Doo Wop and Church Music (Part 2)

1. How is the use of music by PBS and by church musicians the same? different?
2. How is the experience of music in the PBS audience and in the worshiping congregation the same? different?

How is music used on the PBS specials? What is the music's function? The producers go to such great lengths and expense to contact, reunite, rehearse, clothe and outfit, transport, and feature these artists. They use special props, staging, lighting, sound systems, and make-up, and pay fees for copyright, licensing, royalties, and performance rights. They invest large sums in the latest technological equipment and people to run it. In all of these efforts and expenses, what's the ultimate purpose and how does the music help them achieve it?

The ultimate purpose of the music on these television programs is to get the viewer to support PBS financially, either through donations or purchase of premiums — CDs, cassettes, DVDs, books. The music and musicians are used to do this by playing on the emotions and memories of the viewers. The music causes us to remember the people, events, and feelings of our past, hopefully from a time of youth, optimism, growth, young love, and happiness. As we watch the shows, all those feelings and memories come back, and at the pledge break, the announcer offers the viewer the opportunity to relive and remember them whenever we wish, just by purchasing the premium offered. And PBS is honest and open about this — they make no claim that they are offering these shows strictly for the enjoyment of the viewers. If they were, they would offer them throughout the year and without any fundraising attached.

Thus, music is used in these shows as an emotional tool to move the viewer to financially support PBS. For those of us who watch and enjoy these shows, the experience is a good one. You can just watch the faces and actions of the audience to see this. There are smiles, happiness, and banter all around. One can imagine the exchange of stories from their youth going on in the concert hall. Couples hold hands, hug, kiss, clap, and sway. Some even dance in the aisles. Occasionally there is a thoughtful expression on the face of a person for whom a particular song might bring less joyful memories and feelings. Sometimes there are tears. Total strangers in the audience who would not have even looked at each other while passing on the street will here exchange warm greetings and smiles, knowing expressions, and will sing the songs to each other. The experience of the music is at the same time intensely private and personal and yet powerfully communal and shared.

How do we use music in worship? What is its purpose or function? There are many:

• Praise and thanksgiving We sing hymns and songs to offer our praise and thanksgiving to God.
• Preparation Music prepares us for a specific act of worship, such as a choral call to prayer or an instrumental prelude.
• Transition Music can be an effective bridge between acts of worship or the varying human emotions and feelings that accompany them.
• Education Hymns, songs, and anthem texts help us to know and remember the history and tenets of the faith. We come to believe what we sing more than what we hear.
• Evangelism We use music to help us carry the gospel to the community and the world. We sing songs in musical styles that may appeal or be welcoming to the secular culture.
• Historic continuity Music gives us a connection to the historic past and reminds us that who we are and what we believe is a link with the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before.
• Shared identity We gather together because we share some things in common in this time and place. We sing as a way of binding ourselves together. Some churches sing praise songs and choruses; others traditional hymns; others country music; and others cutting edge alternative styles. WHAT we sing not only says who we are culturally and spiritually, but also brings us together in our shared identity.
• Ecumenical family Music from a variety of geographical, linguistic, ethnic, and cultural traditions will remind us that we are only a part of the Body of Christ. The family of God includes those far beyond the walls of our own buildings.
• Nurture and comfort Music provides emotional support and comfort on those occasions when words are not enough and actions may be impossible. Sometimes we can find great solace and hope in hearing a melody or singing a text.
• Emotional expression There are times when music provides a release of emotion that cannot be achieved through thought, reflection, conversation, or action.
• Music as prayer Many of us are unable to pray, unable to speak or listen to God. We simply never learned how or had the opportunity to make that experience part of our faith life. We do fine with printed prayers or when someone prays aloud for the group, but we are lost when it comes to private, personal prayer. Hymns and songs can actually put words, thoughts, ideas, and expressions into the mouths of the individual worshipers that will allow them to enter into conversation with God — to actually experience God's presence in worship.

There are obvious similarities between music on the doo wop specials and music in worship. There are occasions when the people might experience similar emotions as a result of the music. But the differences are more profound, at least we should hope that they are. The PBS music is designed to be emotionally manipulative for financial gain. If we believe that there is a need for public broadcasting and that people should support it financially, most of us will probably also agree that this is a good and proper use and experience of music in this context.

But the various functions and purposes of music and how we experience music in worship should never be as they are on PBS. Unfortunately, we may sometimes forget that. Do we ever have the children sing so that the adults can smile, applaud, and say, "Oh, how cute they are!" Do we ever program a real choir favorite of the congregation on stewardship campaign Sunday? Do we sing the same repertoire of thirty or forty traditional hymns and ignore those of the great ecumenical church? Do we sing only songs that will appeal to twenty-somethings because that's the demographic we want to attract to our church, and forget about the older people? Do we sing primarily me-centered praise choruses at the expense of hymns that will teach the great truths of the faith?

Emotional manipulation and financial gain are only two misuses and wrong experiencing of worship music that are available to us. It is our responsibility as church musicians always to be aware of how and why we use music in worship and of how we expect worshipers to experience it. We must take care that that use and experience are always holy. Doo wop and musical premiums have their place, but not in worship.