Sing a New Song to the Lord

A report on the 'Access All Areas' conference in November 2005 (Soundboard, March 2006)

Church music of all styles was under the microscope at a day long conference — Access All Areas — in Stillorgan on Saturday 12 November. This was a joint venture organised by the Diocesan Church Music Committee and the Diocesan Youth Programme (3Rock). The event brought together those working with traditional type church music and those involved with the newer and younger styles, to explore shared skills, repertoire, values and understanding.

The principal speakers were Geoff Weaver, the freelance conductor, animateur and composer, and Eoghan Heaslip, who specialises in contemporary church music and is closely connected with CORE Church, Thomas Street.

During his presentation, Eoghan referred to Psalm 33 and its injunction ‘to sing a new song to the Lord’. He suggested that some songs lose their appeal over time, as they were written for a certain place and time. Others endure for many years. Eoghan argued that contemporary music “should not be used as a bait for young people ….only when music becomes part of expression does it become genuine”.

Geoff Weaver described the various types of hymns and songs sung in church. What we sing, he said, defines what we are. “Tell me what you sing and I’ll tell you who you are”. Hymns can express the deepest feelings of a community. ‘Negro’ spirituals reflect a background of slavery and a search for identity. Many songs of the Iona Community point to a commitment to peace and justice. The psalms, Geoff said, are full of sentiments of ‘prayer, praise and protest’, reflecting the history of the Hebrew people. Taizé music continues to have great appeal. Short repeated song helps us to go deeper and deeper into the meaning of the words. “What we do in church must be done with passion”, Geoff continued. “The more I go on, the more I am convinced that singing is one of God’s gifts to us all”. We should open, he said, to having our horizons expanded and should avoid classifying music as being good or bad. What is more important is whether singing in church fulfils its purpose within the context it is used.

Later, Geoff talked about leading worship and reviewed the skills required to be an effective cantor. Congregations, he said, should be encouraged to sing from memory and ‘to sing from the belly’. He demonstrated his excellent method of teaching congregations new music and emphasised that much music of worship originated in dance. “A lot of church music is unbelievably tedious, because we have made it too churchy, we’ve forgotten dance. Christians from African countries find it hard to understand how people can sing without moving”.

Geoff had already met some of the participants the previous evening in Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church, when he discussed with thirty clergy and organists the issues they need to think about when working together.