SONGWRITING
A BEAUTIFUL THEME | Kevin MacDougall
My heart is overflowing with a beautiful theme ; I speak my composition concerning the King ; My tongue is the pen of a skilled and eager writer .
So opens Psalm 45 - a psalm written by the Sons of Korah , who were leaders in choral and orchestral music during the time of King David . Their eleven psalms are arguably the most “ congregational ” in the entire collection of 150 .
In the portion of Psalm 45 quoted here , we find such evocative poetic language . Such passionate enthusiasm propelling what is to come . A heart that is not merely satisfied , or even full , but “ overflowing .” Brimming and spilling out with something good and beautiful .
A theme .
Now , you don ’ t see the word “ theme ” all that often in the pages of scripture , but the Hebrew word ‘ dabar ’ is translated as such here . It ’ s a loaded term with a large range in translation , but it speaks to a collected or unified statement . A constructed whole . Occurring 1,438 times in the Old Testament , in different biblical passages dabar might be translated into English as “ word ”, “ thing ”, “ matter ”, “ purpose ”, or in many other ways . But I like the choice in the NKJV and NASB translations of rendering it as “ theme ” here in Psalm 45 . From the connotation of the passage , that ’ s a good choice . In the context of songwriting , the significance of a song in its entirety , the assessment of the whole construct of it , and the collected or unified statement of it as a musical piece … is its theme .
In songwriting , theme sits at the root of everything .
Even when it ’ s unspoken or unspecified . If it ’ s there , you can feel it .
It ’ s the animating spirit of any good song . The song ’ s motivating purpose and intention . The point of all the poetry .
Without theme , lyrics are just isolated ideas and phrases , loosely strung together . And especially so when it comes to worship music , where the songs are meant to express our collective … something .
That something is theme .
CHALLENGE : If someone asks you what your song is about , can you communicate that in a phrase ? Can you even do it with a single sentence ?
It ’ s almost as though songs with no discernible theme have no engine powering them . No place from which they begin . No direction they ’ re heading toward . Nowhere they want to arrive . And so , they don ’ t draw those singing them anywhere in particular . To sing along with them is to musically tread water .
But great songs are ABOUT something .
They explore a central idea . Each component