O Lord, Open My Lips

These familiar words from Psalm 51 - “O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare Your praise” - prepare us as we pray through Matins and Vespers. It is good to pray these words since our sinful nature does not have the words or desire to praise God.

In a short article I recently acquired, Kevin Hildebrand reflects on the import of these familiar words.

We are by nature sinful and unclean. Therefore we ask with the psalmist, “O Lord, open my lips,” as we cannot open our own dead, sinful lips. Only with lips that have been touched with the words of absolution, drenched with the waters of Holy Baptism, and quenched with the Blood of the chalice can we then say with confidence, “and my mouth will declare your praise.”

** An excerpt from “The Organ Also Sings: Some Brief Thoughts to Introduce an Organ Reading Session” in the 2004 journal of the Good Shepherd Institute - Singing and Preaching the Close of the Year: “Zion Hears the Watchmen Singing)

Our praise is a result of the great gifts God gives us through His word and sacraments. Thanks be to God!

Thoughts on the Prelude

When you look back on this past Sunday (or any Sunday you can remember), what were you doing while waiting for the worship service to begin? Praying? Reviewing the service? Talking? Listening to the prelude?

I would surmise most organists try to choose preservice music that reflects the theme of the day and the hymns that will be sung. Perhaps the musician will highlight a hymn tune that is not being sung, but still evokes the season of the church year or theme.

I’ve been recently reading portions of the “Manual on the Liturgy” for the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW). I had to smile when Philip Pfatteicher wrote:

Preludial music by instrumentalists or vocalists can help to prepare the worshipers for the service. . . . It must be assumed that the congregation will actually listen [my emphasis] to the music played before the service, for to perform music in church to which no one listens or which is simply to cover up the noise of the entering and gathering congregation is liturgically and artistically misguided. (pg 200)

Hymn Playing for Organists

As I was preparing and practicing the hymns for today, I came across the following quote from Luther Reed in a book of Creative Hymn Accompaniments by Gerhard Krapf:

A poor organist will make of hymn playing a commonplace thing.  A good organist will challenge the intelligent interest of the congregation and charge its hymn singing with thought and feeling.

I know I sometimes rush through the practicing of the hymns and liturgy so I can get to practicing the preludes and postludes (that’s the most important thing, right?).  But those of us who are organists should remember that our most important function is leading the congregations song — and we can only do that effectively through practice.  That means we occasionally search out alternate hymn accompaniments and introductions/intonations.  Perhaps that means spending some time to “prepare” an improvised introduction or playing around with pedal points and registrations.  Sometimes that means spending extra time on the hymns rather than the prelude or postlude.

See a previous blog post entitled Invitation to Sing for more reflections.

Let God’s people sing! — and you can help them sing out by being a good leader of the congregations song.

Acts 29

1. AND IT CAME TO PASS, when Paul was in Corinth, he and certain disciples came upon a mob that was stoning an organist.
2. And Paul said unto them, “What then hath he done unto thee that his head should be bruised?”
3. And the people cried with one voice, “He hath played too loud!
4. Yea, in the singing of the psalms, he maketh our heads to ring as if they were beaten with hammers.
5. Behold, he sitteth up high in the loft, and mighty are the pipes and mighty is the noise thereof, and though there be few of us below, he none the less playeth with all the stops, the Assyrian trumpet stop and the stop of the ram’s horn and the stop that soundeth like the sawing of stone, and we cannot hear the words that cometh out of our own mouths.
6. He always tosseth in variations that confuse us mightily and he playeth loud and discordant and always in a militant tempo, so that we have not time to breathe as we sing.
7. Lo, he is a plague upon the faith and should be chastised.”
Paul, hearing this, had himself picked up a small stone, and was about to cast it, but he set it down, and bade the organist come forward.
8. He was a narrow man, sallow of complexion, with dry skin, flaking and thin of hair.
9. And Paul said unto him, “Why hath thou so abused thy brethren?”
10. And the organist replied, “I could not hear them singing from where I sat, and therefore played the louder so as to encourage them.”
11. And Paul turned round to the mob and said loudly, “Let him who has never played an organ cast the first stone.”
12. And they cast stones for a while until their arms were tired and Paul bade the organist repent and he did.
13. And Paul said unto him, “Thou shalt take up the flute and play it for thirty days, to cleanse thy spirit,” and afterward they returned to Corinth and sang psalms unaccompanied and then had coffee and were refreshed in the faith.

The previous extra-biblical literature was passed on to me a few years back. I am unsure of who to credit for it, though I have seen it attributed to Garrison Keillor. Despite the humor, there are some lessons for organists hidden in there.

Singing Advice from Luther

I have just started reading Luther’s Liturgical Music by Robin Leaver. While I’ve only finished the second chapter, I sense this will be a very in depth but readable study of Luther and music. Chapter Two focused on how music was a central part of Luther’s life from a very young age until his death and how he was surrounded by accomplished musicians. Leaver “sought to demonstrate that Luther’s musicianship was anything but superficial and is the essential starting-point for any discussion of his musical understanding of theology or of his liturgical use of music” (pg. 63)

And after reading this chapter, what do I remember? This practical bit of advice from Luther regarding the starting pitch of a song: “No one should try to sing such a song in a higher key, for he will surely become hoarse and make a botch of it before he reaches five notes.” Thus saith Luther.

Johann Walter - First Lutheran Kantor

On April 24 (based on the Calendar of Commemorations for Lutheran Service Book), the church remembers Johann Walter - the first Lutheran kantor. Here is a brief biography from the LCMS Commission on Worship page.

Johann Walter, Kantor
Johann Walter (1496-1570) began service at the age of 21 as a composer and bass singer in the court chapel of Frederick the Wise. In 1524, he published a collection of hymns arranged according to the church year. It was well received and served as the model for numerous subsequent hymnals. In addition to serving for 30 years as kantor (church musician) in the cities of Torgau and Dresden, he also assisted Martin Luther in the preparation of the Deutsche Messe (1526). Walter is remembered as the first Lutheran kantor and composer of church music.

Reviving the Introit

Raise your hand if you know what the Introit is? The point of the question is not to encourage a self righteousness for those liturgically or musically aware folk, but instead to get us thinking about the people in the pews each Sunday. Does the average parishioner know (or care) about the Introit (or the rest of the Propers)? Should they?

I started thinking about this after I received a recent eBay purchase - “The Concordia Liturgical Series for Church Choirs: The Introits for the Church Year” from Concordia Publishing House (1942) - now long out of print. I ordered the book because of the introductory essay by Walter Buszin - one of the prominent leaders in the restoration and renewal of Lutheran church music in the mid 20th century. Here’s a link to a previous blog post on Buszin.

The introductory essay by Buszin is alone worth having this collection in my library. A side benefit is having the Introits for the one-year lectionary set to Gregorian chant tones. Here are several excerpts regarding liturgy in general and the Introit in particular

The revival of interest in matters liturgical which is found in many sections of the Christian Church today is largely responsible for the restoration of liturgical practices which had been abolished during eras in which, unfortunately, the Church was largely insensible to the beauty and import of her liturgical heritage.

. . .

The Introit was among the first elements of the liturgy dropped in the eras dominated by an antiliturgical spirit. In the era of Pietism it was regarded as superfluous and the Rationalists of the 18th and 19th centuries saw as little need for Introits as they did for other constituent parts of the Christian Liturgy.

. . .

The Introit marks the beginning of the church service proper. The word Introit means entrance, so called because it was chanted while the officiating clergyman entered the chancel and took his place before the altar.

. . .

The Introit consists of three parts: the Antiphon, a Psalm verse, and the Gloria Patri. From a liturgical point of view, the Antiphon is the most important part of the Introit, since from it sounds forth the keynote of the day. Friedrich Lochner, a trustworthy and well-informed authority said: “The Introit should be regarded as the herald of the day of divine worship, who announces to the assembled congregation from the very beginning of the service proper the import and significance of the Sunday, the festival, and the festival season. Its most important part is the Antiphon, which in a short passage from the scriptures proclaims not only the significance of the day, but also the cardinal truth concerning eternal salvation which is to be stressed on that particular day of worship.”

Now back to my initial set of questions. Does the Introit have a place in weekly worship? Yes — it heralds the significance of the day. In the case of today, the Introit’s Antiphon for the 4th Sunday of Easter was “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, and I lay down my life for the sheep.” That is quite the message to open a service with — succinct, yet so much to learn.

It is the responsibility of pastors and church musicians to introduce and reinforce why we do what we do as Lutherans. We are not being arbitrary or capricious, but walking in the footsteps of the past; not for the sake of history, but because it is beneficial, has worth, and assists in the proclamation of the Word (in the case of the Introit, it IS the Word).