A Tutorial for Music and Worship

How do we plan music for worship?

I believe that music should bring focus to the Gospel message. In my church traditions, we follow the liturgical church year with prescribed Biblical readings (Old Testament, Psalm, New Testament, and Gospel) that tie the inspiration of the Bible together. (John 20:21 "These words are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.") One reading is chosen to be the topic for the sermon. The hymns chosen reiterate scriptural messages for the day. This creates order for the service and order for the church year. (1 Corinthians 14:4 "But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.")

Thus, the musicians should choose music that brings congregational focus to the daily scripture readings. The most obvious way to do this is by choosing music based on the hymn tune. You can find the hymn tune in your hymnals in both the index and on the hymn page. For example, "Amazing Grace" will have the words "New Britain" somewhere (oftentimes on the bottom right hand side). "New Britain" is the name of the particular melody while "Amazing Grace" is the name of the poetry text. Choosing a special piece based on hymn tunes help guide congregation members to open their hymnals and meditate on the text of what they will be singing that day, which is based on the scripture passages for the day. 

Musicians also need to be cognizant of the purpose of special music within worship. What is the focus of the service? An Easter service is a joyous occasion that warrants loud exciting music throughout. Good Friday is somber event which benefits from slower paced hymns, quiet preludes (if any), and minimal musical additions. Is your offertory on a communion Sunday? How can you use music to encourage parishioners to self-examine in preparation for the sacrament? Was there a Baptism or confirmation where you could place a special piece to commemorate the event?

A church musician should strive to play music that focuses on Christ, not themselves. This should hopefully encourage you to NOT play Six Metamorphoses after Ovid by Benjamin Britten simply because it is "classical music" that people will like. In this blog, we will examine how to use different types of oboe music in a church service. 

• Pieces based on hymn tunes
• Programmatic works based on scripture text
• Melodies from other faith backgrounds that can still be edifying in your worship services
• Pieces written for religious purposes that are not programmatic or hymn tunes
• Classical works
• Improvisation

I was first inspired on how to plan music for worship from a lecture by organist Dan Zager in 2008. He has also published a book on music in worship that I highly recommend to anyone involved in church music.