Music to a Heavenly Form: (Sun)Day and Life of a Church Musician

Whatever religion that you subscribe to, music is always a presence in however we worship. For many, music will lead them to be their service for the congregation and be apart of the ministry of music in whichever ways they feel they can contribute. A church musician’s life is a broad one, depending on what skills they have that brings the music forward to the worship as a whole. It can have its downsides, but there are many things that are rewarding to being a church musician.

The view of the Sanctuary from the choir loft

Despite what I’ve done so far, I haven’t been a church musician for very long. I joined First Church Cheshire, as a member of the congregation, in November of 2018 (before that, I grew up in the Catholic church). Now, unlike some members in my generation who don't view church as a central focus in their lives, I believe that going to church is an essential part of our well being. I'm not an uber religious person by any means, but I do believe that spiritual health, alongside our physical, mental and emotional health, is an important element, so I still go to church every Sunday to be in the presence of the Lord, with or without music.

Even in that short amount of time, I've worked to bring what I can to the congregation as a whole, even on a professional level. This is in part to the belief of First Church Cheshire that, as a covenant to the congregation, you give through service to the church. First Church Cheshire, in its recent history, always has a very strong Music Ministry. So, once it was known that I was a musician, of course it was obvious that I would become part of the Music Ministry. It didn't take long to find my niche with the Music Ministry.

So, what gets performed every Sunday?

Before we continue, note that this is how it looks/sounds from a Protestant church perspective. I know that it's different in other Christian denominations, but it's not that different when we're talking about music. Now…back to our regularly scheduled blog.

On a regular Sunday morning, there are 9 music elements: Trinity Ring (to open worship), three hymns, an anthem, 4 short service music and a postlude. Each of these are placed in the order of worship, so music is pretty much constant throughout worship. How the music is chosen is based on what the theme of sermon is for that Sunday. The pastor’s sermon that he/she/they will preach on influences which hymn, based on the words, are chosen to sing. The service music (Gloria, Doxology, Sanctus) and the Trinity Ring remains the same, unless it's a specific time (i.e. Advent or Lent) or during the summer.

The instrument that's constant throughout worship is the organ, but also on piano if either the music calls for it, it's summer worship or if there's a sub in for the music director.

The organ being performed by our talented director, Joe.

(timestamp: 31:47 - 35:16)

The central music element in all of them is the anthem. As the name suggests, the anthem is a choral work that encompasses the theme of the sermon and also the theme of that Sunday. While the pastors decide on the hymns, the music director chooses the anthem. Many of these anthems can range from smaller works and bigger symphonic works. Many of these are also performed for bigger church events, such as Lessons in Carols during the Advent season.

Since returning to choral music, most of my re-exposure to choral literature has been through these anthems. While some are tried and true church anthems and others taken from symphonic works, some have surprised me. Some surprises have been that some anthems are composed by composers familiar to me. Case in point: “The Lord is My Shepherd” by Howard Goodall. While I’ve known that he is a well-known choral composer and music historian in his own right, most of my listening with Goodall is through his television scores, especially with my favorite BritCom of all time, Red Dwarf, and my second place favorite, Blackadder. If you're an avid, old-school BritCom fan (like me), you’ll also know that this piece was the opening theme to The Vicar of Dibbley….fitting.

The Chancel Choir performing Goodall’s “The Lord is My Shepherd”

(timestamp: 14:30 - 17:37)

Solo performed by my friend and colleague, Sarah Himmelstein

I’ve found some of my favorites with the newer and older composers alike. I’ve also found anthems that were not so great, or left me asking “what were they thinking with this?” and some famous ones, like the “Pie jesu” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem. Speaking of broadway…..

The Chancel Choir performing “One Song, One Anthem”

(timestamp: 21:11 - 23:15)

(Not composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, but I was expecting some broadway dancers to appear that morning)

You may be asking what’s my role as a church musician?

I sing in church choir…..nuff said!

End of blog post -

I’m kidding of course….I do a lot more than just sing with church choir. Credit due, church choir has been the one thing that brought me back into choral music and helped me to re-establish my voice. Do I do any instrumental work during worship? Yes. Some anthems have instrument lines written in, so I’ll be called to play an instrument to augment the music. During the summer, I’ll bring some solo repertoire to perform, with or without piano accompaniment, and I’ll play with hymns with an instrument descant. Do I compose and arrange for worship? On occasion. If the music calls for it, I’ll compose a descant that’ll fit, either for voice or for instrument.

Beyond the performance aspect, I do a lot behind the scenes for the music. One big thing that I do is engraving. At First Church, we have a church bulletin that we follow the order of worship on. While we have a hymn book, the pastors will request a hymn from a different book, so I’ll be asked if I can engrave out the hymn (in part or in whole) for the congregation to sing from. This includes some of the service music. (BTW, if you want to see some of my engraving work from this, hop over to the “Engraving” page on my website to have a look.)

Other things that I also do behind the scenes is helping to set up and making sure that Joe and everyone else has what they need before worship starts. And, of course, watering the pianos. This is to make sure that the humidifier and the pads keeps two of the pianos in tune all year.

As my dearest friend, Michael, once said: “Gotta keep that piano garden growing!”

Is there anything negative to being a church musician or church music?

Welcome to the Lightning Round!:

Church “politics”, long standing members who don’t want to be usurped,

the Sandy Patti/Amy Grant/Michael W. Smith wannabes,

church choir members who rather “stand out” rather then blend in,

people wanting “Christian pop” music as the hymn/anthem,

last minute details on the morning of worship, rehearsal chaos,

church choir members bring their kids to a big rehearsal week for a major worship Sunday without being there previously….

-end of the lightning round -

The only negative, for me at least, is that sometimes the music that’s chosen gets a bit repetitive. This is, in any shape or form, no fault of anyone who decides on the music. As someone who likes to see, hear and write music that can break new ground musically, I sometimes look at hymns and anthems that we’ve done before and think, “why are we doing this again? Isn't there a new version for this particular Sunday?” The one crux with hymns is that a lot of hymns have the same melody (known as the “Tune”), just with different text (I’ve engraved a fair number of those). Sometimes, one hymn that was sung one Sunday will be sung again the following Sunday because the text is different. As with anthems, while we do sing newer ones, most tend to be rehashed either as “fitting with the theme for Sunday” or “it’s the choir’s/congregation's/minister’s favorite”. These are just “minor” negatives that I have. Others can have different viewpoints.

Beyond all that, there really isn't anything too negative to say about being a church musician, least to me. In my time at First Church Cheshire, I’ve broadened my music rep and knowledge and have been given many opportunities to advance my skills as a musician. It has also given me friends and colleagues, both personally and professionally, who support me and each other.

Being a church musician has its ups and its downs. It’s not always easy, but there’s a rewarding aspect to it as you help bring something for the congregation and the wider community. The music is diverse and every Sunday feels like you're giving a mini concert every week. For now, I’ll leave you with a performance of our church choir and members of GMChorale singing Gabriel Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine, with Christa Berezowskyj on violin.

(timestamp: 23:00 - 27:50)

Until then….make sure to be kind; in life, in music and to yourself.