I don't specifically visualize any one thing, nor deal with synesthesia or anything of the sort, but if I were to ascribe a visual experience of authentic sacred music, it is "otherworldly." After all, the liturgy, as a foretaste of heaven, is "out of this world." (WOAH MAN)

I've not made this comparison before, but yesterday I was listening to Frank La Roca's O Magnum Mysterium on a youtube video which had images of the cosmos and it seemed entirely appropriate. The beauty, splendor, and awe of those images are paired synchronously with the beauty, splendor, and awe of La Roca's music. A beautiful altar and/or church building, draws the mind outside of worldly concerns in a similar way - and a beautiful liturgy with true sacred music, in a true sacred space (with the sacred visual component), is all a "match made in heaven."

With the non-liturgical styles that have encroached so many parishes, these visuals are incongruous. Without need for a list of offenders, you can easily call to mind an incredible amount of "church music" which does not jive with something like this:




Does music have to stand up to space-age photographic comparisons to be considered liturgical? That's a strange way to set the bar, but to suggest so implies a broader notion - does the music take our mind's experience to higher planes? Even the new-age piano music oft associated with Oregonian forest pictures falls short. They imply tranquility, but not transcendence. Music that is "pretty," but not sacred.

Great cathedral images draw our minds to the heavens. Images of the expansive Creation draw similarly. Sacred music draws our minds to heaven and to meditation of God.