High Church--Low Church (part 13 Service Music)

 Second Thursday after the Epiphany

Service music is easiest defined as music in the worship service other than hymns, choir anthems, and organ music. Some of this music would be classified as ordinaries, e.g. the Gloria and the Doxology; some as propers, e.g. the Psalter. Another way to put it is that the ordinaries are music that everyone knows the words to; the propers are music that no one knows the words to.

 

Let's start with the Gloria. There are two Glorias in the United Methodist Hymnal (UMH). The much better known is the Gloria Patri (UMH #71). We all know this one. I have sung it all my life. The words are ancient (3d or 4th century). The tune was composed in 1851 by a man named Greatorex. Excuse my heresy, but I don't like it very much. The one I like, really, really like, is Gloria (UMH #71). I first heard it at Christ UMC, Greensboro. The words are "Gloria, Gloria, in excelsis deo. Gloria, Gloria, Alleluiah, Alleluiah." The tune comes from the Taize Community in France and was written in 1979. The music is very much Taize, soft, lyrical, and repeated. University UMC has a whole Taize service every year during Advent. This Gloria is in Latin, except for the Hebrew word "Allelujah." High Church types love singing in foreign languages, especially Latin. The one caveat with this one is that you can't sing it during Lent. No "Alleluias" in Lent.

Likewise the UMH has two doxologies. The one I sang from childhood on is the Old Hundreth. I guess it was #100 in somebody's hymnal. It's #95 in ours. More heresy, I don't like it much either. I really, really like #94. The music is by one of my favorite composers, Ralph Vaughn Williams, who also wrote "For All the Saints." This one also has "Alleluias," so don't sing in during Lent. The music can also be sung for "All Creatures Great and Small" (UMH #62). 

One vast improvement in the 1989 UMH over the 1964 Methodist Hymnal is the Psalter. Our Psalter has choral responses for every Psalm. I remember when the UMH first came out, congregations did not want to do the choral responses. They were something new. Congregations generally don't like anything new-- until they have done enough that it is no longer new.

Our other major service music is the music of the communion liturgy. The UMH has actually five different musical settings for the communion liturgy (UMH pp. 17-30). I'm embarrassed to say this, but though I read several languages, music isn't one of them. I can't tell which one of the five settings is which, but most churches do the same one. The words for them all are:

 

Holy, Holy, Holy, 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.

Then after the celebrant speaks the next part of the liturgy, we sing,

 

Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.

 

Then more spoken liturgy. Then we sing,

 

Amen, Amen, Amen.

 

Service music is a wonderfully unifying part of worship. We know the words. We sing them together. The words are meaningful. The music is meaningful. Thanks be to God.

Faithfully,

Christian