On New Music
Of making many books there is no end . . . Ecclesiastes 12:12
And so goes the publishing industry. Now don’t get me wrong: I love books. I’m eagerly anticipating the FedEx delivery truck dropping off a box from CPH on Friday with the new edition of Walther’s Law and Gospel, a volume of Sasse, and two volumes of essays by Robert Preus.
As a church musician I get excited (or at least a bit interested) when music publishers, primarily CPH and MorningStar Music, release their new music (which CPH has been doing over the last few weeks). Is there a new treasure waiting to be found? A new (or old) text just waiting to burst in song? Did any of the composers on my short list compose anything new?
For those of you who have watched and studied Singing the Faith: Living the Lutheran Music Heritage from the Good Shepherd Institute, you may remember Kantor Kevin Hildebrand’s presentation in Section 4. In his segment he answers the question “Why is there a need for new compositions when there are already so many well written pieces to draw from?“ His answer: Composers, influenced by the past, have an inner compulsion to create well crafted expressions of the church’s song to nurture the faithful. It is a privilege for the composer to hand down these texts and tunes to the next generation.
We shouldn’t toss out or turn our backs on the treasures of the past. But neither should we ignore the quality treasures being created now. But with all the publishing houses, it is overwhelming to digest, let alone skim, their frequent musical output. And so out of necessity, both for the wallet and sanity, I focus on a limited number of publishers and composers UNLESS someone I know/respect makes a compelling case for something else.
In the ideal world, all sacred music would be of high quality (both musically and theologically) and every musician could play and/or sing it. In the real world, the musical and theological quality is inconsistent and musicians vary widely in their skill set. Looking at publisher’s websites can be mind numbing with so many choices and limited preview options. But I’m glad to discover that both CPH and MorningStar Music are becoming more “musician friendly”.
- Most music publishers offer partial PDF previews of their newer musical pieces and books. CPH has recently gone a step further with their new choral and handbell resources. You can download the complete score to preview as a PDF, BUT it is not printable. That seems like a reasonable compromise to protect their copyright interests, while allowing an ample opportunity to preview the piece. For the organists out there, we are still limited to a PDF with a few pages from the music book. As usual, most items have an accompanying MP3 recording.
- The ability to do a music search on a music publisher’s website is often hit and miss. For the life of me, I can’t find the “old” music search form on the CPH website. However, kudos to MorningStar Music on their advanced search functionality for organ and choral music with drop down menus. Their search criteria is slick and easy to follow. This is how I’d like to catalog my own music library.
- Composer, tune name, difficulty, and liturgical season for organ music
- Composer, voicing, instrument, scripture search. liturgical season, special service/occasion, and topics for choral music
With all the published music available, it can be a daunting task for the church musician to sort through and select quality music on a limited budget. Each musician and parish have unique circumstances, but it seems that publishers, musicians, and worship commissions could band together to create suggested repertoire lists to build from. A few organists had a foray into this last summer.
I’ll end this post with one final thought: Thank you to all the composers who create those well crafted expressions of the church’s song. Your music enriches the lives of our congregations.
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