Tag Archives: Church Musician

The Other Essential Lutheran Library – Musician Edition

As I was browsing at the music store in Portland on Saturday, a quote from Luther came to mind:

Many books does not make one learned, nor much reading either; rather to read a good thing and to read it often, regardless of how little it is, that makes one learned in the Scriptures.

I think something similar could be said for church musicians in relation to their musical repertoire and libraries. Publishing companies continue to entice us with their latest offerings; yet we still have existing music waiting to be learned or looked at. To buy or not to buy? The related and potentially better question is: What is the Lutheran musician’s core repertoire (besides the hymnal)?

A few weeks back, Paul McCain at Cyberbrethren wrote about The Essential Lutheran Library — a core list of absolute essential reading for every Lutheran.

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J.S. Bach: Kantor for Today

Today the church commemorates Kantor Johann Sebastian Bach, a gifted musician and servant of the church. Because of his combined musical creativity and fidelity to Christ, he has become known as the Fifth Evangelist.

Kantor Resch, in an essay in the first journal of the Good Shepherd Institute (which by the way is available as a complimentary download), mentions that Bach’s “unbelievable source of faithful confession, of teaching and admonishing, of prayer, of praise and thanksgiving, and of healing and comfort–has become a hidden treasure.” He goes on to write,

It is time for a sacred music reformation. It is time for coming home to a practice that is just waiting for pastors, kantors, church musicians, choirs, instrumentalists to pick up, learn well, teach lovingly to their people, and begin using again. We need to wake up to what we have! (The Gift of the Church’s Song: Sacred Music as Healing and Comfort, 96).

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Pre-Bach: Shaping the Tradition

It seems fitting that on the eve of the commemoration of J.S. Bach’s death that I have just finished reading “Music in Early Lutheranism: Shaping the Tradition (1524-1672)” by Carl Schalk. (As a side note: CPH is having a phenomenal sale on books. I picked up Schalk’s book for only $15.00 (normally $32.00) and both volumes of Sasse’s Lonely Way for only $10.00 each (normally $21.00)).

Schalk’s premise is that while Bach is often considered the culmination of Lutheran church music in the 18th century, there was a period of 150 years before Bach that paved the way for the climate that he encountered. In other words, Bach did not just arrive on the scene and say “I have arrived.”

Schalk reviews the life and musical works of seven influential Lutheran musicians in the 150 years after the Reformation.

  • Johann Walter: First Cantor of the Lutheran Church
  • Georg Rhau: Printer of Early Reformation Music
  • Hans Leo Hassler: Herald of the Transition to the “New Style”
  • Michael Praetorius: Conservator of the Chorale
  • Johann Hermann Schein” Cantor of St. Thomas, Leipzig
  • Samuel Scheidt: Musician of Halle
  • Heinrich Schuetz: Tone Poet of Saxony

While I knew a little bit about Walter, Rhau, and Schuetz, it was enlightening to understand their background and the roots of Lutheran music and see the kinds of music they composed. For example, during the Thirty Years War Schuetz’s compositions became simpler — just a couple vocal parts, several instruments, and basso continuo to account for more limited musical resources and financial support.

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Elements of Liturgical Style

Most of us have probably heard of The Elements of Style by Strunk and White — those terse commands like “Omit needless words.” Recently I came across Elements of Rite: A Handbook of Liturgical Style by Aidan Kavanagh that had the same directness toward rite and liturgical style as Strunk and White had to writing.

And he is direct. Rule #11 of Elementary Rules of Liturgical Usage – “Churches are not carpeted.”

Dr. Arthur Just presented a paper at the 2008 Good Shepherd Institute – Confident Liturgy: Presiding with Hospitality and Grace that referenced Kavanagh’s “An Approach to Liturgical Style”. While Kavanagh comes from the Roman Catholic tradition and is looking at the role of the presider in the liturgy, I think portions of his list can serve equally well for church musicians.

  1. Place yourself in the background.
  2. Do things naturally.
  3. Know the assembly’s liturgical tradition thoroughly.
  4. Do the liturgy with directness and vigor.
  5. Beware of particularizing the liturgy.
  6. Beware of liturgical fundamentalism.
  7. Do not over-ceremonialize.
  8. Do not affect a loose informality.
  9. Do not explain too much.
  10. Strive for simplicity.
  11. Do not get too relevant.
  12. Learn to live with symbol.
  13. Adapt culture to the liturgy rather than liturgy to culture.

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The Concordia Organist

I received an e-mail today from CPH that startled me even though I “knew” their new product would be coming eventually.

Wanted: One Outstanding Church Organist.
Music adds much to our worship, but musicians can be hard to find. Well, look no further.

The reality is that many churches have a difficult time finding an organist or even someone who can play the piano for worship services. Enter CPH. They have created Concordia Organist, a 31-CD set of all the hymns in LSB which can be used to accompany hymn singing. CPH is having an “essay” contest (though the Official Rules say it will be a random drawing) to give away a free copy of the Concordia Organist (retail value: $699 with an introductory price of $499) to a LCMS or LCC congregation.

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