In 1972 the American Catholic bishops published a thirty-one page booklet titled “Music in Catholic Worship”. Any person who is responsible for selecting, preparing and leading music for worship would do well to study this resource and keep it within reach. It is geared for Catholic celebrations but the principles are applicable to worship gatherings in the wider Christian community as well. I constantly use these guidelines in my music selection and direction at Living Hope Community Church, a Presbyterian church at which I've served for 33 years.
In one section of “Music in Catholic Worship” the writers speak about “a threefold judgment” that must be made to determine the value of a piece of music for worship. They call these three aspects The Musical Judgment, The Liturgical Judgment, and The Pastoral Judgment. To simplify, I call them the art, part and heart of worship music:
ART -- music for worship must be good;
PART -- music for worship must be appropriate;
HEART -- music for worship must resonate with these people in this community.
Let's start with ART.
The Art of Music
Making Musical Judgments
Sing to Him a new song, play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. (Ps 33:3 )
Music for worship must be good music. Our repertoires should draw from the very best sacred music that has been composed to glorify our Creator Whose image we bear. Because we love the Lord, we want to present musical offerings that are fit for our King. We select (and compose) songs that are artistically and technically excellent . The words and the music must effectively convey their intended meaning, mood and feeling. There must be beauty and symmetry in the songs we raise to praise our God. We worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness and our music should reflect that beauty.
“Ah!” we protest. “Beauty is in the ear of the listener! Musical taste is highly subjective.” There is much to be said for this objection except that, at the core, the debate is about style preference rather than our present discussion of quality. We must be careful not to confuse the question of genre with the the question of quality. (When we lived in Nashville we would often see bumper stickers that read, “If it ain’t country, it ain’t music.”) Also, this consideration is not traditional vs. contemporary or sophisticated vs. simple. As the Snowbird Statement on Catholic Liturgical Music simply points out: “some music is of higher quality than others; not all music is good.”
Werner Heisenberg, one of the founders of quantum physics, notes in an essay that "beauty is the proper conformity of the parts to one another and to the whole." Similarly, Joseph Ratzinger who became Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “Beauty comes from meaningful inner order.” (TSOTL, 152) While selecting “good” music is not an exact science it’s not voodoo either.
There are some objective, identifiable ingredients in all good music.
This musical judgment falls to the chief musician who should be an expert in sorting the good from the not-so-hot. Gifted music leaders consider these objective factors in their search.
Admittedly, the song selection process is often intuitive and is guided more by principles than rigid laws. Without getting overly clinical and cerebral, good compositions strike an artful balance between theme and variation, predictability and memorability, symmetry and surprise.
Music ministers need not make these decisions in a vacuum when they can draw from the insight of their peers. I have a small, circle of friends who lead music in various worship traditions. We compare notes frequently and recommend songs, publishers and even local side musicians and singers (a.k.a. ringers).
Of course well written music must be prepared, presented and played well.
Congregational worship is not a platform to display virtuosity as an end in itself, but music must be played and lead with skill. Now, as a good friend is fond of reminding me, “There will always be greater and lesser.” There will always be the wealthy churches that have the resources to hire award-winning musicians and bolster their amateur choirs with professional singers (i.e., outside talent).
I attended Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and was truly inspired by the beauty and majesty of the music. And that was a midweek liturgy!
There are many evagelical churches that will only employ professional musicians and singers to lead their music. Several of these band members are regularly booked on recording sessions for major pop acts.
Smaller churches (especially those located far from urban areas) will often employ one part-time staff musician and a group of volunteers with varying degrees of musical prowess. But there should be some minimum requirements, even for the small worshipping community.
First, music directors and the musicians and singers that work with them must be musically gifted. Beyond that, their natural talent must be developed to a point where their performance facilitates worship. The choirmaster at St. John the Evangelist in Stamford, requires those interested in singing with the parish choir to be able to “match a pitch”.
The musician should possess a command of the parts to be played. While developing skills is hard work the result should sound like fluid play. Catholics speak in terms of “offering it up” when they encounter various trials. We don’t want to drive our fellow worshippers to the place where they must “offer up” their vexation over the music ministry.
There are ways that musicians with significant limitations can maximize their contribution to the beauty of worship. I speak from first hand experience and have no grounds to be puffed up in this area. I was a percussion major for only two years before I dropped out of college. I will never be mistaken for a concert pianist. Though I am improving, my sight-reading is not great.
Rehearsing specific songs for an upcoming service is one way to keep the accompaniment graceful. Yes, a strict music teacher will insist that a player be equally adept in the keys of Gb and Db as he is in C. But in the real world, a moderately able (but growing) musician can learn the more testy pieces through deliberate practice techniques.
In this brief section about the art of music I must plead to our weekend warrior guitar players -- especially since the guitar has become the instrument of choice in contemporary praise music:
1) Excel at tuning your instrument and keeping it in tune;
2) Excel in the use of a capo;
3) Improve your playing skills continually (how much better are you today compared to last year? five years ago? 1994?)
4) Limit the number of guitarists. Rotate. More than two acoustic guitars tends to transport a congregation to the cacophonous marketplace of Calcutta.
We must maintain Christian joy while developing our skills and a repertoire of good music remembering the words of St. Augustine: “Do not allow yourselves to be offended by the imperfect while you strive for the perfect.”
I’ll close this section with the Church Music Proverbs of Angelo. Humor is not their main purpose but you might get a kick out of a few of them.
A skilled bass player makes a pastor glad,
But a clueless guitarist is a heaviness to his congregation.
Better is a single, adequately skilled musician than a bandstand full of neophytes.
Give instruction to a gifted musician and she will be still more musical;
Teach a singer who can match a pitch and he will improve his intonation.
A sensitive drummer makes the heart rejoice,
And he who doth not disturb the groove will get booked again.
A worship leader who does not warm-up should be burned at the stake,
But the well prepared player causes no inner disturbance.
An inconsistent tempo is an abomination to a celebration,
But those who keep time stay in the praise band.
With banal songs a music director quenches heartfelt adoration,
But through the final blessing the faithful will be delivered.
If you come up with your own proverbs, please post them in the comments!
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