Video of First Class on Music in the Church

Music in the Church, Part I, Vimeo from William Wingfield on Vimeo.

      This class is the first of seven Adult Bible Classes on music in the church, with a focus on music in Lutheran worship. We will be covering one period a week. The first week covered how the Bible describes singing and music, chant, the beginnings of polyphony, musical notation, congregational singing. There are several links on the right that connect to helpful sites that will help you dig deeper into the class topics.
      The course uses many materials provided by Thrivent's series, "500 Years of Lutheran Music" This website has the material that Thrivent published originally as "Celebrating the Musical Heritage of the Lutheran Church."

Next week's period will be the 16th century, the Reformation century.

Alleluia: Justus ut palma, Early experiment with polyphony.

This is an example of the earliest experiments with polyphony, two or more semi-independent musical melodies sung together. It is called "organum." The first organa used parallelism in the second musical line, that is, the second line was a fourth or fifth below the main chant line. In this example of free organum, the intervals above the main chant line vary in their distance, from unisons to fifths. The melody above the chant keeps the same rhythms, so the text is easy to understand.

Conditor Alme Siderum (Creator of the Stars of Night) LSB 351

This is a beautifully chanted performance of Conditor Alme Siderum, with Latin and English texts sung alternately on each verse. The Latin text and plainchant tune are ancient. The text comes from the 5th-10th century and the Sarum (Salisbury, England) chant melody goes back to the 9th century. The melody is one of the most exquisite examples of plainchant, the one-line, sung musical style of the early church. To say that music has progressed in the last thousand years, one has to ignore a perfect match of word and music such as this.

A Beautiful Example of Hebrew Chant

"Music" in the Bible

Yesterday I posted links to the verses in the Bible (ESV translation) that mention singing. Today I am posting all of the verses that use the word "music." If you hover over the verses below with the pointer on your computer the verses will pop up. This doesn't work on a smartphone or tablet, unfortunately.

1 Chr 15:22, 27–28; 16:42; 25:6; 2 Chr 7:6; 34:12; Ps 49:4; 92:3; 101:1; Isa 38:20; Lam 5:14; Ezek 26:13; Dan 3:5, 7, 10, 15; Amos 6:5; Luke 15:25

All the Verses That "Sing" in the Bible (ESV)

This Sunday, the 7th of April, I will be teaching the first class of a series of adult Bible classes in music in the church. In this class I hope to present an overview of how music has been used in Christian worship from its roots in the songs of praise and thanksgiving of God's people in the Old Testament and New Testament times to the present. The first class will look at references to singing and playing instruments in the Bible, among other topics. There are 149 verses in the ESV translation of the Bible that contain words that are related to singing, "sing, sang, sung, singing, etc..." I will quote some of them in class, but I won't be able to read all of them. So I am listing the verses below. I found them with Accordance Bible software.

If you hover your pointer over a verse reference the verse will pop up. One of the amazing things about these verses is how many describe trees and mountains and other non-human living and non-living creatures of God described as singing. God created the universe with a voice! What a joyful testimony to the beauty of God's creation these verse are!

Exod 15:1, 21; 32:18; Num 21:17; Judg 5:1, 3; 1 Sam 18:6–7; 21:11; 29:5; 2 Sam 19:35; 22:50; 1 Chr 16:7, 9, 23, 33; 25:7; 2 Chr 20:21–22; 23:18; 29:28, 30; 30:21; 35:25; Ezra 3:11; Neh 12:27, 42; Job 21:12; 29:13; 33:27; 36:24; 38:7; Ps 5:11; 7:0, 17; 9:2, 11; 13:6; 18:49; 21:13; 27:6; 30:4, 12; 33:3; 47:6–7; 51:14; 57:7, 9; 59:16–17; 61:8; 63:7; 65:13; 66:2, 4; 67:4; 68:4, 32; 71:22–23; 75:9; 81:1; 84:2, 4; 89:1; 92:1, 4; 95:1; 96:1–2, 12; 98:1, 4–5, 8; 100:2; 101:1; 104:12, 33; 105:2, 43; 106:12; 108:1, 3; 119:172; 135:3; 137:3–4; 138:1, 5; 144:9; 145:7; 146:2; 147:1, 7; 149:1, 5; Prov 25:20; 29:6; Song 2:12; Isa 5:1; 12:5–6; 14:7; 16:10; 23:16; 24:9, 14; 26:1, 19; 27:2; 35:2, 6, 10; 42:10–11; 44:23; 49:13; 51:11; 52:8–9; 54:1; 55:12; 65:14; Jer 20:13; 31:7, 12; 33:11; 51:48; Ezek 33:32; Amos 6:5; Zeph 3:14, 17; Zech 2:10; Matt 11:17; 26:30; Mark 14:26; Luke 7:32; Acts 16:25; Rom 15:9; 1 Cor 14:15; Eph 5:19; Col 3:16; Heb 2:12; Jas 5:13; Rev 5:9; 14:3; 15:3

"New Wine in Old Wineskins": A Hymn Setting of Kathryn Ann Hill's poem.

A hymn setting of the poem "New Wine in Old Wineskins" by +Kathryn Ann Hill , from her book, To You It Has Been Given: The Parables of Jesus in Picture and Verse (Copyright  © 2011 Kathryn Ann Hill. Used by permission.), published by Lutheran Legacy, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 2011. The poem is based on Matthew 9:17, "Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." (NKJV)

I have been working the last few days on a musical setting of Kathryn Ann Hill's poem, "New Wine in Old Wineskins." The Youtube video of the hymn is above. I came across Ms. Hill's poetry in the magazine Gottesdienst and was very moved by it. I ordered the book of her poetic settings of the parables of Jesus called To You It Has Been Given. "New Wine in Old Wineskins" is one of the shorter poems, so I thought it would be a good place to start.

I have written jazz lead sheets and songs, one which made it into a movie, country western songs, piano rags, "movie" music (music for imagined movie scenes), radio jingles, and, in my college days, twelve-tone and avant-garde compositions. "The Miracle of Tire Vulcanizing", "Surinam Swings" and "A Bum Steer" are examples of my "aleatoric"  period. I think my composition teacher thought I wasn't being serious from the titles of these masterpieces.

But in the last few years I have been looking for ways to use the musical gifts God has given me in the  service of the church.

Recently I wrote an anthem for choir. I then thought about setting one of Kathryn Hill's poems to music in a hymn setting. I hope to do this with several more of Ms Hill's wonderful poems. She has graciously permitted me to publish her poem with my music on Youtube and my blog. You may order To You It Has Been Given at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/kah1952. and see her other books there, too.

As with the Youtube videos in previous posts, this digital realization uses a generic choral sound to approximate the sound of a choir of singers. You won't  hear distinct articulations of consecutive notes on the same pitch. I hope that we will sing this in church, perhaps for Pentecost. If we do, I will post a video.

Credo First Performance Video

This is a video of the first performance of "Credo" on Sunday, February 17th by the choir of Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church, Olathe. Reverend Mark Frith graciously recorded the video. Rev. Frith is a former Pastor of Beautiful Savior and is currently serving as Assistant to the President for Missions & Stewardship of the Kansas District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. His wife, Leigh is the director of the choir. I thank her, all the members of the choir, and Pam Mayer, the choir's fine accompanist, for this opportunity to write a choral composition and have it performed. I think the performance went very well. We may record it later in a studio setting and with slightly larger forces.

Practice Videos for Choir

These Youtube videos are for practicing the different voices in Credo, a piece for choir that I wrote for the adult choir at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Olathe, Kansas under the direction of Leigh Frith. The score playback uses a generic "choral" synthesizer sound without words. If there is a repeated note the synthesizer does not rearticulate the note, but plays it as if it were tied to the note before it. For instance, if there are four quarter notes in a row on middle C, the program plays it back as one long whole note. Also, the moving vertical line lags a beat behind the music being played. Ignore it if you can.

I hope this helps with learning the parts. The accelerandos and ritardandos are approximate only. The tempi are close, though. I'm still learning the program, Sibelius First, which, by the way, is a terrific notation software. Soli Deo Gloria.


For best viewing of all videos, press the "play" arrow, select full screen and either 480p or 720p HD with the  buttons in the bottom right hand corner of the full frame. 

The first video is with all parts equal.

The video below emphasizes the soprano voice.    

 

The video below is for altos.

The one below is for the tenors.

And the one below is for the basses.