WARNING! THE CONTENTS OF THIS POST MAY BE HAZARDOUS!

I will always remember my major professor during my doctoral studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman – Dr. B. R. “Bev” Henson. He was a world-class musician – a world-class teacher – a loyal friend – and a master of one-line quips.

Examples:

Being right and wrong in music is a lot like being pregnant – you either are or your not.

The right note at the wrong time is the wrong note.

Sopranos (for some reason it was usually sopranos) I know you are all singing the correct pitch but there clearly is considerable disagreement about which pitch.

And the one that is most pertinent to this post –

Chances are that if everyone agrees with everything you say – what you are saying is not worth saying.

Another situation forever etched in my memory.

Beginning my sixth grade year I lived in a town in south central Kansas that had a superb school system – seemingly very progressive for the time. We were a basketball school and if my memory is serving me correctly during those years the basketball coaches also were our math teachers.

I was fortunate to take Algebra I during my eighth grade year which meant that I was able to take Geometry during my ninth grade year. That, unfortunately, was the year when our school district decided to “embrace” the new math. As a result I thought I just did not have what it took to be a Geometry student – happily, later I discovered that the “new” math was the problem rather than the Geometry. Fortunately, it was not long before the school district – at least the math teachers – came to the same conclusion. In the “new” math it seemed to me that I should find a way for 2 plus 2 to equal 5. It just did not add up for me.

It’s no secret – mainline churches are in a decline and I have been part of numerous communities of faith who have struggled to figure out the problem in order to follow a more successful path. During these same years I have worked with numerous people on the path to recovery from substance abuse, I have been a parent and a grandparent, I have led several successful youth choir adventures, I have worked with a large number of young adults in the world of musical theatre, and I have enjoyed very successful relationships with a number of youth and young adults.

Discussions have often centered around why is active participation in church declining – and – for the most part – the answers have been consistent – the world is changing – the church must continue to hold to standards that are supported by Scripture, various creeds, and other forms of tradition. My own study of Scripture has led me down a different path of understanding than many of my colleagues and friends. Recently I started referring to how people “cherry pick the apple tree” when they study Scripture – selecting bits and pieces that support their particular point of view while ignoring other portions – and/or the whole of Scripture. I have often been accused of “changing the sacred text” when during my teaching I have discussed how different translations lead in different directions, or how particular translations seem not to capture the spirit of the original language of the text, or pointing to some of the seeming contradictions within the text, and numerous other examples.

Some have observed, “That’s what you get for going to seminary.” On occasions when I have had the opportunity to discuss this opinion with the people who made that statement I have helped some of them understand that what they believe happens at seminary bears little relation to what actually is part of the teaching and learning environment that I so very much valued.

It is my feeling that many who currently are not interested in church are just not able to sign-on for narrow interpretation, lack of genuine hospitality, hypocritical differences between what is said and what is done, and a lack of willingness to embrace the idea that science and faith are not the opposite ends of a continuum of learning and living. I believe that many congregations are acting in fear through a lens of scarcity – a sort of hope for survival mode.

I encourage you to look back at my recent posts where I have passed along the writing of Robert Shaw, Michael L. Lindvall, and Thomas L. Are – all of whom embrace the arts as an important or primary tool for transformation of contemporary communities of faith. None of these highly respected people are anti entertainment, therapy, or education – but – in various ways they advocate the need for the worship of God to point away from these desires of humanity and back toward God who is infinite in love and is still creating.

Jesus offers a radical manner of living and invites us to follow. The time has come to leave the comfort of “the way we have always done things” and the safety net of the familiar and follow in ways that are unknown to us – yes, the unknown may seem like the wilderness – the unknown may lead to a wilderness – but – we embark confident in the promise that we are not alone – LOVE is with us every step of the journey!

I opened this post with a WARNING – I hope that you will feel free to offer your own thoughts – including those that are totally in opposition to what I have stated. However, our community discussion must include respect for one another with words offered in love with genuine hospitality.

THIS journey is our home!!

Toward the end of the blog posted on Friday, April 19, 2013 I wrote these words:

“PLAYING IT SAFE IS NOT THE CORRECT DIRECTION – CHRISTIANITY NEEDS TO BE RADICAL TO BE GENUINE – A COMFORTABLE ENVIRONMENT LIKELY DOES NOT CREATE OR COMMUNICATE DOXOLOGY!”

So now I begin the challenge of describing a vision for the arts in Christianity in 2013 that is prophetic and transforming. Immediately I am reminded of the opening text of the anthem that my new choir offered in worship yesterday during my first worship service as Director of Music Ministries for St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas.

“Awake, arise, the journey’s begun. We travel on together as one. We know not where the road will lead, but we move in faith making love our creed as we follow; The journey is our home.” (“The Journey Is Our Home” – Music by Allen Pote – Text by Nancy Hollis Dillard and Allen Pote – Hinshaw Music, Inc. – HMC-446, 1980.)

For the most part my experience in church has been comfortable – sometimes we have bordered on radical but for the most part that has not been the case. It has been a wonderful journey with communities of faith with programs of music ministry that ranged from outstanding to extraordinary. My worship life has also been filled with sermons by some of the very best preachers anyone could ever hope to know as colleagues and friends. A number of these congregations have had a vision and commitment to missions that appears to be present in only a small percentage of congregations – one even continuing a commitment to dollar-for-dollar benevolence giving for all of its more than fifty years. Membership of these congregations have ranged from around 300 to more than 5,000 – including congregations that are part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Methodist Church, Disciples of Christ, and United Church of Christ. My memories bins are filled with reminders of fabulous concerts, wonderful tours, thrilling worship services, retreats, conferences, and more – but the memories center around people and relationships rather than activities and events. Many of those memories were generated by joyful occasions, but a significant number of them also were generated by life changing events of death and traged.

Without a doubt – the greatest exception to this comfortable experience is the place where it all began for me – a small mission congregation in the heart of the Cherokee nation in northeastern Oklahoma where my grandparents served as missionaries for the Methodist Church (prior to the time when it became the United Methodist Church) – in Bunch, Oklahoma. My life started when I was born in the parsonage next door to the little white frame church that sat across a dirt road facing the railroad tracks of the Kansas City Southern Railway (that location yielded a memory that is still a very active part of my life – more about that later). I will never forget my surprise when we first attended worship in a church that was not multi-ethnic and multi-lingual – apparently I asked my mother why this congregation only included people who looked like us and only spoke our language.

So this journey begins with a number of questions – questions that will provide the primary subject matter for coming posts on this blog.

What types and styles of music are appropriate for worship?

What are appropriate ways to include the other arts – specifically dance, drama, and visual art?

What constitutes a right balance of artistic expressions that are generally labeled as “contemporary” or “traditional”? (I cannot resist my urge to let you know that I do not believe that those label words are authentic or accurate. Also, I am willing to state up-front that I am not a supporter of what is generally meant by the phrase “blended worship” – sadly in my experience that generally means something to offend everyone.)

Is it appropriate to refer to the arts in worship as performance?

What boundaries should be observed concerning use of language?

These are just a few of the topics for coming discussion. I hope that many of you will be willing to offer your thoughts and experiences on these matters – I would love to generate a lively and respectful loving series of conversations.

In conclusion – the following words were part of Dr. Jim Rigby’s sermon at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on the Sunday prior to the beginning of my service with that congregation:

“I barely talked to Tom Mitchell [St. Andrew’s new music director], who will be taking up the torch and leading us. He asked me what I’m looking for in the musical direction of the church and I said, ‘A prophet.’ No pressure . . . no pressure. But in each of the areas of the church’s life we have to look a hundred years down the road, a hundred and fifty years down the road and say what do we need to change into, to have life? What kind of music would it take to appeal to the young people in this church without losing the depth, the beauty, the awe and the wonder? There is a bridge that needs to be built, and I’m very excited that we’ve been striving to do that for years and that we will continue to strive to do that.” (April 14, 2013)

We are called to move together in love – the journey is our home!!

Yes – a definite senior moment – I intended to post some writing by Michael L. Lindvall before I started to offer my own thoughts, observations, and such – but, alas, I forgot one that is important to this discussion – so – here it is and we will begin my writing with the next post.

“People often seem to imagine that worship is eiher entertainment, therapy, or education, perhaps some blending of the three. If it’s entertainment, worship would seek to please us in some way, distracting us from routine and invoking happy feelings. This view would suggest that the worship hour should attempt to be as engaging as the flood of entertainment that pours into our secular experience. There may indeed be some sense in which worship entertains, but such a concept is far too trivial.

The language of therapy has become universal in our age. This vocabulary evaluates experiences in terms of whether or not they promote psychological or spiritual healing. If it is therapy, worship is judged by the extent to which it makes one ‘feel better’ or brings ‘healing’ into a person’s life. There is, of course, a sense in which worship must do just that, but to understand it so simply reduces the worship of God to something much smaller.

Finally, among many Protestants, worship long ago started to look a lot like school. Worship was approached as an opportunity for the spiritual and intellectual improvement of Christians, largely through instructive sermons. Of course, Christian worship ought to teach. In worship, a congregation learns the things of Christ. But again, this category is simply too small to comprehend the fullness of worship.

The insufficiency of each of these categories lies in the fact that they are facing the wrong direction. Each is oriented toward entertaining, healing, or educating the worshiper. But the spiritual vector of worship ought to be in exactly the opposite direction – toward God.

Here is the heart of the matter. Worship doesn’t really have a ‘purpose’ in the utilitarian sense of these three categories. Maybe worship is just a glorious and transforming waste of time. At its most profound, worship is nothing but a deliberate and repeated activity in which we are called to turn away from self and turn toward God. As such, it is ‘devotional’ in the best sense of that crusty old word. Worship is nothing less than an attempt to set the order of creation right. The creature owns her creaturehood. Honest confession is spoken. Praise is offered. The worshiper surrenders his pretense to be a god; all turn in adoration to the One who is God. In this dramatic enactment of the fundamental ‘rightness’ of things lies transformation and restoration. Life edges into proper balance. We are free to be who we are – no more but no less. We discover the liberation that comes with being forgiven and accepted by both God and neighbor. We are freed from the pretense of autonomy and invulnerability. We no longer imagine that we have to be in control of everything. Worship is no less than weekly practice at not being God.” (Chapter 11)

Now we are ready to begin the work that I promised yesterday. Grace and peace

Lindvall, Michael L. A Geography of God: Exploring the Christian Journey. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007.

“In worship we keep an appointment with God. [God] comes to us with grace, even though we are a fallen people. Without [God’s] grace we would choke on the hay and stubble type of requirements life forces on us every day. Worship unchokes us.

We can come to worship with hopes or doubts, fears or expectations; we can come in pain or in joy. The only way we cannot approach real worship is casually. There are no casual hymns, or preludes, or prayers, or anthems, or offerings, or amens. Worship is love. We don’t approach love casually. It is both joyful and serious.

In the late 1960s, perceptive people began to strive for renewal in worship. The old would no longer do and was declared phony or empty. They questioned whether traditional practices and symbols had contemporary meaning.

New voces were proclaiming a ‘post-Christian era.’ Some even said: ‘God is dead. The church is no more than an escape mechanism for the aging. Preachers should be confined to the streets. And worship – it’s meaningless.’

Church leaders panicked. Some cried:

‘Jazz it up!’

‘Let the streets write the agenda,’

‘Put some life into it!’

‘Come hear our choir. It’s what’s up front that counts!’

‘Make the church swing, baby!’

These slogans became the battle cry of those who wanted to rescue the church from the death of dull worship.

Hope for new life was legitimate. Many shared in it. However, sometimes the means toward good ends became ends in themselves. Eager ministers and musicians began experimenting.

It is hard to believe that anyone really expected dancers in leotards and Coca-Cola Communions to become the norm for Sunday morning worship, but such things claimed our attention. Many persons in the pews deplored the ‘shock treatment.’

Some worship leaders felt that all we needed to do was to adopt new media for communication. The Old World learned by reading. Then suddenly we were in a world of instantaneous reality. Television offered a higher deegree of participation and was more emotional than a dull diet of words.

Those most hungry for new media, the synthesizer sound effects and reversed screens, were young people whom Marshall McLuhan called the ‘post-literate’ generation. They were not so much interested in what was said in church. Their question was, ‘What happened?‘ They became bored with the lack of action. ‘We sing a few eighteenth-century hymns, say a creed, and pray. But nothing really happens,’ they said.

Yet the hope for revitalizing worship is not in ‘jazzing it up.’ Nothing is gained by substituting dull liturgy with ‘lit-orgy.’ This term is not mine but was first used by Paul Hoon in The Integrity of Worship (p. 298; Abingdon Press, 1971). The promise for more meaningful worship is not faster tempo but in better understanding.” (17-19)

Shortly after these words Tom Are posits about Christian worship – and offers extended exposition that this post will not be able to include as a result of space limitations.

“If worship is to have theological integrity, there are several boundaries that must be observed.

“1. Christian worship must be a reverent response to the Creator, God.

2. Christian worship is centered in Christ.

3. Christian worship has integrity only when mediated by the Holy Spirit.

A sensitive person has respect for emotions. Anytime we have an awareness of God’s presence, it is an emotional experience.

Some leaders of worship, however, not really convinced that the person in the pew would recognize the presence of God, decide to play it safe. They learn how to produce emotional experiences, especially with music, as proof of God’s presence. Others reject this empty substitute and label it sentimentality. It is shallow and phony and divorced from reason and reality. Perhaps they overcompensate.

Emotion and reason are not in opposition to each other. The gospel is good news and our worship is an emotional response. The presence of God is known through feelings. In short, God is felt.

Worship is exciting and too deep for logic. It is no casual happening. It moves beyond theology. Worship becomes doxology.” (19-24)

These last four posts have set the stage for me to begin writing my thoughts about worship, church, music, and such – and while I do not fully know how this will develop – I am absolutely sure of one thing – PLAYING IT SAFE IS NOT THE CORRECT DIRECTION – CHRISTIANITY NEEDS TO BE RADICAL TO BE GENUINE – A COMFORTABLE ENVIRONMENT LIKELY DOES NOT CREATE OR COMMUNICATE DOXOLOGY! More to follow – grace and peace.

Are, Thomas L. Faithsong: A New Look at the Ministry of Music. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1981.

Continuing from yesterday’s post –

“However we may view creation, it strikes me as contrary to both reason and faith to argue that it is concluded.

Is it not somehow shortsighted to raise up an eternal omnipotent creator – and not give him anything to do since day six? Shoould not an everlasting creator be somewhere lasting and creating? And if, indeed, human life was made ‘in a Creator’s image,’ given a timeless, boundless creator, is there a better place to see the creator at work than ‘in those likenesses’?

To me it follows that Christianity, if it wants to keep in touch with the Creator, must provide a home for all that is – and all who are – creative, lest Christianity itself wither and drift into irrelevance.

Is it possible that Christianity in our time may have become so preoccupied with the door-prizes attendant upon the Divinity of Christ – that it has not nearly fathomed the humanity of Jesus?

What if the ‘Son of God’ were in truth the ‘Son of Man’? What heresies or truths lie hidden within this scriptural identity? What does it mean that he who is hailed as ‘Redeemer/Intercessor/Messiah/The Way/The Truth/and The Life’ was in the beginning seen as ‘Emmanuel/God/in/us’? Is there any possibility that the emphasis upon the God-hood of the Son of Man, to the exclusion of the Man-hood of the Son of God, affords a blanket of endless bliss in preference to a hair-shirt of resonsibility? Knowing that the Gospels do, in fact, attest to Jesus’ awareness of his very special relationship to what he called ‘the Spirit’ and ‘the Father,’ have we been slow to understand, or unwilling to credit, the confidence with which he reached out to touch the souls of Everyman through Alltime!

These are his words:

‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.’ (Mark 10:18)

‘Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.’ (Luke 9:48)

‘My daughter, your faith has made you whole.’ (Mark 5:34)

‘You are salt to the world . . . .’ (Matthew 5:13) ‘You are light for the world.’ (Matthew 5:14)

‘The seed sown on rock stands for those who recieve the word with joy when they hear, but have no root in themselves . . .‘ (Luke 8:13)

‘In very truth I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself . . .’ (John 5:19) I cannot act by myself . . . My aim is not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.’ (John 5:30)

‘You cannot tell by observation when the kingdom of God comes. There will be no saying, Look, here it is! or There it is! For in fact the Kingdom of God is (already?) within you.’ (Luke 17:20, 21)

‘I am not myself the source of the words I speak to you; it is the Spirit dwelling in me doing his work . . . In very truth I tell you, he who believes in me will do what I am doing; and he will do greater things still . . .‘ (John 14:10, 12)

‘When the time comes, the words will be given you, for it is not you who will be speaking; it will be the Spirit . . . speaking in you.’ (Matthew 10:20)

— And when you write your own psalms, plays and poems, when you play or conduct your own symphonies, when you paint your own pictures and mould or chisel your own sculptures, be sure that there are some of us who dearly wish we’d been able to hand you a better Christianity – and a better world – in which to work.” (410-411)

Please let me repeat – with emphasis: “To me it follows that Christianity, if it wants to keep in touch with the Creator, must provide a home for all that is – and all who are – creative, lest Christianity itself wither and drift into irrelevance.”

The Robert Shaw Reader. Edited by Robert Blocker. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

The words of wisdom from Robert Shaw that I want to offer today are too extended for a single post – so today I provide part 1 and tomorrow will follow with Part 2. Both are from an address that Mr. Shaw was invited to offer in March of 1994 at Westminster School in Atlanta – but – prior to the main content I offer two tidbits from the introductory portion of his remarks:

The first makes reference to the standard response that Nola Frink provided to almost any request that was made for Mr. Shaw to speak: “The Secretary to the Music Director (Conductor Laureate) of the Atlanta Symphony has a standard response she gives to any organization rash enough to request his public discourse, ‘Mr. Shaw,’ she says, ‘only opens his mouth to change his socks.'” (399)

The second makes reference to the fact that the Shaws had a son attending Westminster at the time this address was delivered: “I have had more difficulty writing this speech than any article or statement I ever have written. I suppose part of that excuse has to be attributed to the fact that Mrs. Shaw and I have a son attending school here. I suppose it is still true that one of the reasons young people (kids) study hard or try to excel in extra-curricular activities is because they want their parents to be proud of them. Well, let me just tell you that it ‘ain’t’ nearly the pressure that wanting your children to be proud of you is – in front of their peers and friends. That’s pressure.” (399-400)

Now to the main part of this first excerpted portion of Mr. Shaw’s address:

“Well, by now most of us have seen ‘Schindler’s List,’ which celebrates in a magnificent manner how one man saved 1,000 Jews from extinction in the gas chambers and ovens of Hitler’s concentration camps. But 6 million were killed by a nation of predominantly Lutheran and Catholic Christians. Undoubtedly, there were heroes among these Christians. One remembers that Pastor Niemueller spent two years at Dachau – and survivedd.

But Pastor Dietrich Bonhoffer was hanged just 30 days before the Armistice – when it was clear that the was was over – because he stood against the Nazi holocaust and was said to have heard of a plot against Hitler’s life.

What shall we say of the Christians who shell the Muslims in Sarajevo? Or the Protestants who blew up Catholic children in Ireland? Or of a Jew who machine-guns Moslems at worship in a cave in Hebron?

Were the Ancestor-Worshippers who bombed Pearl Harbor less or more humane than the Christians who ushered in atomic warfare at Hiroshima?

What about those churches in the Southern United States who started ‘Christian’ Academies when it became clear that their Sunday-School kids might have to go to Monday-School with kids whose black wouldn’t wash-off?

Historically, the Muslims had until the year 1100 a flourishing scence of mathematics and medicine far ahead of Christian Western Europe, when it was abruptly stopped by the Sunna – the ruling council – because scientific thought led to ‘loss of belief in the Origin of the World and in the Creator.’ What might our world be today had their sciences and mathematics and medicine been encouraged rather than stifled?

Aristarchus in the third century B.C. already had figured the earth was a revolving sphere around the sun. His near contemporary Eratosthenes had calculated the circumference of the earth within 240 miles – and Hipparchus had reckoned within a few miles both the circumference of the moon and its mean distance from the earth. (This was 17 centuries before Copernicus.)

Joseph Campbell asks, ‘What might have been the saving in human terms (people burned at the stake) for instance, and where might now be the exploration of space had the Christian emperor Justinian not stepped in and closed all Greek and Roman schools whose teachers were not 100% Christian and who refused to teach the Hebrew Genesis story of Creation (itself an embarrassment because it introduces in verse 8 of Chapter Two a story of Man’s Creation diametrically opposed to the narrative of Chapter One).’

Where might the position of women be had not Judaism and Christiaity made them bear the guilt of the events in the Garden of Eden? What kind of Schizophrenia is induced by holding up the Virgin Mary as (1) the model of Virtuous Womanhood, and (2) instructing girls to bear lots of children.

And, perhaps most subversive of all, what has been the frightful cost in wars and personal human misery of the Judiastic concept of the ‘Chosen People’ as it blended into Christian cocksureness and missionizing insolence?

Might not the arts, indeed, be not the luxury fo a few, but the last best hope of humanity to inhabit with joy this planet?

What is it in the nature of the arts that allows them to offer these hopes of maturity and survival?

In the first place it is clear that a commitment to the creative process starts the human animal on a thorny and lonesome road to self-discovery, away from the comforts and compromises of institutions. ‘Forty days and forty nights’ is a biblical metaphor for what is more nearly a lifetime of wilderness and solitude. But the more deeply this lonely human being seeks a self-hood, the more knowingly and tenderly she – or he – returns to – other selves.

In the second place, the arts are concerned not with the consumption or sale of earth’s material wonders – not even with their recycling – but with their reincarnation. They propose not a mounting monopoly of a monetary medium of exchange, but the sweet, quiet exchange of truth and beauty themselves.

And in the third place, in a time and a society whose values are geared to the biggest, the fastest, and the mostest, whose gaze is fixed desperately upon the future – as far at least as the next elecion or life after death or prosperity, whichever should happen to come first – the arts offer an historical perspective. For their concern is with originality – meaning that which has origins. Thus the arts lead us to consider and build upon our own beginnings – our essence and our potential.

The Arts, then, are not merely ‘handmaidens’ of worship, but, given creativity on the order of a Brahms Requiem, a Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms, or a Bach St. Matthew Passion, they are themselves unqualified and unique acts of worship.

This, of course, raises the question of ‘quality.’ It seems to me that we have to agree that in the worship of the Great Whoever or Whatever only our very best is ‘good enough’ – only because it’s our best. A God of Truth, Goodness, and Mercy is not honored by laying Saturday Night’s Disco Spin-offs on Sunday’s altar. One does not gain strength from the stress of virtue by gorging on fatty fraud.” (408-409)

My friends – that is a powerful prophetic beginning vision of the arts – and – I respectfully request that you make a point to return tomorrow for the concluding second portion of Mr. Shaw’s prophetic words.

*The Robert Shaw Reader. Edited by Robert Blocker. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

In August of 1980 I began my service as Director of Music Ministries for Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas – a position I was honored to fill until October of 1989 when I assumed a similar position at First Presbyterian Chuch in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1981 a life saving book – at least for me – was published. The book was Faithsong: A New Look at the Ministry of Music by Thomas L. Are*. I will never forget the first time I read this book – all 96 pages in a single sitting. In the following years it was my genuine privilege to get to know Tom Are who at that time was the Pastor of Shallowford Presbyterian Church in the Atlanta area. Over the years since that time one specific thing has drawn me back to this incredible volume over and over and over – like me – Tom Are started his education as a musican before his move to the work of a pastor.

In 2005 when I finally entered seminary to begin my study toward a Master of Divinity degree with a desire to move toward ordination as a pastor – once again Faithsong proved to be a very valuable resource. In March, 2009 I was ordained and installed as an associate pastor of a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation here in Austin, Texas. My health necessitated an early retirement from that call at the end of 2012.

This week I have returned to active music making by accepting a part-time offer to once again serve as Director of Music Ministries for another Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation here in Austin, Texas. While I am excited about the return to active music making I am also very aware that the church of 2013 – and not only Presbyterian – is not the church that I served in different locations for thirty years. Times have changed!

So once again I have turned to my dear friend Faithsong – and once again I have discovered that the teachings of Tom Are are just as valid today as they were when the book was first published. However, I have also quickly realized that there is a great need for another layer of current study that is needed to go with the strong foundations provided by Faithsong.

I have told many people that one thing I intend to do as soon as possible in my retirement is pursue writing – working on two books that have more than patiently remained on the shelf for several years – but – I now strongly believe that book number three is going to need to come forth first. Also – I feel that discussing this must take precendence over the topic that I had planned to begin this week – even though that one will surely follow as it has a very direct bearing on this subject matter. Another interesting item is that this return to music making has also rekindled my desire to compose and arrange – I have written two new anthems in just the past several days.

I hope that a number of people who read these blog posts will be willing to accompany me on this journey. Specifically – I am interested in your thoughts concerning the role of music ministry in the life of a community of faith – matters of language, style, and craft that make some music appropriate for inclusion in worship while other selections should not be included – as well as any other thoughts that you feel would be helpful as I begin this journey with a sense of urgency.

When I was in the midst of the interview process for this position I inquired of the pastor how he discerned the primary role of music in the church. He basically answered my inquiry with a single word – PROPHET. Naturally I immediately came home – took my copy of Faithsong from the shelf – anxious to know what my mentor Tom Are had to say on this matter in his 1981 book. On pages 52 and 53 I found the following:

“A prophet teaches a truth beyond academics or information-giving. A prophet proclaims what we really are. The truth sets us free. The minister of music is just succh a teacher.

The art of singing involves far more than producing vocal sounds. Singing is theological. God has given to human beings the ability to use tongue, teeth, lips, and palate to form consonant sounds. In short, we can pronounce words. We shade and color vocal utterances to make vowels. God provides us with a priceless gift of vocal expression far more refined and expressive than that of any other creature. The process of vocal training frees the singer to be known, to disclose himself or herself.

As children, our most effective learning technique is imitation. We learn by trying to do what others do. Unfortunately, in trying to sound like others, we are up against an unbeatable handicap. We cannot hear our own voices.

When we speak or sing, others hear sound waves transmitted through the air and striking their eardrums. We, of course, hear a bit of this. But what we hear of ourselves is muffled by bone, muscle, flesh, and all the other physical properties in the head. The inner ear picks up mostly internal vibrations. Consequently, we don’t hear our own voices as they sound to others.

When we start as children to mimic the vocal noises of others, we begin pulling, pinching, and covering the natural voice in an effort to make it ‘sound right.’ This effort results in a sound wrong for us.

The ‘affected’ sounds we produce are shallow; they are not really our natural sounds. The first task of a voice teacher is to inspire us to sing our best. By helping us relax our phony techniques, the natural sounds may be freed.

The voice teacher who fulfills this task is a prophet, proclaiming the worth of each singer’s expressions of personhood. This can be a frightening experience. We hide behind the mask of our ‘affected voices.’ Only when we feel secure can we attempt to overcome our negative habits. Thus, if voice teacheers are to help us vocally, they must first support us emotionally.”

I know that my new colleagues expectation of PROPHET is much more than this – but – this at least gives us a place to begin the journey and the adventure. I also – I am sure to no one’s surprise – have consulted the writing of Robert Shaw who has much wisdom to offer on the subject. I will offer some of his words tomorrow.

I hope you will join me!!

*Are, Thomas L. Faithsong: A New Look at the Ministry of Music. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1981.

To conclude this week long series on favorites I have decided to offer two items that are significantly different – although the two have one thing in common – they were both part of my life when I was in the doctoral program in conducting and composition at the University of Oklahoma in the mid 1970s.

First a composition by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) set for four vocal soloists, mixed choir, accompanied by four pianos and a large group of percussion instruments – “Les Noces” – or “The Wedding” written during the early years of the twentieth century.

I conducted this work as one of my recitals for my doctoral studies during the time I was in residence in Norman at the university. We performed an English translation rather than attempting the original Russian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAXanZ1B7wI

The second is an arrangement that I was honored to prepare for The Pride of Oklahoma marching band which is still used as the band enters the field prior to home games.  (NOTE:  If your browser asks if this comes from a trusted source – the answer is yes – I have opened and played it many many times).

http://www.soonersportsmedia.com/audio/oklahoma_without_intro.mp3

This coming week I plan to follow this “favorites” series with a series of posts from my own compositions and arrangements.

Most of these “favorites” posts have focused on major compositions. Today we change the pace and look at five different works in the chronological order that they were part of my life – the last of the five is a larger work but provides an appropriate way to conclude this portion of our journey.

The first one is the first musical selection that ever provided my some monetary compensation – $10.00 as I recall – the prize offered for a talent show at the Butler County Fair in Kansas during the years I was in junior high – too long ago for the idea of a middle school to even exist.

The selection is “Kitten On The Keys” by Edward Elzear “Zez” Confrey (1895–1971) performed by the composer and captured on Edison Re-Creation 50898-L (8226), recorded in New York City on September 21st in 1921.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBxRRUj1bcA

Second is the “Toccata in E-flat Minor by Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978).  This performance, recorded in 2008, is by Sonya Kahn.

This was the final selection on the recital that I played toward the end of my senior year in high school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBkz2A1z8xM

Next is the work that concluded my junior recital in undergraduate school.

The “Piano Sonata No. 3 in A minor”, Op. 28 (1917), composed by Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953).  This performance is by Boris Berman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGRls_Kjt9I

Of course there is a work by Brahms – the “Intermezzo, Op. 118, No. 2 in A major” – this wonderful recording is by the legendary Arthur Rubenstein (1887-1982).  One interesting bit of trivia – Arthur Rubenstein is the father of John Rubenstein who among many other achievements created the title role of “Pippin” on Broadway.

Every time I have played or heard this beautiful composition I lovingly remember when I was asked to play this at the memorial service for Edwina Parker, my incredible piano teacher beginning when I was in the sixth grade and continuing until I graduated from high school and began my undergraduate studies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqBzK5tKFVc

Finally – we turn to a larger work by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) – the “Piano Concerto No 3 C minor” – in this performance the pianist is Murray Perahia with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under the baton of Sir Neville Marriner.

I was invited to perform this work with the university orchestra during my senior year in undergraduate school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rn6IxE9BIs

I hope that you have enjoyed this autobiographical sketch of my early years!

Without question or reservation my favorite musical work of all time is Ein deutsches Requiem by my favorite composer Johannes Brahms.

It has been my pleasure to have numerous opportunities to particpate in this magnificent statement of music and faith crafted by Brahms. First I participated as a singer, later as a person preparing the choir for another conductor, and finally, on two separate occasions, as conductor.

As you might guess by now – one of my favorite recordings of this masterpiece is conducted by Robert Shaw leading the orchestra and chorus of the Atlanta Symphony.

The other one is the one linked to this post – a complete recording (one hour and almost nineteen minutes) recorded in Vienna and conducted by Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989). My love of this recording is based on two very important things – I believe that Karahan’s interpretation completely captures the intentions of the composer – full of emotion and restraint – and – watching von Karajan conduct provides an exquisite seminar in manual conducting gestures – again – full of emotion and restraint.

Two interesting side notes – notice that not only does von Karajan not use a score – but also – that the singers are all singing from memory. Wow! that is impressive even if German is your first and native language.

Also – a personal reflection – when I was serving in the United States Air Force in the early 1970s and was stationed with the European Command Air Force Band in Wiesbaden, Germany I was privileged to attend a performance by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Maestro von Karajan at the State Theater and Opera House in Wiesbaden. One of the major items on the program was one of the symphonies by Brahms – again I experienced a mix of great emotion combined with significant and elegant restrain.

The following is from the Introduction to a biography of Maestro von Karajan by Paul Robinson which fully captures my memory of being present when von Karajan led the Berlin Philharmonic in one of the most memorable musical experiences of my life:

“When the players of the Berlin Philharmonic had finished tuning, a breathless silence fell over the audience; the orchestra, too, seemed tense and expectant. Then the conductor appeared, walking slowly from the back of the orchestra to the podium. The whole orchestra rose as one in a silent gesture of respect. The audience broke into sustained applause of shattering intensity. By the time the conductor mounted the podium to take a bow, shouts and whistles had broken out. Before any inkling of his musicianship could be discerned, this conductor had excited his audience the way only a great actor can before he utters a line.

But then, before the applause could die, he was into the music. With a downbeat of breathtaking authority and grace the symphony was underway. And throughout the long symphony the conductor stood as if rooted to the spot, with only his arms in motion. He conducted as if in a trance, his eyes closed, his handsome, rough-hewn features taut with nervous energy. With only the slightest gesture the orchestra would surge with a fortissimo that made one’s hair stand on end. Without any knee-bends or fingers to lips, the conductor reduced the sound of the orchestra to the merest whisper. So rarely did this man give any of the usual cues that he seemed to be conducting his own invisible orchestra. Yet there was no doubt that this extraordinary realization of the symphony was his creation. The performance was prepared to perfection and executed with the utmost concentration and commitment. Rarely had one ever seen professional musicians play with such involvement. In some mysterious way this man was able to galvanize orchestra and audience alike and bring them to give their very best. And throughout the performanc of the symphony nothing existed for either conductor or players except the experience of the composer’s compelling vision.

The conductor was Herbert von Karajan.” (3-4)*

Here is the link to this stunning presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMMWgXPyveg

*Robinson, Paul. Karajan. London: Macdonald and Jane’s, 1975.