Review: Galli, Beyond smells and bells

I just finished reading Mark Galli's very approachable book, "Beyond smells and bells." With this book Galli is trying to provide a means for folks unfamiliar with the form and language of traditional liturgy a means to begin to understand it. The book is not for people of have lived with and who enjoy formal liturgy, but rather for those (new members or folks with questions perhaps) who find themselves wondering what all the liturgy is about. And in that narrow focus the book succeeds wonderfully. Galli makes reference to notions and language that Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans Methodists and Presbyterians use all the time. But he explains them in language that folks from non-liturgical traditions will find helpful.

For example, Galli includes a discussion of what we in liturgical churches understand happens when we gather, notions of assembly and community of faith, and the unique character that we take on as we gather to worship. Galli deals with the concept in 4-5 pages (which is the average length of all the chapters). Concurrently I am reading a book (Holy People) by Gordon Lathrop who takes 20 pages (and ultimately the entire book) to lay out the same concept. Geared for different markets, both are helpful in their niche.

I would recommend Galli's book for folks who are curious about the meaning imparted to elements of our liturgy, in language for folks not accustomed to such topics. It would be a good resource for a new member of a church that engages in such liturgical practices, but who comes from a non-liturgical tradition, say as part of a bibliography for new members. It's not really for musicians, let alone musicians in traditional-liturgical congregations. But it would be a good go-to book when such a musician is asked about the liturgy by someone who is earnestly curious about what we do and why. I would suggest that every (liturgical) church library have a copy on hand. I would give it more pluses if it were more targeted toward this blog's usual audience, but it's for a different crowd I think. It's a fine book for its target audience. ++

W&M Friday

Today Mark Sedio did an anthem reading session. Most of the music was "global" in nature, with a heavy dose of his own stuff. (I realized I need to get on the mailing list for Concordia Publishing to get information about their new releases).

Paul Huh talked about baptism in his session today and didn't flinch as the conversation circled about to re-baptism and re-affirmation of baptismal vows.

David Eicher talked about the Presbyterian hymnal project, now officially called the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song (PCOCS, pronounced "peacocks"). He shared in written form the committee's statement on theological framework and foundation. It's a very nice statement that reveals that the guiding framework for the new congregational song resources will be the construct "history of salvation." It will be interesting to see how that is fleshed out in hymns and liturgy in the new resources.

Summer Music at BMPCNC

For our 6-week summer series of a single worship service weekly, we are featuring unique offerings of special music All of these persons/groups have a special relationship to our congregation and we are delighted they will be sharing their musical talent with us in "out of the ordinary" ways for the next few weeks. We'll have more details as they are developed, but go ahead and plan to be present for:

July 5: Lauren Patton and Caroline Patton singing John Newton's text "The music of thy name"

July 12: Tune Weavers
Singing: an art song by Anton Dvorak, "Wade in the water;" "Just a closer walk with thee;"
and "It is well with my soul."

July 19: Craig Bannerman's bluegrass band AppalachiaSong
visit: http://www.appalachiasong.com/

July 26: Chancel Choir singing excerpts from Mike Barker's "The Prodigal Son, a gospel oratorio" and Roland Bass' "Gospel Mass" (We will celebrate communion on this day.))

August 2 and August 9: between these two dates we are planning on an ad hoc traditional band, led by Andy Gwynn and other BMPCNC musicians, and KGB (Andy Banzhoff, Scott Roy, Kurt Shaffer and Dave Bell).

Music for 070509

This week we begin our 6-week series of a single service at 930AM.

Hymns
479, Praise, my soul, the God of heaven (LAUDA ANIMA)
435, We are all one in mission (ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVOGELEIN)
423, Jesus shall reign where’er the sun (DUKE STREET)

Confession
Hopson, We are forgiven

Anthem
Courtney, The music of thy name
Lauren Patton, Caroline Patton

Doxology
592 Old Hundredth

Instrumental/Organ Music
Prelude: Charles Wesley, Pastorale in G
Offertory: Jonathan Battishill, Air in D Major
Postlude: John Alcock, Voluntary: Grave in E Minor

We welcome Guest Organist: Noah W. Allen, III this Sunday.

W&M Wednesday

Work responsibilities curtailed my participation today somewhat, but here's a brief run-down.

Mark Sedio worked some more on Latin rhythms in the Global Music seminar. Seeing a clearly delineated description of various rhythms was very helpful. I was struck by how much work the new Lutheran hymnal resources have contributed to Hispanic music for worship.

This afternoon I attended the Caring for Creation seminar, which was trying to make connection between our conference theme, "Come to the Waters," and ecological concerns and a renewed interest in the stewardship of creation. This session was pretty exclusively devoted to ecological facts, with some theology added in. I've heard from sources that other sessions have been a bit more balanced. It was an interesting 50 minutes.

Bob Hobby spoke about hymn introductions and registration this afternoon. Lots of stuff I already know and practice, but it was gratifying to hear someone else discuss the theory and the practical applications.

I hope to attend the hymn festival service tonight, but we'll have to see how things are on thehome front.

W&M Tuesday

This morning in Global Music with Mark Sedio we worked on "Come all you people" (Uyai mose) paired with "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty." New for me was taking the African song in 6/8 instead of 4/4. But that made pairing it with Lobe Den Herren in 6/4 AWESOME. What that does is make it possible to set up a drumming accompaniment on the African song, and carry it over to the old German tune. We'll be doing it this way at our services very soon!

Later I listened in on the Bible Study with Paul Huh. He dealt with passages from Romans and ended with a 10 minute cello (and piano) piece.

David Eicher introduced us to hymns incorporating NT water images today. One of the coolest was a text by Leith Fisher, with music by Timothy Redman. It was a very sparse text, almost haiku-like in its imagery and meter. The music was tuneful, with a crush of seconds that leant a modern, soulful sound. It was reminiscent of music from Taize. I found myself wishing that the tune ended on the dominant instead of the tonic though. We also read through a hymn written by Eliabeth Stilborn, "By the well a thirsty woman." We sang it to the author's original choice for tune, Ebenezer, and then to a tune by Diane Wilcox which, according to Eicher, the author never heard before it went to print. It, the second, newer tune, was the preferred choice by our modest crowd. It had a nice contemporary sound without sounding trite. This paired with a powerful text makes for quite hymn.

Morning worship included Orff accompaniment (plus recorder) for BEACH SPRING. The preacher used as her text the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. She had a powerful word of challenge to the youth in attendance, that the woman at the well attends their school, figuratively, and that every student who participates in shunning that ostracized student is wrong. The preacher followed that with a powerful word of grace targeted directly to any youth who sensed that maybe they were the woman at the well at their school, figuratively: that Jesus meets them with life-giving water also. It was an incredibly powerful preaching moment; one could hear one thousand worshipers not breathe nor twitch for those few moments. We sang a very pretty setting of the Lord's Prayer using a Philippine melody. Some of the folk-iness of the melody was subsumed in the rather contemporary-sounding accompaniment, the sort of cross-over I can really appreciate. It was a neat, new setting I'll be trying to incorporate soon.

After lunch we listened to a few more composers of worship music in contemporary jazz idioms, Chuck Mahronic and Joe Utterback specifically. We then took off on a long list of "creative" ways to interpret hymns. I was most satisfied to hear a word of "open invitation" regarding WONDROUS LOVE. The presenter noted that the melody is such that truly any accompaniment can mesh effectively. Recently I did this myself, using open fifths that moved all over the place harmonically. I think I hit at one point a chord that was nothing but a stack of tritones!

Bob Hobby spoke about tempo in the organ/hymns session today. What we alluded to over and again but never said outright was that the tempo of the hymn is always contingent upon context: the place in the liturgy, the mood of the liturgy at that moment, the season of the year etc. A good example proved to be DUKE STREET. In some circumstances this needs to be a very stately tune; at other times it can easily bear proceeding at a quicker pace. The context will determine what's right. And the congregation, when they know and trust their leader-musicians, will follow. That was a nice pastoral word from Hobby; a word we do well to dwell on constantly. We also began to discuss playing the various musical styles for different hymns, something near and dear to my heart. More on that tomorrow.

W&M Monday

This was the first full day of the conference, with all the classes/seminars in place. I sat in on the tail end of Mark Sedio's global music session. They were working on an African song which our choir has sung, Nimemona bwana. He had a helpful word to say about long whole notes that I'll need to remember: they don't matter!

I got waylaid by my buddy Kathy Toole and so was late to choir and just listened. Paul Head seems to be off to a good start.

I sat in David Eicher's hymnal lecture. Today it was a survey of hymns that include Old Testament water images. There are more than one might think, especially newer texts. There was one that used the tune of "The Bells of St. Mary's." The music was so trite, I have a hard time remembering what the text was like!

The worship service included a healing/anointing rite. FotG dramatized the Great Flood story and managed to include chanting "we will rock you." Oh, and the organ blew up during the introduction to the first hymn. That was about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After lunch I sat in on a seminar on "piano in worship." I can't remember when this sort of class has been offered before. Today was a romp through some fundamental repertoire classics to contemporary. There will be more about playing-style as the week moves along.

I have been looking forward to Bob Hobby's class on service-playing at the organ. He didn't disappoint. Today he spoke about using the notion of "pulse" to keep momentum in congregational singing. I think I do that fairly well, but it was nice to be reminded. (The organ was working as least in part for this session; the tech people are supposed to work on it overnight).