Hello! I hope everyone has survived the first week of classes and is having a great start to their second. For this blog post I decided to talk about music and religion, partly because its something that I've recently taken a lot of interest in and have decided to do some independent research on, but also religious music is a REALLY big part of my life (and my income). For backstory: at the beginning of my sophomore year I took a church job as the alto section leader for St. Christopher's Episcopal church here in Spartanburg. I've never been an avid church-goer, mostly because I hated the church I grew up in, as well as any of the other ones I visited, and I was never exposed to anything outside of southern Baptist. For the first few weeks of my church job, I had to really struggle to get my head on right. Everything was so different than what I was used to! But I actually grew to love it! Everything is very liturgical in the Episcopal church-- you do things in a certain order, for a certain reason, every Sunday, and it makes sense. And there is a LOT of music! Opening processionals, sequence hymns, anthems, communion hymns, and closing processionals, PLUS the sung Gloria, Sanctus, and fraction anthems. And sometimes there's more than that! On special occasions our priest will chant a portion of our service, which I absolutely love, and sometimes we chant psalms rather than just saying them.There's something really special about chant to me. I think it's because chanting is so intentional. When you're speaking the words it can be whatever, just reading from a book, but if you're singing/chanting them, you really have to feel every word and think about it as you say it. Here's an example of anglican chant, if you're curious, plus a video explaining how it works, if you're REALLY curious:
Something that took me a little while to adjust to was the "seasons" of the church year (there's a lot of them!) and the corresponding music that went along with them. As I mentioned before, we sing A LOT, and some of the things we sing are the same every Sunday, namely the Gloria and Sanctus. These are always in the same place in the service every Sunday, and the same words, but not always the same settings. Depending on the season, a different musical setting will be sung. When I say seasons I don't mean winter and summer, but different times in the Church's liturgical year that go along with important celebrations, so things like Easter (and lent before it), Christmas (which is preceded by Advent) and so on. There's a lot more that goes into this, but I'm not qualified to explain it all 😬 nor would I know how to. The point I'm trying to make is that I often sing the same words in several different tunes, depending on what it is I'm celebrating that Sunday, and I think it's really cool. Each of the settings have their own mood and feel. Here's two different versions of the Sanctus (the first one is my favorite!) with the words "holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!"
Taryn, I really related to this blog post. I grew up in a Independent Fundamental Baptist church. If your not familiar with this denomination, its mainly a more strict environment compared to Southern Baptist. I recently got to sub for Dr. Jones church over the holidays at Central United Methodist. That was my first experience with the Methodist church. I had to adapt as well, I was very satisfied with the more formal church music style. I got to wear a purple robe to haha! Personal question, has working in a different denomination as you grew up in interrupted or broadened your personal faith? For me, I think it was very healthy for me to be exposed to another way of worship.
ReplyDeleteTaryn this was such a great post. I don't have a super religious background so to see your point of view of things really gave me a good look at the other side.
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