Read More > >God gave us music that we might pray without words. —Unknown
One of my biggest thrills this year has been being a part of the congregational singing in the sanctuary of Westwood Lutheran Church, St. Louis Park, MN, after a renovation was completed that not only preserved what were already excellent acoustics for music, but actually made them better. Coming back after a few weeks away, I basked in the sound and thought, "Yes, this is what worship should sound like!" (I was even compelled to write a fan letter to the man who had been our acoustical consultant!)
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Nearly all church musicians think it’s important to introduce new music to our assemblies. Nearly all of us have probably felt the sting of criticism from members of our congregations who don’t want to learn new music. In attempting to respond to these comments I like to get at three underlying questions: WHY do we sing new (or new to us) music? WHAT new music is worth learning? HOW can “non-musicians” learn to sing this new music?
We asked for your best anecdotes or jokes related to church music. The old inbox isn't exactly flooded so far! So I'll start with the letter A and keep going until someone sends me some better material. And yes, that's a threat!
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Church music today is in need of a renaissance--a rebirth, a renewal, a fresh beginning. On too many Sunday mornings congregations hear our choirs survive the anthem of the day. While we should be beautifully expressing a worshipful text and leading God’s people to prayer, we’re busy praying that we simply get through the piece!
Prelude Music Planner, as you will see when we launch it fully in a few months, will be an amazing tool for the church musician. And part of the richness will be blog articles like the ones you see on this page. But we all know that a lot of fun can happen with music making as well. And so once a week, on Wednesdays when you may be ready for something light, we want to publish your humor. Heard a great music-related joke? ("How many altos . . .") Remember when something hilarious happened at a rehearsal? Send 'em in! We'll publish the ones that tickle our funny bone, and give you credit. Comment below.
Read More > >As we contemplate the tenth anniversary of the worst attack by an enemy on American soil, it is fascinating and hopefully instructive to consider some history involving the human behaviors of religion, commerce, war, as well as the healing salve of music.
Read More > >On Sunday, September 11, 2011, Christians in the United States will undoubtedly come to the Sunday assembly aware of the tenth anniversary of
the events of September 11, 2001, when terroristic violence and hatred led to catastrophic death and loss in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. There has been much in print and in online discussions among pastors, musicians, and other worship planners on how to best observe this occasion. See, for instance, these:
Over the summer months, when the workload is a little lighter, I try to lay out music for the entire upcoming choir season, September to June: hymns, service music, psalm settings, choral music, a
nd prelude and postlude music. The first step of listing all the dates with each Sunday and holy day of the church year often prompts ideas for music. I don’t always start planning with the first Sunday of the season and work chronologically. I’ll think about music I’d like to do on more festive Sundays: the choir’s first Sunday (Rally Day or Homecoming), All Saints Sunday, Christ the King, Christmas. Usually I select more challenging music for those dates, and then have to make sure that the preceding weeks don’t have music quite as taxing to learn so that we can accomplish it all well. I try to plan in waves of level of difficulty. Some services might have almost sight-readable anthems or pieces the choir has done a number of times in the past so that we don’t have to spend much rehearsal time on them and can concentrate on the more challenging music coming up. Once I’ve settled what is happening on the more festive Sundays, I start filling in the remaining Sundays.
I have long operated on not only the obvious assumption that singing relies on the breath, but also upon the not-so-obvious assumption that the type of breath taken in is critical to the type of sound the singer produces. Our singers are, in fact, dependent upon our gestures in order to be better singers than they know how to be. And as such, we need to deserve to be looked at.
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