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Here are some thoughts about worship, especially music, in the season of Lent. To be more precise, here are some thoughts about worship, especially music, for the Sundays in the season of Lent. This clarification is necessary because all Sundays are celebrations of Jesus’ resurrection, including those that fall in the time between Ash Wednesday and the Three Days. Hence, we call them Sundays in Lent, not Sundays of Lent.
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.
Are you one of those musicians who celebrates the end of another stressful choir season by dropping all thoughts of next year, until suddenly it is breathing down your neck, bringing with it—yes, more stress? Then consider what follows to be both encouragement and help in getting a good chunk of your planning done still this summer. You’ll be glad you did!
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