Tag Archives: Church Musician

Nurturing Future Church Musicians

A few months back in the Lutheran Witness (official periodical of the LCMS), the issue was centered around the need for pastors and how we can encourage men to consider this vocation.  The August 2008 edition of the Lutheran Witness has an article that explores the need for church musicians and encouraging children to consider the vocation of church musician.  A portion of this article can be found here – “Music to the Ears: Inspiring Children to Enrich Worship“.

The article spread begins with this “teaser” to draw us in:

“I am constantly getting calls from pastors, especially pastors in our smaller parishes, who have no organist,” says Rev. Jon Vieker, assistant director of the LCMS Commission on Worship. “They tell me their organist is 85 and can’t play for services anymore, and there’s no one to take her place. Now what are they going to do?”

Future church musicians are nurtured when the congregation gives children the opportunity to serve.  This means the congregation has to actively support and offer opportunities – children’s choirs, handbells, instrumental music, and possibly even scholarships for lessons.  These can take a lot of time and money, but have far greater rewards.  If your congregation has a budding child or teen that has an inkling for the organ, take a genuine interest and encourage them.  While that child may eventually move away, you are nurturing and giving a gift to the church at large.  Who knows what God may have in store for him.

The Lutheran Witness noted that a DVD caled Children Making Music” produced by the LCMS, WELS, and ELS will be sent to 10,000 churches and schools.  Paul Grime, now Dean of the Chapel at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft Wayne, noted that “If the DVD is shown in just half of our congregations and schools, and if it provides the needed encouragement to only a couple students in each of those institutions, that would ultimately mean several thousand additional musicians who might one day be leading our congregational song.”

I think back to when I first started playing the organ nearly 17 years ago (because the “real” organists either died or moved away and I could play the piano).  That small church was quite gracious as I “learned” to play the organ.  They plodded along as I sometimes dragged (or zipped) through a hymn or hit wrong notes, but they were always forgiving and thanked me for serving.  I’ve grown quite a bit as a church musician since then, but I’m thankful for the opportunities that they gave me.

Hymn Boards and Their Use in Early Lutheranism

“Hymn Boards and Their Use in Early Lutheranism.”  That sounds like the title of a dissertation on an obscure facet of Lutheran history.  While I have no idea if anyone has actually researched the history of the hymn board, I did find a passing reference to it in my latest lunch time reading – a book based on a PhD dissertation – “Worship Wars in Early Lutheranism” by Joseph Herl.

In his book, Herl provides an interesting read with some unexpected conclusions on the worship life of the Lutheran church in Germany during the 16th to 18th centuries.  I was initially surprised to learn, that on the whole, during the time of Luther and for a number of years thereafter, the Lutheran church was not necessarily the “singing church” we may idyllically imagine.  The churches did not spontaneously erupt in congregational song — they had to be coaxed, prodded, and reprimanded to sing — and congregational singing, at least initially, was second fiddle to the choir.

Now to the hymn board.  Herl writes that ”In Lubeck, number boards were hung in 1701 because the hymns could no longer be recognized from the organ prelude.”  Evidently the organist’s hymn introductions had little semblance to the hymn tune.

It seems that hymn boards have become an unnecessary church fixture since bulletins are printed (or yes, even projected via Powerpoint).  But let the hymn board be a visual reminder to the church musician and the congregation:

  • The church musician shall clearly introduce the hymn so as to invite the congregation to sing.
  • The congregation shall kindly accept the invitation and sing vigorously since the hymn number is prominently displayed.
  • If either the church musician or the congregation fails to do the above items, the other party is welcome to remove the hymn board and bring it to the other party as a reminder of the covenant between musician and congregation.

Thoughts on the Prelude

When you look back on this past Sunday (or any Sunday you can remember), what were you doing while waiting for the worship service to begin? Praying? Reviewing the service? Talking? Listening to the prelude?

I would surmise most organists try to choose preservice music that reflects the theme of the day and the hymns that will be sung. Perhaps the musician will highlight a hymn tune that is not being sung, but still evokes the season of the church year or theme.

I’ve been recently reading portions of the “Manual on the Liturgy” for the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW). I had to smile when Philip Pfatteicher wrote:

Preludial music by instrumentalists or vocalists can help to prepare the worshipers for the service. . . . It must be assumed that the congregation will actually listen [my emphasis] to the music played before the service, for to perform music in church to which no one listens or which is simply to cover up the noise of the entering and gathering congregation is liturgically and artistically misguided. (pg 200)

Acts 29

1. AND IT CAME TO PASS, when Paul was in Corinth, he and certain disciples came upon a mob that was stoning an organist.
2. And Paul said unto them, “What then hath he done unto thee that his head should be bruised?”
3. And the people cried with one voice, “He hath played too loud!
4. Yea, in the singing of the psalms, he maketh our heads to ring as if they were beaten with hammers.
5. Behold, he sitteth up high in the loft, and mighty are the pipes and mighty is the noise thereof, and though there be few of us below, he none the less playeth with all the stops, the Assyrian trumpet stop and the stop of the ram’s horn and the stop that soundeth like the sawing of stone, and we cannot hear the words that cometh out of our own mouths.
6. He always tosseth in variations that confuse us mightily and he playeth loud and discordant and always in a militant tempo, so that we have not time to breathe as we sing.
7. Lo, he is a plague upon the faith and should be chastised.”
Paul, hearing this, had himself picked up a small stone, and was about to cast it, but he set it down, and bade the organist come forward.
8. He was a narrow man, sallow of complexion, with dry skin, flaking and thin of hair.
9. And Paul said unto him, “Why hath thou so abused thy brethren?”
10. And the organist replied, “I could not hear them singing from where I sat, and therefore played the louder so as to encourage them.”
11. And Paul turned round to the mob and said loudly, “Let him who has never played an organ cast the first stone.”
12. And they cast stones for a while until their arms were tired and Paul bade the organist repent and he did.
13. And Paul said unto him, “Thou shalt take up the flute and play it for thirty days, to cleanse thy spirit,” and afterward they returned to Corinth and sang psalms unaccompanied and then had coffee and were refreshed in the faith.

The previous extra-biblical literature was passed on to me a few years back. I am unsure of who to credit for it, though I have seen it attributed to Garrison Keillor. Despite the humor, there are some lessons for organists hidden in there.

Johann Walter – First Lutheran Kantor

On April 24 (based on the Calendar of Commemorations for Lutheran Service Book), the church remembers Johann Walter – the first Lutheran kantor. Here is a brief biography from the LCMS Commission on Worship page.

Johann Walter, Kantor
Johann Walter (1496-1570) began service at the age of 21 as a composer and bass singer in the court chapel of Frederick the Wise. In 1524, he published a collection of hymns arranged according to the church year. It was well received and served as the model for numerous subsequent hymnals. In addition to serving for 30 years as kantor (church musician) in the cities of Torgau and Dresden, he also assisted Martin Luther in the preparation of the Deutsche Messe (1526). Walter is remembered as the first Lutheran kantor and composer of church music.