Response to McLaren(sp?)
Something in me just screams for creative quality. I can smell and recognize “cheeziness” at the drop of a pin, and it makes me cringe. I have sung more than one too many choral pieces to a soundcheck where the guys and girls sing the same mediocre melody one octave apart. I am forced to ask myself, “where is the wonder? Where is the beauty? Where is the mystery and awe and surprise?” I often experienced it while reading my high school literature book, but that was written mostly by people who do not believe in Jesus. It is said that one who wants to be a great orator must first find his great cause. Is this not true also of all who would be great composers, lyricists and songwriters. Is it not also true of those who would lead our Christian community in worship accompanied by other artistic expressions? Maybe this is why McLaren’s article rang so true with me. While I am continually overwhelmed by the unnoticed marvels of our everyday lives (blessings which have been showered on us day after day, such as intricate mazes of ant trails, the simple beauty of laughter and conversation between guyfriend and girlfriend, a masterwork movie plot, or the piece of classical music I am listening to right now), I also continually wonder why church is so boring. I simply refuse to believe that is what my infinitely creative creator intended for us. I am not satisfied with it. I am not OK with it. Thus, I heartily concur with McLaren’s challenge to incorporate deep theology into an artistic expression that captures “mind and heart, understanding and imagination, proposition and image, clarity and mystery, explanation and narrative, exposition and artistic expression” (para 5). Wow. The piece I am listening to reminds me that this is definitely possible. One comment that Morenson made that really stood out to me was that good lyrics are composed, not inspired (para 7). The assumption would be that good music likewise comes through sweat and tears, not for free by means of an untapped creative fountain. This has not been my experience. Good creative content comes to me when I experiment and play with notes and/or words until that critical inspiration happens to come along. But it cannot be forced. Sometimes it comes right away, while other times it may take an hour or more. It is incredibly affected by my mood, circumstances or state of mind. Ah, yes, then there’s the factor of raw talent. Let’s try to experiment until we’re blue in the face in the area that we are naturally good at. Ooh, and then Mortenson rubbed a raw spot for me when he said that singing need not be professionally polished (Vocal Style para 2). That comment seemed to contradict everything he had said up to that point. I want to do everything I do with the most quality that I have available to me. That’s not a burden. It’s a joy! Part of what we were created to do was to create beauty ourselves. Let’s not settle for less. Creativity is available to us, if we want it. Of course, all of this talk means nothing if we cannot put it to practical use. What is a way that I, Christopher Yoder, can contribute to the wonder and creativity of the body of Christ? One I can think of would be to propose and organize a “hymn team” to supplement (not replace) the chapel team. Several times a semester, to give the chapel team could be given a break, and the hymn team could lead the congregation in some of the lesser known hymns that have beautiful and intricate harmonies with wonderful and unusual tapestries of chords that catch the ear off guard, yet are striking in their sense of order and purpose. Such a team will need to be able to perform those vocal lines with clarity and precision. What are some practical ways that you in this music class could contribute creatively to the lives of the believers in our community? (It doesn’t have to involve music or even chapel services)
I believe ways I can contribute to the lives of the believers in the community is for me to simply be open to the styles of music that you have mentioned. Such as hymns. For some reason I just can’t capture the beauty of hymnals the way I wish I could. Even within my youth group when leading worship I want to incorporate the beauty of hymnals but first I need to seek God to show me the beauty in the hymnals. Also I want to incorporate scriptures in worship to focus on the Lord.
Wow Chris. This is so good that I feel the only thing I can do to make it a little better is to add a “Here here!” or an “Amen!” after every sentence…ok, that’s a little exaggerated but still, this is really good. This has been something that I felt the Church (capital “C” because I’m talking about the Body as a whole) has neglected greatly in the past 50 years, maybe even more. I feel like neglecting the creative strands in our make-up and design is neglect of one of the most important attributes of God Himself. Does that make sense? If we are created in the image of God, and God is the ULTIMATE Creator, then to neglect that part of ourselves would seem to be borderline sin, right? I don’t know, I’m just venting. It just irks me so much to think that we have stencils and cookie cutters for “church music” when there is so much more we could do with our bare hands!
Secondly, I would like to comment on your comment about creating and writing music when Morreson said “good lyrics are composed, not inspired”. Your response about when you write music and lyrics, “It is incredibly affected by my mood, circumstances or state of mind”, is dead on. It is the same for me and I would wager that it is the same for every other “deep” songwriter. A songwriter that writes for the sake of writing or composing is most likely going to have a very shallow song. Now the songwriter that writes from influence and affected purpose is probably going to have a much deeper meaning and reason for the existence of the song. Anyway, hope this wasn’t too long.
Grace and Peace.
While at this time I do not have an answer to your question about how I can creatively contribute to our fellow believers, I want to thank you for your obvious thought and concern toward that end. I would be pleased to hear from a team that would thoughtfully explore hymns with the community. Actually, I think one way that I could try to contribute would be to attempt composition of hymns or choral arrangements that would include both rich harmonizations and text. We’ll see on that one.