Singing during a pandemic

"How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"  The words of the psalmist are hauntingly relevant for us these days. The people of God making this cry in Psalm 137 had been dispersed from their homes and cast into a culture of non-belief in the God of Jacob. Familiar sights, sounds and smells were gone. All hope seemed lost. There was, it seemed, no balm in Gilead for their suffering bodies and spirits. They longed to sing, but the words wouldn't come out.

One of the first things I heard as the pandemic was unfolding several weeks ago, and we began to shelter at home away from friends, family and routines, was, "I miss singing together." Indeed some of the most creative energy I witnessed in response to the pandemic revolved around trying to make music with other people in the midst of isolation. We heard tales of Italians leaning out their balconies to sing in the evenings. We have heard of neighborhoods in the US where persons clap and bang and stomp at sunset as an expression of solidarity, and a testimony against all that is drear.

And then we heard grim reports of choirs that met for rehearsal with one symptomatic person, only for germs to spread on the very breaths of music. We've heard perhaps that singers, as they release music from their bodies, are also  potentially "super-spreading" germs.

In the midst of such gloom and despair, and in the midst of such confusion over what is safe and what is harmful, how can we sing the Lord's song? My response, indeed, "how can we keep from singing?" We were designed to give praise to the Creator. We can barely take a breath without vocalizing a hum. It is our creaturely nature to transform vowels and consonants into pitch and rhythm.

Our music-making will look different for a while. But whenever we create music, our pulsing voices join the universal music of the spheres. Singing together in a visible, corporeal way will be suspended for a time. But we know intuitively that corporate music-making continues: mountains sing, trees clap their hands, rivers roar. So I remark every morning that the birds still sing (especially one particularly boisterous robin outside my window); my music making joins theirs. Somewhere around this tremendous globe, someone is singing with me.

This is a gloomy time for those of us who make music, especially those who find great meaning in making music in smaller or larger ensembles. The people of God have at many points in history found themselves in similar situations. This is just a season. A new and glorious morning will come: I'm rehearsing even now for that glad day.

Lenten art 2019

We are using resources from A Sanctified Art this year during Lent and Eastertide. The theme is "cultivating and letting go." We opted to split the theme and are using the "letting go" aspect during Lent and will switch to "cultivating" during the great 50 days. Working with our worship committee and our resident artists and crafters, we have devised two unique installations for our two worship spaces (above). Today was a big workday (below) with lots of people involved, plus the thrill of seeing concepts getting fleshed out. Here are some pictures so far. Updates will come when the finished works are installed.

Narthex gallery update

Detail from Heart of a Sunflower, by Susan Wilkinson

It’s not much, but it speaks volumes. A single wall in our narthex is frequently used to display art by members of our congregation. Often for month-long periods, we can view and reflect upon the artistic expressions of some of the visual artists in our congregation.  Cooperating with other groups in our congregation (Weekday School for their spring art show; Alternative Giving display before Christmas for example), and under the coordination of the scheduler, the Worship and Music committee plans use of the display wall throughout the year. Susan Wilkinson, a new member in our congregation has begun scheduling installations in the narthex gallery space this month. She inherits this job from Alida Grady who has faithfully done so for several years. In the best spirit of celebrating creativity, the committee does not expect that all of the art displayed in the narthex be “religious” though it is always appropriate. We welcome all levels of ability and any media that can fit in the space available. Many times the works displayed are available for purchase from the artist; speak to them directly for more information. I was reminded of the importance of this aspect of our church's ministry when I read this article in Christian Century recently. The undertaking being discussed is massive, but the commitment of the various churches involved is striking.

Good Friday Stations, part 1

In spring of 2015 the local paper ran an article about an artist with an exhibition taking place around Easter time. Without going back to re-read and get the details, what I recall was that the artist had a series of works that invited the viewer to consider the Easter story and the renewal of creation as individuals walked through the installation. I never even got around to see the exhibit, but something about the article struck me and stuck. A month later I was talking with our worship committee about an idea for an interactive Good Friday experience that relied on art to let/help persons recall and meditate on the Good Friday story. I wanted an experience that would be meaningful for adults, but 100% approachable by children. Our committee worked on the concept all year.

What evolved was an evening-long experience in which persons could drop-in, participate and leave on their own, much like those horrid drop-in communion services we've all heard of! We wanted a series of "stations" purposefully recalling the "stations of the cross" model of Good Friday worship. Each station would be an art project, based on a Bible verse which persons could complete quickly and either take home of leave for others to view. We wanted to provide food, as we anticipated that we would run the event throughout the dinner hour. We wanted older, traditionally-minded folks, to feel like they had experienced something substantive when they were done; and we wanted children to feel like they had encountered the Bible story in a mode they could comprehend. We knew we would need the help of committees apart from our own to bring it off.

The event was last night. Upcoming posts will deal with it in some detail. We feel it was a success, though we are waiting to hear more from those who participated. It's the nature of the event and how it was billed that we didn't do much debriefing as folks departed.

Worship Symposium (Calvin Institute)

I went to the Calvin Institute’s worship symposium last week as part of my continuing education this year. It was a very good event and I found much to think about and felt gratified about what we have going on at BMPCNC while also perceiving areas we can grow.  Here’s a very brief summary and review

Thursday

Morning worship Reggie Smith preaching, music by Hope College musicians (band with a young organist on the hall’s pipe organ added to the mix! Awesome! All hail Christ was probably my favorite song from the event)

Seminar: Wisdom for leading through changes in worship in diverse communities (experiences with Calvin Institute grants)

Seminar: Worship in times of tension (panel discussion)

Vesper Service: Were you there (Biblical drama led by students from Northwestern College under the direction of Jeff Barker (Donna Marie Todd, a Biblical story-teller who worships with us, knows Jeff.)

Evening worship: Mary Hulst (chaplain at Calvin College) preaching and students from Calvin College's LOFT team (the bass player was my hero for the hour, giving everything he had in his performance)

Friday

Morning worship: Frank A Thomas, preaching, Rawn Harbor and Michael Burkhardt accompanying

Plenary Session: Barbara J. Newman Universal design for worship: shaping worship for people of all abilities (a video from First Church Dyer, Indiana which we saw Thursday morning was used again in this session, it consists of various members of their congregation of all ages and abilities saying the Apostles' Creed: very moving)

Seminar: Psalms from the Soul: Rawn Harbor used the group to sing through brand new settings of the psalms to get an idea of how well they “worked” in real life. He also spoke about his experience writing psalm-settings within the context of the Roman Catholic church

Seminar: Ron and Debra Rienstra. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue (drawing on various resources, old, new, global, indigenous to create authentic worship)

Seminar: Marking Time; dressing the church for the liturgical year (Deborah Sokolove, on the faculty of my alma mater, Westley Theological Seminary) I presented our model for the Advent Wreath at our FirstLight services in 2015 and 2014, which seemed well-received by the participants.

Vespers: Sandra McCracken and students from Hope College

Festival of Song and Scripture (gospel music from a variety of musicians and churches)

Saturday

Morning worship: Richard Mouw preaching musicians from East End Fellowship, Richmond, VA

Plenary session: L Gregory Jones on “traditioned innovation,” co-presented with an ad hoc jazz ensemble exploring vividly the notion of spontaneously generated expressions of faith and theology unique but grounded in our rich theological heritage

Seminar: Projection practices Becky Steel Halstead creative and tasteful methods for developing the Sunday worship projection

Seminar: From the inside out: guiding adolescents in worship leadership Eric Mathis (we do this a lot already and I wanted to see if we were doing it according to anyone else's model) I felt like what we do with youth leadership held its own in the critical light of “best practices”

Seminar: Revitalized worship spaces: architecture of renewal (we did nothing but look at pictures of some very creative spatial reconfigurations around the country) It was wonderful!

Closing Worship: Anne Zaki preaching. The end of the service and the blessing rite, in many languages and including a simple sending song from China was quite stirring.

Music ministry

I was struck this week by how cool and exciting it is to be in church music these days. I think a key factor in my recent excitement is the setting in which I am working these days, but some of this would be relevant no matter where I was working.

Our congregation partners with Bread for the World. Yearly we take a Sunday to emphasize that relationship, and sponsor a letter-writing campaign to our state and federal political representatives on matters of hunger relief. A couple of years ago I got the idea of us celebrating communion on the day of this Bread for the World emphasis. It seems to resonate in the minds of our congregation. Also, in our congregation are a number of retired church professional: minister, educators, musicians, administrators and missionaries. These folks provide a unique energy to our life and mission and bring all manner of vibrancy and insight to our deliberation and priorities.

All of that is prelude or background to my thinking this week. In planning the music for Sunday, I wanted organ music that would "ping" off the Bread for the World relationship, be sensitive to our communion celebration, representative of our global faith, and musically challenging for me and compelling for the listener. I recently purchased a couple of folios of Asian-fusion music by Chelsea Chen, inspired by (I presume) her own ethnic heritage. One of the pieces in her collection of three Taiwanese folk songs is titled, "Song of the country farmer." I thought this might be a relevant piece for this Sunday. I did some investigating on the Internet (fruitless, but amazing that I could do that!). I asked one of our retired medical missionaries if she recognized the tune. "No," was her answer, but she allowed the piece was extremely reminiscent of indigenous music of Taiwan. I checked with the publisher via email to see if Chen had provided any additional notes that didn't appear in the folio. "No," was also their reply, but here, contact her directly via email and ask her yourself. A short email elicited an overnight reply! Chen was able to give me a little background on the song, just enough so that I can intelligently answer the questions I know I will field when folks hear this piece!

I was struck by how the resources available to me have expanded exponentially since I began church music 25 years ago. The wide array of repertoire that is being written for the global church, based on indigenous folks songs is new and exciting for me, and much-appreciated by this congregation. The ease with which I was able to contact the publisher and the arranger herself and get some helpful information, and form a nascent bond over a shared interest in folk music has made my day and makes me grateful.

For what it's worth, the other music in this Sunday's service includes Michael Jothen's "You are the branches" from Choristers Guild; Anne Krentz Organ's arrangement of "Mfurahini alleluia" in the Laudate series from Concordia, and a mix of old a new hymnody from the Presbyterian hymnal, "Glory to God."

Lenten Banners

Our Lenten preaching theme is "We were there," a series of sermons dealing with persons who related to Jesus in his final days. When the theme was announced in January, I immediately imagined a set of banners, one for each person. I had in mind a set we made in Richmond for Eastertide some years ago, a sort of silhouette effect.

One church member drew the original artwork, other members did the painting (on fabric) and yet another finished each banner with a border and yet another prepared the banners for hanging (rods and cords). We're using the drawings as cover art for our worship guides on Sundays.

Here are the first two; we've colorized the background (from the original black/white) to reflect the fabric color of the finished banners. Above, the woman who anointed Jesus (Mark 14.3-9) and below, the slave who was injured in the garden (Luke 22.45-53). I'll post the others as we move through the season.

Faure Requiem

Black Mountain Presbyterian Church will present a special service of remembrance and light on Sunday evening November 6 at 7PM at the church at 117 Montreat Road in Black Mountain. During the service the Chancel Choir of the church will perform “Requiem” by Gabriel Fauré. Admission to this formal service is free and open to the public. This service will help participants call to mind and commemorate family and friends who have died; the service will conclude with the lighting of candles in memory of those who have died. This worship service will include Bible readings, poetry as well as hymns and the special music to be performed by the choir. Fauré composed his Requiem over a span of several months between 1887 and 1890. It was performed at Fauré’s own funeral in 1924 and premiered in the US in 1931. In this setting the choir will be accompanied by a small ensemble including Mike Barker, organ; Michael Brubaker and Christina Cornell, French horns; Alice Keith Knowles, violin; and Judy Bailey, harp. Contact the church 669-2725 or michaelb@bmpcnc.org for more information.

Hearing Assistance

A couple of years ago BMPCNC made the transition from hearing assistance amplifiers to a t-coil, or induction coil system. The cost was borne by a generous (hearing-impaired) member of our congregation. It has worked quite well (though persons using hearing aids without the t-coil setting have not benefited from the switch). Here is an article about a t-coil user in New York, a composer of some renown. I think what is most interesting is the slow up-take on the part of US businesses and institutions making use of a t-coil system. I figured we were a little behind the times in getting our system installed; come to find out we're sort of on the cutting edge!

After he lost much of his hearing last year at age 57, the composer Richard Einhorn despaired of ever really enjoying a concert or musical again. Even using special headsets supplied by the Metropolitan Opera and Broadway theaters, he found himself frustrated by the sound quality, static and interference.

Then, in June, he went to the Kennedy Center in Washington, where his “Voice of Light” oratorio had once been performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, for a performance of the musical “Wicked.”

There were no special headphones. This time, the words and music were transmitted to a wireless receiver in Mr. Einhorn’s hearing aid using a technology that is just starting to make its way into public places in America: a hearing loop.

A hearing loop, typically installed on the floor around the periphery of a room, is a thin strand of copper wire radiating electromagnetic signals that can be picked up by a tiny receiver already built into most hearing aids and cochlear implants. When the receiver is turned on, the hearing aid receives only the sounds coming directly from a microphone, not the background cacophony.

Worship Music

The magazine Christianity Today this month has a follow-up pair of articles on worship music. The issue arose with a set of five article in the March 2011 issue. I have found the whole discussion quite helpful in refining my thinking on the function of music in worship and how it's selected.

The series began with John Koessler's article giving a helpful corrective by asserting that the whole point of worship is not about satisfying the individual's needs for a particular style of liturgy or music, but in our need to acclaim God and and God's sovereignty. Penny-ante "wars" over worship and music have no place in the context of what we are truly to be about when we worship.

We think of worship as something that originates with us, our gift to God. Perhaps this is why so many of us are conflicted about it. We consider worship to be an expression of our personal devotion. So when the musical style or some expression gets in the way, we don't feel like it is our worship at all.

Several years ago I read Thomas Day's book Why Catholics can't sing. T. David Gordon seems to have followed-up with a Protestant version of the thesis with Why Johnny can't sing hymns. An insightful interview with him is part of this collection in the March issue of CT. His beef is with a perceived idolatry of that-which-is-contemporary in our worship, especially the fleeting trends in contemporary church music. The interview was a helpful reminder of the sin inherent in jettisoning everything old from our worship.

Another of the 5 articles explores the handful of hymns that keep appearing in published hymnals generation after generation; it was quite revealing and interesting.

The June issue (not available on line yet) has two follow-up articles offered somewhat in response to the first series. Both were helpful. Lawrence Mumford is a composer, teacher and worship leader in CA; his article is a sort of primer in what distinguishes pop worship music from traditional worship music. As an important aside he notes that young listeners hear symphonic music quite a bit when they watch even the newest film releases; that arena is one of the last in which a symphonic composer can make a career. His main point may be that the emotional depth called for by the experience of worship calls for an equally deep (or wide) pool of worship music. D.H. Williams sends a cautionary shot across the bow of worship planners who mimic too closely the entertainment field. I don't think person involved in planning contemporary worship and music have this (entertainment value) as a goal, but it's possible for me to see where such could influence worship/music design and planning where due diligence is not exercised.

CT promises that the discussion of the issue of worship style and music-for-worship style will continue in upcoming issues.

Tinntinabulumn

New to our All Saints Sunday worship this year will be a tintinabulum. Use of the tinntinabulum has increased among some liturgical congregations in recent years as part of the All Saints observance. In the Middle Ages the tinntinabulum served the practical function of alerting the people of Rome to the approach of the Pope during papal processions. In modern usage it relates to honoring saints of the church, and most particularly, for Reformed congregations utilizing this symbol, it honors all faithful Christians who have died and rest from their labors and represents the priesthood of all believers and brings to mind the whole cycle of God's redeeming work represented in observance of the church year. The newly-constructed tinntinabulum for Black Mountain Presbyterian Church is built on a Tau cross. Ribbons of various colors, representative of the church year, are hung from the cross-piece. Included in the color array are black ribbons, representing each church member who has died since last All Saints. Bells are tied to some of the ribbons as an audible symbol of God's presence. Further the bells create a subtle sound of joy for God's grace in the lives of God's saints living and deceased.

Obama Drama for real

The President and First Lady were in Asheville this weekend. Idle chatter at our house was along the lines of, "I wonder if he'll try to meet Billy Graham while he's here." Our usual source (KMS, Jr.) was remarkably tight-lipped, if indeed he had any line on POTUS' and FLOTUS' weekend plans.

The Obamas did all the "very Ashveille" things: lunch at 12 Bones (ribs) on Friday, dinner in the Village on Friday evening, a visit to the Biltmore estate, and a round of golf at GPI (Grove Park Inn) where they were staying.

Then came word early Sunday morning that a meeting in Montreat with Billy was in the offing. Word was that Montreat Road would be closed to traffic between 10AM and 1PM. YIKES! Throughout the morning the information became a little more refined. By 10AM there were cones along the street, but no closure. We got word at the beginning of 11AM worship that the streets would be closed at 1145AM and remain that way until 1PM. Shannon invited folks to do as they needed (including departing after the offering!! A couple of folks bolted then; a few darted out after the sermon and missed the lovely anthem and the offering). The hospitality ministry kicked into high gear and had a slightly beefed up offering available for the folks stuck after worship. There was a certain camaraderie that settled in as we waited.

The motorcade blasted through about 1230PM. We had a nice crowd (including those who had skipped all of worship in case the crew had passed through earlier in the time frame!!), and even some enthusiastic bell ringers showing their support!


I remarked to Shannon and others that the first family had indeed all the "very Asheville" things on their short weekend, the only item they'll have to do to next time to make the Asheville experience complete is visit with us at BMPCNC for Sunday worship!

Thanks to Kent Patton for the photos.

Busy Day

How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb?


A committee of 7 to stew about the need to change the bulbs and fret about the expense (for 7 months), a motorized $300 a day lift to hoist the hired contractor into place to do the work (plus his paid assistant on the ground), 4 people to move the pew cushions and drape the pews with plastic to keep dust off them, one person to dust the ceiling rafters since we're already in there making a mess anyway, and three willing brutes (including the Chief of Police for the Town of Montreat) from the committee hanging around to do anything else needed on the ground, and one organist to take pictures of the whole event.


Seriously.

Postludes and hospitality

The issue of the postlude has arisen again in our congregation. My "both-and" opinion on the matter is well-documented. The suggestion being talked about right now is that during the upcoming holy season of Advent we (church leaders) urge the congregation by word and example to remain for the conclusion of worship.

As if on cue, I found this article on the matter. Writing from a Catholic perspective provides a unique viewpoint. I have been in enough Catholic churches over the years to know the image of folks returning to their seats after communing, and kneeling in prayer, and remaining knelt in prayer for the concluding words of worship and remaining knelt in prayer through the organ postlude. I wonder if kneeling were part of our tradition if we might find more people remaining for the conclusion of worship. For a few, no doubt, once they got down in a kneeling position, getting back up would take most of the time that is the length of the average postlude!

Catholic theology has a keen awareness of the sacred nature of the assembled body, the congregation. The theology is honed to such a degree that when part of the body leaves before it is time, the implication is that the rest of the body is injured. We Presbyterians would do well to re-examine our understanding of ourselves as a gathered community and the change in our nature which takes place as we become the body of Christ gathered for worship. (Gordon Lathrop's book, Holy People goes a giant step in helping Protestants discover this theological truth.) It's heady stuff but it could lead to a development of an understanding of what happens even at the end of worship as we leave.

I'm all for fellowship and hospitality. But can it not wait just a few moments while Christ's body, the church, puts a little bit of closure on the worship experience? I will gladly commit to playing very, very short postludes in order to help us move in a direction that sees the postlude as part of the service (no applause needed, please), and that sees these last few moments as the perfect time for a last few moments of prayer reflecting on the Word read and proclaimed or in preparation for the week ahead.

Into the digital age

For years BMPCNC has been recording its 11AM worship service to cassette tape for distribution to our members not able to attend church. We kept a few copies on hand also for anyone who happened to be absent on a given Sunday and wanted to hear what went on. With the advent of new technology we began wondering some time ago about moving to digital recording. Finally when our recently dissolved Pastor Nominating Committee was doing its work they saved considerable time and expense by being able to hear potential candidates' sermons online in digital format. They got very excited about the possibilities of doing something similar with our worship. So these two streams merged into renewed interest in getting our services digitally recorded and online. Herewith: how we are doing it.

Some years ago the church placed two high-quality microphones on the rear wall of (west end) of the sanctuary for the express purpose of recording special music events. Concurrently they purchased a Tascam digital recording interface. This is the machine that takes the signal from the mics and converts it into digital signals that in turn are fed into a computer-based recording software. The church also had a pretty powerful laptop computer used for a variety of purposes including being the work station for the digital recording process. With the Tascam we got a piece of software known as Cubase, which is a fairly high-end and powerful recording and sound editing program. I don't know how the final product was used for those special music events. I haven't found any archived CDs nor files of music events recorded with this equipment. Once I arrived I was intrigued with the possibilities but didn't really take too much time to explore any of the components that much. Cubase has a pretty steep learning curve and I therefore let it slip off my radar most of the time.

However, with the arrival of our new pastor there was wide-spread interest and passion for getting on the digital wagon. We had almost all the equipment we needed. The only thing lacking was a speedy way to duplicate CDs for distribution as we envisioned it. So at the end of last summer I purchased a 3-CD duplicator along with a supply of CDs, labels and envelops. Now it was just a matter of stringing all the parts together and getting personnel in place to do the various chores.

First the computer crashed. Phil Cogbill built a new machine. It had a couple of kinks; he took care of them. The first install of the Cubase software was flawed, so we had to re-install that. In the midst of all that my dad died, Phil had H1N1 and we had the usual zaniness of church life during stewardship season. So everything took about a week longer than one might expect.

There are, of course, one-piece devices that do everything we wanted and were trying to do with 3-4 pieces of equipment. For $4000 you can get a digital recorder that will produce a master CD, make copies of that master and print a pretty label onto the CD. Sadly we didn't have that kind of money. And we did have these other components and a desire to be good stewards of what we had. We got the last piece of equipment and all the supplies for about $600. The desktop computer Phil assembled cost us nothing. (We did however, this week purchase a new laptop; we'll stick with the current set-up and keep the laptop free to move around the facility.)

So here's the process:

We turn on the recording computer and recording software

Sound is picked up by the mics and fed to the Tascam

The digital interface sends the sound to Cubase

With Cubase we create tracks of the service and edit the sound quality

Then we convert the tracks to WAV files

The WAV files are burned to a master CD

We duplicate the CD

We label the duplicate CDs and label them for distribution

We convert the sermon track to an MP3 file format and upload that to the church's website

A lot of folks remember the good old days of turning on a cassette recorder, hitting record and getting a tape of what you wanted. The digital format means superior sound quality but brings with it greater complexity in the recording process. These days its not a simple matter of recording a CD. That can be done; but we were tasked with doing this with no budget.

So while it sounds easy: "we have a CD recording of our worship service," it's been a long haul getting to this point. And there is a fair bit of work involved in producing the final product. This week I was especially grateful to Mark Banzhoff for helping get more familiar with Cubase. I still have plenty to learn but I think I have the basics.

Ultimately our goal is to spin this ministry off for interested lay folks. But we want first to be certain that everything works fluidly and that we can produce easily-to-follow and clearly-defined steps for the whole process. You can listen to sermons online at our website. Phil and Perry Sprawls added that functionality this week. That's where we are right now.

Seven Continents

This week is World Communion and my plan is to offer music at both services from around the world. The only place that will be un-represented is Antarctica; funny, I just couldn't fine music from that region!

At FirstLight:
North America: the spiritual Glory, glory hallelujah
Europe: the hymn Praise to the Lord the Almighty, paired with
Africa: Come all you people (Uyaimose)
Asia: Mark Sedio's setting of the Lord's Prayer to a Cambodian tune
South America: Tuya es la gloria (We sing of your glory)
Oceania: a Hillsong tune to be determined

At 11AM:
North America: Doug Wagner's anthem Santus
South America: Tuya es la gloria (We sing of your glory)
Asia: Mark Sedio's setting of the Lord's Prayer to a Cambodian tune
Afica: Jikelele, from the songbook, To everyone born
Oceania: A Tongan prayer song
Europe: the hymn Praise to the Lord the Almighty

I think it's a testimony to our global awareness that most of the songs that we're not already planning to sing at both services, easy could be sung by both gatherings. The musicians have worked long and hard to learn a huge array of music in many, many styles, and our congregation really seems to appreciate and join in with all of it.

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.

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.