Music and Vital Congregations: A Practical Guide for Clergy - Softcover

Roberts, William Bradley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0898696232 ISBN 13: 9780898696233

Publisher: Church Publishing, 2009

Synopsis

Congregations that are alive and vibrant have vital music programs. How did they get that way?

There are sensible and practical steps to develop such a program which begins with a clear vision of the end product. This book addresses the many interrelated issues of defining and embracing the leadership role in the church music program that is required of clergy in parish ministry and essential for a healthy congregation.

Clergy and musicians work toward the same goals; however, clergy are trained differently from musicians. How does this fact impact their relationship, and how can they learn to work together in an atmosphere of mutual respect? The practical issues of employment can be addressed more effectively in this atmosphere.

If one is looking for the right musician for the parish, what qualities does one seek? How does one find such a rare and gifted individual? A successful search complete, how does the clergyperson work harmoniously with the music leader?

This book provides a blueprint for:
• Developing a vision for music in your parish
• Locating a musician who is a partner in ministry
• How music comes and goes in the church’s repertoire
• Moving from musician as performer to musician as pastor

About this title

About the Author

William Bradley Roberts is an ordained minister and professor emeritus of church music at Virginia Theological Seminary. He is in demand as a composer, speaker, and workshop leader. He has served in parishes in Washington, DC, Arizona, and California. He was a founding member of the Leadership Program for Musicians and a curriculum writer for this multi-denominational organization. He lives in Richmond, VA.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Music and Vital Congregations

A Practical Guide for Clergy

By WILLIAM BRADLEY ROBERTS

Church Publishing Incorporated

Copyright © 2009 William Bradley Roberts
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-89869-623-3

Contents

Acknowledgments............................................................
ix
Introduction...............................................................
1
Chapter One Music Belongs to Everyone.....................................
9
Chapter Two Moving from Musician as Performer to Musician as Pastor.......
19
Chapter Three Clergy-Musician Relationships...............................
31
Chapter Four Classical Music vs. Popular Music: A War over Nothing........
45
Chapter Five Music Ministry with Children.................................
65
Chapter Six Music for Funerals and Weddings...............................
75
Chapter Seven Music and Money.............................................
87
Chapter Eight Hiring a Musician...........................................
101
Epilogue Where There Is a Vision, the People Flourish.....................
119
Notes......................................................................
123
Bibliography...............................................................
127
Index......................................................................
131

CHAPTER 1

Music Belongs toEveryone

Over my head I hear music in the air,Over my head I hear music in the air,Over my head I hear music in the air;There must be a God somewhere.

The Capacity for Making Music

For many clergy, music elicits fear. How I wish I could take thestrangeness out of music for clergy who are afraid of it. Someclergy I've worked with find music to be foreign, mystifying, almostlike an occult art that only belongs to a select few. I hope to demonstratethat even though there are people with extraordinary talent,and even though some clergy don't comprehend its written language,music is available to everyone.

Most cultures on earth love music. Music making seems to beone of the activities that characterizes us as human. Though musicalstyle varies greatly from one group to another, as well as fromone era to another, music seems omnipresent. Humans are a music-makingspecies.

God has greatly gifted us with this amazing dimension of life,and we are immeasurably enriched because of it. Every great congregationhas music as a vital component, often widely diverse,but essential.

Why, then, for many in the human family, including clergy, ismusic confounding, bewildering, puzzling, mysterious, and a languagethey don't understand? Such persons are daunted by thosewho appear to understand music, who display a richer appreciationthan they, and who also seem to have a special insight intowhat makes music work. Sometimes the fear arises from unfamiliaritywith the written symbols of music. But reading music andenjoying music are not necessarily related. I will argue below that(1) the language of music can be learned like any other language,and (2) a person may also experience great joy from music withoutknowing the written language.

Are there those whose very birthright places them among thecognoscenti—those who know—while others simply must remainforever unenlightened? Are a few people on earth blessed with aspecial sense that the remainder of humanity must live without—peoplewho hear, who understand, who perceive music with utterease?

Art educator Betty Edwards, who wrote the book Drawing on theRight Side of the Brain, teaches people to observe objects in a differentway so that they can begin to draw. She recalls that even asa child, she saw things in a manner that allowed her to reproducethem graphically. The ability to see shapes and forms readily transferableto paper or canvas was always easy for her.

In the same way, hearing, responding to, and reproducing musicalsounds is easier for some people than for others. Oliver Sachs,a noted neurologist and popular author who is also a musician,wrote a fascinating book called Musicophilia in which he documentscase studies of people who have an extraordinary ability tohear music, as well as the opposite—those whose ability isimpaired. He recounts absorbing stories of people with unusual,sometimes even curious, musical ability. For example, one out ofevery two thousand people displays a phenomenon called "synesthesia."Such persons relate specific musical sounds to correspondingcolors. While for most of us this is true at the level ofmetaphor ("that brilliant chord is fire-engine red"), for synesthetes,the correspondence is not metaphorical at all, but literal and consistent.Sachs tells of the composer Michael Torke who, when hewas five years old, told his piano teacher that he liked that "bluepiece." When she asked which piece he meant, he answered, theone in the key of D major. "D major is blue."

Scientists debate among themselves over the origins of musicaltalent—is it genetic or environmental, nature or nurture?—but mostare agreed that some people have a heightened capacity for creatingand perceiving music. There are people who seem predisposedto extraordinary musical talent.

The truth is, however, that nearly everyone is blessed with theability to appreciate, and, indeed, at some level to perform music.In some cultures it is assumed that everyone will be involved inmusic making. Indeed, in the U.S. this assumption also prevailed inan earlier era of our society. As the availability of recorded musichas increased and our own participation in music dwindled, musichas become a commodity to be consumed more than a group activity.We are intimidated by the sophisticated, nearly perfect performancesin recorded music, which let us judge our own effortsunworthy. Whereas manual laborers used to sing songs to alleviatethe boredom of repetitive work, today their successors are morelikely to listen to recorded music.

Just look at the definition of the "music store." What a musicstore is has changed radically in the last half-century signaling adramatic shift in attitude. When I was a boy a music store was aplace that sold instruments and sheet music, which suggested thatyou bought things there that help you make music. Those storessometimes also had departments that sold phonograph recordings,but their primary merchandise was instruments. Now shift totoday. When we see a sign at the mall saying "music store," whatis sold inside? Probably compact discs, no instruments at all, muchless sheet music. While I don't suggest that this change is ipsofacto a bad thing, it does represent a quantum leap in our culture.What it says to me is this: We are more likely to be consumers ofmusic than producers. Indeed, church is one of the few remainingenvironments in U.S. culture where people are expected tomake music.

For whatever reason, it has become fashionable in our society tomake extravagant claims of one's lack of musical ability. Teachersof music grow weary of those who groan comments like, "Youhave never heard anybody as bad as I am." Despite these insecurities,most people have the capacity to appreciate and perform musicto some degree. A person's exposure to music, especially at an earlyage, may play an important role in the ability to enjoy music, butin truth almost no one is devoid of musicality. With few exceptions—andthese are nearly always due to rare genetic conditions,disease, or accidents—all people are able to appreciate music.

The Language of Music

There is, however, a distinction between appreciating music andknowing the language of music. Just like French, Zulu, or Tagalog,music has vocabulary, syntax, and grammar. Learning the languageof music is no more difficult than learning any of these verbal languages.In fact, it is easier, because, in most instances, new studentsof music have been listening to a musical language all their lives.While the study of Zulu for a nonnative necessitates listening towords that sound strange, the sounds of music have already beenin the ear for the duration of one's life. Learning the rudiments ofmusic is simply a matter of connecting symbols and procedures tosounds that are already familiar. Becoming conversant with the languageof music is an ordinary and easily achievable goal.

The phrase "music is the international language" is inaccurateand misleading. While a French person might derive a great dealof pleasure in listening to the music of the German composer J. S.Bach, this is because the musics of France and Germany have acommon ancestry, the result being that the languages are not toodissimilar from each other. If the same French person were to listento a piece of classical music from India, or to music that is nativeto an isolated tribe in South America, that person would likely perceivethe music to be confusing, if not downright cacophony. Musicallanguages vary greatly around the globe, as well as from one erato another.

This story will illustrate. Wycliffe missionary linguists travel toremote parts of the world to translate the Bible into local languages,a project that usually takes ten years or more. This long and arduousprocess gives the linguists time to come to a deep understandingof the local culture.

In correspondence with a Wycliffe missionary linguist, I learnedabout the Canela people, who live in a remote, isolated part ofBrazil in the Amazon rain forest. Jack and Jo Popjes, the Canadianmissionary linguists who went to live with the Canelas, werefascinated with their music, which sounded like nothing they hadever heard. Even though the missionaries were musically trained,they couldn't make sense of the Canelas' music, even after twentyyears of effort. Having heard Canela music for myself, I can attestthat it is the most exotic music I have ever experienced. Let medescribe just one feature of it. Canela music cannot be played ona piano, because there are extra notes that would fall "in the cracks"between the keys of a conventional piano. That is to say, Canelamusic has more possible pitches than conventional Westernmusic.

For the Canadians, trying to sing along with these indigenouspeople, even after years of exposure to their music, proved onlyfrustrating. They were eager for the Canelas to compose new songs,so that their worship music would be indigenous, arising from theirown culture and experience. Unfortunately the Canelas had no conceptof composing new music, because from their perspective themusic that formed their repertoire had simply always existed. Themissionaries, therefore, had to look elsewhere if there was to beCanela-style Christian hymnody. Contacting a friend who specializedin analyzing the music of indigenous people, the Popjeseswere able to create some twenty hymns, Canela-style, mostly withscriptural texts.

The moment of reckoning came when the linguists demonstratedthe songs to the Canelas. "It was like throwing gasoline ona campfire!" Upon hearing the songs, the Canelas reacted withgreat excitement, imploring the linguists to teach them the newmusic. They wanted to know what tribe had taught the NorthAmericans the songs, because they couldn't imagine that foreignershad made them up. The linguists wept with joy. One Canelaman, with tears in his eyes, exulted, "You gave us the book inwhich God speaks to us, but your friend Tom gave us songs inwhich we speak to God."

Before the concept existed in missions that indigenous peoplesshould have their own Christian music, missionaries taught nativepeoples Western hymnody. Despite the fact that it sometimes madeno sense to the people, the practice persisted. Even today, Christiansin parts of Africa, for example, sing late nineteenth-centuryAmerican white gospel hymns, because these were popular in themissionaries' homeland when they arrived in Africa. One of theproblems with songs of faith belonging to another culture is thatthis inscribes Christianity as a foreign religion.

Had the Wycliffe people insisted upon teaching the Canelas"Amazing grace," "Come, thou fount," or Bach chorales, as lovelyas those are, they wouldn't have gotten very far. Just as the missionaries'English was foreign to the Canelas, so was their musicallanguage. They had labored hard to speak the Canelas verballanguage, and an equal amount of work was required for them tolearn the musical language.

There is no "right" system of music—none that is more correctthan all other musics on earth. Until rather recently, musicologywas Eurocentric in orientation. Western European music wasassumed to be the standard, and all others were relegated to aninferior status. Westerners seemed to believe that given enoughtime, all other cultures would eventually catch up. This Eurocentricityis seen to some extent in the label "ethnic music," meaningthe music of cultures outside Western Europe (and, by extension,the U.S. and other predominantly Anglo cultures). This terminologycarries the implicit assumption that European music is thenorm, placing all others outside the norm.

Careful research by musicologists has demonstrated that musicfrom certain other cultures is far more intricate than Europeanmusic in specific respects. Music from India, for example, is moremelodically complex than European music. Indian ragas, intricatemelodic formulae, are extremely sophisticated, requiring extensivestudy.

Likewise, African music is more rhythmically complex thanEuropean music. Western missionaries, upon first encounteringAfrican music, are said to have declared it unrhythmic, incredibleas that sounds. Apparently African percussion music was so vastlycomplex that it surpassed the missionaries' comprehension, so theyjudged it arbitrary and disorganized. Now, of course, musiciansrecognize that the music of sub-Saharan Africa is highly developedrhythmically, and not easily understood by Westerners.

Even within the same culture, two people may have widelydivergent responses to music. When I was in seminary, a neighborof mine asked me to listen to a recording of his favorite piece ofmusic. I agreed, asking him if I could also share a favorite of minewith him, to which he consented. First he played a piece of countrymusic, which I determined to listen to as carefully as possible.The truth is that even though it was not my cup of tea, I was gladto hear something that meant a lot to him. My seminary colleaguewas surprised that I was such a stranger to his music, and he wasincredulous that I had never heard of the artist.

Next it was my turn, and I played what at the time was myfavorite composition, an English cathedral anthem by BenjaminBritten, Festival te Deum. It met with a rather amused response:"Well, Roberts, that's just fine if that's what you want to listen to."He didn't seem to mind Britten's music; it just didn't have anyeffect on him.

Neither his music nor mine was "right"; they just used differentlanguages. He was moved by one, I by the other. I would neversuggest that this neighbor was "wrong" in his musical taste, butrather that he is free to like what he chooses, and I hope he wouldaccord me the same liberty. In fact, differing preferences in musicmight be seen as an extension of the discussion of spiritual giftsin 1 Corinthians 12. It takes all of us, with our orientation to differentmusic, to make up the complete Body of Christ.

There is a close connection between cultural identity and specificmusical styles. While there are different languages of music,within those languages there are regional "dialects" and "accents."Despite the fact that my seminary friend and I had grown up inneighboring states, we responded differently to the two examplesbecause of our respective musical languages—both derived fromWestern European tradition (though his might also have containedblues, and, therefore, African elements).

Often, in describing their inability to perceive music as well asthey'd like, people say they don't "understand" music. Yet understandingis probably less important than exposure. A professor ofmine said that the old cliché "I don't know much about music, butI know what I like" should really be "I don't know much aboutmusic, but I like what I know."

Most people enjoy their favorite music, whether it is classicalEuropean or Argentine dance music, without knowing much aboutits structure or theoretical components. This lack of technicalknowledge does not prevent someone from being deeply movedby the music. Its impact comes from years of exposure to music,stored in the mind and heart, and the associated experiences andfeelings. Old familiar sounds, or new sounds related to the oldones, evoke an emotional response as they fall on our ears andtrigger our memory.

When one has had a profound spiritual experience, hearing themusic later that was connected with it powerfully recalls the eventor even evokes new spiritual response.

Predictably, the kind of music that a person is exposed to beforeadulthood is likely to elicit lifelong responses. Certainly new typesof music, as well as further examples of familiar styles, may beadded throughout life, just as we may develop new tastes in foodas we age. There may always be, however, a particular fondness forthe music of ones youth, just as there is for the food of ones home.

A friend of mine who loved working with children's choirssaid, "I figure that one of the most important things I do is tosock away snippets of Mozart into their little temporal lobes, sothat they will love it for their lifetime."

Still, it is never too late to learn to love new music, and we mayfind that repeated exposure to music even later in life elicits strongfeelings about it. Hearing a little music a lot has a greater impactthan hearing a lot of music a little. Repetition of a compositionallows it really to belong to you.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Music and Vital Congregations by WILLIAM BRADLEY ROBERTS. Copyright © 2009 William Bradley Roberts. Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Church Publishing
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0898696232
• ISBN 13: 9780898696233
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 133