It's one of those great spiritual dichotomies, embedded in our psyches since the first human being unexpectedly evolved a soul and the ability to hold an Appalachian Mountain Zither. Is music in worship to be performed, or congegational?
It came up particularly last night at the Music Group meeting. I always try to meet up with the "MP3 replacement Opportunities" on the first Friday of the month. First we deal with all the tedious stuff - admin, spiritual concerns, opportunities to expand and explore the use of music in enhancing worship. And then I like to get on with the important stuff, i.e. the rest of my life, leaving them to make whatever row they like in a spiritual manner.
Anyway, they've got a new "piece". And they know I hate it when music groups have "pieces". I consider it showing off. I always say to them that they have to be careful to ensure they're enabling others to worship, not merely performing. Consider whether playing a piece that is too difficult for others to join in, fits into a worship setting.
And they say to me, I never tell Elzpeth that when she's doing a liturgical dance - never encourage others to join in with the dancing. To which I generally point out that Elzpeth is a large-boned young woman with poor co-ordination skills. I do feel that the best way to use her dancing skills in a worship setting is to keep the other Beaker Folk behind the safety barriers. Or, ideally, in another Moot House.
Anyway, this new "piece" is another experimental work. All three musicians wear identical Guy Fawkes masks during "Threeness and Ivory". It's a work that consists of Izmir hitting a lump of corrugated iron with a frozen chicken, while Godfreya shouts the Athanasian Creed in Serbo-Croat. They say the bashing noises represent the woes laid up for whoever won't believe the words of gentle Athanasius, while the "bridge", where the three performers swap instruments while running in circles, is meant to represent perestroika. I say don't they mean perichoresis? And they say they know what they mean.
You see, for me that's probably a bit tricky for the congregation to join in with. Most of them have fairly poor Serbo-Croat to start with, and it's not the easiest tune to pick up. And of course it's forty-five minutes long. But Godfreya says they're supposed to worship by listening and watching. That I have retained an overly activist view of worship thanks to my Extreemly Primitive Methodist upbringing. That the congregation can know God's presence through the contrasting experiences of the shouting, the banging, and the flying shards of chicken.
And maybe she's got a point. I did suggest that they could maybe do with a couple more weeks of rehearsal, but Izmir says they're running short of frozen chickens.
Orik, the guitarist, was still trying to find E minor when I left. You know, I'm not a vegetarian - and I know that in this fallen world there will always be pain. But I can't stand to see music suffering like that.
"I always try to meet up with the "MP3 replacement Opportunities" on the first Friday of the month."
ReplyDeleteMeeting on the first Friday of the month risks the meetings becoming ritualised - and we all know what that will lead to....
I often wonder how the uniqueness of musical composition and performance gets mixed up with a concert in Bedlam?
ReplyDeleteThis sounds very much a case in point. I've got no problem with people bashing a piece of corrugated iron, but using livestock for it is in poor taste. Where are tomorrow's eggs to come from if they keep freezing the chickens?
Surely, singing in a foreign tongue, such a serbo-croat, is as bad as Roman services in Latin. Which is OK for those who have a classical education, but not for the run of the mill pew hopper.
And, we've discussed the creeds here a day or so ago - stick with the Apostles creed and it will time limit the performance, as no more than one recitation should ever be permitted in a single performance.
The dressing up and masking things is a little disturbing. We are well used to Priests wearing all sorts of stuff, Albs, Cassocks, Surplices, Stoles, Dalmatics and all of the other female vestments, but at least we still get to see their faces, unless in the monastic tradition they wear their hoodie up.
Masks should be debarred from all forms of worship, except devil worship, because we don't really need to know who has cloven hooves and long pointy tails.
I think that music groups should be like children, in Charles Diceken's novels. Not seen and certainly, not heard.
Anonymous-with-the-insane-amount-of-music-church here... David Haas (prolific writer of RC guitar music) wrote a wonderful article many years ago for a pastoral musician's publication called " Performance Masses" and why they are not good. I slipped a copy into our music director's box recently, but nothing has changed so I'm certain the article met the fate of the dark recycle bin.
ReplyDeleteEvery Sunday, our service has a non-participatory prelude, psalm, offertory anthem, 2-3 communion pieces and a postlude. The congregation sings opening song, sequence hymn, doxology, Sanctus, and closing. My ears are tired after every service. It's too much. And the fighting amongst the divas for the solos is embarrassing. In order to accommodate everyone who is only there to perform, we have...2 guitar groups, a brass septet, a kid's string group, 4 different aged kid's choirs, 1 adult choir, jazz quartet, women's octet, a handbell choir, and piles of soloists.
Hold your ground against the performance...I live it and it is not Godly... By any definition.
This is a very informative forum. I had no idea that some places allow such latitude in the choice of soloists! Around my way, only a very limited selection of people are invited to be soloists, although just about everyone is encouraged to join in at any other time, well, except when the choir is doing an anthem or the priest is doing a sort of solo.
ReplyDeleteI have a dark suspicion that the choice of soloists has something to do with the quality of their voices, but since I am never chosen, that can't be the reason, surely!
There's nothing much wrong with a little Latin, either. Well, the choir director seems to think we don't know how to pronounce it and most of the congregation thinks it sounds 'very nice, dear', but won't sing along, but aside from that, it's fine in worshop. Serbo-croat would be too, if you have the words and a guide to pronounciation, or perhabs a Serb or Croat singer.
It's the call to "repeat the last chorus" followed by "sing the second half of that chorus" followed by "let's sing that last line again" (and again and again) and then the last half of that line and then the last word that makes me rebel. I find myself continuing in a violently suppressed rage long after the song has droned to a conclusion; the last syllable, the last two letters, the last letter, and then the last punctuation mark...
ReplyDeleteYears ago, a visiting vicar clearly disapproved of this method of extending a song; having given the music group several Hard Stares (without effect) during the protracted warbling through the first chorus, he then announced the second song as follows "We will now sing number 23, and we will sing it Just Once". I nearly cheered, but managed to contain myself.
That's better than starting again at some unpredictable point in the song, and then doing the same for a different unpredictable point! I mean, they used to have verses and choruses, and you'd start with verse 1 and then sing the chorus, verse 2 and the chorus, and so on. You knew where you were then! You didn't sometimes find yourself singing one part while everyone else went off and sang something a page and a half back.
ReplyDeleteI admit that in the verse+chorus days excitement was sometimes added by singing the verses on page 475 to the tune on page 205, but that only happened once per hymn and generally everyone caught on to what was happening by the second verse. Actually, that still happens sometimes, but not as often as many of the hymns are replaced by the kind of piece that appears quite straightforward except you stop 3/4 of the way through page 4, go back to the middle of page 2, sing through to the end of page 5, go back to the funny-looking squiggle almost at the top of page 4, notice the director estimating how long it's going to take to finish Communion or take up the collection or get the children lined up, make your own estimate, and decide whether you're likely to go to the end this time through, go to page 2, or start the whole thing over again!
I was thinking that our music group complicated things, but I can see that others have the same problem.
ReplyDeleteBeing a simple soul I like to start a Hymn/Worship Song/Favourite Pop Song/Graham Kendrick blasphemy/Anthem from a reasonable start point:
The Start.
And continue on to ......
Verse 1 and Chorus
Verse 2 and Chorus
Verse 3 and Chorus
Verse 4 and Chorus
Conclusion
Is it to much to ask that Directors of Music, Organists, Conductors, all work to this simple principle, thus allowing our poor plebs to actually take part in Sung Worship.
This RC church I worked for back in the day (as a music director) ...when the priest was ready to move on with the service, he would just start talking regardless of the fact that everyone was mid-word, mid-verse. If it was a particularly boisterous piece, he would just shout over the din whatever prayer was next. The opening song was always chopped to however long it took him to run up the aisle and it was not tolerated to sing the mass proper. Services were short, very short.
ReplyDeleteI guess it depends on whether music is seen as merely service "filler" or if the words of the song are as much a part of the service as the readings and the sermon.