Church music is the lifeblood of choral music. With thousands of churches doing music every day around the globe, I believe that this avenue of performance and listening holds tremendous opportunity for growth. In his day, Bach worked tirelessly to provide what he hoped would be a sort of revival of church music. He wished for more powerful, moving performances, more uplifted congregations, and more growth experiences for musicians. Today, we are all indebted to him for his vision, and his personal, musical integrity and genius. As a composer, I have often been subjected to ideas about the past and present state of music. In my college years, there seemed to be a general lack of interest in providing more and better church music, but there was plenty of interest in being innovative and productive in other aspects of the composition world. Recently however, it feels like there is a revival of interest in music in churches and religious settings of all kinds, not to mention the booming internet music industry in which religious music is not exactly taking a back seat. There are many more churches today than even fifty years ago, and with all the diversity abounding in the religious world, the music in these churches reflects that diversity in a grand way.
There has been much debate about styles, instruments, forms, and features of music to be used in churches and even more about the so-called “religious” music being produced outside the churches. Never before has there been such a call for music of faith of every kind and style. To me, this is a unique opportunity to explore the possibilities of music for any religious purpose. I am of the opinion that all the good music has not been written yet and that there are great musicians out there now, who are capable of the best we have ever seen. I believe in them. I believe in the innate ability of people to create whatever they can imagine.
When I first began writing music, I sent my music to one publisher who wrote back to me that he intended to publish only music that had certain limited ranges for the voices (much lower than the industry standard), certain limitations in the difficulty of the accompaniments, (he wished them to be simple enough for a moderate beginner), and certain limitations in the amount of part singing, (he wanted only occasional 4 part harmony, and mostly unison or occasionally two parts). After I read his letter, I was amazed! I wondered what would have happened if Handel had tried to publish his music with this publisher today! As a church choir director for many years, I understood the restrictions which are often placed upon us by the limitations of our choir members, but for my part, I did not wish to dumb-down the music to accommodate the limitations, rather I wished to help the choir to progress to greater and greater things through the use of gradually more difficult pieces. On the whole, I feel that my efforts were successful. However, what that publisher said to me has haunted me ever since then. I have wondered if it is a general consensus that there should be simpler and simpler things to sing so that people who know little about music can have a “good experience” in a church choir, or if there are more people like me who believe that there is something more and better to be gained by stretching and reaching higher.
I have seen the internet become a clearing-house for all kinds of self-published music. Anyone, anywhere can now “publish” his own work and people can see it and purchase it. I believe that what is needed now is not more of what we already have that is flooding the internet, our churches and our schools. What is needed now is composers who have a vision of what choral music can be in this age. We have the ability to proliferate music at the click of a button, but if that music has merely been churned out of a formula with a computer-generated ‘grinder’, then we are no further along the path toward anything. Today, even after 300 years and more, people still go back to Bach. People still seek out and love his music. It still enlightens, uplifts, inspires and generates power in the lives of people in all walks of life. What did he have that seems to be lacking today? Whatever it is, it’s where I am going, just as fast as I am able.
Kathleen Smith