Hymn Style and Singing at Christ Church

True. Centuries ago Calvinists resisted establishing choirs in their churches. Seems that in looking for a reason to abolish popish abuses, Calvinists, Puritans especially, adopted a strict regulativist view of worship: whatever is not commanded in Scripture is strictly forbidden.

We are regulativists too, but less strict. If Scripture speaks of it, clearing a space for it in worship, it is reasonable and appropriate to include it. For example, if choirs are mentioned at various points in the Bible—assumed in the Psalms, on the move in accounts of Jehoshaphat and Nehemiah, and present and active in Revelation—choirs are, in effect, normative in God’s worship.

The spirit of the Reformation was, among other things, a recovery of the authority of scripture in church life and practice. To some extent, the Reformation rejected those practices that effectively rehung the partition between God and His people. In medieval worship, the singing, if there was any, was done by trained choirs, not the congregation. Recovering the “priesthood of all believers” (1 Peter 2:5), resulted in giving duties formally assigned to priests (i.e. serving God in worship), to everybody, and thus, congregational singing was restored.

Now that singing and music arises from the assembly of saints, does this mean that choirs are abolished and are now unnecessary?

The short answer, “no.”

The church choir provides skillful music in worship that is impractical for the congregation to do on its own. Where scripture commands skillful praise (Psalm 33:3), the choir is able to fulfill this requirement.  It is impractical or impossible to have the congregation to do so.

At Christ Church, we value musical skill highly, and particularly the ability to read music. Whereas these skills will be more prominent in the choir, there is no reason to expect that they be uncommon in the congregation. But an honest assessment leads us to conclude that, since God is to be worshipped with our best, and in fact, makes His demands plain,“Your lamb shall be without blemish” (Exodus 12:5), the congregation’s offering is not as good (putting it bluntly) as it could be. And so, a church choir can help fill the gap.

The skill and ability a choir brings to worship is extraordinary compared to the ordinary worship provided by the congregation. In his book The Supper of the Lamb, Robert Capon applies similar categories to food. Capon calls everyday food “ferial” and special food “festal.” For him, the distinction is not inferior food vs. superior. All the food he talks about is more than fit for human consumption. The division lies along the lines of “honest frugality and generous expense,” food our pocketbooks can afford and that we have time to prepare day by day as compared to special and extravagant food. How great it would be to enjoy expensive dishes all the time, except that we’d soon eat ourselves out of house and home. And besides, we tend to devalue extravagance if we have it around us every day. On the other hand, we look forward to special occasions, budgeting time and money in the planning.

So, there is a hierarchy to our priorities. In the church year, we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection each Lord’s Day. (Why else is it called the “Lord’s Day” if not for the Resurrection?) But only one Lord’s Day out of the year is called Easter. To have egg hunts, Peeps, jellybeans, and white lilies every Sunday would be too much. Once a year is a whole lot of fun and worth preparing for. Only one day in seven is a Sabbath. If every day were a Sabbath, where would the working be?

This digression is all to say that if we like the separation between the special and the ordinary when it comes to observing time and meals, why not music too? A church choir can give more time and attention to preparing music than a congregation can. A choir can provide vibrant and glorious meditations on God’s Word that the congregation simply can’t do. A choir can bless the congregation with performances of say, Messiah, that deserves to be rehearsed and celebrated regularly. The congregation ordinarily cannot do these things on its own.

Finally, just as we look forward to special occasions to mark times and seasons, we look to role models for how we ought to live. In church, the congregation looks to the choir to set a standard of glorious praise of God and how to do so joyfully.

So yes, if the church choir truly presents an obstacle to the authentic worship of God, we agree with our Calvinist forefathers that the choir’s got go. But insofar as choirs, organs, and instruments enhance praise and help us worship our glorious Lord in the beauty of holiness, we ought to continue to use them. We should encourage those in our midst that are willing and able to help our sacrifice of praise ring out more faithfully each Lord’s Day.

A Caveat

I’ve made the claim that the church choir is more skilled than the congregation and fills a niche that the congregation can’t. But understand that the choir’s skill is not inherent skill but is mostly learned skill. Singers in the choir are not necessarily better singers than ones in the congregation. The difference is quantity of time in preparation. The choir practices. The congregation is not expected to, at least not to the same degree. If any in the congregation are intimidated by the choir, thinking I could never do that, hear this encouragement: yes you can, it just takes time. The invitation to join extends to all. You just need to be willing to commit time to learning. We certainly want our best singers to use their talent in the choir. They are the most qualified. But those who are willing to learn and commit the time to it will not be turned away. With time and instruction, they will become better singers.

Mark Reagan
Lent A.D. 2022

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Singing with Your Kids

“Are you going Roman on me, boy?” This was my reply upon hearing my son sing “By invocation of the saints,” not “the same” as the song nicknamed St. Patrick’s Breastplate (I Bind unto Myself Today, Cantus Christi 581) actually goes.

The real verse reads

I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One, and One in Three.

We don’t call upon the saints but trust in the name of the Triune God. I corrected my son’s error and in all kindness.

It’s our habit to sing St. Patrick’s on the way to school each day. We want the Lord’s blessing upon us as we interact with His creation. When we encounter bad ideas and bad people, we want Christ’s protection from all that assaults us body and soul. St. Patrick’s helps us spiritually center our day and its rich words and jaunty tune help focus the mind for learning and the body for discipline.

Our culture is a musical one without actually doing much of the music making itself. We have songs that captivate and define us; songs that are cultural reference points in our conversation. There are songs that are part of the cultural milieu, to cite a fancy word. And with iTunes and Spotify at the ready, we are as wealthy as an ancient king who could call up singers at will if he wanted tunes. Doug Wilson has occasionally asked, which Roman emperor would not have considered it the height of luxury to have a band of musicians right there in your chariot? And yet, isn’t that exactly what we have? Favorite tunes on the go.

The problem with so great a blessing is that we tend to leave the music making to others, to those who do it better than we. We don’t practice music amongst ourselves. But our musical passivity condemns us when faced with the command to come before the Lord with singing (Psalm 100:2). In a sense we’re supposed to enter church with a song already on our lips (verse 4). How ready are we to praise the Lord on Sunday?

All this is intended as an exhortation to sing more, and especially to sing with our kids. We ought to come to church with a readiness to praise, ready to do the work ourselves, not leaving it to others. We want our kids to be mighty worshippers, but to do this takes practice.

Here are some practical ideas to help families practice for worship and singing.

1. Identify your family’s spiritual goals and consider how songs fit within them. We use catechisms as a simple, point upon point way of teaching doctrine. The Church’s song repertoire is like a musical catechism in which the truths of the Faith coalesce summarily in song form. Most songs are short, being only a few verses long. Start developing a “musical catechesis” with songs you already know pretty well. Sing them often enough that the least among you can know and recognize them. If they are babies, sing particular songs enough so that their eyes brighten, they coo, and bob up and down to the song.
2. Consider singing as way of teaching the commands of God to your kids through the back door. Deuteronomy 6:7 prescribes an ongoing, daily discussion of God’s commands both in and out of the home. Use song to form religious affections in your kids. Invoke God’s blessing on the day by singing on your way to school. Prepare the kids for sleep by singing about God’s protection in the night. Instead of saying grace in prayer form, thank God for the food with a song.
3. Do not fear singing songs incorrectly or off key. Singing gets better with practice. If you started Amazing Grace too high or too low, start again and adjust it. If your wife or a child has a better ear than you, have her or him start the song.
4. Complement your family devotions with a little singing. Think of Bible-reading time as a mini, informal worship service. Read, expound, discuss, pray together and sing a song. I you don’t have hymnal, find songs online or just sing from memory. Reuse/re-sing the songs you sang Sunday morning at church.
5. Practice new songs as a family. If you encounter a new song at church, practice that song at home. Our church has a hymn of the month. Practice these at home. If your community works on learning new songs, add them to your mix of family songs.

Worship is the pinnacle of our week and we ought to consider ways in which we can be all the more ready to gather together. If your kids are little, they’re not able to interact with the elements of the service very much. Look for ways to equip them to meet with God meaningfully. A habit of singing hymns at home helps them engage better in worship. Rejoicing before the Lord in song facilitates joyful and thankful kids that turn quickly to God both in adversity and in times of blessing.

Mark Reagan

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Last summer I polled the elders and deacons for their favorite hymns and psalms so that I could better understand “where we’re at,” musically speaking. Our church officers love singing our songs but are not (I think they’d admit) highfalutin musicians. So, I safely assume their input provides an accurate barometric reading of where we are regarding the Cantus Christi and how we use it.

After collecting all the responses, I developed a list of 70 favorite songs from the Cantus. Last fall, the lion’s share of our songs in worship were drawn from this list. But 70 songs (Christmas carols were excluded) is only the tip of the familiar-and-favorite iceberg. For example, well-known hymns Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, O Worship the King, and Come Thou Almighty King didn’t get any votes, nor did Psalms like The Lord Hear Thee in Troubled Times, In Every Time I’ll Always Bless the Lord, or David Erb’s Psalm 149. All these (and others) are in our wheelhouse and are ones we want to continue singing with gusto. My point is this: although we learn a lot of new music at Christ Church, we are committed to our favorites and desire that these favorite songs continue to encourage our faith and build up our fellowship as a community.

So why learn new music? A couple of reasons. First, we want to be faithful in the things we’ve received, namely in singing the 150 Psalms in the Bible. Since May of 2020, when we began using the new Cantus Christi, we’ve sung over 100 Psalms but only about 50 are favorite and/or familiar. And so, we have a ways to go in getting acquainted with the Psalter.

Second, we learn new music out of faithfulness to our Christian heritage. By this I mean we learn songs new to us even though those songs can be quite old. We are big on historic Protestantism and so we are interested in the patterns of worship enjoyed by our spiritual ancestors. When it comes to songs, many have been buried in the sandbox of time—some for good reason. (We bury dead people too. We don’t just leave them lying where we fell). What I have in mind are the many diamonds in the rough, forgotten not for their lack of virtue but rather for the lack of virtue in those that allowed them to be forgotten in the first place. Good songs of the past fed the faith of our predecessors and helped make them a resilient people. We want their songs to do the same for us.

You may agree with my argument so far but have concerns about the process and pace by which songs are introduced. So here’s the plan for the coming year.

1. We will continue touring the Psalms in the Cantus. Last year we covered Psalms 1-40. This year, 41-80. Some of the Psalms on the tour are already familiar; some are favorites. Others we don’t know from Adam. Ordinarily, we read these new songs at sight, if they’re easy, that is. (This is like speed dating with the Psalms. If the date went well, we get the contact info and plan another date later). If the Psalm is particularly thorny, we might have a hymn lesson on it. (I don’t have a clever relationships analogy for learning thorny Psalms. Arranged marriage?).
2. We also have hymns of the month. Once a new song of worth is identified, we put it up as a hymn of the month, taking 3-4 weeks to learn it. Our December HOTM is 729, Nunc dimittis. January’s is 87/88, Psalm 44. February’s is 95a-b, Psalm 48.
3. Another vehicle we use to teach and review music is our monthly/bi-monthly Psalm Sing. Folks have been showing up to these in record numbers in recent months. If you’ve never been to one, come on out. We always have a great time of singing and fellowship. And normally we have food afterward. Our next Psalm Sing will be on February 13. Location TBA.

Thank you for your commitment to worshiping the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Please let me know if you have questions about our music or about the music program generally. I am thrilled to serve as your music director and am more than happy to speak with you about what we’re up to.

Mark Reagan
Epiphany 2022

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For a while now the Tallis Nunc dimittis has been a regular staple in the weekly line up at Beer and Psalms. If you’ve never gone, and ladies, it’s safe to assume you haven’t, the guys sing it every week in parts. That’s an accomplishment. It’s taken them a while to learn it. But they’ve not been deterred and over time, they’ve come to love it and look forward to singing it each week. So I’m teaching it to the congregation for them. Well, at least I’ll teach the soprano line. You’re welcome, gents.

The Circs, the Sitch

The Nunc dimittis is the praise Simeon uttered (Luke 2:29-32) as he took the child Jesus in his arms and blessed God. Simeon awaited the coming of the Messiah, and God promised he would not die until he saw Him, and when Simeon finally does, he praises God, calling on God to let him die peacefully now that God has fulfilled His promise to him.

Light and vision are the subject of Simeon’s prayer. Imagine Simeon an old man, whose eyesight was undoubtedly weak, dimly seeing the LORD’S salvation before him. Though physically weak, Simeon sees the truth clearly: Jesus is the promised light to the Gentiles, the glory of Israel.

Historically the church has recognized Simeon’s prayer as a light shining in the darkness. Catholic monks would sing a Nunc dimittis at Compline: evening worship celebrated well after sunset, when final prayers were offered before turning in. In the contemplative life, the light of truth shines more acutely in the shroud of night. During the English Reformation, the Anglican church assimilated the Nunc dimittis into Evensong worship and many musical settings of this text were composed, no longer in Latin as before, but in English (even though the Latin title was retained. This is true for all the historic church canticles, including Mary’s song—Magnificat, its Latin title).

The common people did not know Latin and so vernacular language replaced it in many northern-European countries. But besides turning to the lingua franca, another feature of these songs is the use of homorhythm (literally “same rhythm”), or the simultaneous declamation of the words in all the parts. Before the Reformation, the musical vogue was polyphony in which all the parts are treated melodically. The result is an impenetrable wall of sound, glorious music, yes, but with the words lost in the jumble. To end the confusion composers began to write music in such a way that everyone in the choir sings the same words and syllables at the same time. Our Cantus hymns are conceived this way.

Composer Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) wrote his Dorian Service this way. Many Kirkers know Tallis’s Psalm 95 from the Dorian Service. This service is a complete set of traditional songs from morning and evening worship in English (not Latin) and set homorhythmically. The Nunc dimittis is the last song in the Dorian Service.

Why sing this song?

At Christ Church we revel in historic Christianity and Protestantism specifically. This includes celebrating faithful music of the past. The Cantus Christi consists not of one kind of music, but many, drawing from ancient music (The Lord’s Prayer is “very ancient”), medieval songs, Lutheran chorales, Reformed Psalms, 18^th century hymns of Watts, Wesley, and Newton, on down to songs less than five years old. The English Reformation is part of our spiritual heritage and so we sing not only Tallis but the songs All People That on Earth Do Dwell and Let Israel Now Say in Thankfulness, two examples of songs from that tradition.

As we embark upon Tallis’s Nunc dimittis some may object saying it’s too difficult. True. It is difficult. This is because it’s choir music, not congregational music. It’s congregational insofar that we can understand the words sung, but not congregational in how difficult it actually is to sing.

So why sing it?

A lot of our favorite songs in the Cantus Christi are not congregational songs either. Fuging tunes, for example, are not congregational and never really were intended for congregational use. It may be the case that fuging tunes (e.g. Before Thee Let My Cry Come Near) were never intended even for corporate worship. Fuging tunes were written for devotional use especially among the young folks of the church as a wholesome mid-week activity. They would gather in singing schools under a singing master (Irving’s Ichabod Crane was one) where they’d learn how to sing and read music. The singing master would challenge his students with tricky songs such as fuging tunes to test their skill and give them an added challenge.

I cite fuging tunes to demonstrate that a song’s difficulty is not a reason for rejecting it, and in fact, may be a reason for taking it on.

I don’t expect that the Nunc dimittis will be an immediate sensation, or even favorite once the congregation has gotten used to it. Nevertheless, it is a very beautiful piece and worthy of our attention. Because of its focus on light, the plan is to close our services with it throughout that season of light, Epiphany, in which the Gentiles come to the light of Christ, and kings (i.e. the Magi), to the brightness of His rising.

Tidings of comfort and joy!

Mark Reagan
Christmas 2021

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