There are some destroyers of unison singing in the fellowship that must be rigorously eliminated. There is no place in the service of worship where vanity and bad taste can so intrude as in the singing. There is, first, the improvised second part which one hears almost everywhere. It attempts to give the necessary background, the missing fullness to the soaring unison tone, and thus kills both the words and the tone. There is the bass or the alto who must call everybody's attention to his astonishing range and therefore sings every hymn an octave lower. There is the solo voice that goes swaggering, swelling, blaring, and tremulant from a full chest and drowns out everything else to the glory of its own fine organ. There are the less dangerous foes of congregational singing, the "unmusical," who cannot sing, of whom there are far fewer than we are led to believe, and finally, there are often those also who because of some mood will not join in the singing and thus disturb the fellowship.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from LIFE TOGETHER, translated by John Doberstein, Harper and Row, 1954, p. 60.
"It is not you that sings, it is the Church that is singing, and you, as a member of the Church, may share in its song."
Bonhoeffer, p. 61.
What do you think? Is unison singing superior? Are you guilty of adding a harmony part?
very guilty.. not convinced it's a bad thing tho?
ReplyDeletenor am I. But there's an interesting argument to be had here...
ReplyDeletei don't like little practical rules about things that really depend on each persons' motives. If i sing harmony in a show off way, well sure, that's not good. But if that's how we express our joy and praise, well it's really up to each person to judge, it's not about reaching some corporate decision about what is right and wrong in church.
ReplyDeleteI used to sing harmony parts, but worked out that, in general, what I was doing was distracting to others in the congregation and was probably more about me than about serving others, so I stopped. However I started again at college where, for half the year, we've had 1 chapel service in an old chapel building with prayer book + organ, but for that I brought along a full hymn book and (tried) to sight sing the tenor line.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that sometimes gets me with harmony singers in the congregation is that sometimes there will be multiple harmonisers who have varying ability to pull out an appropriate harmony lines and when that comes together we get a distracting dissonance.
There are some songs specifically written for harmony singing - particularly when non-vocal musical instruments were not as readily available - would Bonhoeffer have told all monks / church choirs that they were too distracting?
ReplyDeleteHowever, there's no place for the person who sings harmony just to show off.
I'm also not enamoured of when the 'leader' makes a big show of highlighting certain lines or phrases by singing them big and loud before the rest of the people leading the congregation in the song - it becomes 'so-n-so and the back-up singers' rather than a focus on God.
Most times the same people do not do this when they aren't on music duty - i.e. when they're part of the regular congregation. They'd probably claim that that is distracting and unwarranted but is it not also so when they are 'leading'?
Guilty as charged. And I do feel the tension. I've had people comment and wished they didn't notice.
ReplyDeleteI try to sing harmony only to add emphasis to what the words say. I don't sing the same harmony all the way because it doesn't communicate anything (anymore than playing every verse on the piano with the same volume does). I hope that when people notice my harmonies, it also draws attention to what they're singing because the harmony "fits" with developments in my song.
But maybe I'm pipe-dreaming...?
I think there is something especially nice about unaccompanied unison singing in church - it expresses something of our one-ness as a body - but I think DB is at his weakest when he starts legislating. Compare the first quote - feels a bit silly in parts, despite the good points that he makes - with the second which is magic: "It is not you that sings, it is the Church that is singing, and you, as a member of the Church, may share in its song."
ReplyDeleteBut maybe after the referendum over at ben's blog (http://ben-vanishingpoint.blogspot.com/) we can continue the discussion!
I think there is freedom in the name of Jesus :)
ReplyDeleteSome of the most wonderful and unified congregational singing I've heard was our church in a village in Africa where the harmonies were plentiful and beautiful. I agree motive is the key, and I think what makes for a great congregational singing experience (if that's what we're aiming for) is unity in general and enthusiasm to sing, regardless of how the singers actually sing.
ReplyDeleteAs with so many other things, what might work well for one group will be a disaster for another.
Btw Russ I've always enjoyed your harmonies ;)