Sticker Day!

Key to nurturing the liturgy in any parish is teaching the next generation the Lord's song.  This brings in not only the art of music, but the art of teaching as well.   As part of our consulting work, we share "solutions" that work with choir directors seeking to hone their craft.  Here's a report back from Emily Woock, Director of Music Ministries at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Elmhurst, Illinois.  She's a friend of ours who would like to share the great success she had with one of our ideas:

I was recently introduced to "sticker day" when Cantor Phillip Magness graciously agreed to let me observe one of his choir rehearsals so I could get ideas for my own children's choir. I watched as he placed stickers on the foreheads of his choristers as they modeled correct posture, answered questions correctly, or anything else that warranted a sticker. Watching this I soon realized that these stickers were not simply just an extrinsic reward, nor were they used as some desperate attempt to get results. Rather, the stickers served as visible affirmation of behavior and hard work that was expected at every rehearsal. Who doesn't need affirmation now and then? We all do. 

Excited about this idea, I resolved to try it with my own young choir, but decided to save it for later in the year once we had established expectations and the normal rehearsal routine. So last week while we were doing warm ups, I casually explained that today was "sticker day" and the basic principles- that they could earn stickers for various tasks today, and those stickers would be put on their forehead or hand, (not to be played with during rehearsal, of course) and that everyone might not get the same number of stickers and that was OK. Right after warm ups I noticed that only one of my kids was sitting tall, feet on the floor, music held correctly, and ready to go. Ordinarily I would have simply made everyone stand, but today I walked over, said "look at this wonderful posture", and planted a sticker in the center of her forehead. Immediately everyone else had correct posture. I never gave out another sticker for good posture. I didn't need to. That one little sticker was all it took! Their posture was fantastic for the entire hour. As I continued to give stickers throughout the rehearsal for various things, I found that even my very young and usually shy choristers were mustering up the courage to raise their hands to answer questions. The hope of a little sticker was just enough encouragement to coax them further out of their shells. It was wonderful to watch. I was quite pleased when rehearsal ended, both in how successful this had been, and how excited the children were. 

The best and quite unexpected surprise, though, came when the children were picked up. As I sent them out of the room with stickers peppering their foreheads, I overheard even my junior high kids excitedly explaining to their parents why they had stickers on their foreheads. They not only explained the concept of sticker day, but in many instances told their parents exactly what they had done to earn each sticker. So not only did these little stickers result in a fabulous rehearsal, but they helped further educate the parents about all that we do in choir! We won't have "sticker day" for every rehearsal, but I will certainly be using this idea more often in the future. 

Thank you, Emmy, for taking time to share your experience with our readers.  We look forward to sharing more "solutions" with you in the future!  

What Drives Your Calendar?

A choir member at another congregation was recently sharing with me news about her choir, upon learning that I am a Cantor. As such conversations often go, the exchange of experiences turned to numbers: how many are in each choir, how many in each section, etc. It was observed that, as expected, the numbers go down after Easter Sunday, whereupon she said something that stuck in my mind: "Even though we're done on Mothers' Day. We're always done on Mothers' Day."

Now, I am speculating here, but speculating based on experience - my own and also experiences my colleagues have shared with me. I suspect that Mothers' Day was chosen once upon a time as the "last day to sing" because the second Sunday in May seemed like a compromise between stopping choir at Easter and asking choir members to sing at the end of the school year and into the beginning of summer. I certainly have done this with my youngest children's choir, though this group now comes back each year for Ascension.

Which brings me to my question for the day - and the point I'd like to make. Yes, we are going to lose choir members after Easter. But this does not mean we should let the world drive the church's calendar. Over time, I have learned that if I schedule my adult choir through Trinity Sunday each year, more and more of them stay for the whole year. Yes, our school choirs have to be scheduled around the school year. So we do need to make adjustments. But even if half the singers depart, necessitating easier music, the visible and audible continuation of the choir through the Great 50 Days of Easter and at the great feasts of Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday will teach and encourage your singers and, more importantly, your parish.

It's worth doing. Keep 'em singing.

PASSING THE TORCH

Today at the WELS National Worship Conference we are off to New Ulm, MN, where we will have classes and worship at Martin Luther College. An institution of the WELS, they will showcase the fabulous new chapel they have built there. We will enjoy the day there, and then return to St. Peter this evening. (The conference is hosted at Gustavus Adolphus College because there is not room to accommodate 1000 people in the dorms at Martin Luther College)

Yesterday, the keynote address, "Passing the Torch" highlighted the role of the church musician as the one who hands down a tradition. This reminds me of my work in Africa, where Lutherans there eagerly desire to learn the hymns of our faith, and so treat me as some sort of esteemed elder who teaches them the family story. Whether born into a family or adopted into a family, someone who is truly part of a family wants to know the family traditions. Musicians serve the Lord's ministry by teaching and celebrating the family song, that they may also tell "the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done." (Ps. 78)

Rev. Aaron Christie, who is a musician as well as a pastor, encouraged us with five principles to help us "pass it on":

* Strive for a life-long pursuit of excellence.

* Proclaim the Gospel always in our music and our art.

* Be students of art and culture, and carefully apply your learning to the art of church music.

* Develop along with your art. Make the best of the various styles your own.

* Teach your craft to young musicians, and inspire them to be the next generation of leaders.

Seeing all the young people here at the conference, I think the WELS is definitely passing the torch. May all Christian churches learn from their example.

The Best-Kept Secret in Church Music

Once again I am totally impressed by the quality, organization, and spirit of the WELS national worship conference. I have been to many such gatherings of other organizations, many of them fine in their own right. But every time I spend a week with the WELS, I am reminded of Proverbs 31:29 ("Many have done excellently, but you have surpassed them all!"). That such excellence proceeds from a church body of but 400,000 souls is truly noteworthy. Clearly, these saints love the Lord's song, and, as we prayed in chapel this AM, desire "to worship in excellent, noble, and lovely ways."

There is so much that merits these accolades that I will not be able to squeeze them all in here between morning chapel and the upcoming keynote address to be delivered by Rev. Aaron Christie. But one highlight that must be mentioned is the outstanding opening concert last night given by the Festival Choir and Orchestra. Volunteer groups gathered from WELS congregations around the country, these ensembles performed magnificently under the inspiring direction of Dr. Kermit Moldernhauer and Katherine Tiefel. Especially memorable moments included a beautiful setting of "When You Pass Through the Waters" (Is. 43:1-3) by Paul D. Weber (published by Morning Star Music), Evelyen R. Larter's arrangement of "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel (Augsburg Fortress), Mendelssohn's "There Shall a Star", the Crucifixus from Bach's B Minor Mass, and Manz' "Even So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come." Liturgy Solutions composers Kevin Hildebrand and Jeffrey Blersch also had works performed: Kevin's setting of Jaroslav Vajda's incredibly moving text, "In Hopelessness and Near Despair," and Jeff's concertato on "Crown Him with Many Crowns" (CPH). Both of these works were excellently performed, as was John Rutter's Psalm 146. Above all, this reviewer was particularly moved by Brad Holmes "Star in the East". This should not surprise my friends who know my love for Sacred Harp music! :)

More to come. It is now time for the keynote address, "Passing the Torch." The hymn festival last night was loosely themed on "passing the joy of our Lutheran heritage to the next generation." It'll be good to discuss this, and we need strategies and motivation for training up all those who are new in the faith in the Lord's song - whether young or old. But it'll be great after discussing this to get back to enacting it, both here at this conference and back home in our congregations. And with 1000+ participants here at this conference, there will be a lot of places after this conference where the Lord's song will be sung with greater nobility, excellence, beauty, and joy!

GREETINGS FROM THE WELS NATIONAL WORSHIP CONFERENCE

It is a great day here in St. Peter, Minnesota, as musicians and pastors are gathering for the triennial WELS National Music Conference. Phillip Magness and Stephen Johnson are both here to make presentations, and also have set up a display booth in the vendor's area. We are so happy to be here, as the Commission on Worship for the WELS always does such a fantastic job.

If you are here, come by, say hello, and sign up for a free Liturgy Solutions download of your choice!

The Hubris of Contemporary Worship

A couple of weeks ago my junior high choir sang a Kyrie by 16th-century composer Leonhard Lechner for the Divine Service. They sang it AS the Kyrie, so the assembly stood for prayer as the choir sang this. It was sung as originally composed, in beautiful 3-part a cappella counterpoint, and so we experienced the music as it was intended and conceived by the composer. Judging from comments I received afterwards - including from a young mother who exclaimed how much her baby enjoyed the piece - I dare say it worked as well for us in 2011 Chicagoland as it did in 1560s Germany. My young choir enjoys singing it as well.

And yet many in the church today believe that both congregations and singers, especially young ones, can only connect with the most recent of musical constructs. If something historic is done, then it at least needs to be done in a "contemporary" way. Now I am all in favor of new interpretations of existing melodies. It is a time-honored church tradition after all, and one of the strongest arguments for using traditional hymn melodies is their objective strength, i.e. they are sturdy enough to "hold up" various styles and musical treatments.

But it struck me after the service that all this emphasis on "new", "fresh", and "contemporary" assumes that somehow singers and congregations today are different than those of previous generations. Somehow what has served the Gospel well for dozens of years and even dozens of generations can no longer "work" today. No reason is really ever given for this, it is just assumed that "that was then, this is now." But do we really have different chromosomes, brain cells, and hearts today? Has our technology or our culture really changed us that much? Or are we in 21st-century America just full of ourselves. I think it is the latter. The church suffers because of it. The proclamation of the Gospel suffers because of it.

I say this as a composer, an improvisor, and as a church musician who embraces the musical developments of our age: let us constantly learn from the great musicians who have gone before us, and have the humility to let their voices speak. They usually have much better things to say than we do.

Another Solution

This video from Incarnate Word Lutheran Church - a mission congregation outside of Detroit - doesn't have much to watch, but is definitely worth a listen. Here the congregation's song was led this past Sunday by guitar, oboe, flute, and violin. This mission congregation meets at a local school, and so has no organ. They use piano, guitar, and various instruments each week. So here is another example of how many "solutions" there are to accompanying the Lord's song without organ. No karaoke required!

We will be publishing several accompaniments written for piano & winds by the arranger, Terry Herald. He asked me to note that the microphone was placed a little too close to the oboe and so the recording balance was a bit off. Oboe comes across stornger that it really was; congregation weaker. He'll get the mic a little closer to the congregation next time. He also wanted me to mention that the particular musicians couldn't see his cues for breaths between stanzas, due to where he was seated and the subtlety of trying to direct from the guitar. Still, this video shows how readily even a small congregation (20-30) can be led by all sorts of different instruments, so long as the musicianship is about the SONG and not about the instrument.

This arrangement and the ones we will be publishing (we can't put this one up due to copyright restrictions) are very flexible. They can be done with piano or organ for the harmonic part (and/or guitar in some cases), and the melodic parts can be realized by various combinations of instruments. A clarinet could easily have substituted for oboe, for example. And one of the instrumental parts could have been omitted as well. Also, a bass instrument can be added for additional support.

We look forward to sharing Terry's music with you over the months to come, as we seek to offer more "solutions" for leading the Lord's song according to the talents of your local musicians.

FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION

This past Sunday we sang "Seek Ye First" as an Offertory. At one of the services, our Schola Cantorum (3rd-6th grade parish choir) was the choir for the liturgy, and so in addition to the other things they sang I had them add the traditional descant to "Seek Ye First" on the last stanza of the hymn.

After the service, a father of one of the choristers came up to me and excitedly told me how much he loved that descant. Turned out he had sung it himself as a boy. Even though this hymn was written in the 1960's, there is now a tradition behind it that connects the generations.

There are other times in our parish life where kids sing something the parents have sung. Every three years on Christmas Eve we do the Quempas Carol with the children, for example. Some of this music is newer, like the famous Willcox descant for "O Come, All Ye Faithful"; other pieces are centuries old, like Bach's "Zion Hears the Watchmen Singing". Our life together in Christ is manifested and celebrated as adults enjoy hearing the next generation sing favorites from their youth.

How much of this do we miss out on when we pick new music? Do we stop and ask ourselves what would we sing if we weren't doing this new piece? Is the new piece really better from the hearer's standpoint? Or is it just something fresh for the director? What is really best for the singers and the hearers? I think we should ask these questions.

And churches that don't share the living tradition of the church's song with their children have some more critical questions to ask themselves. What are their kids missing out on? And what are the adults missing as well? And are any of the new things they are doing something that the next generation will want to sing or hear?

EASY SOLUTIONS

Different parishes at different times need different "solutions" to the musical challenges and opportunities provided by the liturgy. We try to offer a wide variety of options on the site, knowing that there is no one-size-fits-all "solution" for any given text. That said, even a parish with a high level of artistic activity needs easy options. And so we do try to lean more toward providing "music for common use" rather than "high art" on the site.

One of the things that we are doing more often is simply putting up something that works well with the hymnal accompaniment. The handbell accompaniments for DS III we put up last year are an example of that, as are the brass parts for the DS IV Gloria I put up recently. Sometimes we aren't looking for a concertato setting of a hymn, or some new text-painting harmonization. With one rehearsal and many irons in the fire, it is often helpful just to have a trumpet part that "goes with the book".

The latest of such offerings went up today: a simple descant for LSB #819, "Sing Praise to God the Highest Good". A very parish-friendly descant, it only goes to a high F. And yet it still cuts through thanks to the tessatura of the melody. Most importantly, the organist can "play from the book", making this an easy adornment to add to the service. Similarly, we'll be putting up several instrumental descants & countermelodies by Terry Herald this spring that also "work with the book".

We're putting these things up because they work for us. We hope they work for you!

Solutions In Your Hymnal

Today we offer a guest column, which readers of Rev. Larry Peters' excellent blog, Pastoral Meanderings, have already seen. Larry has given his permission to run his article here, which we are glad to do because it so well supports one of the chief aims of this blog: to help musicians and pastors discover and explore the treasury of resources available to us for preparing authentic Lutheran worship. Almost all of the music published on our website is written to support the use of hymns & lectionaries of the Lutheran Service Book. (Which therefore means the music works well with other Lutheran hymnals, as our many WELS friends have discvoered.) Pastor Peters here offers an excellent outline of how to make the best use of this book. Whatever hymnal you use, this article will renew your appreciation for your hymnal, and help you explain its purpose and benefits to others.

THE FULLEST USE OF OUR RESOURCES
Rev. Larry Peters

Often the problem with "traditional" worship is not that what is done is bad but that it fails to exploit the full measure of the resources provided by the hymnary, lectionary, and liturgy of the Church. Those who yearn for creativity are, in some respects, right in their condemnation of of "traditional" worship as being boring or routine. But the fault lies not with the hymnal or liturgy. The fault usually lies with the people planning and conducting the Divine Service. In our busy lives it is easy to fall back upon the book and use it because it is there. In this respect many congregations using the hymnal are not technically "liturgical." I write this not to condemn but to encourage a more full use of the inherent resources of the hymnal, liturgy, and pericopes.

I forget where I read it that if you are using these resources fully, only something between 12-15% of the time on Sunday morning carries over from week to week. Block out the sermon, the readings, the collect, the hymns, and the liturgical options within the Divine Service and you see how the figure is achieved. When we use all of these resources to their fullest measure, then it is true. When we fail to use these resources fully, this figure may still be true but you would hardly recognize it while sitting in the pew.

Lets begin with the lectionary. Lutheran Service Builder allows you to print out all the pericopes on one sheet (Introit, Collect, Psalm, Lessons, Gradual, Verse). It is great to have these texts together and to spend time looking at them more fully before sermon and liturgical choices are made. You can do the same thing without Lutheran Service Builder but it takes just a bit more work. The point is that by immersing yourself in these texts you are better equipped not only to preach them but to use them in the Divine Service.

From the lectionary I always go to the hymnal. LSB has a marvelous hymn selection guide and you can use Lutheran Service Builder to locate hymns through its digital concordance to the hymnal but nothing replaces you own familiarity with the texts. I believe that praying the texts of hymns is important devotionally for you and is the greatest tool and gift when planning for the Divine Service. If you know the pericopes and you know where your sermon is going, then the next step for connecting the dots is to know the hymnal well enough that hymn choices are already flowing through your mind as you make it through the pericopes and sermon preparation.

I might say something here about tracking your use of hymns. It is easy for the congregation to be reduced to using only 25% of the hymns in the book. You want to use a combination of many familiar with one or maybe two new or less familiar tunes. Given the desire to satisfy people and working within the limitations, it is not uncommon for parishes to know only a small percentage of the hymns in the book -- I knew one parish where only about 12 tunes from LW were used! This is a problem that needs to be addressed. If you do not know these tunes, set up a plan and program to learn them -- week by week. Use soloists to sing them as preservice music, as the offering is gathered, or during the distribution. The choir can do the same thing. Warm up the folks before the liturgy begins and use these less familiar hymns to stretch their voices. The only way a new hymn becomes a favorite is through frequent use. Once you introduce a new hymn, use it again through the coming month so that its text and tune are embedded into the memory of the people.

Finally, the liturgy is addressed. What season are we in? What options are inherent to the season (omission of the Gloria in Excelsis and Alleluia during Lent, for example)? What additional choices are there to be made (offertory, how to use the Psalmody, post-communion canticle, etc.)? As you flesh out the choices for the Divine Service you also begin to see how the hymn possibilities may fit (entrance hymn, hymn of the day, distribution hymn, sending hymn, etc.).

The goal is to have it all fit together as a seamless garment in which nothing seems out of place or out of character. In this way the fullest resources of the hymnal, lectionary, and church year flow together toward a common goal and purpose in the Divine Service. I do this several times a year for 1/3-1/2 of the Sundays of the year so that I am always ahead. It works for me. Saturday night is the one thing that hardly ever works. If you cannot plan months in advance (for the sake of your parish musician), at least plan one month ahead.

The hymnal is a tool. If it is unfamiliar to you as the Pastor or parish musician, it will most certainly be unfamiliar to your people and an uncomfortable resource. If you know it and use it as one who knows it inside and out, then it will encourage the people in the pew to use the full resources of the book in their family and individual devotional lives as well as Sunday morning. Just do it...

SO WHAT'S WORKING FOR YOU?

Ah, Advent. Prepare, prepare! The busiest weeks for most of us are actually done now. I always get a chuckle when people come up to me the week before Christmas and say "you must really be busy right now!" I enjoy telling them that the first two weeks of Advent are much more hectic for me than the last two. Even with all my summer worship planning, the need to finalize arrangements, book practices, and get music to musicians at the same time Advent services and the school Christmas program are added to my plate puts me in overdrive.

But Advent is a wonderful season - definitely worth talking about. And yet it is so short while we are so busy that we church musicians and pastors don't talk about it as much as we should. So what's working for you?

Here's a few things that have been Advent blessings at Bethany so far this year:

*A Bach Cantata (#140, Wachet Auf) for our first Advent Vespers.

*The return of Schalk/Vajda's "Light the Candle", which we sing for the lighting of the Advent wreath.

*The wide amount of variety available at Liturgy Solutions for this time of year. It really is amazing how much Advent music we've got up on the site. Drawing from the catalog, I've used settings by Hildebrand, Blersch, Johnson, and Sonntag so far this year.

*Our Schola Cantorum kids kicking off our second Advent Vespers with Allan Mahnke's "Fling Wide the Gates". (Yes, we sing lots of things around here that aren't LS - chuckle)

*Our sermon series: "Christmas with Isaiah", which runs from the beginning of Advent through Epiphanytide, using the appointed Old Testament lessons from the Three-Year Lectionary.

*Singing "Prepare the Royal Highway" with the 'old' setting from LW. (Still using the LSB text). The people really love this hymn, and we've tried it with the LSB/LBW rhythm, but folks prefer it in 4/4. Here's a video using my arrangement from "Hymns for the Contemporary Ensemble", published by CPH. That series has been discontinued, but I'm thinking about starting that project up again at LS.

Speaking of LS projects, look for several new instrumental arrangements for congregational accompaniment to be uploaded by New Year's. These are for woodwinds & keyboard and are by professional composer/arranger Terry Herald, whom we are proud to introduce as the newest composer in our 'stable'. Welcome aboard, Terry!

So, that's a taste of what's working for me right now. What's working for you?

LOOK, MA, NO ORGAN!

We've discussed much the merits of the organ - particularly a pipe organ - for the leadership of communal singing. There is nothing like wind moving through pipes for leading a large number of human voices. And the text-painting capabilities of "The King of Instruments" are unquestionable.

But the organ is but a tool. A tool to serve the Lord's song, which consists of the words & the melody. Hymnody is not art music; it is folk song. And sometimes the organ gets in the way - especially when it is in the wrong hands (which, sad to say it often is). Some even advance the idea that they "need" to have an organ in order to sing hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs - even though Christians did fine without them until just a couple of centuries ago, and even as most Christians seem to do just fine without them, including many Lutherans.

Ah, but our great LUTHERAN hymns surely need the organ, some might say? Again, it is certainly wonderful to sing our chorales with organs. At least good organs in the right hands. But they are at their best when they accompany the singing. Which means the singing should stand on its own. Unfortunately, in many places our singing has become dependent on the organ. Rather than walking side-by-side, like two friends going to the store, the organist drags the congregation around. But the congregation should not be subserviently walking two paces behind. Indeed, the congregation should be free to get to the store on her own. (The only thing the Bride of Christ needs is the Bridegroom, which is the Word of God, not the sound of pipes). If our hymnody is to remain a living tradition, it must maintain the character of folksong. Folksong enjoys accompaniment, but can always stand on its own, a cappella.

In Congo, I was pleased to share our living tradition of Lutheran folk song with our brothers and sisters in Christ, who readily embraced our hymnody and who eagerly desire to learn more of it. Their instruments are not organs, but drums and the occasional recorder or imported Western electric keyboard or bass guitar. Because their music is primarily lyrical, they readily learned and adopted our hymnody when it was taught to them as folk music, not art music.

So take a look, have a listen, and let us know what you think of this version of "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" from our brothers and sisters in Brazzaville, Congo:

PROPERS IN THE SUMMER

The main purpose of Liturgy Solutions is to help church musicians proclaim the appointed pericopes of the day that are normally sung. The Lutheran Divine Service is very flexible, and so the particular propers used from parish to parish vary. Some congregations use the appointed Introit to begin the Entrance Rite, others sing an Entrance Hymn instead, and still others sing the Psalm of the Day at that point. Similarly, between the first reading and the Epistle, some sing the Psalm of the Day, others sing the appointed Gradual. Some parishes use the appointed Verse before the Gospel; others use the setting in the service book provided as an alternative, in effect making the Verse an "ordinary" instead of a "proper". Then there is the Hymn of the Day, sung by the congregation. In Lutheran circles, this hymn is appointed and so in a way is one of our "propers". Hence, it is more likely to receive special treatment by the choir, and so we offer hymn stanzas to support that practice.

Most parishes establish a certain pattern about all this. Either the choir is in the habit of singing the Verse or they aren't. The do hymn stanzas or they don't. The Psalm of the Day is used or it is not. Some others, including mine, vary the practice. Some Sundays a choir singing the Verse of the Day, some Sundays the congregation sings what is in the hymnal. We usually sing the Psalm of the Day, but sometimes the choir sings a Gradual. And there about seven different ways we sing the Psalm, so there is variety there as well.

Whatever your custom is, summer usually means a break for your choir. Even where there is a summer choir, it is often a different, smaller group and so a different approach is needed. In places where there is a strict pattern for when the choir sings and when they don't, summer provides an opportunity to do something different. Congregations - and musicians - are more accepting of doing something different because of the season, especially if it is a simple variation. The advantages of this are two-fold: one can readily find something accessible for your musicians (who are fewer and rehearse less in the summer) and the congregation can learn through experience that the pattern of worship is about the Word, not when "it's time for the choir to sing."

Here are a couple of examples. In a place where the choir doesn't take stanzas on the Hymn of the Day, have a summer quartet sing a stanza or two each week using a simple SATB setting such as found in TLH. It'll be easy to put together, and the congregation can readily understand that "they're not doing an anthem because it is summer." (grin) As the people become accustomed to the blessing of this practice, you might continue it on occasion in the fall with your full choir, using a Bach chorale for a stanza on Reformation Sunday or even a creative setting from Liturgy Solutions. (Had to get that in there!)

Or maybe you are in a place where the Psalm is always chanted, and you have no choir for the summer. Once a month, the Psalm could be done instead in a song setting by soloist, with the congregation singing a refrain. Again, since there is no "anthem from the choir", people will be more accepting of this in the summertime. And, once they experience the blessing of the practice, they will be ready to have the psalm sung this way on occasion during the year.

What do you do with your propers in the summer?

What a Great Choir!

So now we are on to Trinity Sunday. Because it falls on Memorial Day weekend this year, many choirs in the church won't be singing. But not at Bethany! I may have the most dedicated - as well as one of the most talented - groups in the whole Missouri Synod. Huzzah! I am a cantor who is indeed richly blessed. :)

I did poll my group to make sure it was going to work for us to sing this Sunday. Turned out more were available for Trinity Sunday this year than Pentecost! As I said in my last post, I had to craft Pentecost for a smaller choir this year (we had 20). It did go very well, though, thanks be to God. I received compliments on the service throughout the week and am looking forward to the service being loaded onto our podcast. (We had a few glitches, to be sure, but, as Robert Preus quipped, "It wouldn't be a Lutheran liturgy without at least one mistake!")

Anway, this Sunday we'll have 29 out of my 36. :) And they will sing for all of both the 9:00am and the 11:15am services. Just like the brass group. (I told you they were dedicated!) On the Entrance Hymn, "O God, O Lord of Heaven and Earth" the choir will sing my Liturgy Solutions setting of stanza 3. The Verse of the Day will use the Caribbean "Halle, Halle". The Voluntary will be Ernani Aguiar's "Salmo 150" (published by EarthSongs), a staple in the modern concert repertoire. It is one of the choir's favorites and a great way to end the choir season. And, yes, we sing it in Latin. Oh yes, one more piece - which we sang at the beginning of the year - the choir & the brass will lead the congregation in Carolyn Jennings' magnificent concertato on her hymn "Voices Raised to You We Offer".

Alleluia, indeed!

HEAR FOR YOURSELF

The LCMS Commission on Worship has now posted recordings and transcripts of the proceedings at MtCow: http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=16698

I will certainly be continuign my commentary here, but for those who want to digest a little more in the meantime, I am happy to report that you may now proceed ad fontes.

I hope all of our readers and their congregations are having a joyful Eastertide.

Christ is risen!

SINGING WITH LIFE

Recently a visitor to Bethany-Naperville commented positively on the choir, noting that "their singing had life to it."

Their song indeed has life. It is a privilege for me to conduct Proclaim (the adult choir at Bethany). They have hearts for the Lord, and a desire to use their musicianship to magnify His Word. Accordingly, they work with me on polishing sound and developing their instrumnets in a way that many church choirs would resist.

So often church choir members consider their service only to be their personal sacrifice of praise. At best, they then see their sacrifice as an offering on behalf of the assembly. I call that "vertical worship". It's just them & Jesus - and we get to watch. By God's grace, though, I am blessed to be at a place where the choir is devoted to the Lord's ministry, and so they understand their service to be not only their sacrifices of thankfulness and priase, but also a participation in the proclamation of His Word (hence the name). I call this "cruciform worship", because it is horizontal as well as vertical. The choir sings to God and to the assembly, sharing the gifts they receive from Him.

This makes all the difference on so many levels.

More Snippets from MtCow

I return now to my series of reports on the LCMS "Model Theological Conference on Worship". I am advancing this conversation because it is the one thing I can see the synod doing that is in the spirit of "It's Time", Rev. Matt Harrison's proposal for effecting meaningful reconciliation and unity in the Missouri Synod. The worship wars are an impediment to the Gospel, and I believe the effort begun in St. Louis last month is a good step toward bringing concord back to the churches that subscribe to the Book of Concord.

Going forward then, following Dr. Jeff Gibbs' address, was Rev. Larry Vogel. He sits on the synod's Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR). His focus was on the incarnational, the real presence of Christ in Word and Sacrament, and how that makes our worship truly Christian. We as Lutherans don't need to move "toward" this truth in our theology of worship. We're already there - or should be. The tension among us is that some claim that there is a conflict between sacramental worship and mission. Pastor Vogel says there should be no tension: "it (baptism) is mission: telling and living the new life of Christ's Body."

Besides, we have no choice. If we are to worship the true God, then we must worship according to His command. We must "let God have it His way". Though the world may differ, "it just won't do to make 'spiritual high' the goal or focus of our worship." Sadly, many churches today do just that in an effort to be "missional". And, in doing so, they prove that "worship customs affect doctrine, and are therefore not adiaphora."

So where then is the freedom? After all, we believe that differing customs are not necessarily divisive. (AC VII) The answer is found simply by looking at the Reformers: what they did, and what they did not do. They did not change the essence of worship, nor even its basic order and content; instead, they moved preaching and liturgy and hymnody into the vernacular, that many would hear and believe. Where this is done responsibly, we have good and healthy variety in the Church. Where it is done poorly, the Gospel suffers.

This, I believe, is where the rubber hits the road. And Pastor Vogel then pointed to this by highlighting what he called "Pastoral Realities": to be both "welcoming and faithful" in a "continaully changing America" while working with the "limited capabilities of musicians and pastors." We need wisdom to know what we can do well and effectively. As any musician can tell you, "it is one thing to have instruments - it is another to know how to use them."

Here I cannot help but end with a connection to our work here at Liturgy Solutions. Much of the talk at things like MtCow is conceptual. Very important and necssary, but not immediately applicable. It takes education, experience, skill, and discernment to distill and apply these principles in practical and productive ways. We at Liturgy Solutions serve to provide tools to help you do that.

Your choir is the most effective instrument you have for leading your congregation in worship. By choosing texts that sing faith into people's hearts, and by providing them music for those texts that is appropriate to the musicians and relevant to the hearers, they are truly able to magnify the Word and inspire the congregation's devotion.

May we use our instruments as conscienciously and intentionally as a good preacher uses his pulpit, that many may live the Eucharistic life. +

Those Files in Your Library...

....tell you a lot about the history of your parish, and even of the trends in church music and American culture as a whole (how 'bout some of the 70's artwork on those covers?!).

Since I've been at Bethany, we've "archived" close to half of the choral music. Evidently it is some sort of transgression to throw the stuff away, supposedly because of all the needy congregations out there just aching to sing dated, heterodox drivel, so we box it up and store it in the attic above the gym in a back corner - where it can be disposed of by a future generation. Some of it actually does get thrown out, such as illegal photocopies or old evaluation copies of out-of-print octavos. But mostly we just store away those things we know we will never use so that we can make room for that which we can and will use. And now we are looking at instrumental music as well.

What sorts of things does one discover? Periods where the all the new music for choir was the "praise music" of an earlier generation, a type of "traditional" CCM, from many of the same publishers who now give us choral knock-offs of today's Bapticostal radio music. Other periods are much better, with sacred classics from the Lutheran repertoire. Periodically, one even finds a few years where the director purchased psalmody and hymn concertati. And then there are those romantic eras where a predecessor bought lots of big works (children and adults' choirs plus brass and bells!) which are still in pristine, unused condition. Guess (s)he went off to a workshop and got all excited about something.......only to discover that planning, rehearsing, and putting together all these forces in Bethany's old sanctuary was too much to do. I found a similarly interesting history when I went through the library during my cantorate at Trinity-Peoria (with choral music from the 1890s in German, along with English anthems dating back to the 1910s!).

I think digging through the library is one of the most important things a new director can do when coming to a parish. One can see where a choir and a congregation have been. One can discover some favorites that will help the new director win the confidence of his new choir. And one can find gems along with the jokes. (I'm sure those who followed me at Trinity have enjoyed the copies of "How?", the spoof of Carl Schalk's hymn anthems written by the late John Folkening.)

What have you found in your library?

The Right Story

The first speaker up at MtCow was Dr. Jeff Gibbs, who did a fine job of framing our discussions. As he aptly pointed out, a project such as a "theology of worship" is like roofing: everything depends on the first shingle. If the first shingle is incorrectly laid, then everything else will be out of alignment.

Of course, the first shingle for worship is the Gospel. Christ crucified for us for the forgiveness of sins. As we unpackage this in relationship to the "worship wars", Dr. Gibbs pointed out that "the corporate worship of the congregation must be set in the right story." Too often, worshippers and worship leaders center worship on their personal story, their personal experience of faith. But while the Divine Service does return us to our baptisms and so does indeed personally renew our faith, the narrative of the service is not about Christ-in-us, but about Christ-for-us that we may be in Christ.

What does this mean for the church's song? It means that our music should not be primarily about self-expression, but about Christ-expression. In other words, worship is not simply a confession of our own personal experience of Christ, but rather a confession of the whole story of God's salvation of mankind.

This obviously norms the texts we choose, but it also shapes the kind of music we make to support those texts.

Does your music proclaim the "reign of God"? Does it bring the comfort of Christ being with your hearers "always, even to the end of the age"? Sure, we all love to share music that has been meaningful to us. And there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, we draw inspiration from such music and it helps us in our craft. But are we making music that is meaningful to others?

I submit that the craft of the liturgical musician is to manifest "Christ-for-us" through the music proclaimed to and sung by the assembly, making music that has been personally meaningful an inspiration to others in Christ AND taking music that has not inspired us and discovering how to make it meaningful to all.

Whether one plays the organ, directs a choir, or leads a liturgical consort of guitar, flute, and bass, this is where our musicianship lies.

Too often, traditional Lutheran musicians shy away from the personal and lose that vital artistic connection with the musical spirit that inspired them to play and sing in the first place. And, far too often as well, contemporary musicians will not discipline themselves to make music for the assembly, rather than just for themselves.

NOEL!

So what's your choir singing for Christmas? We at Liturgy Solutions would love to hear from you. We hope your preparations have all gone well, and that you and your singers make the hearts of all in your sanctuaries glad.

Here at Bethany, we are looking forward to the following highlights:

5pm - Schola Canotrum (and flute trio)
*Quempas Carol
*Ding-Dong, Merrily, on High
*Verse for Christmas Eve (Hillert, from NPH series)
*Willcox descants on "Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"

7pm - Vocal Quartet (w/ Bethany Brass accompanying congregational song)
*Elise B. Calhoon sings "O Holy Night"
*Stanzas of various hymns sung in Liturgy Solutions' arrangements, including:
-Once in Royal David's City
-O Sing of Christ
-Of the Father's Love Begotten
-O Little Town of Bethlehem
*Dr. Jennifer Barnickel-Fitch sings "Gesu Bambino"

11pm - Proclaim
*What Sweeter Music (Rutter)
*Gradual for Christmas Day (Stephen R. Johnson, Liturgy Solutions)
*In the First Light (Glad studio chart)
*Some Children See Him (Burt)
*Willcox Descants (of course!)
*Elise B. Calhoon sings the Wexford Carol
*Choir sings stanza 1 of Stille Nacht (in German)

Christmas Morning - Elise graciously returns to sing Wexford again. (Thank you, Elise!) Many choir members were willing to sing Christmas AM as well, but I didn't plan voice parts accordingly and, with the divisi on the Rutter, Glad, and Burt, we decided not to have those for Christmas morning.

Which leads to my last question, besides what you are singing, WHEN are you singing? Does your choir do both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? Do they do two services on Christmas Eve (like Bethany's Proclaim did last year)?

"Joy, O Joy, beyond all gladness,
Christ has done away with sadness!
Hence all sorrow and repining,
For the Sun of Grace is shining!" (LSB 897, refrain)