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| Rothschild Book of Hours: Commas, Words, and ART! |
Some
prayers are meticulously crafted - poetic in their delivery of each comma and
carefully weighted words.
Other
prayers are extemporaneous “help-me-Jesus!” pleas for aid.
Some
prayers are works of devotion.
It’s
this last category that is best known to church musicians. Rehearsing is the labor of love that allows
us to lead, or contribute to, the church’s song. When we gather for choir rehearsal, our
simple act of coming together is a prayer.
Warming
up is part of our gathering rite. It’s a
signal that we’ve met to set aside our individual voices and sing together our Soli Deo Gloria songs - to unify our
voices as a metaphor of Christian unity.
We listen to each other, matching pitches, tone, and breathing.
Then we tackle the music – liturgy and hymns being first. As we sing, the words that we sing on Sunday begin to take hold in our hearts. Choir members have reported waking up in the middle of the night with an intertwined text and melody from choir rehearsal stuck in their heads, becoming their prayer in the night watches. The music of the assembly is formational and we are blessed to get a double dose of it – the first dose on Wednesday and the second on Sunday.
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| The lion's share of our congregational song comes from ELW. |
Then we tackle the music – liturgy and hymns being first. As we sing, the words that we sing on Sunday begin to take hold in our hearts. Choir members have reported waking up in the middle of the night with an intertwined text and melody from choir rehearsal stuck in their heads, becoming their prayer in the night watches. The music of the assembly is formational and we are blessed to get a double dose of it – the first dose on Wednesday and the second on Sunday.
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| Sunday morning warm-up with the Festival Choir |
Finally, we rehearse the music that we will sing alone on Sunday morning. This piece of music, sung only by the choir,
goes by different names in different churches - choir anthem, special music,
and offertory to name a few. I love that
St. Mark’s calls this piece the “musical offering,” a gift of praise to
God. But we don’t just offer ourselves
on Sunday morning, we offer ourselves from the moment we begin rehearsing a new
piece.
There’s
a lot going on at any choir practice including fun, fellowship, rehearsing,
planning, and more - but the entire process is a prayer of love and devotion.
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| Choir practice is prayer - but it's also fun! |
All
singers are invited to participate in the Festival Choir at St. Mark’s! We especially need sopranos and altos, but we’re
always willing to take on new tenors and basses. We rehearse in the music suite on Wednesday
evenings from 7:30 to 9:00, and again on Sunday morning at 9:00. Talk to any choir member if you are
interested! Tony Cruz, St. Mark’s
Cantor, is always happy to answer your questions about singing in the choir and
ringing handbells.
Come
sing with us.
Come pray with us.
Acknowledgement for Rotxschild Book of Hours Photo:
By E2v - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29488291
Photo of ELW (from out 2007 dedication) by Bill Daugherty
