Formal and Informal Worship Music

My Lenten meditations upon the psalms today led me to Psalm 61 and King David's prayer, "Lead me to the rock that is higher than I" (Psalm 61:2). Blue Letter Bible has a link in its commentary on that Psalm to Erastus Johnson's 19th century hymn by that name. They indicate their links come from the Cyber Hymnal website. In exploring that website I came upon the familiar contemporary hymn writer, John Ylvisaker and his comments about the two streams of congregational music. 

Ylvisaker's comments upon the tensions in congregations about music are quite instructive. Here are a few snippets. I commend the entire article to your study. He distinguishes between the rather formal worship of the Temple in Jerusalem and the more informal, rhythmic, popular style of singing in the local synagogues. In the synagogues they used tambourines and guitar-like instruments. At the temple they used trumpets, large harps and "loud clashing cymbals," which would suggest a more classical performance oriented music.

When the Roman emperor Constantine was converted and Christianity became the religion of the known world, Christians began to experience the luxury of Temple worship again, Ylvisaker writes. "But unfortunately, the pendulum swung too far to that end and got stuck there. For over one thousand years (until Luther) worship music was the exclusive domain of monastic choirs, cantors and priests. To compensate for this, the Christians would create parallel feasts and celebrations with accompanying music of a more popular nature. This is the root of the carols, ballads, biblical songs and mystery plays. It gave the people a chance to participate even though they were excluded from the official worship of the church."

He continues, "It's only recently that we've been forced to decide between formal and informal, between orthodox and pietist, between contemporary and traditional. I don't think its ever been a legitimate demand on the worshiper. I, for one, can be nurtured by both streams. I need to have my mind stimulated by the performance tradition and I need to have my heart touched by full participation in the song tradition of the church."

After listing side by side summary outlines of both traditions, Ylvisaker concludes, "What one sees above is evidence of strongly contrasting styles of worship. But the most fascinating thing about it is that the same people are moving gracefully back and forth between them. The horrible decision of trying to determine which you are just isn't there. If you swing too far to the formal side, you end up in rationalism; if you swing too far to the informal side, you end up in emotionalism. Please note that Martin Luther was very critical of both of these extremes."