This is a challenging time to work in church music. Choir plans have been scuttled as a result of public health guidelines and we are working with new methods of connecting with one another. Many are streaming music from home as part of online worship services. To assist with this, Augsburg Fortress is extending through July 31, 2020, its temporary permission for worshiping communities to include Augsburg Fortress administered liturgical text and liturgical music copyrights in a livestream or podcast. Read more about this in our landing page.
Read More > >Solos and Duets for Pentecost and June
Posted on May 15, 2020 12:12:31 PM by Augsburg Fortress in Music Ministry, in COVID-19, in Coronavirus
Zooming with My Youth Choirs, Part Three
Posted on Apr 22, 2020 9:00:00 AM by Ann Schrooten in Music Ministry, in COVID-19, in Coronavirus, in Social distancing
Our worship video for Easter Sunday included a sound track of our youth choirs singing Mark Patterson’s “Alleluia, Christ is Risen!” Even in the midst of a global pandemic without regular rehearsals, we offered our gift of song, and the bonus was that we had silent video footage of the children singing it from our last Zoom rehearsal! Thanks to some previous experience using Audacity to create recordings for Honor Choir auditions, I knew that I could create one recording featuring our current singers. Parents received a practice recording from me shortly after we began virtual rehearsals. In the week leading up to Easter, I invited my young friends to send an MP3 recording of themselves singing along with me. It required about a day and a half of mixing, editing, and syncing, but it turned out amazingly well. It was a special gift of hope for our congregation to hear the children and youth sing, and also to witness how staying connected virtually these past several weeks prepared them to accomplish it.
Read More > >Zooming with My Youth Choirs, Part Two
Posted on Apr 14, 2020 9:00:00 AM by Ann Schrooten in Music Ministry, in COVID-19, in Coronavirus, in Social distancing
We’ve made it through Holy Week, the fourth week that we’ve all been sheltering at home here in Minnesota. I’ve had four Zoom rehearsals with my youth choirs and am learning a lot about the benefits and challenges of using the Zoom platform with my singers.
Read More > >Free Sheet Music for Eastertide Vocal Solo
Posted on Apr 8, 2020 2:19:34 PM by Augsburg Fortress in Music Ministry
“’Twas on a Sunday Morning,” a solo from composer Evelyn Larter, is perfect for Easter Sunday or Eastertide. Augsburg Fortress will be releasing a collection of vocal solos from Larter next year, but in the meantime we have made this manuscript available for free in the hopes that churches will find it useful when many congregations are unable to assemble in person. Permission is granted by the composer and Augsburg fortress to reproduce this piece for worship through August of 2020.
Read More > >Zooming with My Youth Choirs
Posted on Apr 7, 2020 9:00:00 AM by Ann Schrooten in Children Ministry, in Youth Ministry, in Music Ministry, in Social distancing
My last in-person rehearsal with my two youth choirs at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church was Wednesday, March 11. I did not know until the following day, however, that it would be the last time I’d see those singers for the foreseeable future. When I found out, my heart sank. Our youth choir program has been a thriving and committed community within our congregation for over 20 years. Friendships among children and their parents have taken root over Wednesday night meals at church and after-choir games of tag out on the lawn, and lifelong singers have been nurtured. I’ve always felt that this ministry is as much about building relationships as it is about making music. Faced with the dire predictions about the pandemic, I knew that it would be important to help us all maintain some sense of connection and continuity during this uncertain time. I wanted to make sure the children could still see their friends. I wanted to keep them singing. And I was already mourning the loss of the joy they bring to my life. I needed them as much as I hope they needed me.
Read More > >Intergenerational Choral Opportunities and Faith Formation
Posted on Mar 10, 2020 12:38:35 PM by Andrea Baxter in Music Ministry
When someone asks me about the benefits of intergenerational choral experiences in the church, I think of Thomas, a college student majoring in music. Throughout his childhood and youth, he benefited from a variety of musical experiences at church, including singing in the children’s and youth choirs, and, as he grew, performing as an instrumentalist. He also participated in intergenerational choirs several times per year. As a child, he heard harmony around him for the first time. When his voice changed, he gained vocal confidence because he was able to sit among strong, adult male voices. Because the combination of choirs meant increased numbers of singers and the vocal security that brings, the anthem could be a bit more musically challenging.
Read More > >Out of the Ordinary: Choral Music for the Ordinary Time of Epiphany
Posted on Feb 5, 2020 9:00:00 AM by Jonathan Kohrs in Music Ministry
by Jonathan Kohrs
Even though the season after the Epiphany is considered part of “ordinary” time (ordered, or counted, as in “ordinal” numbers: the Second, Fourth, or Seventh Sundays after Epiphany), I’d like to share with you some well-crafted—but not too difficult—pieces for this season that are a bit “out of the ordinary,” especially regarding harmonic language and voicing.
Read More > >Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55)
When Mary heard the good news—that Jesus was coming and she would be his mother—her world was turned upside down instantly. From that moment on, everything in her life was different from what she had imagined. Her plans, her hopes, her dreams were all challenged. At first, the angel’s words did not make sense to her. How could she give birth to a child—the Child? But Gabriel reminded her that all things are possible with God, he reminded her of the truth she already knew about God, and Mary responded in humble obedience.
Read More > >Let the Assembly Sing
Posted on Dec 3, 2019 4:30:35 PM by Tim Shaw in Assembly Song
In an article that appeared online in The Atlantic (March 28, 2012), Karen Loew notes the only time most Americans sing communally is during a baseball game’s seventh-inning stretch when the crowd stands and sings “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” (Red Sox fans, of course, have the added privilege of singing Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” during games at Fenway Park.) People sang together in the past, but communal singing has virtually disappeared from today’s society. Americans do not sing together in public, yet when they go to church they are expected to join in the singing of hymns, responses, and other songs. What a peculiar, old-fashioned thing to do! While Loew acknowledges certain types of music-making continue to thrive in America (“Folks sing in religious settings as much as ever”), it is worth considering: exactly why do Christians engage in the counter-cultural practice of group singing during their worship services?
Read More > >Name that Tune!
Posted on May 29, 2019 2:28:49 PM by Chad Fothergill in Hymnody
If you’ve ever paged through the tune index of Evangelical Lutheran Worship, you may have noticed that some entries—see, for instance, Ach bleib mit deiner Gnade and Agincourt Hymn—are indented and italicized. As was practiced in Lutheran Book of Worship and Service Book and Hymnal, these specially formatted entries indicate other names used for tunes by previous hymnals or, in some cases, by other denominations.
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