Here's a description of the rising and falling of the heavenly music: "It began on the right side of the audience, and rolled from there over the entire company of baptized saints in a volume of sounds resembling in its rising and falling, its rolling and sinking, its swelling and receding character, the rolling waves of the ocean when being acted upon by the wonderful force which produces the tides" (Otto on Woodworth-Etter). Others have described it as "marvelous," "extemporaneous," "spontaneous," "unimaginable," "heavenly," "inexplicable," "like a great oratorio of angelic voices," "a flowing forth of celestial harmony," "the harmony of heaven," "the very melody of heaven," "supernatural," or "humanly impossible."
According to the witnesses, in what way was this music supernatural, or humanly impossible? For one thing, it could not be reproduced, or imitated. Frank Bartleman wrote that "the 'new song' was altogether different, not of human composition. It [could] . . . not be successfully counterfeited. The crow cannot imitate the dove." It sounded more like some unknown musical instrument than a human voice. A. W. Otto wrote that "It did not at all appear like human voices, but seemed much more like the tones of some wonderful instrument of music, such as human ears never before heard."
There was perfect harmony despite the fact that the music was totally unrehearsed. "Such blending of tones, such perfect harmony of sounds, such musical strains, my ears never before heard, and I never expect to hear to again in this world under any other circumstances, not even from the most perfect band of music which human ingenuity can provide, and yet all these sounds were produced by a company of people which had that day gathered from all over the continent of North America, very few of whom had ever seen each other" (A. W. Otto). "They sang so perfectly, so harmoniously, so artistically as no trained choir could sing.
