Does Anyone Actually Play Music? Does it Matter to the Church?
Church members, especially the young (and especially young males), have so little experience singing or participating in the production of music in any form that they know only how to listen, not to sing. In one sense, churches that buy into the culture of canned music are setting themselves up for silence in the future. Who will be left to sing?
A quick read for those of you with an attentive ear to church music. I have made this argument in other venues as well. We are willing to suggest television and film has affected our ability to concentrate and changed the way we communicate. It seems reasonable that recorded music has done the same, substituting our expectations and our sensibilities in the church as well.
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Music is an almost constant background in our culture. Professionally produced and recorded, then reproduced to near perfection with the technology of modern sound systems.
The result? We have stifled, dulled and discouraged the ambition for personal musical expression in the individual. The constant exposure to the “perfection†of all prepackaged music has raised expectations so high that many amateur musicians would rather not perform in public at all.
That’s a shame. I love live music, I love watching musicians play their instruments. I’m lucky because the small, country Lutheran church where I worship God still appreciates the effort of all musicians, even with flaws, and on most sundays the congregation will challenge the organ to match it’s volume. Our choir usually has 6-10 members, and several times during the year members will play an offertory on piano, French horn, banjo, whatever each of us has to offer.
Music should be, first and foremost, a matter of personal expression, a balm and salve for the soul.
I’m going to make one other point concerning music in the church. Look at the credits at the bottom of most hymns. Two names, one for music, one for lyrics. It is an abomination that some churches choose to print the lyrics and not the music, either by printing the lyrics in the bulletin or projecting them on a screen or wall. I’ve heard the arguments – most people can’t read music, most people find music intimidating, or distracting. Answer me this – should we really set our standards so low and never encourage people to learn? Especially in a Lutheran church! I can’t sight read every note, but when the music is in front of me, I can certainly see if the next note rises or falls. The words AND the music were written for the glory of God, and both should always be in print. If it’s too intimidating for the congregation, perhaps we should return to all services in Latin, and thus not expect the congregation to participate at all.
In my previous occupation, we dealt with the result of music’s transition from its primary uses to secondary use. I sold stereo equipment. A large majority of customers sought whole house systems for background listening. They were not as we called them, “active” listeners. These were not out best customers. They had little to no appreciation for quality of sound nor performance.
Perhaps you are correct that would-be musicians are scared into silence. I would argue that your later argument that the art of performance has diminshed. This very morning, the re were few who sang in our worship during the hymns and fewer yet who sang with any conviction.
This is a lack of music education in our culture, understanding of music’s role in the liturgy, and perhaps purely intimidation.
I have to agree in regards to not printing the music. This is a disservice for visitors, diminsihes the importance of the hymnal in liturgical life, and most importantly suggests the value of the hymn is solely textual.
Lutherans are scared of “emotionalism.” Yet music can convey a range of emotions to further the meaning of the text better than any words can alone. Why did God use King David to give us the Psalms? I feel it was because words alone could not give the full meaning and God desired to use the music of our lips to better expression the things of Him.
I agree this is a frustrating situation, one that is bound to situations within the church and without. In the end, we see polar opposites throughout Christendom. Some church attendence relys on God to give them gifts by a few select idividuals. They sit in a purely receptive mode. Yet in others of the charismatic variety believe that God will not gift them unless they are active in emotional, physical, and active ways.
God does give to all regardless of their participation. Yet to not confess or simply thank God for His gifts through liturgy, we spurn that which he gives. So, I sing a song of thanksgiving and respond in like kind to his speaking to me.