This is an interesting discussion. For what it's worth, here's my view of
singing and worship, from the perspective of a Jew who has sung professionally
at churches.
I was raised in the Jewish Conservative/Orthodox tradition. This means no
musical instruments are used during worship. The singing/chanting is led by the
rabbis, and most often by a professional Cantor. To me, in this tradition, it
is wrong for a Cantor not to be a member of the faith, because what the cantor
is doing is praying and leading the congregation in prayer; virtually everything
sung or changed by the Cantor IS prayer. So beauty of voice is desirable in a
Cantor, but not required (however, I would expect a Rabbi or untrained singer
who leads a service to do so in a manner consistent with his/her vocal
abilities, e.g., if they don't sing well, do it faster and with little or no
ornamentation).
Most important in my view is the Cantor's ability to express the meaning of the
prayer through his or her voice. There's a Hebrew word that relates to this:
Ru-ach, which means literally "spirit". I guess it's similar to the Christian
idea of the "Holy Spirit" in the sense that an individual may be imbued with the
essence of the Holy Spirit.
So when I sing in a Christian church service, I approach it with Ruach - by
sincerely expressing the sacredness and faith of the hymn or anthem in relation
to my religious beliefs. I believe it's all the same God, even if I don't
subscribe to the writings of the "New Testament" or believe that Jesus is the
Son of God, the Messiah or my personal Savior.
I respect any church that doesn't want someone of a different faith, such as
myself, leading the congregation in worship. But all the churches I have sung
with have known I am Jewish, have known that I don't participate in prayer,
kneeling, crossing myself, or communion, but have still welcomed my
contributions to their worship services as a singer and musician.
As far as singing for worship vs. "performance", I treat it no differently.
Both are sincere expressions of the text. Both involve me giving my absolute
best as a singer and musician. I believe that music for worship should be of as
high a quality as possible within the financial means of the congregation. This
is because bad music-making is painful to the listener, and distracts
worshippers from their prayer. Good music-making is a demonstration of respect
for the faith and the worship of the congregation. I think people who have not
been gifted by God with the ability to make music at an acceptable level of
competence should be encouraged to express their faith and make their
contributions in other areas of worship and service to the congregation and the
community.
For example, I was once in attendance at a High Holy Day service at a small
congregation that did not have a full-time cantor and had hired a guest cantor
for the holidays. This is a long and difficult service, and the cantor had a
nice sounding voice, but he could not stay on pitch. That is, he would start a
tune in one key and by the time he finished, he'd be a whole step, or even more,
flatter than when he started! This made it very difficult to sing with him when
he led congregational singing, and painful to listen to him in the long
stretches where it's the cantor only (for example, the Kol Nidre prayer at the
start of the Yom Kippur eve service is chanted by the Cantor alone, is repeated
three times and can take as long as a half-hour to complete - fortunately, I
wasn't there when he chanted that service). I could not concentrate on the
prayer, so I left the service early (these services go on for 3-4 hours, and
many prayers are repeated, so leaving before the end is not uncommon, though I
normally prefer to stay until the end).
Sorry, Karen - in that respect I disagree with you wholeheartedly. It's not
about sparing the feelings of the choirmembers and other musicians when the
quality of their performance isn't acceptable by normal standards (though one
would expect the music-leader to treat all musicians with kindness and respect,
especially when communicating bad news). What's important is that the singers
and other musicians be effective in leading the congregations we serve in
worship.
Peggy
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA.
|
