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What Should We Sing?: The decision-making process of a vocalist

Most of the time when we think about what we should sing we are thinking about what we should plan for the congregation to sing based on a song’s theology or melodic range.  At the same time, there are decisions that vocalists need to make about what to sing based on the recording of the song and the resources given to them.

For many songs, the words and music are provided for the performer.  For those singing in a choir, there is often an octavo that includes unique parts for each section, whether SATB, SSA, or TTBB.  This music comes with directions such as dynamic and tempo markings.  The conductor communicates how they want those directions to be performed, but they are still provided for the performer.  Even for non-choral works, instrumental performers are provided with the same instructions for tempo and dynamics, among other things.

The question remains: at what point do we decide what is intended to be sung and what was for the performance on the recording?

When we turn to the music of the church, choirs still often sing from octavos, but what about the congregation?  In many cases, churches use a hymnal.  Depending on the song, there could be a four-part harmony with parts for bass, tenor, alto, and soprano, or there could be a song that has just the melody with the piano accompaniment.  Either way, the melody and the lyrics are provided.  But what about songs that are not in the hymnal?

Many churches provide only lyrics for their congregation on screens at the front of the worship space.  In these situations, the congregation learns the melody as the song is led.  These songs are available on the radio and streaming services to listen to throughout the week, and they are rarely ever used once.  So, the congregation learns these songs as the church repeats them throughout the year.

While teaching the congregation over time may seem like a simple task, the resources provided for some of these songs makes it complicated for the vocalist and for whoever puts the slides together.  Some churches will use the provided lead sheets from SongSelect for their songs.  These lead sheets are often transcriptions of a specific performance of a song, often the recorded version by the original artist.  As a transcription, every detail of the performance is documented, including all artistic options, ornamentations, and ad-libs.  For vocalists who are used to choral singing, they will often sing the provided music exactly as it is written.  This creates a consistency between the song they’ve been listening to and practicing and the music they are following.  They sing the song like the recording.

The question remains: at what point do we decide what is intended to be sung and what was for the performance on the recording?

There are two parts to answering this question.  First, what should the vocalist sing?  Second, what should be displayed on the screens for the congregation to sing?

 

What should we sing?

The resources provided to vocalists are often confusing.  The melody line includes every detail of an artist’s performance down to the 32nd note.  Does that mean the vocalist is expected to sing the song exactly like the original artist?  The answer to this question may depend on the worship pastor or music director’s preference.  However, in the absence of direction, I want to offer some guidance for how to approach these lead sheets and recordings.

First, be familiar with the original recording.  Step one of leading any song is knowing how the song goes.  Listening to a song is included in the preparation and practice of a song.  If it is a live recording, distinguish the difference between the lead vocalist and the congregation or background vocals.  In spaces where the primary vocalist makes an artistic choice, do the congregation and background vocalists follow, or do they remain on a melody part?  This first piece will help the vocalist decide what the melody is for each section.  In some instances, the artist may decide to make some changes in the second verse.  By discerning the melody, the vocalist can discern whether the artist chose to make some alterations in their performance or if the melody of the second verse is actually different.  Some examples of this would be two songs by Charity Gayle, “Endless Praise” and “I Believe.”  In both songs, Charity chooses to change the melody in the second verse, providing momentum and a dynamic shift leading back into the chorus.  You can hear this shift in the examples below:

In these songs, verse 2 includes a melodic change and not merely an artistic decision.  Verses can either stay the same melodically or they can include slight changes.  Once it is decided what the melody is and what is not, then the vocalist has the basic knowledge of what to sing.

Some recordings make it difficult to decide what the melody is in the chorus.  Many artists will choose to sing a third above the chorus for dynamic effect in multiple repetitions.  Phil Wickham is known for this, as seen in the final chorus of “Living Hope”:

It is also common for female vocalists to jump the third towards the end of repeated sections like the bridge.  When this is done, the congregation will continue to sing the melody with another vocalist while the lead vocalist shifts up, as in this example from Brooke Ligertwood’s “A Thousand Hallelujahs.”

Second, the vocalist has to discern what is an ad-lib and what is a part of the song.  This is the part that becomes especially difficult.  Lead sheet transcriptions will include every aspect of the vocalist’s performance, including the sung sections that are not a part of the core of the song.  I’ve written more about ad-libs and identifying them here.  For a vocalist, though, this is an important decision to make.  If your church normally does not sing ad-libs, it might seem strange to sing these written parts that are not sung by the congregation.  In those settings, one should probably not sing the written sections in interludes or instrumentals.  If the church follows the philosophy of sounding like the recording, then the expectation would likely be to sing the ad-libs.  In some instances, though, if the church regularly has vocalists filling the instrumental spaces with ad-libs, then a vocalist may even be expected to sing their own ad-libs, which would also be a deviation from what is written.  The improvisation of sung ad-libs comes with practice and through the process of imitation, like guitar solos.  If one is just beginning to learn to ad-lib, the vocalist may start by performing a song identical to its recording.  After some time, the vocalist gains confidence and the skills to create new ad-libs.

Lastly, for both artistic decisions during a sung or instrumental section, it is important for the other vocalists to know what to do in these moments.  If the vocalist is making an artistic decision in a major sung section (e.g., chorus or bridge), such as singing the third above, it is important to have another vocalist take over the melody for the congregation to follow.  Similarly, if the practice of the church is not to sing ad-libs, then it is important for all the vocalists not to sing into the microphones during the instrumental sections.

So what should the vocalist sing?  Well, it depends on the context.  Whether your church practices singing ad-libs or not, the vocalist needs to discern the melody within each section and what he or she will sing to lead the congregation.

 

What should we display on the screen?

The final question that remains is what to display on the screen for the congregation to sing.  Like the lead sheets, ProPresenter (and other presentation programs) offer an import feature from SongSelect.  While this can save time, it usually incorporates all the text from the song, including the sections from the lead sheet that are not in the main sections.  Thankfully, the vocalist’s decisions will help with the process of deciding what to keep and what to delete.  If the vocalist does not sing any ad-libs, then the words on the screen should only be the ones that the vocalist sings.  If the vocalist does choose to sing ad-libs, the slides person will need to discern whether these ad-libs are a part of the song or if they are truly ad-libs.  If they are truly ad-libs, then they should be left off the slides since they are not intended for the congregation to follow.  These ad-libs act as exhortations to the congregation in their singing.

Some songs have the same ad-libs in the instrumental sections every time the song is performed, so some churches choose to include these on the slides for the congregation to sing along.  One example of this would be the interlude in the song “Cornerstone” by Hillsong Worship.  Some people may not even realize that the interlude section between the double chorus at the end, with the lyrics “He is Lord / Lord of all,” is actually an ad-lib.

In this video, the lyrics are displayed on the lower thirds of the screens in the background.  These lyrics are not displayed during the interlude section before the chorus.  They are also not included in the lyrics in the description for the video.  Some churches, though, choose to sing these interlude lyrics congregationally.  If that is the case, they should be included.  If they are not intended to be sung, then they should not be displayed, and the vocalist has the option to sing that ad-lib or their own.

Sometimes these sung ad-libs won’t be put on the screen, and the vocalist may sing the version from the recording, and the congregants who know the song may choose to sing along anyway.  An example of this would be the song “Promises” by Maverick City Music.  Before the bridge, Naomi Raine sings some version of the lyrics “Oh Your faithfulness / It never runs out / It never runs out.”  In the videos, you can see that the lyrics are not on the screen, and in each iteration, she sings these words slightly differently; however, some people in the audience are singing those words along with her even though they are not on the screen.

If people are singing along, it may seem like an obvious decision to put the lyrics on the screen.  However, if the lyrics are put on the screen, then the vocalist must sing them exactly for the congregation to follow.  By choosing not to include them, the vocalist has the freedom to sing either the same words or something similar, and the congregation has the freedom to sing along with them or to sing their own ad-libs.

 

Conclusion

So the answer to what we should sing and what should be put on the screens can be answered with three questions:

  1. What is the current practice of the church related to singing in instrumental sections?
  2. What is the melody, and what are the lyrics within each major section?
  3. What is meant for the congregation to sing, and what is meant for only the vocalist to sing?

With these three simple answers, the vocalist will know what to sing, the slides person will know what to display, and the congregation will know what to follow.  The goal is to lead the congregation faithfully, so it is important to know what your church’s philosophy is regarding what is appropriate to sing in that context.  If you are not the worship pastor, make sure to ask what the expectations are.  If you have been attending that church for a while, this may already be clear.  If you are the worship pastor, though, it is important to make sure you have set the expectations so that your vocalists know what and how to prepare for your worship services.

 

 

Blogger Shannan Baker is a postdoctoral fellow in music and digital humanities at Baylor University, where she recently finished her Ph.D. in Church Music (2022). 

Less than a month ago we were given the opportunity to sing the same carols that we do every Christmas season. Songs like “Deck the Halls,” “O Christmas Tree,” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” were sung in various contexts. As someone who tends to sing the alto line out of the hymnal, I was reminded this year of the harmonies that are enjoyable to sing. While these are not novel musical ideas, these Christmas songs remind me of the creative elements that can be added to a song’s harmony. While the tenor and bass parts can also have interesting aspects, I primarily discuss the elements within the soprano and alto lines I have experienced singing.

 

“Joy to the Word” (Tune: ANTIOCH)

When singing “Joy to the World,” I was reminded how contrary motion can add interest solely by being something other than parallel motion. At the start of many phrases in the tune ANTIOCH, the alto line moves contrary to the melody. Instead of descending or ascending in thirds, the alto line has something interesting to do (which is a nice change of pace for the part that often stays on one note for long sections). In addition to the contrary motion in the alto part, it includes a call-and-response echo in the middle of the verse. The tenor and bass parts echo the soprano and alto parts, which creates a nice interaction between the higher and lower voices. Both of these musical elements are not new; however, they are helpful reminders that harmony parts can move against the melody and even happen at a different time.

 

“Angels We Have Heard on High” (Tune: GLORIA)

The song “Angels We Have Heard on High” uses the tune GLORIA, which incorporates a beautiful trading of melismatic melodies during the refrain. When people sing this song, they are often familiar with the melismatic nature of the refrain, singing many notes with the vowel “o” before the concluding “ia.”  Unless one reads from a hymnal or has the harmonies memorized, many people only sing the melody. While the melody is unique with its descending eighth notes, the creative harmony in the alto part creates further motion within the music. The altos begin the descending eighth notes a beat before the sopranos start their descent. The sopranos and altos take turns swapping eighth notes until they come back together at the end of the word “Gloria.” This practice of trading off notes is not unique to this tune, but it is a reminder that harmonies can move at different times than the melody.

 

Conclusion: A Call for Intentionally Writing Creative Harmony Parts

As I have spent more time reading from sheet music this Christmas season, I am reminded of the unique aspects that hymnals provide for a congregation. Hymnals provide written harmony parts for the congregation. In settings that do not use hymnals, harmonies are often improvised and follow the melody’s contour. Spontaneous harmonization can create beautiful music; however, this has created a practice where harmonies are usually not included in the songwriting process (at least in many cases, they are not written out like they are in a hymnal). This Christmas season, I am reminded that the tune writers also considered the harmony parts in their writing. While these elements, such as contrary motion and call-and-response, are not exclusive to these tunes, the Christmas season brings them back to our attention and draws us into creative expressions. These are just two examples of musical elements that can inspire songwriters to explore beyond writing melodies with chords and lyrics and consider how to incorporate creative harmony parts within their songs.

 

Note from The Center’s Staff: We hope that this entry (posted well after it was submitted for publication because our season got way too busy!) was a helpful entry that encourages all of us to stop and reflect on our Advent and Christmas seasons. What have we learned? What can we do better next year? Take the time to reflect and give thanks.

 

Blogger Shannan Baker is a postdoctoral fellow in music and digital humanities at Baylor University, where she recently finished her Ph.D. in Church Music (2022). 

This blog is a continuation of Part I. If you haven’t read Part I, click here. In Part I you’ll remember that we explored the cultural and practical dimensions of congregational singing, focusing on how harmonies are perceived as “showy” or essential across different church traditions. Emphasizing the role of melodies as the core of worship singing, we discussed how harmonies can facilitate participation or detract from communal worship, depending on their complexity and cultural context. 

 

What is “showing off”?: The Musical Layers of Congregational Singing – PART II

  1. Ad-libs

This third layer is often the divide between the traditional and contemporary church.  As previously mentioned, hymnals provide congregations with the exact notes to sing both melody and harmony.  Though achieved by rote instead of written music, contemporary worship songs have harmonies, too.  This third layer is the ad-libs sung by the lead vocalist.  It is important to note that this layer may not be present in every setting.  However, many recordings from worship artists are from live settings where these sung ad-libs are included and then replicated by vocalists at the local level.

This is often the layer that is labeled “showy” in the United States.  Since it is only sung by the lead vocalist, it draws attention to that person.  However, these ad-libs are often serving some type of function.  They operate as more than a vocal flourish.  I have provided a typology of ad-libs elsewhere, but I want to summarize some of the main functions of ad-libs here.

Ad-libs can provide musical guidance or theological guidance.

A) Musical Guidance – Ad-libs can provide direction for the congregation to know what is coming next.  For example, in the song “Living Hope” the chorus can be sung once or twice.  A vocalist could sing the world “Hallelujah” after the end of the chorus to indicate a repetition of the chorus.”  In doing so, the people know to go to the top of chorus instead of singing the tag at the end of the song.

B) Theological Guidance – Ad-libs can also provide theological depth for the congregation.  This is achieved by singing words that enhance and shape the lyrics of the song.  For example, the Passion version of the song, “Jesus Paid It All” includes a bridge with the line “O praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead.”  At the end of the bridge, Kristian Stanfill continues to sing the words, “Jesus, Jesus, You’re the One, the Son of God, the Conqueror of death, the King of kings, the sacrificial Lamb.”  After an extended version of singing of praise the “One,” Kristian Stanfill sings and elaborates on who that One is guiding the people into a deeper truth about to whom they are singing.

The line that often gets drawn between “showy” and not is whether these ad-libs are sung.  Musical and theological guidance can be achieved through spoken ad-libs.  These spontaneous moments can be spoken and are often received with their purpose in mind as opposed to when they are sung and people’s attention is drawn to the music being sung instead of the words.  Most people would not think anything of someone saying, “Let’s sing that chorus again” but may be hesitant when someone sings, “Sing Hallelujah,” to indicate a chorus repetition.  In some instances, the choice to sing the beginning lyrics of the section could even be practical when there isn’t enough time to say “sing that bridge again.”  An example of this is found in a video of Brooke Ligertwood singing the bridge of “Jesus Paid It All,” where she sings, “O praise” to tell the people to keep singing the bridge.

Ad-libs do draw attention to the person who is singing; however, these ad-libs can be used in a way that provides guidance rather than highlighting vocal ability.

Lastly, these ad-libs can provide permission for the congregation to sing their own song to the Lord, which brings me to the final layer:

 

  1. Free/Spontaneous Worship

Moments of free or spontaneous worship are common practice within Pentecostal/charismatic spaces.  Often this time is introduced as singing your own song to the Lord.  While originating from Pentecostal/charismatic spaces, this practice has migrated into the contemporary worship context.  During instrumental breaks sometimes leading into a bridge or coming out of a bridge before a final chorus, a worship leader may encourage people to “lift up your voice to the Lord” or to “sing your own song to the Lord.”  In these moments, the screens do not display any lyrics.  In my experience, people who choose to participate in these moments will sing words from the song or expand on them like guiding ad-libs.

Like ad-libs, these moments could be considered showy when the microphones pick up what the vocalists are doing on stage and the congregation hear them.  In contexts where the congregation is encouraged to join in and feels comfortable doing so, the congregation is focused on the song that they are singing to the Lord instead of what other people are singing.

 

Are We Asking the Right Question?

Have you ever been in a worship service and thought that what someone sang on stage was “showy”? Likely, the layer mentioned above that you thought was showy is different than what someone else might choose. Since my experience in Indonesia, I have been pondering what makes something considered showing off.  Yet, at the same time, as I thought through each musical layer, I wondered if we are focusing on the wrong thing. Maybe the question should be “How is what they are doing glorifying God?” rather than “Is what they are doing glorifying God or is it just showy?”  Maybe our conversations have been focusing on the negative instead recognizing the ways that what another church may decide to do in their singing practices is actually glorifying God and encouraging people to worship.  Maybe what we do in church is a reflection of what we value.  A church that only sings the melody could be a church that prioritizes unity and oneness within the body.  A church that sings harmonies could be a church that prioritizes unity through diversity and combining different pitches into one sound.  A church that lets vocalists sing ad-libs might be a church that prioritizes encouragement and guidance beyond the lyrics.  A church that practices free worship may be a church that longs to reflect the biblical practice of raising a joyful noise to the Lord by singing different words and melodies at the same time.

As we think about how different churches sing in worship, perhaps what we should be asking is not whether something is “showy” but rather, how does this church’s congregational singing practices demonstrate their values and glorify God.  So many things can be God glorifying if the heart behind it is also God glorifying.

 

 

Blogger Shannan Baker is a postdoctoral fellow in music and digital humanities at Baylor University, where she recently finished her Ph.D. in Church Music (2022). 

Blogger Shannan Baker is a postdoctoral fellow in music and digital humanities at Baylor University, where she recently finished her Ph.D. in Church Music (2022). 

 

 

 

What is “showing off”?: The Musical Layers of Congregational Singing – PART I

I recently came back from a mission trip with a group of Baylor students to Malaysia and Indonesia.  The trip was an encouraging reminder of the vastness of the body of Christ.  I heard stories of God’s faithfulness and had opportunities to equip and encourage them in their ministry. Because of the timing, I was only able to attend one church service on a Sunday. I realized later that what occurred at this one service was not exclusive to this church.  In a conversation with some students later that day, one of them asked me if I knew why they didn’t sing harmonies. It took me a moment to realize that, though the students attended a different church that morning, the service that I attended also only sang the melody.

As a researcher and a generally curious person, I found one of our hosts and asked him.  Two things occurred in his response.  1) He was surprised by the question.  It was as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him that there would be another way.  This signaled to me that only singing melody is the common practice whether in a hymn singing or contemporary worship singing church.  2) He did provide me with an answer.  He stated that singing harmonies would be considered “showy,” meaning it would draw attention to those who were singing instead of God.

While I knew that what is considered “showing off” is subjective, his response really got me thinking about how subjective it really is.  Culturally, singing harmonies is “showy” in Indonesia, but expected practice in the United States (at least for the churches I’ve attended).  Again, as a researcher and overall curious person, I began to wonder how many layers of what we do in American congregational singing is considered “additional.”  If we understand singing the melody as the essential act in worship, what else have we added?

Now, those who have studied music have taken the history courses that trace how music has developed over time.  People have explained the process from Gregorian chant to the common era to atonal music to the plurality of styles we have now.  What I hope to do in this short prose is to unpack all the layers to our congregational singing practices, many of which apply to both traditional and contemporary contexts (even if actually performed differently).

Culturally, singing harmonies is “showy” in Indonesia, but expected practice in the United States

 

The Layers of Singing in Worship

  1. The Melody

The melody is the most memorable and, some would argue, most important element when it comes to congregational singing.  This is the tune that everyone should, theoretically, be able to sing.  However, that phrase “should be able to sing” has led to conversations about range.  One of the roles of a worship pastor is to determine what key to use for each song.  For contemporary worship songs, this can be challenging since many of the songs have a wide range, spanning an octave or more.  While this decision is predetermined for the hymn singing church, in some cases, the key selected by the hymnal committee puts the melody in a higher placement.  As an alto, I am singing high D’s, E’s or on occasion F’s.  The solution I have found during the first verse (when the accepted practice is for everyone to sing the melody the first time through) is to sing an octave below when it gets too high, or to sing the entire melody in the lower octave.  In contemporary worship contexts, one of the solutions (often reflected in the original recordings) is to have the person singing switch from the male vocalist to the female vocalist for different sections such as the bridge.

Now, if melody is the primary element for singing in worship, could this ever be “showy”?  What comes to mind initially are impressive moments in secular songs. In spaces where the attention is intended to be drawn to the talent of the performer, I think of songs that have high notes and are placed in keys that place the melody higher.  Some incredible vocalists that come to mind include Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and of course, Whitney Houston.  These female vocalists are renowned for their ability to hit really high notes.  If church songs were put in ranges where only a handful of the congregation could sing the top notes, that would probably also be considered “showy” (even though everyone may be singing the melody).

So, does “showy” indicate any time when the congregation is not able to sing the melody?  Or rather, when the congregation is not able to join in the singing at all?

What most people would consider a solution to the problem would be to put the melody within a range for every voice part to sing.  For a melody to be in a comfortable range for basses, tenors, altos, and sopranos it would need to be in a very small area of the staff.  According to the New Harvard Dictionary of Music, these are the ranges for each voice part:

Immediately, the range for everyone to sing in the same octave is taken away because it’s too high for the basses or too low for the sopranos.  If the tenors/basses and altos/sopranos sing in octaves, the range widens a bit from C4-C5.  However, the closer it gets to C5, the higher it feels for the altos and the basses.  The complexity of different voice ranges explains why some people have concluded to have a male vocalist and female vocalist sing the melody for different sections in a song.

In summary, finding a song that fits the range of every vocal part is difficult.  This leads to one possible solution (and our next musical layer): harmonies.

While singing harmonies is considered “showy” in some cultures because it draws attention to those vocalists, it can serve a practical function in helping people join in singing.

  1. Harmonies

If you enter a church on Sunday in the United States, you will likely hear people singing in harmonies.  In hymnal churches, those harmonies are provided for the congregation.  Each voice part will find their note on the staff and sing that.  If we define “showy” as something that people cannot join in singing, then in this context, harmonies provide a way by which people can continue to sing even if the melody extends beyond their comfortable range.

In contemporary worship spaces, the words are displayed on the screen and people learn the melody by repetition and singing along. Often, these harmonies are created spontaneously, and the congregation learns by following someone who is singing that part on stage or in a recording.  If “showy” is defined as the congregation not being able to sing, then contemporary worship spaces might initially be considered “showy.”  However, after enough repetitions many people in the congregation can hear these parts and sing them instead of the melody.

While harmonies are offered as a solution to the melodic range problem, when they become more complex, they move back into the category of showing off.  Many contemporary worship songs and hymns do not often include non-diatonic chords.  They typically stick to the typical I, ii, iii, IV, V, and vi.  In some instances, there might be a major II or III chord or a bVII chord that sneaks in; though, these chords are not that common.  In other styles of music, other chords and additional notes in the harmonies are more complex.  These complex chords lead to complex harmonies, since the harmony parts are drawn from the chords that accompany the melody.  These complex chords are often considered more performative because they are difficult for untrained singers or choir members to figure out.

While singing harmonies is considered “showy” in some cultures because it draws attention to those vocalists, it can serve a practical function in helping people join in singing.  Whether read in music or learned by ear, harmonies offer a way for people to continue singing when the melody may not be comfortable as long as the harmonies are not too complex.

 

PART II with topics “Ad-libs” and “Free/Spontaneous Worship” will drop next week! Stay Tuned…

 

Blogger Shannan Baker is a postdoctoral fellow in music and digital humanities at Baylor University, where she recently finished her Ph.D. in Church Music (2022). 

 

Blogger Shannan Baker is a postdoctoral fellow in music and digital humanities at Baylor University, where she recently finished her Ph.D. in Church Music (2022). She is a member of The Center for Congregational Song’s blog team.

 

Each year after Thanksgiving, Christmas songs inundate the ears of churchgoers and radio listeners. Some of these songs mention the “reason for the season,” and others sing about snow and other aspects of winter. A few songs have become the church Christmas staples, such as “Hark!  The Herald Angels Sing,” “Away in a Manger,” “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” or “Joy to the World.” A few advent songs may also be sung, such as “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” or “O Come O Come Emmanuel.”

While I still love to sing the classics, a few other songs have established themselves in my regular Christmas listening. This post is to share some reflections on three of these songs from the artist Sovereign Grace Music. While this year’s services are likely already planned, maybe these reflections will provide you with some new options for the next Christmas season!

 

O Come All You Unfaithful

“O Come All You Unfaithful” is a riff on the Christmas classic “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Sovereign Grace has provided videos that discuss why they wrote the song and the depth of the lyrics that invite those who have not been faithful to come and behold what God has done for us. While each verse details different struggles and the brokenness and pain that go with them, the aspect of this song that is most powerful is the chorus. “Christ is born, Christ is born, Christ is born for you.” It’s a fairly simple chorus. One repeated phrase, but it leads to an ending that is a turn from other Christmas songs. Most Christmas songs focus on the different aspects of Christ’s birth: who was there, what was sung, where the birth happened. “O Come All You Unfaithful” shifts the focus. Why was Christ born?  He was born for you. This phrase is not often heard. More commonly, we say, “Christ died for you.” The aspect of this song that is most meaningful for me is that after detailing the struggles that people go through, the reminder is that Christ chose to come into this world, into our pain, into our struggles. The cross does not happen without the birth of Christ. As much as Christ died for you, Christ was born for you. When we have nothing to give, Christ becomes our offering, and we find our hope in Him.

 

Who Would Have Dreamed

“Who Would Have Dreamed” is more like a typical Christmas song. It begins with detailing where the birth took place and the anticipation that Israel had for their coming Messiah. Yet the song takes a spin and emphasizes the unexpected nature and hope of the coming of Christ. The chorus starts with the question: “Who would have dreamed or ever foreseen that we could hold God in our hands?” What a mystery that God became incarnate, that Jesus took on flesh and became like one of us. How often do we stop to think about how incredible it is that not only did God have a plan to pay for all our sins but that this plan involved God physically coming into our broken world? Jesus is a person who was held and hugged and would grow up to touch and heal people. Verse 3 of the song provides more depth to the purpose of Jesus’ coming: “He will carry our curse and death He’ll reverse,” which concludes with what this means for us, “So we can be daughters and sons.” Jesus was born for us, died for us, and rose for us to have eternal life and to be adopted into God’s family. God’s plan is “to save the world,” and He fulfills His promise in the most unexpected way: Immanuel.

 

He Who is Mighty

“He Who is Mighty” interweaves different Scripture phrases with Mary’s Song from Luke 1:46-55. While it references Christ’s birth and uses Mary’s words specifically, I first heard this song not during the Christmas season but in the middle of the summer. The first verse includes the phrase “Born was the Cornerstone,” and I remember thinking, is this a Christmas song?  Yet, as we continued singing the song, it provided a rich picture of the Gospel rooted in the beginning at Christmas with the birth of Christ. The chorus uses the words of Mary’s song, and it becomes our song: “He who is mighty has done a great thing / taken on flesh, conquered death’s sting.”  While Mary may not have known how God’s promise would unfold through her child, we can sing her words with the cross in mind. The bridge then becomes her song in a different light: “My soul magnifies the Lord / I rejoice in the God who saves / I will trust His unfailing love / I will sing His praises all my days.”  While we often only sing Christmas songs during the days leading up to Christmas, I wonder if Christmas would ring differently in our ears if we were reminded throughout the year of the incarnation. God’s plan of salvation in Christ begins at the birth of Jesus. God’s mighty acts are sung year-round, and Jesus coming into the world is one of those miraculous acts that led to the cross, the resurrection, and the hope we have while waiting for His return.

Maybe you already knew about these three songs, or perhaps they are new to you. Either way, I hope that through my reflections, you will find joy and hope in these non-classic Christmas songs. If you are interested in using these songs in your church, Sovereign Grace provides free music resources for all their songs on sovereigngracemusic.com.

Whether you use these songs in a worship service or cycle them into your regular listening, I pray that you will find peace and encouragement in the truths of the Gospel this Christmas season. Christ was born for you.

 

 

 

Blogger Shannan Baker is a postdoctoral fellow in music and digital humanities at Baylor University, where she recently finished her Ph.D. in Church Music (2022). She is a member of The Center for Congregational Song’s blog team.

 

 

How Little We Know

I recently became aware of how little we know of what the church sings though recent work with the Worship Leader Research (WLR) team.  WLR is a collaborative group that studies the contemporary worship music industry and church practice.  Some of the feedback to our findings largely focused on what was missing.  We identified the primary contributors of contemporary worship songs by looking at the Top lists from CCLI and PraiseCharts, but there were artists that are widely used that were not found on both lists.   Many churches that sing songs from other artists, such as Sovereign Grace, City Alight, the Gettys, etc., noted that our research didn’t include songs from those artists.  People commented on social media and in direct messages to our team about the songs that they sing regularly at their church that weren’t mentioned in our study because of our methodology for creating our list.

This made me wonder: what does the church sing?  I mean more broadly than contemporary worship.  Even what we know of the most used contemporary worship songs, there are gaps in the knowledge and powers at play that distort the data we do have.

 

Copyright

Contemporary worship churches use songs that are under copyright.  Copyright allows songwriters to receive compensation for the use of their songs.  To streamline this process, companies like One License, CCLI (Christian Copyright License International), and (recently) MultiTracks provide licensing subscriptions.  This means that by churches signing up for their service they can use copyrighted songs in exchange for reporting the songs they use to those companies when asked.  CCLI is one such company that publishes a list of the songs that are most reported.  Many people, researchers especially, have wondered who those lists represent.  For example, what denominations, church sizes, geographic locations, etc., are these lists representing?  However, CCLI when asked will not provide demographic information about who reports.  Therefore, we do not truly know who is singing the songs that are represented on the CCLI lists.

But the lack of knowledge expands.  What hymns are being sung by the Church?  Many churches either exclusively or occasionally will sing a traditional hymn.  Many of these hymns are written before 1923 and are therefore no longer under copyright.  So, the hymns that are selected for congregational singing do not have to be reported to anyone.  Furthermore, the use of a hymnal instead of a projector instantly relieves the burden of any reporting since songs that are sung from a purchased book do not need to be reported.

 

The Hymnal

So how do we know what hymns are being sung by the Church? Well, the answer may seem simple—look at the hymnal.  But which hymnal?  There is a vast number of hymnals and many denominations have their own hymnals which contain a careful curated collection of songs that is different from other denominations. Even if one focused on a singular widely used hymnal, the Church does not simply start at #1 and go to the end of the book.  Specific hymns are selected each week for worship.  Again, churches are not required to report what hymns they are singing.  So how do we know what the church is singing?

 

Gospel

Another common type of song used in church is gospel music.  Gospel music is often the primary type of music used in predominately black churches.  What gospel songs are sung every week?  While gospel music is copyrighted, much of it is missing from CCLI’s list (for various reasons that should be explored further). Since it is not on CCLI, there is no way to report the songs that are used.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a singular book that contains a collection of gospel songs from which to choose.  If there is no requirement to report, how do we know which gospel songs are being used the most? How do we know what the church is singing?

 

Questions Remain

The different types of songs used in churches could continue, but the point remains.  We do not know what the church sings.  The feedback given to Worship Leader Research (WLR) has prompted this new conversation related to the gap in our knowledge of the Church’s song.  While I’ve identified some of the problems about why we don’t know what the Church sings, the question remains:

So what does the church sing?

While we do not have the answers right now, Dr. Monique Ingalls and I are working to create a project that will discover what the church is singing.  What hymns are sung most?  What songs are sung in smaller churches that can’t afford a licensing subscription?  What service music is used in various liturgies?  The goal of this project is to provide people and researchers with a picture of what the church is actually singing across denominations and worship styles.  The collection of songs that are sung will continue to change and expand over time; however, what we hope is that over time we will discover the richness of the variety of songs that are sung by the church in worship.

 

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