By Robin G. Jordan
Introduction. In
1999 I prepared a resource paper for the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana’s
Commission on Liturgy and Music on the music of the Eucharist. The purpose of
this resource paper was to provide guidance for clergy and church musicians on
what music might be used at the various points in the Eucharist where music
could be used. The Reverend Ormonde Plater who was Archdeacon of the diocese
and Secretary of the Liturgy for the diocese had invited me to prepare the resource paper
after reading an article that I had written for The Living Church. The title of the resource paper was Let All the People Praise: The Music of the
Holy Eucharist. It was one of two projects that I undertook at that time.
The other project was a resource paper on child-inclusive worship. It explained
in more detail the principles for including children in worship, which I had
introduced in Let All the People Praise: The
Music of the Holy Eucharist and provided
a list of additional resources.
Both projects were undertaken not only with the large church
with ample musical resources in mind but also the small church with more
limited resources. I drew upon my experiences in music ministry at Christ
Episcopal Church, Covington, and St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Mandeville, as
well as extensive research. While written for the Holy Eucharist, Rites One and
Two, of the 1979 Prayer Book, the principles discussed in the two resource
papers are applicable to the Order for the Administration of the Lord’s Supper
in the 1928 Prayer Book.
Both projects included surveys of the musical resources
available to churches in the closing decade of the twentieth century. Most of
the music that I examined and described almost twenty years ago would now be
categorized as the “New Traditional.” It is also eminently congregational.
I have reviewed the hymn indices of a number of hymnals
produced since that time—Worship &
Rejoice (2000), Lutheran Service Book
(2004), The Worship Hymnal (2008), Worship: A Hymnal and Service Book for Roman
Catholics—Fourth Edition (2011), and Glory
to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal (2013). The music I surveyed in 1999 forms
a substantial part of the core hymnody of these more recent collections.
Based on what I ascertained from my survey of the Master
Index of the Gulbransen Digital Hymnal DH-100 CP this music also forms a large
part of the core hymnody in eight of the thirteen hymnals listed in its Manual.
These eight hymnals included the predecessors of Worship & Rejoice (2000), Lutheran
Service Book (2004), The Worship
Hymnal (2008), Worship: A Hymnal and
Service Book for Roman Catholics—Fourth Edition (2011), and Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal
(2013).
Since 1999 I have worked on a third project. I surveyed the
metrical versions of the canticles and psalms, which were available to small
church congregations during the opening decade of the twenty-first century. I
also looked at metrical settings of the Kyrie, the Apostles’ Creed, the
Sanctus, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Agnus Dei as well as easy-to-sing
non-metrical settings of these liturgical texts. Among the challenges small
church congregations, in particular new church plants, face is that they
frequently worship in settings in which the acoustical environment is not
favorable to chanting. New congregations have substantial numbers of adults and
children who are unable to sing chant. They also do not have the kind of
musical leadership for effective chanting.
The project was based upon a number of premises. Among these
premises is that Sunday morning is at the center of the life and ministry of a
small church. Sunday morning is when most of the teaching, fellowship, worship,
and pastoral care goes on in the small church. What happens on Sunday morning
will impact the small church congregation throughout the following week.
Consequently, thoughtful attention should be given to every aspect of Sunday
morning.
What might be adequate in a weekday service of Morning
Prayer or Holy Communion such as saying the canticles, psalms, and service
music—Gloria, Kyrie, Trisagion, Sanctus, Memorial Acclamation, Great Amen,
Fraction Anthem, etc., however, is less than satisfactory in a Sunday service
of the same type. A new church plant, if it is to attract new families, needs
to offer as high a quality worship experience as it can achieve within the
limitations of its resources and circumstances. Offering such a worship
experience is no less critical for small churches that have served a community
for several generations.
A new congregation, or any small church congregation as far
as that goes, should not have to settle for saying liturgical texts when
musically appealing, easy-to-sing metrical and non-metrical settings of the
same texts are readily available. It also makes no sense for a new congregation
to say these texts when the new congregation can easily sing them to familiar
hymn tunes and in the case of non-metrical settings to simple melodies. It is
unnecessarily restrictive to insist that if a congregation cannot sing these
texts in a particular way, i.e., to plainsong or Anglican chant, the
congregation should not sing them at all. The purpose of music in a service on
Sundays and other occasions is not to promote a particular style or type of
music but to help the people to worship God.
A theme that runs through the Scriptures, the New Testament
as well as the Old Testament, is the importance of worshiping God in song. Our
Lord took part in the worship of the synagogue and the Temple. This worship
involved the singing of psalms. After the Last Supper our Lord and his
disciples sung a psalm in praise of God before they went into the night.
Genuine New Testament worship involves not only the reading of Scripture, the
preaching of sermons, the offering of prayers, and the celebration of the
Lord’s Supper, it also entails the singing of “hymns, psalms, and spiritual
songs.”
Most people are able to sing. They may not be musical, that
is, have specific interest in music or show a particular talent for music. They
may have been asked to sing music that is not for their voice type or within
their vocal range. They may live in a culture that does not value group or
communal singing as it once did. They may not be a part of a singing group or community.
They may have received little or no encouragement. They may be inhibited by
social expectations of musicianship. They may suffer from misperceptions about
their singing ability. But they can sing!
Given singable, musically-appealing hymns, worship songs, and service music,
encouragement, instruction in basic singing techniques—posture, breathing,
facial flexibility, warming-up, etc., and sufficient opportunity to learn and
master what they are being called upon to sing, they will sing with confidence,
enthusiasm, and delight.
By the same token the members of a worshiping assembly are
its chief music makers. The role of the music leaders in the church—the
precentor, the choirmaster, the choir, and the organist, or the worship leader
and the band, is to facilitate the congregation’s singing. The music of the
worshiping assembly is paramount. The provision of special music is secondary.
Congregational singing serves a number of liturgical
functions—catechetical, devotional, exhortative, and inspirational. Research
shows that congregational singing also serves a number of psychological and
social functions. For individuals group singing enhances psychological
wellbeing, elevates mood, reduces stress, fosters social relationships, and has
other benefits. For groups singing together strengthens group cohesion and
reinforces group identity. This research points to music and singing as a part
of God’s divine design for human beings. Archeological findings also support
this conclusion as does the Bible.
God meant the Church of Jesus Christ to be a singing church. If a canticle, psalm, or
other liturgical text that is normally sung can be sung in metrical verse form,
it should be sung. A metrical version of a liturgical text is not inferior to a
chant setting of the same text. It is simply different. If the text is taken
from the Bible, both versions are translations—even paraphrases—of the original
Hebrew or Greek. A small church congregation that sings accessible metrical
versions of the canticles and psalms and easy-to-sing metrical or non-metrical
settings of the service music is no less genuine in its worship of God than is
the large church congregation whose choir sings plainsong or Anglican settings
of the canticles and psalms and more elaborate settings of the service music.
It actually may be more faithful to God’s revealed plan for Christian worship
than the large church congregation that depends upon its choir to bear the
weight of the singing in worship.
Whenever a movement of the Holy Spirit has brought spiritual
awakening and renewal in the Church, it has inspired a revival of
congregational singing. It has also stimulated the composition of new hymn
tunes, the writing of new hymns, and the creation of new forms of
congregational song. If any one conclusion may be drawn from this outpouring of
new music is that God sets a high value on congregational singing.
What deserves mention is that upon close examination the new
forms of song frequently turn out to be old forms given fresh expression. The
medieval Church sung passages of Scripture in the form of canticles and psalms
set to chant settings. After the English Reformation the Church of England sung
passages of Scripture in the form of metrical paraphrases and anthems. In the
last three decades of the twentieth century Anglican and Episcopal churches
sung passages of Scripture in the form of what were called Scripture songs.
These songs were set to easy-to-sing, musically-appealing irregular tunes.
At St. Michael’s the choir which did not have a large budget
for anthems used them as anthem material. The choir also sung hymn anthems. The
choir of North Cross United Methodist Church did the same thing until a music
professor from Loyal University and her husband joined the congregation. She would
become the church’s music director and replaced the Scripture songs from the
UMC hymnal supplement with classical anthems from the university’s music
library.
What keeps small
church congregations from using metrical versions of the canticles and the psalms
other than the mistaken notion that these songs must be chanted to plainsong or
Anglican chant is a lack of familiarity with what canticles and psalms are
available in metrical verse form. No one has to my knowledge undertaken the
task of indexing metrical versions of the canticles and psalms as organ
voluntaries and choir anthems have been indexed. They are typically included in
indices of hymns rather than being indexed as a separate category.
Almost all hymnals contain metrical versions of the canticles
and psalms. Some hymnals place them in a section of their own. Other hymnals
like The Hymnal, 1940 and The Hymnal 1982 place them in one of the
various sections in which the hymnal is divided.
The Gulbransen Digital Hymnal DH-100 CP’s Master Index
contains a fairly large number of tunes to which metrical versions of the
canticles and psalms may be sung. I explore the use of metrical versions of the
canticles and psalms in Early in the
Morning Our Songs Shall Rise to Thee: The Music and Conduct of Morning Prayer as
well as in this article series.
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