Living
Water - Dissertations - Songwriting - Part 1Living
Water - Dissertations - Songwriting - Part 1|
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Over the past two years,<F1> I usually have spent some letter
space in educational mode. Topics have included my personal
philosophy of ministry, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface),
and choral diction. My intent in writing on these subjects is to
offer you a view of the choral/music ministry which goes beyond
casual acquaintance with serving God. It's tied to the Living Water
Vision and Values with which you are all familiar ("Glorifying God
and causing others to do the same," "Professional Quality in
Service," "Open-Ended Achievement," "Service in Action," and "Unity
of Spirit").
My hope for the Valley Church music ministry is that we can
develop an abundance of leadership and skilled servants of the Lord
who can be used throughout the whole body of Christ for the glory of
God (now, doesn't that sound like Paul the apostle?). Whether those
who are trained at Valley stay or eventually move on to other local
church bodies is only a small concern - the important thing is that
we learn how to serve God and that we do it effectively.
On to my topic for the next few months: I've noticed that the Lord
has been producing some interest in composition. I'd dearly love to
see a bevy of Valley Church composers come to the fore, and I'm
willing to do what I can to build them up if God grants me such a
ministry. So we'll be taking a look at the various aspects of
composing music, including the parts of a song, possible education
which might be useful, and even what's involved in finding a
publisher for your music.
My own compositional background is that I've been making attempts
at composition since I was about fourteen or fifteen. The first ones
weren't so good; they were mainly repetitive and boring, not to
mention devoid of harmonic imagination. Nevertheless, the Lord
provided me some opportunities to write and sing a few (somewhat
better) songs at the Chinese Independent Baptist Church in Oakland.
Eventually, at the church we attended before coming to Valley Church,
I had the privilege of doing some arranging and even a little
composing for Christmas cantatas and some special numbers.
Coming into the music ministry at Valley Church was a splendid
opportunity for personal development because of the sheer number of
choirs and groups. Tom Shedd, our former music minister, wasted no
time in getting me into Sanctuary Choir, Worship Team, and Alpha Tau
Pi (the men's quartet). He asked if I'd be interested in directing
Living Water, and I accepted - all this happened in about half a
year!
LW and the quartet, in addition to the ladies' trio and the Valley
Ringers, have provided more than ample opportunity to learn the craft
of writing music. Dave Ruder and I now constitute the membership of
the "Valley Church Sadistic Composers' League," a semi-fictitious
group which has the unfortunate tendency to write music of such
difficulty that it might as well be written for piccolo, tuba, and
tambourine with all notations in New Testament Greek. Nevertheless, I
think I've been becoming a little more humane in my compositional
treatment of accompanists and vocalists (that, I guess, is a way of
saying, "If you think the current stuff is difficult, you should have
seen some of what preceded it")!
I greatly appreciate the Valley Church family's tolerance /
acceptance / appreciation of my songwriting. Some of the stuff has
been a bit weird (e.g. the first couple of text lines in
"Walk Beside
Me"), some has been almost overblown (the big-band quartet
arrangement of "Trusting In Jesus"), and some has been tortuous in
nature ("Worship!" where the final chorus line is "serve
the eternal King, Alpha, Omega, the Mighty God and Wonderful
Counselor, Prince of Peace always with all your heart"). Things
appear to be improving constantly as I inflict by musical persona on
your psyches and ethoi.<F2>
I'll finish this now over-long section of this letter by answering the question most asked when referring to writing music: "Do you write the words or the music first?" Answer: It depends. Sometimes the words come first ("This New Commandment"); other times the music forms itself before anything else ("Choose"). On occasion, both come at the same time ("He That Dwelleth In the Secret Place Of God"). Over the last year, however, I've been concentrating a lot more on producing the text of a song first because, after all, it's the message I'm trying to communicate. I'll continue this next letter!