Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Developing A Canon Of Song For Your Church, Constance Cherry

Symposium on Worship Archive

How much intentionality comes to bear on the collection of congregational songs your church sings over time? As worship leaders, we are responsible not only for choosing excellent songs, but also for providing for the overall balance and appropriateness of the church’s body of song.

Leading Effective Praise Team Rehearsals, Paul Ryan

Symposium on Worship Archive

Our best praise team rehearsals prepare our hearts, hands, and voices to lead the community in song. In this workshop, we’ll explore the goals and techniques of effective and life-giving rehearsals by considering personal preparation, repertoire, team dynamics, and the pastoral needs of our teams.

Leading Congregational Song From The Organ Bench, John Ferguson

Symposium on Worship Archive

John Ferguson will explore concepts from registrations to basic improvisational techniques to help organists nurture congregational song during worship and encourage singing with greater understanding and spirit. Organists interested in being coached during the seminar are encouraged to prepare a hymn from Lift Up Your Hearts, including an introduction, as if it were for a worship service.

Singing Spirituals, Singing Gospel, Raymond Wise Phd

Symposium on Worship Archive

Come ready to sing spirituals, traditional and contemporary gospel songs, praise and worship songs, inspirational songs and children’s music. Participants will explore a range of choral works, including many compositions by Raymond Wise. This is an ideal seminar for choir directors and choir members and will provide ideas for smaller choirs with a can-do spirit.

Creative Leadership Of Congregational Song: Tips For Organists, Jan Kraybill

Symposium on Worship Archive

The ever-expanding areas of expertise needed from organists to help congregations form into singing communities provide rich opportunity for new and creative approaches. Jan Kraybill will bring tips and techniques for organists in a variety of worship contexts. We’ll explore ways in which our instrument—a community of individual voices—can best invite and enhance vibrant congregational singing of hymns and songs across cultures and generations.

Singing Psalms Together, Martin Tel, Carlos Colón, Michael Joncas, Jan Kraybill, Sandra Mccracken, Ed Willminton, Raymond Wise Phd

Symposium on Worship Archive

In the past ten years, arguably more musical settings of the psalms for congregational use have been written in more musical styles than at any other time in the history of the church (though perhaps the Internet just makes us vividly aware of all this good work!). When we sing psalms, we are letting the word of God dwell in our hearts in a remarkable way, uniting us with believers from every century and continent. In this session, we will hear the story of one of the most-sung psalm settings: “On Eagle’s Wings.” We will sing black gospel and bilingual …

Gained In Translation, Martin Tel

Symposium on Worship Archive

More and more of the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs of the church are crossing language and cultural barriers. At times these translations have resulted in awkward lyrics. This may contribute to many communities’ aversion to global hymns. Indeed, often the essence of a song can be “lost in translation.” But this need not be the case. In fact, there are many examples where much has been gained in translation, inviting us into deeper and richer expressions of faith and prayer. Together we will consider the process of translation and its promise for yielding beautiful new texts that produce fresh …

Worship Arts Program Builds New Recording Studio, Shelbi Gesch

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Celebrating The Arts, Aleisa Dornbierer-Schat

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Musical Worship As A Pentecostal Sacrament: Toward A Soteriological Liturgy, Richard I. Griggs

Selected Honors Theses

This paper seeks to articulate a Pentecostal theology of worship within the framework of sacramental spirituality, asserting that music as a form of worship is a Pentecostal sacrament. After offering a literature review on the topic, the paper articulates Pentecostal sacraments as essentially participatory, transformative, and communally unifying physical actions which facilitate meaningful participation in the story of God through kinesthetic catechesis, dialectic temporality, and mutual epiclesis. It then explores the ways in which music aligns with this sacramental nature and function, recognizing music as a Pentecostal sacrament of the felt presence of the divine. Next, support for this assertion …

The Makings Of An Ep: From Silence To Portable Sounds, Emily Ream

Senior Honors Theses

The creation of an EP is a process that requires skills in multiple areas. Once, creating an EP was only available to those who garnered resources and support from a record label. However, an increasing number of aspiring musicians are writing, recording, and making their music available for download or purchase without the assistance of a record label. Doing this successfully and excellently requires application of knowledge in areas such as literature, theology (for Christian artists), music theory, music technology, and marketing. This thesis will describe one process used to turn inspiration into a tangible product that one can purchase …

Promise That You Will Sing About Me: Kendrick Lamar In Posterity, Brandon Apol

Music and Worship Student Presentations

Sometimes it would seem that the quietest moments turn out to have the loudest repercussions. This would seem to be a consistent case for twenty eight-year old Kendrick Lamar, whose career has been defined by surprise and unannounced publications of music that shortly afterward are spun into respected works of art. With an album that no one anticipated going to the 2013 Grammy awards, another album that leaked a week ahead of schedule (and brought Kendrick 5 Grammys), and an album that was released with almost no warning whatsoever, Kendrick Lamar Duckworth makes headlines with his art; of this there …

Relational Power, Music, And Identity: The Emotional Efficacy Of Congregational Song, Nathan Myrick

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Relational Power, Music, and Identity: The Emotional Efficacy of Congregational Song

The power of congregational song to unify (or divide) people along various lines is well documented. Yet, how this process of uniting or dividing is accomplished has proven necessarily difficult to document. This paper examines the complex and polyvalent factors that contribute to the meaningfulness of congregational music making, seeking to offer a synthetic, conceptual framework with which to engage this often murky milieu.

Employing interdisciplinary research techniques drawn from sociology, ritual studies, and ethnomusicology, I construct a conceptual framework with which to understand the profoundly formative power of …

From Silence To Golden: The Slow Integration Of Instruments Into Christian Worship, Jonathan M. Lyons

Musical Offerings

The Christian church’s stance on the use of instruments in sacred music shifted through influences of church leaders, composers, and secular culture. Synthesizing the writings of early church leaders and church historians reveals a clear progression. The early musical practices of the church were connected to the Jewish synagogues. As recorded in the Old Testament, Jewish worship included instruments as assigned by one’s priestly tribe. Eventually, early church leaders rejected that inclusion and developed a rather robust argument against instruments in liturgical worship. The totalitarian stance on musical instruments in sacred worship began to loosen as the organ increased in …

Ms – 208: The Jim Henderson Papers, Class Of 1971, Devin Mckinney

All Finding Aids

This collection contains documents, photographs, and other material, mostly relating to Jim Henderson’s career at Gettysburg College. There are various writings, and a scrapbook with images covering Henderson’s life from just before to just after his time in Gettysburg. A significant subset of material concerns Henderson’s commencement address, and the subsequent controversy. The bulk of the material is in the form of handwritten scores and program notes created for various musical performances between 1966 and 1973. Most of these are rock or jazz arrangements of religious themes, and most premiered at Gettysburg College.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids …

Thy Word Have I Hid In My Heart, James C. Schaap

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Something there is about music that won’t let go. Dementia robbed my friend’s mother of most of her sense, but when her children sang her favorite hymns, she was right there with them."

Posting about hymns of the heart from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/thy-word-have-i-hid-in-my-heart/

Latin American Psalms, Hymns, And Spiritual Songs, Alfredo Colman

Symposium on Worship Archive

Aimed at keyboardists as well as other instrumentalists, this workshop emphasizes basic and intermediate accompanying techniques such as re-harmonization and rhythmic variations, and applies them to specific examples that illustrate a variety of styles within the Latin American sacred music tradition.

Short Songs: Deepening Our Participation In Worship, Alison Adam

Symposium on Worship Archive

Short songs do something different: they deepen, with music, the responses a congregation makes in an act of worship. Often tied to liturgical moments in a service, short songs enable us to gather, to pray, to prepare to hear God’s Word, to affirm, to go forth, to move, to rejoice. They tap into the emotion of worship songs, and they draw on the ancient tradition of chant, but they are neither contemporary nor traditional. We’ll sing about 10 of these songs, gathered by the Iona Community from their own writers and from the world church. They are easily led, enable …

Singing The Psalms In A Modern Worship Setting, Wendell Kimbrough

Symposium on Worship Archive

The Psalms were written to be sung. But if your church favors guitar-led modern worship, how do you sing the Psalms? Songwriter Wendell Kimbrough’s pastor answered this question by asking him to write short Psalms refrains that are singable and memorable for his congregation. For the past two years, their church has engaged the Psalm through music each week, following the Revised Common Lectionary. In this workshop, Wendell will share some of the best-loved of these refrains and talk about his church’s journey learning to sing and love the Psalms.

Singing Psalms: An Outpouring Of Contemporary Song For Congregational Use, Alison Adam, Alfredo Colman, Wendell Kimbrough, Greg Scheer, Isaac Wardell

Symposium on Worship Archive

Remarkably, even since the publication of Psalms for All Seasons just a few years ago, over 30 new Psalm-based songwriting and recording projects have emerged from a variety of contemporary worship leaders across North America and beyond. While some of these settings are designed for solo voices, many are well-suited to congregational use, and are worthy heirs to the legacy of congregation-based Psalms re-established by Luther and Calvin. Come to explore a variety of examples of this music, as well as the stories behind the songs. In addition, to consider new songs you might use in your context, come ready …

The Sun Rises In The East: New Congregational Songs From Asian Composers, Joel Navarro

Symposium on Worship Archive

This session features new congregational songs and music for church choir from young composers in Southeast Asia whose works are currently making waves in many parts of the world. This session is recommended for choir directors and singers who are looking for fresh ideas for regular worship, intercultural worship, or church choir repertoire.

Unlocking The Mysteries Of Church Sound Systems, Greg Scheer

Symposium on Worship Archive

Of the many hats worship musicians and pastors wear, “sound system purchaser and troubleshooter” may be the most uncomfortable. Nonetheless, your understanding of how a sound system works could have a huge impact on your congregation’s ability to hear the preaching and take part in singing. This session will teach you about microphones, channel strips, speaker placement, and a myriad of other subjects that likely weren’t included in your seminary or music education.

Bringing Hymns To Life On Guitar, Wendell Kimbrough

Symposium on Worship Archive

We’ve heard many of the great old hymns played beautifully with organs, pianos, and choirs, but their journey into the world of guitar-led worship can be awkward. Old tunes are often abandoned or significantly altered in the name of modernization, but such revision is not always necessary. This workshop will focus on demonstrating and discussing how to translate traditional hymns into a guitar-led band format while keeping the hymn’s soul intact.

Here We Are Now... Hold Us Together, David J. Mulder

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"I am thankful for teachers who planted seeds, or watered them, or pulled weeds, or simply waited patiently for fruit to start showing up."

Posting about teaching children to live out their faith­­­­­­­­ from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/here-we-are-nowhold-us-together/

Prince, Common Grace, And What Is Within, Shelbi Gesch

Student Work

"It’s unnecessary to run the other direction every time something bearing the marks of a fallen culture comes along. Everything in this world bears the marks of a fallen culture."

Posting about the struggle between light and darkness from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/prince-common-grace-and-what-is-within-us/

From Silence To Golden: The Slow Integration Of Instruments Into Christian Worship, Jonathan Lyons

The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)

The Christian church’s stance on the use of instruments in sacred music shifted through influences of church leaders, composers, and secular culture. Synthesizing the writings of early church leaders and church historians reveals a clear progression. The early musical practices of the church were connected to the Jewish synagogues. As recorded in the Old Testament, Jewish worship included instruments as assigned by one’s priestly tribe. Eventually, early church leaders rejected that inclusion and developed a rather robust argument against instruments in liturgical worship. The totalitarian stance on musical instruments in sacred worship began to loosen as the organ increased in …

Do You Know Where You're Going To? A Glimpse Of The Next Generation Of Congregational Song, Swee Hong Lim

Symposium on Worship Archive

This workshop will explore the next generation of congregational song. This emerging genre occupies a soundscape of music-making where its character is postmodern in the West and postcolonial in the Global South. It seeks to revitalize local, cultural traditions in a myriad of communities’ efforts of meaning-making in the 21st century. This is a guided conversation time where participants are encouraged to share their perspectives and observations. Musical examples will be shared.

Singing With Martin Luther And The Lutherans, Worship Symposium 2016, Mark Noll

Symposium on Worship Archive

This workshop is designed to explore the riches of Lutheran hymnody for those, like Professor Noll, who are not themselves Lutherans. We will take a quick historical journey to note important landmarks. The rest of the session will take advantage of one of the recently published American Lutheran hymnals to explore the contours of contemporary Lutheran song. The hope is to help those outside the Lutheran tradition appreciate its historical richness and think about exploiting those riches to enliven worship in all traditions.

Singing The Great Fifty Days, Zebulon M. Highben

Symposium on Worship Archive

Easter Sunday is the beginning of the church’s longest festival: the Great Fifty Days of Easter. Yet it can be a musical challenge to connect the exuberance of Easter Sunday with the season’s culmination at Pentecost. This workshop presents ideas for musically and liturgically unifying the Easter season while highlighting each Sunday’s individual lessons and themes. Hymns, canticles, and choral repertoire from several publishers will be featured.

A New Song. A Skillful Song., Sandra Mccracken, Greg Scheer, Adam M. L. Tice

Symposium on Worship Archive

Those of us who feel Psalm 33’s call to write new songs must remember that the Psalm also tells us to play skillfully. In this seminar we will focus on the skills of songwriting for congregations, digging into what it means to balance inspiration and perspiration. Join critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter Sandra McCracken and widely-published hymn writer Adam Tice as they speak with Greg Scheer about their approaches to creating new texts, new tunes, and the combining of texts and tunes. The afternoon will be spent discussing participants’ song submissions. Attendees of all levels and musical styles will benefit from this seminar.