How My Church Uses Music

“I firmly believe, nor am I ashamed to assert, that next to theology no art is equal to music; for it is the only one, except theology, which is able to give a quiet and happy mind.” - Martin Luther.

The religious music in my life is definitely Christian church music, because my family is Lutheran – which is why I get excited every time Dr. Vaneman mentions Luther. For the past several years my family has served as church musicians at a relatively traditional Lutheran church. I also participate in the traditional service at my church here in Spartanburg.

Music is not the primary event of our church service, but music is used prevalently, almost essentially, to reinforce the events and feelings of the service. Parts of the text of our liturgy are often sung rather than spoken; examples of liturgical music are the Kyrie (“Lord, have mercy”) during the Confession and Absolution of sins, the Gloria praising God for his forgiveness directly afterwards, and, sometimes, the Psalm of the day. Such liturgical music is sung by the pastor and the congregation and accompanied by the organ or the piano if there is no organist at the service. This wedding of music and word helps the congregation memorize the service.

Interspersed throughout the service are hymns, which are sung by the whole congregation and accompanied by the organ and often a few instrumentalists such as my flautist mother and violinist brother. Hymns are opportunities for the congregation to praise God and to respond or ponder any themes presented in the service, especially those of the scripture readings of the day.

The service also contains specific slots which are opportunities for “special” music performed by musicians of the congregation, either in groups or solo. “Special” music serves the dual purpose of influencing the mood of the congregation and of being an offering from the musician(s) to God; “special” music slots are often in influential parts of the service, such as the beginning, directly before the sermon, while offering is being taken, and at the end of the service. Because the primary audience of “special” music is God, the congregation is not supposed to clap when the performer is finished. However, my congregation does applaud when the toddlers sing, to let them know they did well (and because they’re adorable), and when a performance is exceptionally good. One Sunday at my church here in Spartanburg, Dr. Couch served as the substitute organist and did all sorts of good musical things in the service, so many people gathered to listen during his postlude (J. S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in F, BWV 540). We all clapped heartily when he had finished because it was excellent.

Many Christian denominations share these basic styles and uses of music in their services. How do the traditional Lutheran values influence our aesthetics and repertory?

Martin Luther valued music highly for its power over the emotions. He thought all of the congregation, not just a trained choir and church musicians, should make music to worship the Lord and to help remember facts about Him. The liturgical music in more-traditional Lutheran church services is therefore primarily sung in unison, has a limited range, and is rhythmically simple; the idea is to make it easy to sing and remember. Hymns are also designed to be easy to remember while still using the power of good music. Because the music-tradition is fairly strong within the Lutheran church and we sing a lot, hymnals usually give the hymns in four-part SATB, but the musically challenged can just sing the melody. Hymns are usually in strophic form such that the music repeats while the text changes. In both hymns and liturgical music, the congregation is helped by the accompanying organ and instruments. The hymns are usually ones we have all sung before, because the difficulty of learning new music distracts from the service.

Because music is an aid helping people draw closer to God, it is not performance-oriented, not even in “special” music. I cannot use any of my vaguely showy piano pieces in the church service, but clearly-religious (and Lutheran) Bach is fine, especially on the churchier organ. Church musicians dress nicely like the rest of the congregation but never in a showy or distracting manner; usually choirs have a uniform to simplify their appearance.

Generally, music is kept simple and secondary within the church service by keeping the songs and pieces fairly short; for “special” music, anything length over about five minutes is too long. The texts of the songs must be theologically sound (in the opinion of my church) and, preferably, fit the theme of that day’s service as represented in the readings and/or the sermon. In the traditional Lutheran view, music is merely an aid, but an important, powerful, and enjoyable aid, to the Christian faith.