Another country heard from

I haven't posted in in this blog for quite a while, but I was recently thinking about something that really only fits here.

I went to a small, church-related liberal arts college. Although I was a music education student, most of my classmates were church music students. Part of the church music curriculum was a class called Church Music Administration, for which one requirement was an extended essay to be entitled something like "My Philosophy of Church Music." I will resist the sort of judgment about my 21-year old, naive self, and what he might have written at the time. That would be too easy, and would likely amuse no one. However, I have recently started thinking about what I might write if I were given such an assignment now.

Henry Pfeiffer Chapel at
Pfeiffer College

First I must start with the value of music in our society. We live in a task-based society. At every level of education, professional achievement, and even recreation, very often people are evaluated--and evaluate themselves--on accomplishment rather than wisdom or experience. I do not wish to suggest this is bad, or that there are no cases where this is appropriate, but merely that this should be part of a spectrum. 

It is my belief that a person who is well rounded in experience and education might live a fuller, richer life. It is true that there have always been people who hadn't the time to think of such things because actually providing food and shelter for themselves and their families was so difficult. I know that this situation still exists in our society. What I find objectionable is that this sense of desperation pervades all levels of our society now. At every professional, education, and socio-economic level there seems to be a visceral need to accomplish ever more, gain ever more, amass ever more; rather than to enjoy life, to enjoy relationships, to enjoy the world, to enjoy beauty. Even in recreation and holiday, there is often a sense of failure if every moment is not filled with excitement or accomplishment, if one does not return from a vacation needing another vacation. To some, there is shame in resting.

I intend to write about the need for beauty in our lives, and because it is my field of specialty, beauty in music.  I shall start with a story I have shared before. I had a spiritual counseling session many years ago at a retreat, and I of course began with lots of intellect-based blather--always my natural defense when there is a fear I might actually feel something. But when we began talking about music, the fellow I was working with said I changed completely. My face, my tone of voice, my manner--everything. He told me of the St. Francis quote, "God, you are beauty." In effect, this spiritual counselor gave me permission to acknowledge beauty as my connection to the Divine. I would like to think everyone has a passion that creates that sort of change in visage, voice, and demeanor. I hope that passion is about beauty. 

I think it would be difficult to find someone who does not enjoy music--although such people exist--but I think it would be very easy to find people who know little outside the musics they are familiar with. And there are many who are suspicious of what they don't know. I think it is the job of any serious musician to offer beauty, solace, balm, if you will, in the form of music the audience knows, but also to offer new experience in exposure to music the audience doesn't yet know. I think this is true of the performing musician in the concert hall and the church musician in the choir loft. 

Another view of the
Henry Pfeiffer Chapel,
home of the Pfeiffer College
music programs

To come back to my original intent, which is to elaborate on my own vision of church music, I will repeat that music is a way to connect to the Divine. Everyone experiences music in his or her own way, whether it is inspiration because of the beauty of what one is hearing, or perhaps a tear because of memories a particular piece of music brings to mind, or excitement over hearing something totally new. The experience will be different each time. 

The experience of making music also builds community. A sense of belonging, of being able to contribute in some way. A feeling of family. To this day, my closest friends are those with whom I made music many years ago. There is a great beauty in the shared intent of a choir singing music intended to praise our God. There is also the value of shared experience in learning new music, in overcoming challenges, in expanding skills.

As a music education student, I gave a tremendous amount of attention to the question of using what we call sacred music in public schools, and I concluded that understanding the culture and worldview that influenced the composer is of great value. In the public schools, learning about other times and other cultures alongside the experience of beautiful music is a very worthy goal. In church music, it is the same.  

In summary, I approach church music from many different angles--as a practicing musician of skill and taste, of course, but also as an educator, a historian, a social scientist. I am not a theologian, but I will discuss for hours what we think "Et incarnatus est" meant to Bach and Mozart and Stravinsky and Bill & Gloria Gaither. As a church musician it would not be my job to preach the Word. It would be my job to show people new and exciting ways to understand it.