Copyright: © 1999 Paul F. Bosch.
This document may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes with credit to the author and mention of the Lift Up Your Hearts web site http://www.worship.ca/ as the source.

"One sings at celebrations," opines Aidan Kavanaugh, our era's great liturgist-superstar, in his magisterial little book, Elements of Rite: A Handbook of Liturgical Style. "Singing is normal," he maintains, "when people have something to sing about."

It was the Service Book and Hymnal (1958) that introduced, for North American Lutherans, the then-novel (for us) notion that worship could be a choral experience throughout, with its option of pastor and people both singing their assigned roles. It should be noted, however, that two generations earlier, already in 1901, Luther Reed and Harry Archer had published The Choral Service: "Authentic Plain Song Intonations and Responses for the Order of Morning Service or the Communion, the Orders of Matins and Vespers, the Litany and the Suffrages of the Common Service for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Congregations", including chant settings for the Lord's Prayer and (Yes!) the Nicene Creed!

The motto of many a choir and choir school is the Latin "Bis orat, qui contat": "Those who sing pray twice." So singing belongs in our worship, for people and for Presider. I'd be willing to argue that the chief Service every Sunday, in all of our churches, ought to be a fully choral Service, pastor and people both singing their hearts out. Kavanaugh has even suggested that Presiding Ministers unwilling to try to learn to sing their roles in worship should perhaps re- examine their calling.

And is my own experience too limited, or am I correct in stating that North American Lutherans are unique world-wide among contemporary Christians in preserving a tradition of singing the "Ordinary" of the Service every Sunday? Roman Catholics, world-wide, are having a dickens of a time trying to get their people to sing the Ordinary (Kyrie, Gloria, Creed, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei). Anglican, Reformed, and so-called "Free Church" Christians have no such tradition, for the most part.

And, in my admittedly-limited experience, even Lutherans in other countries do not sing the Ordinary the way North American Lutherans do. We don't always sing it very well -- we're rather heavy-footed! -- but we do sing it, every Sunday, even in the smallest parishes. And I think that's neat!

I've addressed the place of the choir above, in Essay 14, "The Days of the Choir are Over..." In that essay I maintained that the choir has three responsibilities, in descending order of priority: 1) to support and enliven the congregation's own voice of praise, in singing the liturgy, psalms, and hymns; 2) to enlarge and enrich the congregation's voice of praise, as in anthems, motets, and other "special music" during the worship hour; and 3) to "instruct the heart" of its community and its congregation, perhaps by concerts or recitals of sacred music apart from Sunday worship.

Let me add an even stronger plea for Responsibility Number One, above, and argue that if the choir does nothing else each week, it must spend time and energy to help ensure vital and vibrant liturgy, psalms, and hymns.

The psalm each week is a special case. Liturgical reforms that follow the spirit of Vatican II, including our own LBW, have restored a full psalm, or a big chunk therof, to our weekly worship. And it's marvellous to hear a psalm sung each week with conviction and vigour by choir and people. Hence this Important Principle: In any congregation with a choir, the psalm should always be sung, never spoken. It's the choir's supreme, preeminent, and irreplaceable weekly responsibility.

There are some splendid resources for psalm-singing today: the Gelineau psalms; the Taize psalms; the Peter Hallock psalms; the Hal Hopson psalms; the Westminster / John Knox Press complete Psalter. Look elsewhere in this website for more. It would be praise-worthy, too, if the choir could sing, each week, the Proper Verse and Offertory.

As for hymns: The German chorales, a respected teacher of mine maintains, are non-negotiable in a Lutheran hymnal, and I agree. (I'd expect to find a huge selection of Wesley hymns in a Methodist hymnal, wouldn't you?) And the Hymn-of-the-Day is a splendid Lutheran contribution to world-wide Christian worship. Wouldn't it be great to hear the H-O-D sung, each week, with some exciting alternation between people, choir, and instruments?

That "Indiana Jones" in my sub-title above? Here's some hymnological trivia for you: Joachim Neander (1650-1680) is the author and/or composer of some of LBW's finest chorales (including my all-time favourite hymn, "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty..."). He used to take long walks in a valley (in German, "Thal") later named for his family: "Neanderthal." Yes, you guessed it: It was here that the bones of a primitive primate relative of ours was unearthed in 1856. Thus do hymnody and archeology greet each other! Thus does Martin Luther meet Indiana Jones!

Apropos of nothing: In another version of his story I have heard, Neander was born "Neumann," and changed his name later in life to the more-fashionable Greek-derived "Neander." And has that first name -- the Hebrew-German "Joachim" -- been transmogrified, orthographically and phonetically, through the ages, in America's Appalachia, into the backwoods surname "Yokum"? Martin Luther meets Li'l Abner! Martin Luther meets Conway Twitty! Martin Luther meets Elvis Presley!

Such are my reveries, when the sermon gets boring! (Later in his retirement, my Dad, a wizard with math, used to calculate the square roots of the numbers in the church's hymn-boards, when the sermon got boring for him!)

The bottom line? With glorious music, and with such reveries, worship need never be dull!