Who else works in the music "department" at church?

[murron]

First, I say "department" because I feel funny about saying I'm in the music ministry - yes, I'm strange.

I play the organ for our church. I'd love to talk with others about their music service. See, I don't always follow the liturgical index (we use the 1940 Hymnal). Sometimes I feel this twinge of guilt that I'm not "staying on the same page", so to speak. Does everyone follow the liturgical index? Am I the only one who doesn't?
I admit that my first musical love is the piano. I would dearly love to play the piano at church, but everyone else prefers the organ. Since I was also trained on the organ and my husband and mother in law made sure everyone knew I could play...I play the organ. I should say that I don't really mind as much as I did at first and am actually enjoying it now. We have a very small congregation and the priest hasn't expressed anything negative about my music choices, but I've wondered if I may be doing something wrong by not always following the index. I do try. When I select the hymns, I always start with the liturgical index. Sometimes they are songs I know the congregation is familiar with and will sing, and sometimes they are songs I'm pretty sure no one will know (then they don't sing and we all get to sit there and listen to me play - I'm just glad I'm up in the choir loft where no one can see me, lol).

Perhaps I should have called this "a thread all about me", but that seems very self-centered and that isn't really what I want to convey. God used the organ to get me back to church. Our church didn't have an organist or pianist; I wasn't attending at the time. Most of our (my husband's relatives) family attends this church. Hubby was going but I wasn't, regularly. Hubby and his mom had let everyone at church know that I played, and whenever I would attend, everyone would drop hints about wanting to have music. I always looked for an excuse to avoid it. Last year at the start of advent, my mother in law called me and begged me to play. I finally relented and agreed to play, but only through advent. (Let me add something here though; the main reason I didn't want to play had little to do with my faith, and little to do with the fact that I really disliked playing the organ - and everything to do with the fact that I've always felt like a sideshow freak when I play. I detest having people make a big deal out of my playing.) All during advent season, people would come up to me after the service and tell me how wonderful it was to have music and that they had no idea I was actually an organist, not a self-taught two finger piano player. By the end of advent, I realized the church really did need my ability.
So now, I sit in the choir loft alone and play. Hubby is up front layreading and our oldest son is acolyting. Some Sundays I sit up there during the sermon and look at my family seated in the nave and all I can think is...Thank you God for bringing me home.

So, anyway, who else here works in the music area at church? Are there any favorite hymns to sing or play that you could share?

[AveMaria]

I was in the choir at my last parish, but fortunately, my current parish has more than enough altos.

I have to agree, I also feel a bit funny about the phrase "Music Ministry".

I wouldn't worry about your music choices, from what I've heard from other church organists, the congregaton and clergy typically have absolutely no qualms about voicing criticism!

(I'll get back to you on favorite hymns, I need to think about that one a bit!)

[Zacharias]

At my Church we play a hymn or two, but mostly contemporary Christian worship.

[PaladinValer]

My parish's choir has said many times that they'd love to have me in their ranks (and not to toot my own horn, but I am rather talented, though I know many more who could floor me), but my work gets in the way.

Perhaps if I got a newer, better job, then I'd join the choir in an instant. Until then, I'll have to settle to singing from the pews. :(

[Songspinner]

We have a small church and an even smaller choir...about 8 people...4 of which can read muisic and actually carry a tune. But we do pretty well for ourselves. We still do 4 part Anthemns every week and some pretty nice mass settings (Bancroft Willan etc.)

For our centenary we brought a few friends and bumped our ranks up to 12 and pulled off the Byrd 3 part mass and the Stanford Te Deum in b-Flat (not an easy task) and also an anthem that was written just for our little choir. And if I do say so myself we did pretty damn good. Everyone from the Leutenant Govenor on down to our City Councellor was there...and our MP even made a special point of congratuating eaach of us after, saying she was floored to see there was only 12 of us after hearing how much power out little group had. OK shamless bragging over...but I must say it was a great sing...even if we were all horse after.

[RobNJ]

Well, since my priest was sitting next to me last tuesday, during some hymns.... I don't think the choir will be offering me a spot....unless they do a tribute to Tom Waits :doh:

[gtsecc]

You need to talk to Dent, also known as "Chalice Thunder."

http://www.christianforums.com/u23099 (http://www.christianforums.com/u23099)

[UberLutheran]

I don't know how much you all know about Lutheran services, but they have a reputation for being "dirges".

The music and the service is "high" -- and the music played during the liturgy (settings 1 through 3 in the Lutheran Book of Worship) is organ music with congregation -- and I've heard services played so slowly that it really left me gasping for air.

An Episcopal friend of mine described Lutheran liturgical music performance very well: "We worship the Lord in mournful sadness."

The church I attend was like that when I started attending. The organist/music director had been there sixteen years, and had done Setting Two, every Sunday, without fail. The hymns were old Lutheran chorales. After he left, and I became the music director, I continued the tradition of Setting Two every Sunday because that's what I assumed everybody wanted.

One day, someone came up to me and asked if we couldn't have some different music. That got the ball rolling.

I wrote a setting of the Liturgy which was as cheerfully E Major as one could stand it :D The ELCA had just introduced the Blue Hymnal ("With One Voice") which has about 200 generally much more upbeat hymns in it.

I also brought in Marty Haugen's Now the Feast and Celebration and introduced it -- as well as the Blue Hymnal to the congregation. They loved it.

Now, the thing about my own setting of the liturgy, as well as Marty Haugen's -- they both sound MUCH better played on the piano, rather than the organ. So, I started making the switch. I'll bet you fifty people came up to me to tell me that they were really sick of organ music -- so they started a church fund-raiser and bought a medium sized grand piano, which is now our main performing instrument.

I also started speeding up the tempos, to get rid of the "funeral dirge" feeling. On the occasions when we did use Setting Two from The Lutheran Book of Worship, I transcribed that service for piano, as well -- and increased the tempo on that, as well.

On any month which had a fifth Sunday, we started the tradition of letting the congregation choose the hymns for the day. Neither the minister nor I had any idea what they hymn was going to be until somebody picked the hymn. (Doing that DOES keep one on their toes!)

Because many members of our congregation are former members of other denominations, we started including some of their favorite hymns in the service. I'd say it was pretty eclectic -- the hymns ran everything from Mormon, to Catholic, to Episcopalian, to Methodist, Presbyterian, Northern Baptist, Southern Baptist, Primitive Baptist and even Unity -- and if we needed to make adaptations in the words to fit Lutheran theology, we did.

Then, members of the congregation (myself included) started submitting their own hymns. I was surprised to find out we had no less than four hymn-writers in our congregation -- and some of them are quite good!

When I started attending my church, average attendance was somewhere between 40 and 50. Now, it averages 150 on Sundays.

Oh: other thing we did: with the exception of the Church Council (the Lutheran equivalent of your Vestry), we got rid of the committees. ALL of them. If a member has an idea he or she wants to pursue, he/she brings it before the Church Council for discussion -- and if the idea has merit and is do-able, then we empower the individual to bring the idea forth by helping to provide the things they need to do it. We have a wonderfully gifted artist who decorates our sanctuary throughout the year, and many of her ideas have been TERRIFIC.

As to my favorite hymns:
1) Advent: My Lord, What a Morning
2) Christmas: And Ev'ry Stone Shall Cry
3) Lent: The Glory of These Forty Days
4) Easter: The Strife is Over, the Victory Won
5) Pentecost: I'm Ready for a Miracle (this comes from Unity: the words are terrific and it's such fun to sing and play)!
6) Communion: I Am The Bread of Life (I really get choked up when I try to sing this!) and Humbly We Adore Thee
7) Exit Hymn: Ready

[SirTimothy]

Heheh. I'm the pianist at the morning service at the local non-denom church. I'm in the process of persuading them to sell our rather nasty Yamaha upright that is unamplifiable, and away from the wall so it sounds dreadful, and putting in a digital piano. I'm also the junior organist over at the 'piscopal church--I do occasional weddings and funerals (which are rather nice with a fee that is around $50) and will be playing evening service regularly there from the middle of january, as well as an occasional morning service. So yes, you could say I am. :)

Timothy

[murron]

Whew. That's a relief to read the posts here. I've brought in music from my own experiences in other churches. I've been playing at church, regardless of denomination, since I was about 13; from the full service to the 'special music'. Since I've bounced around denominations most of my younger years, I have a variety of hymns I enjoy. I did my first wedding when I was 14. I started teaching piano when I was 15 and for a while I toyed with being a concert pianist. I was playing at the conservatory in competition at the age of 11.
At the children's home I lived in, I was one of the kids that got to go to churches across the state and "perform" as a way to help increase awareness of the home, and at 16 the home sent some girls from the home who sang and myself to a recording studio to cut a tape.
Anyway, back to the question at hand...I also print our bulletins, so once in a while I will print off music to "standard" hymns which for some reason aren't in our hymnal and slip them in the bulletins. The reception has been pretty warm. I've also polled the congregation to find their favorite hymns and when the liturgial index has something I simply don't like to play (or think our congregation really couldn't manage) I insert someone's favorite hymn in place of the liturgical hymn. I've also started playing at least one hymn a few weeks in a row, at different points in the service, to help the congregation get familiar with the songs.
The reason I asked this question is because at the front of our hymnal are very clear instructions about the music part of the service - and I've wondered if I am in some way violating those rules. (along with being a side-show freak, I'm also paranoid about offending anyone, lol.) I'm relieved to know I'm not the only one who adds to the hymnal selections.
I would like to get another pianist or organist into our congregation so we could have both instruments at once. I did get a piano for the church, but it needs some work and everyone else wants the organ. I think hubby is considering allowing me to get an electric organ (it's actually a really advanced synthesizer) that does organ, pipe organ with chimes and grand piano - with piano action. It also plugs into a computer to record. Soooo, those Sundays I'm home with a sick child, I can still record the music for church.

Some of my favorites to are:
It Is Well (With My Soul) - organ
Amazing Grace - piano
How Great Thou Art - piano
Just As I Am - piano and organ
Rock Of Ages - piano and organ
Let All Mortal Flesh (communion) - organ
A Mighty Fortress - organ
Nearer My God, to Thee - piano and organ

[ahab]

I am on the technical team at my local church. (but I play guitar and assist worship at another church on occasions) and primarily we have a band (guitars, keyboard, drums sax, backing singers) but also organ and sometimes a small choir which stand next to the band and not in the chancel.

We have hymns and songs. We have traditional hymns plus SoulSurvivor, Vineyard, Hillsongs, YFC songs as well.

If we praise and worship God then I don’t see that it matters whether a hymn or a song.:clap:

[CSMR]

UberLuthan: I have to agree with you about Lutheran services!
A lot of creativity in your church; good to see.

When I'm in Oxford I play the violin in the music group. We normally have an organ, piano, one or two violinists, drums and guitar, sometimes a flute, sometimes a trombone. Old and modern stuff. At university I sometimes arrange music for my fellowship group, with a couple of instruments or a four-person chorus.

[pmcleanj]

Dear Husband plays guitar and sings lead tenor in our congregation's music team. I consult informally with the worship coordinator on liturgical relevance of different hymns. And I dance, or choreograph dances on my daughter, or on the children or youth, at the request of the music team. It's an axiom in ballet that the dancer is just one more instrument of the orchestra, as subject to the conductors baton as is the oboe or the first violin; but I'm not sure that many congregations take the parallel view about the place of the liturgical dancer on the music team. Ours seems to, however.

We don't distinguish between "hymns" and "praise songs"; and for all the collection of hymnbooks in neat baskets under the cathedral chairs, we use the H.O.P. as our main source of lyrics (that's Holy Overhead Projector). The hymns/songs are chosen for their relevance to the Scripture readings from the RCL (that's Revised Common Lectionary, to which by the way we now welcome ECUSA!), to the theme of the day from the Church Calendar, and to the Homily on those rare occasions when the pastor has it prepared in advance of the Wednesday rehearsal.

The music team comprises a drummer, two classically trained pianists on accoustic and electric piano respectively, base guitar, lead and backup guitar, a violin (fiddle) and three female and three male vocalists. Four of the members are members of a jazz/blues family, one of whom still sings professionally (and who is the first person who really made me appreciate the appeal of "soul" music -- it ONLY counts as truly soul music when it's sung in church in the power of the spirit by someone raised in the Southern U.S. tradition of African-American music, and then it's undescribable!). About half our members read music, but all play by ear and improvise when necessary. Most have played professionally in dance bands of one sort or another.

Dear Husband actually has an incredible solo voice, and its improved since he was invalided out of his rock band by a vocal nodule several years ago, and underwent surgery to have the nodule removed -- a huge risk that proved worthwhile in the end. He's not Anglican, but dutifully learned plainchant and attended traditional BCP services with me for a decade (that's Rite I for you ECUSA folks). And for 10 years, the music director ignored him except when the assistant priest was ill and she needed a cantor (the rector was tone-deaf, alas). Then they'd haul Dean out of the back pew and ask him to intone the Exultet for Easter midnight, for example, and then shove him back out of sight as soon as the assistant got better. Oddly, it made him feel unappreciated and used...

The first day he attended our new parish, the music director recruited him then and there. When I travel on business and he has to miss rehearsal to look after our girls, they recruit a volunteer babysitter so he can attend. He's willing to (and often does) attend two or three services a day at our new parish. It's a wonder what a little appreciation can do. And given his non-Anglican roots, music other than plainchant and Victorian hymnody doesn't hurt...

[ahab]

Hey pmcleanj that all sounds a real blessing!:) very encouraging.:clap:

[gtsecc]

Lord, please let us appreciate ALL of your gifts in the people around us, especially those who are present in our parishes. :amen:

[Ceccia]

I play flute in a Lutheran church occasionally, it's usually instrumental Bach with piano.


In the church in my parents' homewotn, I know the choirmaster and they are in dire need of sopranos, so when I come home for an odd weekend or holiday, he always lets me sing (sightreading anthems! hehe).