The Church, Music, and the Christian

Chester

2011-01-29T22:44:00.000-08:00

This is the only "modern" song that came to mind as I thought about songs that might recount specific salvation events in History. Tune and words written by American William Billings, Chester is very nationalistic, but it does thank God for his blessing on the nation, and His deliverance from their (relatively) Godless enemy. I like it.

"Let tyrants shake their iron rod,

And slavery clank her galling chains,

We fear them not, we trust in God,

New England's God forever reigns.

Howe and Burgoyne and Clinton too,

With Prescot and Cornwallis joined,

Together plot our overthrow,

In one infernal league combined.

When God inspired us for the fight,

Their ranks were broke, their lines were forced,

Their ships were shattered in our sight,

Or swiftly driven from our coast.

The foe comes on with haughty stride;

Our troops advance with martial noise,

Their veterans flee before our youth,

And Generals yield to beardless boys.

What grateful offering shall we bring?

What shall we render to the Lord?

Loud halleluiahs let us us sing,

And praise his name on every chord!"

After writing it all out, I like it even more! It reminds a lot of of Exodus 15, and of Deborah and Barak's song in Judges 5. Could we sing this in church today? I'm not sure...but I like it!

Here is a recording of the song with a good introduction. Not the best choir in the world, but not bad for high-schoolers.

Moses' Song

2011-01-29T21:45:00.000-08:00

Moses' song, recorded in Exodus 15, is the first major song recorded in the Bible. Moses leads the people of Israel in singing this song after they are delivered from Egypt and the Egyptian army is drowned in the Red Sea.

It is a long song (18 verses in our Bibles) and is basically a song rejoicing in God's utter destruction of the evil Egyptians. It can be roughly outlined like this:

I. I will sing to YAWHEH for He has delivered me (1-3)

II. Vivid description of judgment on the Egyptians (4-12)

III. The Nations fear the LORD (13-18)

This song focuses most on points 2 and 4 from my earlier post ("mighty acts of salvation recorded," and "His acts of judgment are rejoiced in") which I believe are the weakest areas in our worship music today. What if people today wrote songs recounting how God has blessed the Church and punished/judged the forces of evil? It is obviously a little easier for Israel in this case since the were the people of God, as a nation, they were all in one location, and God worked very directly in history to save them from the Egyptians. In fact, this event is mentioned in many more songs thoughout the Bible, including Psalms 78, 81, 105, 106, 114, and 135. I have a hard time thinking of how we could write songs for worship today that reference specific salvation events in "modern" history (partly because the Church is so divided...), but I'm sure it is possible.

How many songs do we sing that have lines like these?

"The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them: they went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O LORD, glories in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble."

This song is about salvation for the people of God, but the other side of that is God's terrible judgment on His enemies. We just don't sing this kind of stuff unless we sing the songs of the Bible! The only way we will be able to write songs like the ones God has given us is if we raise up a generation saturated in these songs from the Bible. Maybe we can only sing slightly odd versions of these songs (I'm for the chant version), but I think that it is most important that we learn these words, these songs that God has given us, and use them as a pattern as we write worship songs for today.

"God's Lyrics"

2011-01-24T21:36:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted here for well over a year now! I've been busy graduating, getting married and working and haven't had a lot of time to devote to this area. I've just started reading a book that is reviving my interest and enthusiasm in the area of Church Music.

So far God's Lyrics by Douglas Sean O'Donnell, promises to be a fantastic read. His basic idea is to look at the songs from the Old Testament that God gave to his people, analyze them, and compare them with the songs used in worship over the past century or two. He specifically focuses on a handful of the longer and more prominent songs in the Old Testament including Moses' song of victory after the Egyptians are drowned in the Red Sea, Moses' song he teaches Israel before he dies, Deborah's song, Hannah's Song, and "the Song of Habakkuk." I find it a little odd that he doesn't use a Psalm, but I bet he will address that before the end of the book.

O'Donnell identifies four major themes he claims are the "meat" of the OT songs:

The LORD is at the center: our God is addressed, magnified, and adored.
His mighty acts in salvation history are recounted.
His ways of living are encouraged.
Finally (and I think most notable for our culture and time), His acts of judgement are rejoiced in.

I think that much of 19th century hymnody is fairly strong on points 1 and 3, but I don't think points 2 and 4 come up much in the worship music I am familiar with.

Funk Quote

2009-12-17T23:27:00.001-08:00

“Thus morally considered, it is certainly our duty to cultivate this talent for the blessings which society and the world may reap therefrom; but upon the Christian it has double claims; it is the language of heaven; it had its birth in the bright plains of the heavenly Paradise near the throne of the ETERNAL; it is the language in which the ransomed host of heaven unceasingly present their adoration an dpriase before the throne of God and the Lamb; the art of the Prophets and saints of old; the language of the apostles, primitive Christians, martyrs and reformers.

Shall the cultivation of a talent with which is associated the worship of the inhabitants both of heaven and earth be neglected by the chosen people of God? [emphasis added]

Can they permit their voices to be mute when all the earth is called upon to ‘sing praises’ to Jehovah? Certainly it is the Christian’s duty, to say nothing of his privilege, to cultivate all the talents which God has mercifully and kindly bestowed upon him; it is doubly his duty to cultivate those talents which he is called upon to exercise in the edifications of the saints, and for the worship of God, and so soon as he fully estimates its claims, and the importance of its cultivation, his enlightened mind and philanthropic heart will lead him to desire its cultivation by all those who are the especial objects of his care—those of his own household; nor will it stop here; he will use his influence to promote the happiness of his neighbor, and the good of the church and community around him.”

From the March 1860 issue of The Southern Musical Advocate and Singer's Friend.

The World According to Joseph Funk

2009-12-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

I found these quotes while working on my research regarding Joseph Funk.

Taken from "The Southern Musical Advocate and Musician's Friend," May, 1860.

"MUSIC-WHAT IS IT? It is the language of Heaven! the medium of feeling! the solace of the lot of all! a flower of perennial bloom. Take her away from earth, and dark would be our passage to the tomb. Life would be a gloomy period and the world a barren waste."

A little flowery....but has a couple good points.

Another good one:

“Like woman, another of heaven’s gifts to man, it [music] 'doubles our joys and divides our sorrows;’ and, like her too, it finds its most appropriate place and its sweetest influence, in the bosom of the family.”

I'll leave you to think about that one!

George Fox University Christmas Concert

2009-12-12T00:13:00.000-08:00

I just got home from participating in the first of three Christmas concerts this weekend put on by George Fox University. Over 150 performers and a sold out audience of around 1200.

I'm in the back row, second from the end on the right. You can't really see me...

It was a great concert!

Claude Goudimel's contribution to the Genevan Psalter

2009-11-28T17:44:00.000-08:00

Here the notes I used for a talk on Claude Goudimel and the Genevan Psalter for our Reformation Celebration on October 31st of 2009.

While Claude Goudimel was not directly involved in putting together the Genevan Psalter, and, in fact, he wasn’t even converted from Catholicism until the Genevan Psalter was nearly complete, he was one of the most influential men to help spread Calvinism through Europe in the late 16^th century.

So before I talk about Goudimel directly, let me summarize the history of the Psalter up to the time Goudimel began to work it. The seeds for the Psalter were sown in 1532 when Clément Marot, a popular and gifted French poet began settings a few Psalms to meter while employed at the French court in Paris (thirty years before the Genevan Psalter was finally finished). They were sung as popular poetry in the Catholic court. Calvin met Marot in 1536 and after hearing his verse and witnessing the congregational singing in Bucer’s church in Stassbourg, he began work on what would become the Genevan Psalter. Calvin took Marot’s 13 Psalms, put six more into verse along with Nunc Dimittis, Decalogue, and Nicene Creed and commissioned two German musicians from Bucer’s church two write simple melodies. This first Psalter was published in 1539. Marot the poet came to Geneva for a few years and the work proceeded and resulted in an expanded Psalter in 1542 and 1543. Marot died in 1544 leaving the Psalter far from done.

Five years later, Theodore de Beza, a scholar and Calvin’s eventual successor in Geneva, continued the work. Beza steadily worked away at the project, finally finishing the entire Psalter in 1562. Beza’s Psalms are very accurate and contain a high degree of fidelity to the original text, especially considering they are translations and put into meter. By 1562, the Genevan Psalter was considered “complete.” It contained all 150 Psalms, the Nunc dimittis and Decalogue set to 125 different tunes, each in a different meter.

Up to this point, Calvin had been the driving force behind the whole project. He had not participated in any of the musical or poetic work in the final edition, but it was his idea from the beginning and he worked tirelessly finding and inspiring qualified men to continue the project.

The completed Genevan Psalter was a monumental accomplishment in Christian history. This was probably the first time in history that all the Psalms were collected together and set in manner simple enough for the average person to sing.

This Psalter was used extensively in Geneva but it took men like Claude Goudimel spread the Psalms and with it, Calvinist ideas and theology through Europe and eventually across the world.

Goudimel was born around 1514 in Eastern France and received his education at the University of Paris. He was known as one of the best French composers of his day and composed quality in the form of both secular chansons and complex sacred music for the Roman Catholic Church. As a Catholic musician, he composed 5 settings of the mass, 3 magnificats, and several motets, AND several complicated pieces based on the tunes from the Genevan Psalter written for catholic use (until the Genevan tunes were outlawed by catholics). He seemed to be sympathetic with Protestants in the 1550’s, and he converted from Catholicism in 1560. The important work that Goudimel really accomplished was the harmonizationed versions of the Psalter that he produced between his conversion in 1560 and his death in 1573. He harmonized the complete Psalter three times. The first setting, finished in 1564 is the simple, hymn-like settings that we sing here at RCC. The second setting finished the following year, was a little more musically complex and his third and final setting was much more polyphonic and complicated. He was still finishing this harmonization when he was killed by Catholics in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572.

While these harmonizations of the Psalter where not actually intended to be used in congregational worship, they where what really made the Psalter popular with the middle to upper classes in France and through Europe. Goudimel wrote in the preface to one edition that the music was to be used in the home for worship and recreation. It used to be a very popular recreational activity among the middle and upper class and even students to get together and sing and play in parts. Music was changing at a rapid rate during this period and music was more easily available with printing press so singing was kind of the “video games” of the 16^th century (at least for college students).

These harmonizations became immensely popular in France and quickly spread through Europe. Calvinist theology often accompanied the Psalms , especially in Holland and Germany. They were translated into German very quickly and were seen as such a threat to Lutheranism that Dr. Cornelius Becker made his own version of the Psalms in German that would eventually result in Heinrich Schutz’s Psalter from which we sing today.

Since the 16^th century, the Psalter has spread to Germany, Holland, Italy, England, Scotland, Hungary, Belgium, to the Americas, Canada, and even to South Africa, Australia, and have recently become popular in Japan.

Basic Questions

2009-11-28T17:35:00.000-08:00

I've had a lot of stuff going through my head recently, but these questions keep coming to the top.

Why does God like music? Why does he command us to praise him through music? How does "praise" differ from "musical praise"? What's so special about words set to pitch and rhythm? Why does God delight in musical worship?

I don't really have answers. But I have some ideas...

Psalm 32

2009-03-12T18:55:00.000-07:00

We learned the version of Psalm 32 found in the Book of Psalms for Singing in preparation for Ash Wednesday this year. My congregation can now sing versions of all 7 penitential Psalms.

The progression within the Psalm from suffering to shouting for joy is remarkable. The Psalm seems to be about how humans deal with sin. The first verses don't even leave room for humans who don't sin. "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven," not "Blessed is the one who never transgresses." We all sin, but the Psalm says that when we confess our sin to God and forsake it, God will bless us and give us joy.

Psalm 32

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Therefore let everyone who is godly
offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
they shall not reach him.
You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

The Song Report

2009-01-08T13:28:00.000-08:00

Every January I look back through the records of the liturgies for the year to review the songs we have used at Reformation Covenant Church.

This year we sang 145 different hymns, which is a little up from last year at 131.

We sang 84 different Psalm settings, but 11 were duplicates (we know different versions of one Psalm, or we know different portions of one Psalm in different settings-like Psalm 119). So we sang 73 different Psalms last year. Not as good as the Medieval monks who sang through the Psalter every week, but we are making progress (we sang 64 different settings last year). Most of the 84 different settings are metrical Psalms, but we also know a few through-composed Psalms and an Anglican-chant setting or two.

In the future I would like to see that number of Psalms go up at a faster rate compared to the hymns, and eventually get the numbers closer to equal and maybe even more Psalms than hymns.

Joseph Funk Research Project

2008-12-29T19:33:00.000-08:00

I was notified last week that I did receive the research grant I applied for! They awarded more money than I asked for, so they must have thought it would take more time than I thought, or my travel budget was unreasonably small.
I narrowed my research to two basic questions:

1. How does Funk's hymnal, the Harmonia Sacra, differ from other tunebooks, and why was it more successful than so many similar publications of the era?

2. What methods did Funk incorporate in his teaching and musical publications that made his efforts in spreading musical literacy so successful?

I have started to read through the material I got through my initial library search. I found a couple of published dissertations that look like they will prove very helpful. I'm hoping to get a lot of the reading done during Spring semester so I can travel to Virginia and Indiana early in the summer. That way I will have more of the summer to work on getting my research together.

It will be a lot of work, but I am very excited for this project!

Why Every Christian Should Sing

2008-12-22T10:27:00.001-08:00

I'm still working through Jones' collection of essays (Singing and Making Music: Issues in Church Music Today), and I just ran into another portion I thought was excellent and very applicable to the Church today. I would like to post a few quotes from his essay "Why Every Christian Should Sing."

Frequently I encounter men and women who say that they "do not sing." There are many reasons for their lack of vocal participation, but I have yet to hear one from anyone with working vocal folds that would be an adequate excuse before God. Fear is the least-cited but generally all-inclusive reason. It takes many forms: fear of error or embarrassment, fear of what others think, fear of losing control, fear of criticism, fear of offending others. Such self-conscious behavior may be appropriate to certain situations, or aspects of our person, but it has little place in the corporate worship of the Almighty God. God never said, "If you feel good enough about yourself, sing to me," or "As long as you have a peer-approved voice, praise me in song." According to Scripture, the praise of God is not an optional activity.

Most of the rest of the essay contains examples of singing saints in the Bible, specific commands to sing (mostly from Psalms and Isaiah), examples of heavenly beings singing, and of Jesus himself singing.
Jones ends the essay with a summary list of reasons we should sing:

We should sing because of God's attributes and acts in creation and redemption. We should sing because this was the exemplary response of biblical saints. We should sing because God has commanded us to do so. We should sing because it is a Christian and heavenly activity of eternal duration and significance.
If we do not sing, we disobey God and miss out on the rich blessings derived from this activity.

Paul S. Jones on the Mass

2008-12-20T17:43:00.000-08:00

I have been reading Paul Jones' book Singing and Making Music: Issues in Church Music Today which was recommended to me by Mark Reagan. I am enjoying it very much so far! I ran across a paragraph on the Mass as way to organize worship, and I found it very refreshing after several discussions about worship styles and organizational techniques in my Music and Christian Faith class.

The Mass is a marvelous structure for organized worship--it is liturgy at its finest, imbued with Scripture, carefully honed and internationally utilized for centuries. It begins with acknowledgment of our need for God's mercy, moves into praise and thanksgiving, declares our faith, reminds us of God's holiness and the significance of the one who speaks in his Name, and finally confirms the finished work of Christ while recalling our daily need of him. We should not fear the Mass as liturgy but feel the liberty to employ it or elements of it to aid our gathered worship.

Wake, Awake for Night is Flying

2008-12-16T21:15:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite pieces we performed at my school's Christmas Concert this year was "Wake, Awake for Night is Flying." We have used it in worship for years at my Church, but practicing it so intensely and performing it made it make more sense to me.

Wake, awake, for night is flying;
The watchmen on the heights are crying:
Awake, Jerusalem, at last!
Midnight hears the welcome voices
And at the thrilling cry rejoices;
Come forth, ye virgins, night is past;
The Bridegroom comes, awake;
Your lamps with gladness take;
Alleluia! And for His marriage feast prepare
For ye must go and meet Him there.

Zion hears the watchmen singing,
And all her heart with joy is springing;
She wakes, she rises from her gloom;
For her Lord comes down all glorious,
The strong in grace, in truth victorious.
Her Star is risen, her Light is come.
Ah come, Thou blessed One, God’s own beloved Son:
Alleluia! We follow till the halls we see
Where Thou hast bid us sup with Thee.

Now let all the heavens adore Thee,
And saints and angels sing before Thee,
With harp and cymbal’s clearest tone;
Of one pearl each shining portal,
Where we are with the choir immortal
Of angels round Thy dazzling throne;
Nor eye hath seen, nor ear hath yet attained to hear
What there is ours, but we rejoice and sing to Thee
Our hymn of joy eternally.

Trinity's Lessons and Carols

2008-12-05T12:11:00.001-08:00

My family went to the Episcopal Lessons and Carols service at the Portland Trinity Cathedral this Sunday evening. It has been a while since I attended a service at any Church but my own, but I think it is good to get out and see what the rest of the Body of Christ is doing.

We were all immediately struck with the beauty and glory of the sanctuary when we entered the church. The high ceilings, stained-glass windows, and wood and stone produce a different atmosphere for worship than most modern Church architecture. The Church was drastically remodeled in the past 25 years to accommodate the Rosales pipe organ.

The service, in spite of some of the bizarre readings (I don’t think Trinity is very conservative as far as churches go), was very good. It was a mix of readings, music by the choir, and carols for the congregation. The choral music was excellent, and it is always great to sing with an organ. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the congregational singing. Most of the people there were the age of my parents or older, but they seemed to know how to sing!
It was an excellent way to begin the Advent season.

Hymns vs. Praise Choruses

2008-11-26T10:04:00.000-08:00

In my "Music and Christian Faith" class, we are having a lot of discussion about the value/importance/use of hymns and praise choruses. We discuss the content of the two forms, which has more intrinsic value, what worldviews they might promote, what purpose they might fulfill and if the musical setting is even important at all, but while we think about these two forms, I think we take a very narrow view of the options for musical worship. We start to think "Hymns or praise choruses," but I suggest that these are not the only options out there!

The Psalms seemed to be ignored in this debate over hymns and praise choruses, and this puzzles me a little. The Psalms have been the primary source of songs for worship for thousands of years, but they have been largely abandoned in the Evangelical Church today. Complete Psalms have not been set to "chorus" music yet, but they can be sung in metrical styles (like hymns), and plainchant, in monotone chant, or in Anglican chant, all of which are possible for a congregation with a knowledgeable leader and a little practice.

Second, I think we can expand the definition of "hymn." In my class, I think most people are unconsciously defining "hymn" as 18th and 19th century devotional poetry set to 19th century music. Augustine defines "hymn" as "a song in praise of God," which covers a lot more than the common definition above (praise choruses would actually be under Augustine's definition as well). We should expand our thinking about hymns to cover the songs written by men from the Early Church and the Medieval Church. Why limit ourselves to the past 300 years?

It is easy in America today to forget that we, as the people of God, are part of a family that includes Adam, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, Job, David, Jehoshaphat, Isaiah, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Peter, James, John, Paul, Basil, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory, Anselm, Bonaventure, Josquin, Luther, Calvin, Schutz, Richard Cameron, Bach, John Bradford, George Washington, Haydn, R.E. Lee, Mendelssohn, Jonathon Edwards, Spurgeon, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Van Til, Rushdoony, Jim Jordan, and Dennis Tuuri. When we sing the songs the saints have used throughout the centuries, we remember that we as Christians are here for the long-haul. We can learn from these saints who have gone before. Try to sing songs from across the breadth of Christian history. It will bring that "cloud of witnesses" one step closer.

Joseph Funk Research Project

2008-11-20T20:54:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of putting together a research proposal through the Richter Scholars program at George Fox. I think I want to do some research on Joseph Funk, the "Father of Sacred Music" in Virginia. He published a good and early hymnal (1832) called the Harmonia Sacra, taught singing schools, and printed and sold thousands of copies of his hymnals and other musical materials. I only have a couple weeks to put the proposal together at this point, but I think it's possible. There doesn't seem to be much written about him, but he seems to be an important figure in American sacred music. The Richter Scholars program grants funding for research, pays for some travel, and even pays students a stipend!
If I get the proposal together and they accept it, it might fill up my summer.

CREC Memorial on Worship

2008-11-17T23:23:00.000-08:00

The Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches has a number of "Memorials" that outline the official position of the the denomination on different issues (abortion, homosexuality, terrorism and other current topics). My pastor (Dennis Tuuri) wrote the majority of the memorial on worship. We have been talking through it the last couple weeks on Sundays. The whole memorial is a little over two pages long, but here is paragraph eight, which is specifically on music:

8. We believe that these portions of the Bible also teach us that each of these glorious aspects of worship are to be set in the context of beautiful music that is maturing in both voice and instrument, to the praise of Christ the King.

Supporting Scripture passages include I Chron. 15:16, 25:6, 7; Ps. 98:4-6; 144:9; 150; Rev. 5:8; 14:2,3; 15:2, 3.

This single sentance covers a lot of ground. 1. What we do in worship is done through music (not all, but most). 2. We aren't making this up. The Bible teaches us to use music, and it has been practiced by the Church through most of history. 3. The music is to be "beautiful," which is hard to define, but it suggests there is some sort of objective standard for beauty that we can work towards. 4. We are to keep maturing. We are to move from glory to glory (II Cor. 3:18) moving towards Christian maturity. God is pleased with simple music if it is the best that can be offered, but you shouldn't stay there. 5. We are to use instruments as well as voices. This is clearly stated throughout the Bible, but especially in the Psalms and in Revelation. If David, a man after God's own heart used instruments (and even invented new instruments!) and instruments are used in heaven, I think we can safely say God is pleased when we use instruments for His praise. 6. Our music is to be made in worship to God. It's primary purpose is not to make us feel good or worshipful, or to make the visitor feel comfortable or good about themselves. Its first purpose is to glorify God through reflecting the Beauty, Goodness and Truth of His character. If it does this properly, it will result in the maturation of the Saints.

Singing as a Part of the Christian Life

2008-11-15T08:59:00.000-08:00

(This was a response to a post by another student that claimed that Christians don't need to sing, but can just praise God is whatever way they feel comfortable with.)

I have been reading the Psalms a lot for the past two or three years and I think it can at least be said that God wants us to sing to Him. A brief search on the word "sing" in the Psalms came up with around 26 commands/encouragements to sing to Him. We can allegorize this and apply this to other ways of praising God, but don't think we should ignore the simple meaning of the text. If it says to sing to God that many times, He probably means it!

We can praise the Lord in many other ways, but I think that singing His praises should receive special attention and time. We can praise Him in other ways besides singing (the Psalms are filled with exhortations to praise Him as well), but with this many imperatives, I think we can safely say singing is something that pleases God, and he expects it from His people. I believe that it should be part of the Christian life.

There are at least 26 exhortations to sing to God in the Psalms, but there are as many as 50 places in the Psalms where is says something to the effect of "I will sing to God." So everyone should sing to God because He commands it. Just because that is true doesn't mean you alone are responsible to make that happen. We don't have to "judge" everyone that isn't fulfilling that responsibility. We are responsible for ourselves and those God has put under our care. We can encourage others to sing, and train them to do it better, and try to show them that God loves it when we sing to Him, but we start with ourselves. "I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me." Psalm 13:6.

Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Notre Dame

2008-11-10T17:16:00.000-08:00

I'm looking at different graduate schools right now and one of the five schools offering a Master of Sacred Music is Notre Dame in Indiana. I don't know much about their program yet, but a couple of things attract me, including their chapel. I wonder how it is to sing in. The Catholics still have retained some of the sense of beauty and glory of God and worship of Him that much of Christianity has lost.

RCC "Top Ten Hits"

2008-11-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago I was given the "RCC Top Ten List" of songs we use in worship. This is a list compiled by one of the long time members of Reformation Covenant Church.

1. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
2. Psalm 98
3. O Sing a New Song to the Lord (This is the same song as above...?)
4. From Heaven O Praise the Lord (Ps. 148)
5. Now Shall My Inward Joy Arise (Africa)
6. Lorica (St. Patrick's Breastplate)
7. I To the Hills Will Lift My Eyes (Ps. 121)
8. Before Thee Let My Cry Come Near (Ps. 119-Russia)
9. Holy, Holy, Holy
10. TBA

I don't believe that what the congregation "likes" is what is always absolutely best, or even best for them, but I find this list helpful in understanding what resonates with the congregation (one member at least). I found it interesting that nearly all of these Psalms and hymns are set to American music (with the exception of the Lorica, and possibly Ps. 121). The music is mostly 18th and 19th century hymn and Psalm tunes with a couple of good fuging tunes thrown in. I was happy with the high percentage of Psalms! 5 out of 9, if you count Psalm 98 twice.
I should ask more people in my church for their list of favorites and see how they compare.

What is Worship?

2008-10-29T10:02:00.000-07:00

Worship can be briefly defined as acknowledgment and adoration of the sovereign Creator God. In a larger sense, all of life is worship. We worship God by living our lives in service and obedience to Him.

To understand what worship means in a more narrow sense, I suggest we look to the Bible. Here we see spontaneous worship (Genesis 24:26, Joshua 5:14, Judges 7:15, Matthew 2:11, 14:33, John 9:38, etc.), prepared, or regular worship, private and public (Genesis 4:2-7, 22:1-18, I Samuel 15:10-25 etc.), and public, congregational worship, which is usually more liturgical (Leviticus 1-9, I Kings 8:54, II Chronicles 29:21-36, Luke 2:42-43, Revelation 7:11 etc.). This more “formal” worship can happen with one person reading their Bible and praying to God, or when “a few are gathered together” to worship and/or praise Him, but the “pinnacle” of worship is when a congregation, representing the Body of Christ comes together for formal worship. Historically, this public congregational worship has been based on the model for worship given by God to his people in Leviticus (a whole book in the Bible about worship!).

In Leviticus, we have the all the sacrifices described in detail along with the description of the tabernacle with all the goats’ skins, brass basins, altars of incense and other stuff that can look boring to us, but in this book we have God’s model for our worship of Him is spelled out in great detail to His people. What follows is a summary of the model given in Leviticus and a summary of how this model is reflected in New Covenant (or New Testament) worship.

Worship consists of a series of sacrifices in a particular order with certain meanings. The basic order of worship is given very succinctly in Leviticus 9:22. “Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings.” Worship begins with the sin offering because we must be made clean and holy before we can come to God to worship. We confess our sins, and God is faithful to forgive and make us holy. This is represented by the Kyrie or its equivalent in the historical Christian worship service.

The sin offering is followed by the ascension offering, or the whole burnt offering. In this offering, the worshiper, represented by his animal was “torn apart,” and put back together again as a sweet smelling smoke ascending to God. In New Covenant worship, we are ascending to the throne room of God to worship. After God forgives us, we respond with song as He lifts us up to worship Him. This section of the Mass is the most musically involved and includes the Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Benedictus. We glorify God for His forgiveness of our sins (Gloria), profess our faith (Credo), join with the angels in heaven through the Sanctus and Benedictus. The teaching part of the service also happens here. We are “cut apart” by the Word (Sword of the Spirit), and put back together again as people better equipped to serve God.

The whole burnt offering, or ascension offering was accompanied by the grain offering (also called the tribute offering) where we bring God representation of our work. The Israelites offered grain that God had given them improved by grinding, baking, and covering it in oil and incense. Some of it was burnt as an offering to God, but most of it was kept for the priests (think pastors, musicians etc.) to eat. This is the tithe that supports the Church.

Liturgical worship climaxes with the peace offerings as we sit down to eat a meal with God. Part of the peace offering was burnt as an offering to God, part of it was given to the priests, but the majority of it was eaten by the worshiper and his family. When we take communion, we sit down to eat a meal with God. He feeds us from His table. We also remember His sacrifice for us, which is greater than any sacrifice that we offer to Him. He administers His Grace to us through the sacrament of communion. In the historical liturgy, the Eucharist was accompanied by the Angus Dei.

When we worship, we offer our praises and prayers to God, but in the end, God has given us so much more back. Worship can almost be seen as a sort of transaction (I know that sounds kind of bad). We offer our praises and prayer, and covenant to serve God better, and God forgives us our sins, teaches us from His Word, and lets us enter into the community of God through Communion.

2008-10-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

What is music?
Many definitions of music have been put forward, but short and concise definitions seem to fall short. Music has been defined as “organized sound,” but that seems to encompass more than just music. The puffing of a steam engine, and the whine of a siren are both “organized sound” and while they may have some musical aspects, they are not real music. Some say that music is “emotion externalized” but so is a kiss or a punch in the nose.

Music has been defined as “the poetry of the air,” “the mediator between the spiritual and sensual life” (Beethoven), “the wine the fills the cup of silence” (Robert Fripp), “the universal language of mankind” (Longfellow), and “moonlight in the gloomy night of life” (Jean Richter). Some of these might be helpful, but they don’t really get at what music literally is. Martin Luther kind of sums it up when he says “The riches of music are so excellent and so precious that words fail me whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them…” Music really defies definition.

One definition in the dictionary for music is “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.” This does not sound as poetic or profound as some of the definitions above, but it is more specific and I find it more helpful. I would modify that and say music is a combination of pitch, rhythm, harmony, timbre and form.

Pitch makes up all melody and harmony and is present in all of what is commonly called music. Rhythm covers all the time element of music. Music is a performance art, and it cannot be music without time. Meter, tempo, and length of the music all fall under the rhythm category. Harmony is present in almost all music, and has been developed to very high degree in the West. Some monophonic music lacks harmony (it is still sort of present in the overtone series), but harmony is often still implied. Color, or timbre is what makes a guitar sound different than an oboe. Form is also present in all music whether it be in Sonata-Allegro form, or a simple AB folk song like Arkansas Traveler.

2008-10-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

Since I'm thinking and writing about a lot of important musical issues right now for a couple of my classes at college, I thought I'd put together a blog to post some of thoughts.
Questions important to me right now include:
What is good music?
How do we know?
What is the purpose of music in the Church?
How do we best reach that goal?
What kind of music should be used in the Church?
How can the Church again become a former of culture and art?