March 18, 2001
Matt Matthews
Choir Director
St. Jude the Apostle Church, Cupertino CA
It's clear that music is an integral part of worship for Episcopalians. In the Canons and Rubrics of the church we find the statement, "… It shall be the duty of every Minister to see that music is used as an offering for the glory of God and as a help to the people in their worship in accordance with the Book of Common Prayer and as authorized by the rubrics or by the General Convention of this Church. To this end, the Minister shall have the final authority in the administration of matters pertaining to music. In fulfilling this responsibility, the Minister shall seek assistance from persons skilled in music."
Let me read from the Hymnal Accompaniment Edition. These words inform the musician as to the role of music, especially sung music, in church worship.
"From earliest times the human race has expressed through music many of its deepest feelings, its jubilation, and such of its yearnings as can find only partial fulfillment in words. The books of the Old Testament record the voice of Israel in song, and according to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, the Last Supper ended with a hymn. It is this ancient tradition of liturgical song which served as the root stock for the creation of a body of music through which Christians enter into ritual dialogue with their Creator. It is from the riches of this legacy that the Church offers music with which we can articulate our adoration, exaltation, and prayer to God.
…The Book of Common Prayer calls for the participation of the People of God in liturgy in a variety of ways. The performance of service music, i.e., musical settings of Prayer Book texts, should carry out the intent of the Prayer Book rubrics that all orders of the Church - laity, bishops, priests, and deacons - take their proper parts. The performance of liturgical music involves congregation, choir, cantors, instrumentalists, and clergy."
Well, I am not up here today to spend our time reading to you the rules regarding making music in church. I would rather give you some idea of how, given those guidelines, we use the music we do. The Episcopal Church has a rich tradition of music, and that is essential to me in my spiritual life. It was music that drew me to the Episcopal Church in the first place.
Our Church observes a Liturgical Calendar that organizes the year into a series of seasons, commemorating the life of Jesus and reminding us of our own faith journey. Choices for worship music are characteristic of each season. For example, we use Christmas music for the Christmas season. Of course, according to secular society, our timing is off. We do Christmas music during the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany, instead of the six weeks leading up to Christmas Day. Our Christmas music is mostly about the birth of the Christ or about Mary, Mother of Jesus. Precious little is sung about reindeers or Santa Claus or roasting chestnuts.
The church seasons are Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and the Season after Pentecost. Each has a section in our hymnal. Beyond that, the readings assigned for each Sunday are usually the most important guide for selecting hymns or Offertory anthems.
Hymns are usually poetry first, music second. The music helps to carry the message and it helps us remember the words. Does it help with the meaning of the hymn? Often the "feel" of the music matches the sense of the words to produce a hymn that engages your mind and your heart. One example is "Lord Jesus think on me" (hymn #641 - Jon, play once). The music is simple but plaintive, lending a yearning feeling to the words, "Lord Jesus, think on me, and purge away my sin; from harmful passions set me free, and make me pure within." This is clearly a prayer for help.
Now, I am not a liturgist. So I have to have some help in selecting hymns. Here is a guide for those of us who have our hearts in the right place but may be short on liturgical information: "The Episcopal Musician's Handbook." There are people who have combed through the Hymnal and located practically all the hymns that are appropriate for the Lectionary year, the season, the Sunday within the season, and the lessons, and compiled lists of appropriate hymns not only from The Hymnal 1982, but also through the Wonder, Love and Praise Supplement, and the Lift Every Voice and Sing II hymnal as well. Certain hymns are marked as being particularly appropriate for the readings. Others may be marked as metrical versions of the Psalm for that Sunday. I pay attention to those markings, but I may select some other hymn.
You may wonder why I stick with the Hymnal and these other books. The Rubrics on page 14 of the Book of Common Prayer tell us that, "Hymns referred to in the rubrics of this Book are to be understood as those authorized by this Church. The words of anthems are to be from Holy Scripture, or from this Book, or from texts congruent with them." Sometimes we use other collections of music that contain pieces that meet these criteria. . . While we are considering these books, I want to commend them to you as a good source of prayers. You can read the words to almost any hymn to see what I mean.
Selecting hymns takes a lot of time, even with guidance. I read the verses for each Sunday before I select hymns. Sometimes I read what is written before or after the selection so I will have the proper context for selecting a hymn. I have done more Bible reading in the process of trying to get the right hymn than I ever did before I became a choir director. I generally want to be in a discerning mood, and often find myself giving up a little prayer for guidance. Sometimes it comes down to a choice between a couple of perfectly good hymns. In that case, I may try to pick one from the "Favorite Hymn" list some of you contributed to at the Ministry Fair, or I may just pick the one I like best.
The Gradual hymn usually is selected because it either contains the Gospel scripture or it somehow refers to the theme of the scripture. In today's Gospel, Luke 13:1-9, Jesus warns that his followers must repent - turn to God - or suffer spiritual death. The implication is that those who do repent, who learn to love God, should have life. The hymn I selected to lead to the Gospel reading says, "Come, we that love the Lord, and let our joys be known; join in a song of sweet accord and thus surround the throne. Let those refuse to sing that never knew our God; but children of the heavenly King may speak their joys abroad." In other words, turn to God and you will be joyful, and you should let others know of the joy you receive from being children of God.
There are times when my hymn selection is set aside. I sometimes get a message from Pastor Karen or another priest who is preaching on a particular Sunday with specific hymns stipulated to go along with the sermon. For example, a few Sundays back we sang "Onward Christian soldiers" because the special topic was, "Is God a Hawk?" Then there are times I get a message from Pastor Karen that some hymn I selected is too difficult or is not at all familiar to our congregation. She graciously offers a substitute in those instances.
Advent and Lent, our penitential seasons, are the most difficult for selecting hymns and Offertory anthems. For example, look in your hymnal under the Lent section, hymns 140 through 152. Hymn #140 starts off with, "Wilt though forgive that sin, where I begun." The music is also rather melancholy (Jon, play once). We haven't sung that hymn at St. Jude's that I know of - you would not have liked it and I would have heard about that. We haven't sung #151 either: "From deepest woe I cry to thee; Lord hear me, I implore thee! Bend down thy gracious ear to me; I lay my sins before thee. If thou rememberest every sin, if nought but just reward we win, could we abide thy presence?" I don't think we like being penitent. The reason I mention this is that I am sensitive to the wishes of our congregation. Sometimes those wishes are counter to what would be appropriate for the season, the readings, etc., so I have to make other choices.
Certain parts of our liturgy, such as the Kyrie Eleison (Lord, have mercy upon us) that we use during Lent, or the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy), have been set to music by many composers. Here at St. Jude's, we generally mark the change of season with a change in the Service Music. You probably have heard the settings we use because we choose them for familiarity.
There is another topic that I want to work in here somehow, but it doesn't seem to fit neatly anywhere. A number of people have asked why we don't sing "praise music." Well, we do. We have been singing praise music for thousands of years. Open your hymnal to #375. Read the words. There is a sizable portion of the Hymnal that is given over to praise music. Many of the offertory anthems are sung in praise to God. Just because some people have co-opted the term to mean a particular kind of contemporary music doesn't change the fact that we have always sung praises to God. Don't let them mislead you.
I do this ministry because I believe that the best way to pray is to sing…whether you think you can or not. Hitting the right note is not as important as vocalizing the prayer in the hymn. I invite you to sing some familiar praise music with me now.
(Sing "Old Hundredth")
| Updated 3/23/01 |
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