is based, has a much longer melody. But Bach choses to use just the first seven notes of the hymn. Why would that be of interest? It’s because the number 7 has typically been used as the number which represents the perfection of God. A three-part texture, with a seven-note tune is actually really cool because it may be a way that Bach was expressing the theology of a perfect  God (7) in three persons (3). It’s a way of confirming that Christianity is indeed a monotheistic faith. Remember, in the early Church, believers were being accused of being polytheistic, up until the Council of Nicea around 325 AD. It was there that the doctrine of the Trinity was officially established with the declaration, “We Believe in One God.”

Finally music can express the number three with how it uses time. Some note values can be divided into three units. Some music has a metrical structure that group beats into three, identifiable pulses – like the feeling of a waltz. Take for example the offertory anthem, which is in a metrical structure of three, and the hymn, “Holy God We Praise Thy Name.” Both of those could be felt like a Waltz, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, etc. Perhaps there are other ways music can express the “three-ness,” of the Trinity, but what music actually does is to help us express the unity we share as members of the body of Christ. In many ways, humans are trinitarian creatures – mind, body, and soul, but we share a single, common bond. We share the truth that God loves us all, indivisibly. Love can’t be divided into three or any number for that matter. Love is one, all-encompassing truth. No matter how “divisible” music seems in theory, it always equals one – the one common truth we all share, that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Soli deo Gloria!