Magness interviewed by Scripps-Howard

Our recent post about the use of the organ in Divine Worship shows how we at Liturgy Solutions view the use of instruments in the service of the Gospel. We have shown that we value traditional worship ideals as integral and seek to build upon them, but we also understand that worship can be fresh and unencumbered by tradition for tradition's sake. We believe in using the full palate of color and qualities that many instruments have to offer. We believe that any instrument can serve our hymn corpus and that congregations should be resourceful at all times, especially when challenged by the absence of regular organist serving their parishes. But we also are very concerned about trends that are taking place in our Synod where the Lutheran musical and worship heritage is being undermined or tossed out altogether. As I said before, our hymns and liturgy are our treasure, and to dismiss them is to dismiss one of the most valuable ways the gospel is communicated to the hearts of our parishioners.

Our own Phillip Magness, was interviewed by the Scripps-Howard News Service last week and really fleshed out what it means for churches to cultivate a confessional and liturgical identity in our worship what happens when that identity is compromised. The link to the interview is below. We welcome your comments.

http://www.scrippsnews.com/content/
mattingly-lutherans-and-worship-wars

Luxuriant Lutheranism - the organ on a pedestal

We Lutherans love our organ music, and rightly so. Hearing fine organ playing can be awe-inspiring. Parishes that have fine organs and organists to fully utilize them receive the great rewards that the instrument has to offer. The organ offers a panoply of colors, expressivity, and sensitivity in hymn accompanying, and of course, the great organ music of the Lutheran überkantor – J. S. Bach. Bach has always been my favorite composer, long predating my years as a Lutheran, extending all the way back to my childhood. The more Bach I hear, the better.

But recently we have encountered some problems in our American Lutheran Churches. There are many, probably even a majority who do not have the kind of organ or organist that would inspire such awe. Many a seminarian, after living in the beauty of the liturgical life at St. Louis or Fort Wayne, and hearing great organists like Henry Gerike, Richard Resch, Kevin Hildebrand and Paul Grime, have left that sublime atmosphere for a more mundane parish existence, where the organist struggles to keep an even tempo and who may have unpredictable, even contrary views on how things should be done. Other parishes, fewer, but still enough to rightly deserve our attention, do not have an organist at all. They have been looking for one, but cannot seem to find one. And the ones they do find are mediocre at best. What to do?

The organ is a great instrument, and it is always wonderful to have a good organist. But if we do not have either, we as Lutherans, may need to rethink our values. What makes Lutheran worship efficacious? Is it the organ, or is it the things that are played on the organ? Is it the chorale preludes of Bach? Or is it the chorales themselves, which place words and melodies on the lips and in the minds and hearts of parishioners for their spiritual nurturing? No chorale prelude can do that.

Is it possible that, without an organ at our disposal, we may need to be resourceful in finding ways to guide the congregation’s song? Perhaps the use of a combination of instruments, or one or two good singers from the congregation can accomplish this goal. Will it be as grandiose, as majestic? Probably not, but will it fulfill the admonition of Colossians 3:16 to “let the Word of Christ dwell richly in us?” Absolutely!

We Lutherans may be growing fat from the luxuries we have been afforded in this great country where our churches are not persecuted. Our “fatness” manifests itself in that we think it a travesty when we do not to have an organ in our church buildings. So, we have elevated this instrument to "king of instrument” status, placing it on some high pedestal in our worship life. We think the organ to be absolutely essential to our worship – that we cannot possibly worship without it.

But, how important has this instrument been in the history of the Christian faith? St. Paul never even knew of one, let alone the ancient Jews who were given the Psalms and encouraged to sing them. The early church never had one. Yet they sang canticles and hymns just as do we. All through the Medieval period, I understand that organ playing was not in full grand use. The Renaissance composers focused on a pervasively vocal art. No great chorale preludes were being produced at that time. However much the organ was used then, it was not until the Baroque period that we get a truly instrumental art that elevated the organ, through Buxthehude and then Bach (and others, of course). If I am a little inaccurate in my timeline, I think you get my point. Christian worship (and I include the faithful ancient Jews in this, who were saved by Christ's atonement) is 8,000 plus years old. Yet, the organ has played a really significant role for only about the past 400 years, and that’s a charitable estimate.

CPH has come out with a product called The Concordia Organist (TCO). This product provides prerecorded hymn accompaniments on the organ for congregations who do not have a real live organist. You can have an organ playing in your parish even without a person to play it. I view this product as elevating the organ to a level it does not merit. What’s communicated is that, if we do not have an organ, we must use this, because we cannot possibly worship without an organ. It is a symptom of our luxuriant Lutheranism. Well, I have good news. You can live without it! And if you are in this position, it might be a healthy exercise for you to live without it. You have the opportunity to look for the benefits that living without an organ can give! You can start by singing the hymns unison a cappella. One or two singers or a small vocal ensemble can assist the congregation in doing so. As you go, you might add a flute, simple chords on a guitar or a combination of instruments, even a keyboard. You might also begin to sing in parts.

Rather than neglect whatever musical talent lies dormant in your congregations, use them. They are your parishioners too and they need catechesis and pastoral care. Teach them what worship means as they learn to guide the congregation in song. Do not neglect them by employing a “sanctified” manifestation of Karaoke in your parishes. CTO is not altogether different than the canned music that soloists in evangelical protestant churches use to sing contemporary songs so they can sound a little more like Nashville. Think about it:

“You too can sound like the Fort Wayne Chapel! Just buy TCO.”

Is there not just a tinge of theology of glory at work here? Perhaps living life under the cross means, for some, getting over personal aesthetic preferences and considering the notion that unison a cappella singing can serve just as efficaciously in rendering a great hymn or Divine Service setting. But even more, it serves to catechize your congregation just as well, if not better than fancy hymn accompaniments. You do not need to be beholden to some aesthetic ideal that you experienced at seminary or a worship conference, all the while forgetting that the true treasure is in our sung hymns themselves and building a faith community that sings that treasure with great authenticity. Our hymns are an immensely valuable, meaningful, and profound treasure, no matter whether we sing them with an organ or not.

You do not need TCO. Sing your hymns. They are the true treasure. Do it with or without an organ. Use your pianist, your guitarist, your high school flutist, whatever. And when you do not have them, sing a cappella! Putting the organ on a pedestal is nothing more than style over substance. The hymns are our substance and sustenance with or without an organ. They are our true treasure.

Could TCO be helpful to some congregations? Sure. Is it expedient? Sure. But living without an organist and TCO may afford our congregations many hidden benefits as they strive to cultivate their singing voices and utilize other musical resources that may be of great value to their worshiping communities.

SOME NOMINATIONS

OK, I'm out of my sick bed - and am now in Schuyler, Nebraska playing for a Doxology conference. Thanks, Iggy, for starting off Round II of our discussion of "LSB After Three Years" with your nominations. I'll keep things going down with mine:

1 - Personal Favorite - By far my favorite new text in the hymnal is "All Christians Who Have Been Baptized" (LSB #596). Thank you, Jon Vieker, for translating this Gerhardt gem into English for us. And I think the pairing of this text with NUN FREUT EUCH is perfect. Historically, we sing this tune to tell the story of Christ with "Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice"; here, we sing the story of our baptismal life in Christ.

2 - Most Beneficial for Your Congregation's Piety - I would also say the above, but let me add another one here, which I think has been especially helpful for the Gospel at Bethany: "O Gracious Lord, with Love Draw Near" (LSB #599). Yes this is a new tune, and I was envisioning "best new texts to old tunes" with these nominations, but this hymn has filled a need at Bethany more than perhaps any other next text: for years I've been looking for just the right hymn to sing before the Rite of Confirmation, and now, thanks LSB, we've got it!

3 - Hymn that Most Effectively Catechizes - "The Gift Christ Freely Gives" (LSB #602) does a wonderul job of teaching the congregation about the means of grace, nurturing in them a Lutheran liturgical piety.

4 - Best Fit for an Old Tune - Another hymn that catechizes well is my pick in this category, as it sings like it was written for it's tune: "Jesus Comes Today with Healing". I've not historically been a huge fan of this tune, as I generally like a little more rhythmic variety in a tune, but the rhyme and rhythm of this David Rogner translation (of a Heinrich Puchta hymn) really make this tune come alive. A great marriage of tune and text.

5 - Text that Helped You Use an Older Tune - As I mentioned before, here I would agree with Christina Roberts and nominate "Christ Sits at God's Right Hand".

6 - Congregational Favorite - Have the people in your parish embraced a new text to the point where they associate an old tune now primarily with a new LSB text? It's hard to know what new LSB text has been a hit with the folks. There was a lot more talk about the new music in HS98 when it came out. Parishioners at both congregations where I introduced HS98 (Trinity-Peoria and Bethany-Naperville) loved "The Tree of Life", "What Is This Bread?", and "God's Own Child, I Gladly Say It", for example. They were all big hits. And there were others. So far with LSB I can only name one that is certainly on everyone's lips: "We Praise You and Acknowledge You". With LSB, we've mostly enjoyed having everything in one book in a most excellent layout. So I hope some Bethany members will help me out here and nominate their own favorites. For now, let me say that one possible candidate is "Alleluia! Jesus Is Risen" (LSB #474). Folks always liked the tune, EARTH AND ALL STARS, but many didn't care for the text. Regardless of one's thoughts on "Earth and All Stars", I think all would agree that here we have a more liturgically useful text - and with this text I no longer get complaints about singing this tune!

OK - I put myself out there. Those are my choices (for now). Anyone else want to play? :)

LIVING WITH LSB - PART II

As I mentioned in the last post, the need for LSB to unite LCMS congregations using different hymnals limited the number of new tunes in the book. Certainly as a musician I was more "jazzed" about Hymnal Supplement 98 (HS98) when it came out. So many new tunes! And the fact that the majority of those songs found acceptance into LSB demonstrates the high quality of music HS98 brought to the Missouri Synod.

And yet, as important as music is, I think LSB is making an even stronger contribution, because the LSB has brought so many good texts to our synod. And, of course, the texts ARE the hymns, and given that LSB is a generational hymnal, not a supplement, I think we should all celebrate the hymns that are serving the church so well in the LSB.

So, in the first post I focused on new hymns with new tunes. Now lets focus on the new hymns that are sung to familiar (or, at least, pre-existing tunes). What would you nominate in the following categories?

1 - Personal Favorite

2 - Most Beneficial for Your Congregation's Piety

3 - Hymn that Most Effectively Catechizes

4 - Best Fit for an Old Tune

5 - Text that Helped You Use an Older Tune - (here I would concure with Christina, and nominate "Christ Sits at God's Right Hand". Now we really sing YIGDAL at Bethany. "The God of Abraham Praise" is a FINE hymn, but is less useful liturgically.)

6 - Congregational Favorite - Have the people in your parish embraced a new text to the point where they associate an old tune now primarily with a new LSB text?

I'm at home sick today, so I'm going to ask our readers to kick off this discussion. (I promise I'll make my nominations as we go along...)

p.s. May all our friends have a wonderful Lutheran celebration this Reformation Sunday!

After Three Years - What Do You Think?

Many of us have now been working with Lutheran Service Book (LSB) for a full three years. So there has now been some chatter on the net about the liturgies and how they are wearing. From the moderate sampling of opinion I've read and heard, it seems that initial excitement about the Service of Prayer and Preaching has waned, with many folks returning to Vespers for mid-week catechetical services (the service seems to be working better for school chapel services). On the other hand, many congregations that only used one setting of the Divine Service from a previous hymnal are now reporting that their folks are using two, three, or all five settings in LSB. Indeed, one comment consistently heard is a desire for a "sixth setting". So, Liturgy Solutions will soon be providing one option for those who would like another setting.

But what about the hymnody? With so much of the successful hymnody from Hymnal Supplement 98 (HS98) included in LSB, there were fewer genuinely hymns that were genuinely "new" to the LCMS provided in this book. Though certainly congregations that had been exclusively using The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH, 1941) have many new songs to sing, congregations that used Lutheran Worship (LW) or that were "LW/HS98" did not get the usual full plate of fresh hymnody one expects in a generational hymnal. To be sure, the need to bring "LW" and "TLH" congregations back together under one hymnal necessitated this, but it did make LSB less exciting for many churches.

Nonetheless, there are a good number of entirely new hymns added to the LCMS hymn corpus with LSB. While we are still a couple of years away from knowing what the real "hits" will be - such as "Thy Strong Word" and "Lift High the Cross" and "O God, O Lord of Heaven and Earth" proved to be for LW - I think we are at a point now where we can begin to evaluate what hymns are working for us, and what hymns haven't proven to be as useful as we initially thought.

We look forward to your thoughts. For now, let me be brave and get the ball rolling:


A Hymn that Is Proving to Be As Good As First Thought - LSB #941, "We Praise You and Acknowledge You" was a hymn I knew the people would love and Pastor Stephen Starke is to be commended for this excellent paraphrase of the Te Deum. I continue to get requests for it! The tune for this hymn, THAXTED, is from Gustav Holst's "The Planets". So while it is a new hymn-tune for the LCMS, it is not necessarily unfamiliar. So let me add a follow-up in this category, this one with an old text but a brand new tune: LSB #874, "O Splendor of God's Glory Bright". My Liturgy Solutions partner Stephen Johnson has given the Church a real gift with this new vestment for this morning hymn of St. Ambrose. I also highly commend an evening hymn, "Lord, Support Us All Day Long", LSB #884. We sing this hymn, based upon the concluding collects of Compline, at Doxology retreats and it has worked well in all sorts of different settings using a variety of instruments. A great hymn to add to the prayers for any evening worship service.


A Hymn that Hasn't Met Expectations - OK, I know I'm sticking my neck out here, so let me just say up front that I acknowledge quite freely that what doesn't work as well in one congregation may be a great fit for another situation. That said, I must confess some objective disappointment in LSB #654, "Your Kingdom, O God, Is My Glorious Treasure". I really loved that hymn when I first played it, and it was one of the first LSB songs I introduced to my congregation. I thought it would really provide a boost to a summer stewardship campaign built around the theme "Till the Soil". The campaign proved successful - but the people never really took ownership of the hymn. Lots of folks remember - and speak approvingly of - the hymn I chose for a subsequent campaign, LSB #782, "Gracious God, You Send Great Blessings". But this one just didn't go over. I'll use it again, but I doubt it will become the "hit" that I thought it would be.


A Hymn that Worked Surprisingly Well - We actually sang LSB #669, "Come, We that Love the Lord" last week. I noticed that hymn in there when the hymnal came out, but must confess I really didn't know what that old Lowry song was doing in a Lutheran hymnal. But the readings last week (3-year) made it an obvious pick. So I went for it! And I even surprised myself with how much I enjoyed this hymn. Would I want a steady diet of this musical style? No. But just as it's OK for us to break out the percussion for "Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia" or get meditative with a little Taizé music as the appointed Word suggests, so I think there is room for some old-fashioned Americana. One of my sopranos may have thought it was a little too much on the "Chitty-chitty Bang-bang" side of things, but the people really bought into once they realized we were serious. And with the texts from Psalm 95 and Hebrews 4 this past Sunday, I can't imagine more appropriate words for us to sing for an Entrance Hymn. Yes, I'll be bringing this one out again in three years - and a couple of times before then. ;)


A Hymn We Haven't Sung Yet, But Will - I really like LSB #339, "Lift Up Your Heads, You Everlasting Doors". It is not the most intuitive of melodies, so I've held off on using it - especially since the congregation I serve has so many Advent favorites. But this is the year we're going to do it. I'm confident it will be a "hit". Friends who have introduced it to their congregations give it a confident endorsement. Let's hope I'm not wrong about this one!

Choir Director or Song Leader?

One of the many joys I have at Bethany is working with talented young musicians such as Susan Keller, our Associate Cantor, and Mike Vasilie, our day school music teacher and director of our parish brass. Mike is primarily a band director, and so he is grounded in instrumental conducting. Yet, as school music teacher, he now has two children's choirs and so is growing in choral conducting skills. A fundamental principle of choir directing we are working on is listening to the choir sing. This may seem like a "no-brainer", and is certainly "head knowledge" to most of us, but many church choir directors - especially children's choir directors - don't do as much listening to their choirs as they do singing with (and for?) them.

And yet if we really want our choristers to own their music, we can't be singing it for them. Sure, we do need to model phrases during rehearsal, especially to illustrate desired phrasing and articulation, and sometimes even the intonation of a tricky interval, but the choir that needs its leader to sing with them is at best "singing along" with their ears rather than singing with understanding from their hearts and minds.

Directors who listen to their choirs also do a better job as directors. They are free to encourage and evoke sound from the whole choir, instead of "leading" one part. And they are better able to fulfill their teaching role because they are able to give better feedback, evaluate challenges more accurately, and proceed with more productive rehearsals.

Musing about this made me think about our direction of the more important choir on Sunday morning: the congregation. Do we lead the congregation as choir directors or are we falling into the trap of being "song leaders"?

I posit that one doesn't necessarily have to be singing into a microphone to have the same suppressive effect on real singing by the congregation that sing-along choir directors have on their choristers. But certainly mics can hurt as much as they can help. And these two approaches can manifest themselves from the organ bench depending on how the organist makes the pipes "sing" for the congregation. Does the organist expect, encourage, and enable the people to find their voice? Or does the organist sing the hymns for the assembly, with the congregation along for the ride?

Certainly there is discretion here as we go about our craft. Sometimes the choir in the loft needs the director's voice on a key entrance or phrase - perhaps due to insufficient rehearsal time. And sometimes the choir in the nave, the congregation, needs an extra 2' or 4' stop and a simpler accompaniment to get that melody or a stronger, more detached pedal to get in sync with the pulse. But even as we allow ourselves the flexibility to do what is needed in every given situation, we must always remember that the musician leads best who listens most.

Are you listening to your choirs? Are you listening to your congregation? What you hear will tell you what you need to do!

p.s. PASTORS - are you listening to your congregations? Or do you speak their reponses for them? Do you turn your mic off for the Creed and the Lord's Prayer and say it WITH your people, or do you "lead" them through the liturgy like a praise team "leader"? You too should listen to your congregations. What you hear will tell you also what you need to teach your people.

Reasons to Sing!

This year I am blessed to work with a small choir of 18 junior high school students in our day school. They are a talented group of treble singers, who do a nice job of singing SSA repertoire - both accompanied and a cappella. They are the smaller of our two junior high choirs (the other has 22 voices singing 2-part mixed), yet forms the backbone of the group when we combine the two choirs to sing SAB/SAC repertoire. As an example of this group's talent, they are having little trouble taking on René Clausen's Psalm 100 - a piece usually sung by high school and college choirs.

The music is all fine and good, but I especially enjoy working with these kids because of their spiritual maturity. I've worked with hundreds of children their age over their years, but have yet to have a group that would come up with the following list for their "reasons to sing":

*To raise spirits.
*Sustain culture.
*Bring people together.
*Sustain them on their journey.
*Have an impact on their lives.

These are pretty good goals for any Lutheran church choir to have. The raising of spirits evokes the Sursum Corda of the liturgy: "Lift up your hearts!" As the choir assists the Office of the Holy Ministry, how wonderful it is for them to have the attitude of this holy exhortation.

Sustaining culture shows how much these kids love their church. They know that their church is something special, and that they have received an authentic tradition of worship in the music of our Lutheran family. Whether they are singing a chorale, Bach, Bouman, or a contemporary psalm setting from Liturgy Solutions, they are part of a living heritage - and love it.

"Bringing People Together" might be the goal of any choral organization, but in this context we are talking about something more than "building community". The Lutheran Church choir "builds communion" by magnifying God's Word. Through this Word we proclaim, the choir becomes a tool of the Holy Spirit, as He calls, gathers, and enlightens the Church, the "ecclesia", the "called out ones". This happened today as we sang "Listen! God is Calling", and proclaimed the Lord's forgiveness, comfort, and joy.

This Word we sing "sustains people on their journey" as the Word we sing stays with them throughout the week. The Psalm antiphons we sing often stay in people's minds and hearts, as often do words from hymn stanzas or motets or preludes we sing. Working with pastors who cherish the lectionary and coordinate themes with the cantor, the choir is often able to reinforce the preaching, that people may gladly hear and learn it.

And then there is the "impact" we have on people's lives. At first I chaffed at little at that one, because "impact" is a word often used by entertainment evangelists and can reflect a consumerist attitude on the part of the hearers. But we understand that we are delivering the real "impact" that God has for our lives: the forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus. The Gospel makes all the difference in our lives, and so we rejoice that we can use the gift of music to proclaim that same Gospel, that those who hear our song may know the comfort, hope, and cheer Christ freely gives to us from the cross.

And so this is what happens when we sing of Jesus, the Christ, whose Word is our very song: the faithful are gathered, spirits are raised, our communion is nurtured, faith is increased, and lives are changed, all through the power of the Gospel.

No wonder we want to sing!