John Ahern writes,

(Emphasis on the not.)

There are a lot of common avenues of arguing about Church music that I think are seriously flawed and particularly destructive because they may be arguing for the right music for the wrong reasons. Here I’m simply outlining the ways I think are particularly unwise—perhaps in another place I can begin to outline the ways I think one ought to do it. (The bold affirms what I do not.)

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John Ahern writes,

This may be somewhat confusing, since I’ve posted on here before about Classical music being dead and Classical music really being an output of Classical Greece. Using two different definitions of the word Classical about the same issue is hard enough—here, I’m going to add a third. When I say “classical education”, I mean the liberal arts and sciences. Think Dorothy Sayers. Classical and Christian schools. That classical. This is about applying the concept of paideia to music.

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A friend was bemoaning the lack of hymns about the promised resurrection of the body. So, I sat down tonight and wrote one. It probably needs a little tweaking, particularly in the second verse, but I needed to get a post up today– so, perhaps you shall see a better version in the future.

The meter is  CMD (common meter doubled) and for now, it can be sung to the tune Ellacombe.
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Drum muß uns sein verdienstlich Leiden recht bitter und doch süße sein.

So his meritorious Passion must for us be truly bitter and yet sweet.

Where I live, the weather almost always gets drizzly around Good Friday. But the clouds aren’t darkening like they are in winter. Usually, Daylight savings has already hit and the sun’s angle makes the overcast seem brighter than usual. I can’t help but thinking that’s appropriate. Rainy weather is sad, but at the beginning of spring, it’s bright.
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Hannah Roorda writes:

Well, despite my valiant efforts to keep this blog neat and tidy, to not post when someone else is posting, to write my entry before midnight (*cough*Nick*cough*) despite the fact that I went so far as to type my post up the night before, despite the fact that I rose early (my clock gives me 6:52 AM) you all are going to have to suffer TWO posts on one day, because I simply cannot wait any longer. And what’s more, I have to totally repost this in order for my post to appear as newer than Nick’s. Let me tell you, I totally suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Please enjoy.

I may have mentioned it once before, but I have been very involved in the music my church. We sing a variety of traditional-style hymns, a couple of more modern pieces (but still not typical choruses) and Psalms, Psalms, Psalms (some of which we are beginning to chant). The instruments we have used in our worship services include the piano, tuba, trumpet, French horn, violin, guitar, and flute. Not a terribly eclectic range, but those are the musicians we have had in our congregation.

Selecting music for a church to sing is very, very difficult. There are a lot of less-than intelligent hymns out there with with-less than appropriate tunes. It can be a very frustrating experience, trying to plan music for a worship service. You pick out a hymn because you like the words– only to discover that the tune is one of those 18th-century gallopers, and so are all the other tunes to that meter. So you find a tune you like?—?but the words look something like this:

“The world is bright with the joyous saints
Who love to do Jesus’ will.
You can meet them in school, or
In lanes, or at sea,
In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea,
For the saints of God are just folk like me,
And I mean to be one too.”
(excerpted from “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God” by Lesbia Scott)

The author of the hymn has the right idea, theologically, sort of… but she has little poetic skill, and makes the theology sound corny; certainly not appropriate for Lord’s Day worship. (I hope I have not just insulted anyone’s favorite hymn. I had not heard of this one until a few years ago at my uncle’s church, and my entire family was stifling giggles in our pew throughout the course of the hymn. Another favorite line includes the words “and one was slain by a fierce wild beast”. Not exactly the greatest way to honor the martyrs.)

A much better hymn to honor the saints is “For All the Saints”. The words were written by William How, and set to the tune Sine Nomine (Latin scholars, you may be amused) by Ralph Vaughan Williams, a great English composer. The words are glorious, the tune is beautiful, and it is as fitting a musical tribute as you can find for All Saints’ Day. I would like to share with you the full text on this site, but here is the midi version of the tune (which is actually not too terrible for a midi) and here is a downloadable version of the score.

For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the Apostles’ glorious company,
Who bearing forth the Cross o’er land and sea,
Shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For the Evangelists, by whose blest word,
Like fourfold streams, the garden of the Lord,
Is fair and fruitful, be Thy Name adored.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For Martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye,
Saw the bright crown descending from the sky,
And seeing, grasped it, Thee we glorify.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
All are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
And singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Now, it may seem like it goes on forever, but there is no need to sing it all in one part– split it up and sing it as two hymns in one service. It is certainly an excellent hymn in both words and tune, and it is appropriately emotionally moving.

But what I’m really trying to get at is that music selection for churches is very difficult. There are a lot of great hymns, but you have to be very discerning when choosing which hymns to sing, and more often than not, you find a hymn you consider to be great– and then realize your congregation doesn’t have the musical skill or good taste to understand it. And let me tell you?—?congregations have a lot of opinions about what they’re singing! At one point I was getting very frustrated, but then I was greatly blessed to find this quote from C. S. Lewis:

“There are two musical situations on which I think we can be confident that a blessing rests. One is where a priest or and organist, himself a man of trained and delicate taste, humbly and charitably sacrifices his own (aesthetically right) desires and gives the people humble and coarser fare than he would wish, in a belief (even as it may be, the erroneous belief) that he can thus bring them to God. The other is where the stupid and unmusical layman humbly and patiently, and above all silently, listens to music which cannot, or cannot fully, appreciate, in the belief that it somehow glorifies God, and that if it does not edify him this must be his own defect. Neither such a High Brow nor such a Low Brow can be far out of the way. To both, Church Music will have been a means of grace: not the music they have liked, but the music they have disliked. They have bother offered, sacrificed, their taste in the fullest sense. But where the musician is filled with the pride of skill or the virus of emulation and looks with contempt on the unappreciative congregation, or where the unmusical, complacently entrenched in their own ignorance and conservatism, look with the restless and resentful hostility of an inferiority complex on all who would try to improve their taste– there, we may be sure, all that both offer is unblessed and the spirit that moves them is not the Holy Ghost.

These highly general reflections will not, I fear, be of much practical use to any priest or organist in devising a working compromise for a particular church. The most they can hope to do is suggest that the problem is never a merely musical one. Where both the choir and the congregation are spiritually on the right road no insurmountable difficulties will occur. Discrepancies of taste and capacity will, indeed, provide matter for mutual charity and humility.”

C. S. Lewis, Christian Reflections, “On Church Music” (1949) para. 9-10, pp. 96-97

Or Worship Most Foul. Just kidding.

I’d like to have some direction, because otherwise I’ll be saying things people have heard already, as if it were something new. I can say nothing original, but I should like to have some definite position to advocate on this issue.

I wouldn’t like anyone to think I’m defending traditional Roman liturgy, or traditional Eastern liturgy, or anything like that. The problem I see quite often there is that they defend their liturgy on the basis that it is traditional, which is never a good way to defend anything. I think tradition, in many cases, gathers dust or produces rust, and that dust needs to be continually swept off, and that rust needs to be scrubbed off, by nothing other than a complete understanding of the why of traditional liturgy.

Some people will go for Heavy Metal in Worship. Other people are greatly offended at this, but this is not as it should be. People should not be offended at this anymore than the person who appreciates the Heavy Metal in Worship is justified in liking the Metal. This is an appeal to individual feeling, individual preference, individual experience, and individual spiritual satisfaction. Getting offended is not just a bad tactic in wooing the other person to your musical taste; getting offended is not justified because it is an appeal to subjectivity, and we cannot appeal to anything subjective. It’s sort of like pinning jelly onto the wall with a nail.

When people complain about the contemporary music in Service, it’s always going to be done (because it’s complaining) appealing to what they’re more comfortable with, what they want more, what they will get more spiritually satisfied with. This will change from person to person and we will not have a peaceful resolution over music – instead, we will have denominational, provincial, separate comfort zones and cultural battles that rage within the Church. Why is music such an important thing? This is a question we all know the answer to – how you worship God is extremely important and personal to people. The goal is to make it both very personal and very universal.

We can’t appeal to subjective standard; what can we appeal to that is objective?

This requires a completely different tone and point of view. The focus here goes off me; it goes away from individuals completely – to God and His Word. The focus of Worship is not us; it is Him. Worship is the glorification of the Most High. It’s more comfortable (for everyone) to wear jeans and a T-shirt to worship God. But not on the Sabbath; not on His Holy Day, not in His Presence. He demands more of us.

This is the fascinating part of worship. In Worship, Christ demands our full homage, but this comes from the fact that Christ is the King of the Universe.

Don’t forget that we are the Queen, so to speak. His Bride. Going into Church is not like going to be spiritually fed alone. That’s Platonic, because we are not only spiritually fed, leaving the body off as something extra. The Bible is about incarnation and bodily things. Our royal blood, our Regality in these meetings with the Presence, is obligatory. Regality on the inside and out.

To define terms immediately would be ideal, and I’ll perhaps do that in the next post (whenever that will be). One can’t really argue or agree with another until terms are defined, so I shall try to do that as soon as possible.

If you are interested in the background on terms like “worship” and “liturgy”, the best place I could point you to (well, one of the best, in my humble opinion) is Gabriel Bertilson’s April and May posts on (respectively) liturgy and worship.

Be it understood Scripture doesn’t monolithically say, “Don’t wear jeans and a T-Shirt to Church”, nor does it say, “Thou shalt wear a tie with thy button-down shirt and thy khaki pants.” I think the latter is preferable to the former, but that’s taken from a Scriptural principle, not a Scriptural specific. The Bible speaks about liturgy and worship, likewise, in terms of principles, not necessarily specifics. I’ll try to draw out the Biblical defenses of traditional liturgy next time.

Mark DenHoed writes,

That poor sap whom we all know and love (John, in case you didn’t pick that up) always go on about Liturgical Revolution. I usually dismiss his illogical opinions as the rubbish they are with a contemptuous wave of dismissal from my regal hand and a ‘pah’ emanating from my mouth (Yes, I’m being sarcastic. If there’s any dismissing of illogical opinions, it’s probably on John’s part.). However, this time I think he has a point.

It kind of hit me during Church this last Sunday. We were singing. Take My Life and Let It Be. They had taken the liberty of sticking the bane of any hymn into the song, a modern repetitive chorus, and then the difference between old songs and modern songs struck me. I’ll post some old songs and embolden and/or italicise any parts of interest.

Ye Olde Songs:

Take My Life and Let it be

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee

Let all Mortal Flesh keep silence

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.
King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the ;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.
Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.
At His feet the six wingèd seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

(Btw, here’s a definition of homage: c.1290, from O.Fr. homage “allegiance or respect for one’s feudal lord,” from homme “man,” from L. homo (gen. hominis). Fig. sense of “reverence, honor shown” is from 1390)

THE NEW SONGS

I can only Imagine by MercyMe. (By the way, I rather like this song, and I have nothing against it, but it demonstrates my point)

I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk
By your side
I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When your face
Is before me
I can only imagine

[Chorus:]Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all I can only imagine

I can only imagine
When that day comes
And I find myself
Standing in the Son
I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine
[Chorus]
I can only imagine [x2]
I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever, forever worship you
…etc

Well, it’s late and I can’t think of any more new songs.

Although, there is one modern song that I think is actually rather good. There are, doubtless, others.

Here’s what interesting about those songs.

Take my life: It’s a petition to God, asking him to take parts of the singer (will, life, heart, etc). You notice that all of the action would be on God’s part. You’ll also notice that the hymn talks about God far more than one’s self.

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence: I highlighted (nearly) every possessive and nominative word in there. You’ll notice that they all refer to either an Angelic being or God? The only mention of man in the piece is a command that he shut up.

Now, look at the modern song.

Do you see one sentence with the subject being God? Nope. I highlighted all of the nominatives and possessives and they are all about the singer. Again, I rather like this song, but I illustrates the point.

At church a few weeks ago, the youth pastor was gone and so he played a taped lecture by a pastor whose name I forget (I’ll post it if it comes back to me). At one point in the video he said something along the lines of, “Before the reformation, the center of the Church was the Eucharist table, where they had communion. After the reformation, the center of the Church was a pulpit. Now, it’s a stage.” That would seem to be reflected in the music. The center is now those who are singing, not God. So…

Liturgical Revolution, anyone?