Mostly I experience music as a non-singer/non musician. I'm still recovering from the "just mouth the words" advice given by a music teacher many years ago. I know that congregational singing is powerful and spiritual for many, but until I served the most recent congregation, I never experienced it as such. A good music director is key. They don't have to have master's degrees, or be exceptionally talented, they have to care about people and giving them good ways into being involved. The retired music teacher at my last congregation did that. She wouldn't let people say "we're no good." She'd say, we can get better. And we did! I do think having lyrics projected helps - less looking down at the page and mumbling.
I did miss congregational singing when we were on Zoom all the time, and still miss it attending services online now. It's been interesting to attend services at a congregation that has an abundance of music professionals and 5 choirs - as opposed to a retired music teacher who is music director/accompanist/choir leader + a lay leader who is a former music director who helps out when they can.
So much to say about this, but I can't seem to organize my thoughts. I will share something amazing my husband came up with recently, though. We were talking casually about spiritual practices on the wiccan/pagan/tarot/earth-based side of the house.... and were also talking about music... and he said that he's always thought that:
Songs are spells.
And my mind was blown! Songs are spells. I don't know quite what that means to me yet, but I think I agree, especially when songs are sung in groups. What spells are we casting when we sing together?
(For context: I come to UUism as an atheist/rationalist/trained scientist, and it's only in the last few years that I've found myself open receptive to exploring the 'mysteries' side of religion and spirituality..)
My home church is in search of a music director and I had an epiphany that that role needs to include song leader skills. I wrote to the committee: As I sat in the wonderful service today I realized that almost all of the services that moved me the most deeply involved a song leader helping the congregation to find their voice. Group singing with the boost or assist of a bold song leader is a common element of the ahhaaa, release, worshipful, community sense that some services give me.
I would strongly urge inclusion of a requirement for the music director that they can serve as an energetic, engaging, full bodied song leader. (as Bailey did today) Further I'd suggest that a video of someone serving as a song leader be a requested element of the candidate's package.
Obviously this is in addition to all the stuff I'm sure you have heard about standard choir director, music director responsibilities and skills.
Really strong song-leading is a skill that would make a candidate exceptional and we need exceptional. It would also make their ministry powerful and deeply inclusive. To me, congregational singing and generating energy and passion in that singing is how the whole congregation becomes a part of the music.
Recently I experienced singing in the congregation, and I loved it! I was surprised at how much more I felt like part of the community, like I was experiencing the hymns WITH the congregation, instead of up at the podium. Because our services are multi-platform (in person and on Zoom) our small choir comes up to the podium to sing the hymns as well as our Gift of Music. This is so that those on Zoom can both hear and see the hymns being sung. I hadn't realized how much I missed singing the hymns from my seat before the pandemic. That must be because singing together as a whole group is deeply spiritual for me.
When I moved off-island last spring to a new area, I searched for a UU church that had a choir. I found one in the adjoining town. For me, singing in a choir is a spiritual experience. It lifts my spirit and makes me happy. I am becoming friends with my fellow choir members, and I’m delighted that my daughter sings in this choir. The only things that I would like to see are 1) more input by choir members into what we sing. 2) more tie-in with the overall theme of the service (I’m on the Worship Committee).
Hope that yòu are having a chance to recover from the M.Div. intensives.
Singing! I've read that singing is good for the lungs, the body. I'm aware of the sensations of singing in a large sanctuary with high ceilings, part of a community getting ready for something (Episcopal eucharist, with a procession, and other parts of tge service around different themes or actions). I like lots of personal space in the back but also feel my voice both blending and reflecting the other voices (the Episcopal service with a professional choir). The music, art, theater make the service an aesthetic, uplifting, expressive experience more than the words, which don't always mesh with my views/outlook. In Conservative Jewish services, some of the most moving, sacred moments for me are in the communal urgency and concentration when we are standing with the ark open on Shabbat morning or on Yom Kippur with special melodies. At a largely younger UU service, it's a communal feel and watching the faces on zoom, seeing ideas newly expressed in words in the chat feature, often songs that I would not know otherwise ("popular"?). In a more traditional UU congregation, again being comfortable with the words (not having to suspend disbelief, so to speak), enjoying both words that feel universal and some unusual melodies in a minor key. Singing as an embodied practice. In addition to esrly music training, singing at home, and singing in school choruses, I had early exposure to the Roman Catholic mass sung in Latin and a couple of recent decades of the long Shabbat morning service chanted in Hebrew, as well as some years of a Friday night service very nearly all of sung Hebrew. Melodies of what I have recently heard stick around, pop up in my head. Singing is an embodiment of joy, sorrow, connection.
I love to sing. I’ve sung in church choirs for almost 40 years. And I also love singing hymns as a congregation. Singing is meditation to me. And choir practice is especially so. But your question is about congregational communal singing. For me, it is the blending of voices and creating beauty as one body that is so sacred. Time stops when we sing. And emotions feel deep.
Mostly I experience music as a non-singer/non musician. I'm still recovering from the "just mouth the words" advice given by a music teacher many years ago. I know that congregational singing is powerful and spiritual for many, but until I served the most recent congregation, I never experienced it as such. A good music director is key. They don't have to have master's degrees, or be exceptionally talented, they have to care about people and giving them good ways into being involved. The retired music teacher at my last congregation did that. She wouldn't let people say "we're no good." She'd say, we can get better. And we did! I do think having lyrics projected helps - less looking down at the page and mumbling.
I did miss congregational singing when we were on Zoom all the time, and still miss it attending services online now. It's been interesting to attend services at a congregation that has an abundance of music professionals and 5 choirs - as opposed to a retired music teacher who is music director/accompanist/choir leader + a lay leader who is a former music director who helps out when they can.
So much to say about this, but I can't seem to organize my thoughts. I will share something amazing my husband came up with recently, though. We were talking casually about spiritual practices on the wiccan/pagan/tarot/earth-based side of the house.... and were also talking about music... and he said that he's always thought that:
Songs are spells.
And my mind was blown! Songs are spells. I don't know quite what that means to me yet, but I think I agree, especially when songs are sung in groups. What spells are we casting when we sing together?
(For context: I come to UUism as an atheist/rationalist/trained scientist, and it's only in the last few years that I've found myself open receptive to exploring the 'mysteries' side of religion and spirituality..)
My home church is in search of a music director and I had an epiphany that that role needs to include song leader skills. I wrote to the committee: As I sat in the wonderful service today I realized that almost all of the services that moved me the most deeply involved a song leader helping the congregation to find their voice. Group singing with the boost or assist of a bold song leader is a common element of the ahhaaa, release, worshipful, community sense that some services give me.
I would strongly urge inclusion of a requirement for the music director that they can serve as an energetic, engaging, full bodied song leader. (as Bailey did today) Further I'd suggest that a video of someone serving as a song leader be a requested element of the candidate's package.
Obviously this is in addition to all the stuff I'm sure you have heard about standard choir director, music director responsibilities and skills.
Really strong song-leading is a skill that would make a candidate exceptional and we need exceptional. It would also make their ministry powerful and deeply inclusive. To me, congregational singing and generating energy and passion in that singing is how the whole congregation becomes a part of the music.
Recently I experienced singing in the congregation, and I loved it! I was surprised at how much more I felt like part of the community, like I was experiencing the hymns WITH the congregation, instead of up at the podium. Because our services are multi-platform (in person and on Zoom) our small choir comes up to the podium to sing the hymns as well as our Gift of Music. This is so that those on Zoom can both hear and see the hymns being sung. I hadn't realized how much I missed singing the hymns from my seat before the pandemic. That must be because singing together as a whole group is deeply spiritual for me.
When I moved off-island last spring to a new area, I searched for a UU church that had a choir. I found one in the adjoining town. For me, singing in a choir is a spiritual experience. It lifts my spirit and makes me happy. I am becoming friends with my fellow choir members, and I’m delighted that my daughter sings in this choir. The only things that I would like to see are 1) more input by choir members into what we sing. 2) more tie-in with the overall theme of the service (I’m on the Worship Committee).
Hope that yòu are having a chance to recover from the M.Div. intensives.
Singing! I've read that singing is good for the lungs, the body. I'm aware of the sensations of singing in a large sanctuary with high ceilings, part of a community getting ready for something (Episcopal eucharist, with a procession, and other parts of tge service around different themes or actions). I like lots of personal space in the back but also feel my voice both blending and reflecting the other voices (the Episcopal service with a professional choir). The music, art, theater make the service an aesthetic, uplifting, expressive experience more than the words, which don't always mesh with my views/outlook. In Conservative Jewish services, some of the most moving, sacred moments for me are in the communal urgency and concentration when we are standing with the ark open on Shabbat morning or on Yom Kippur with special melodies. At a largely younger UU service, it's a communal feel and watching the faces on zoom, seeing ideas newly expressed in words in the chat feature, often songs that I would not know otherwise ("popular"?). In a more traditional UU congregation, again being comfortable with the words (not having to suspend disbelief, so to speak), enjoying both words that feel universal and some unusual melodies in a minor key. Singing as an embodied practice. In addition to esrly music training, singing at home, and singing in school choruses, I had early exposure to the Roman Catholic mass sung in Latin and a couple of recent decades of the long Shabbat morning service chanted in Hebrew, as well as some years of a Friday night service very nearly all of sung Hebrew. Melodies of what I have recently heard stick around, pop up in my head. Singing is an embodiment of joy, sorrow, connection.
I love to sing. I’ve sung in church choirs for almost 40 years. And I also love singing hymns as a congregation. Singing is meditation to me. And choir practice is especially so. But your question is about congregational communal singing. For me, it is the blending of voices and creating beauty as one body that is so sacred. Time stops when we sing. And emotions feel deep.