Teen repellent

If you walk down the 16th Street Mall in Denver, you may hear some strains of Vivaldi or Mozart floating through the air.

Where is the source of this chamber music? The upscale dress shops? The art galleries? The theaters? No. It's coming from McDonalds and Taco Bell.

These fast-food joints have discovered that music can be used to selectively repel specific groups of people—in this case, teens who would otherwise be hanging out and impeding paying customers. Research studies have shown this technique to be remarkably effective. This illustrates how music is used as a marker of group identity, including those who are in a group and excluding those who are outside the group.

Leaders contemplating a change of musical style must realize that any choice they make will exclude some people from the congregation. As I've written before, implementing a "blended" service often is less a matter of satisfying multiple constituencies in the church, than of chasing away those who strongly identify with particular styles and attracting those who pride themselves in their eclectic taste.

Free classical arrangements by Benjamin Crowell

Benjamin Crowell is making a few dozen of his arrangements of classical violin, viola, and cello pieces available for free at http://www.lightandmatter.com/music/strings/.

The quality of the engraving is pretty good, and the arrangements are comparable in quality to those from the major music publishers. I'll be retiring my tattered copy of the Accolay Concerto No. 1 in A Minor and replacing it with this version. The arrangements are all public domain or Creative Commons licensed, so you can copy and perform them without worrying about the Copyright Police.

Most of the pieces are appropriate for intermediate-level musicians: Bach and Pergolesi and Saint-Saens are well represented. Church violinists will appreciate his arrangements of the Bach suites and concertos, and especially Gounod's Ave Maria.

Ben is a regular contributor to the rec.music.makers.bowed-strings newsgroup.

Chunk it

If you don't chunk it, they'll choke on it.

This week I saw an amazing, talented singer and songleader look in thinly-veiled frustration upon a congregation because they weren't enthusiastically joining him in a song. What happened?

The leader had introduced a song which was new to most of the congregation. The song was just a little more complex than the average congregational song. And he sang straight through a verse or two and the chorus before repeating anything. This was just too much for people to remember all at once. To make it worse, just as people were getting the hang of it, he started inserting variations, making it impossible to tell which was the "right" note to be singing.

The leaders of long ago had it right: they would "line" the song, singing just one line at a time, which would be repeated immediately by the people. When music became "literate" and hymn books were introduced, this time-tested technique for teaching a song was lost. Now, with SongShow and Powerpoint, people don't need to learn the words, but they do need to learn the melody and harmonies.

What can a worship leader do? Remember that people need to learn a new song before they can sing it. And remember that most people learn in small chunks—one or two lines at a time, maybe four lines at a time if they're an unusually talented bunch or if the music is incredibly simple. Any new "data" introduced after that will cause them to forget what came before.

What can a church violinist do? Playing the melody before the singing begins (as an introduction to the song, as an interlude during the song, or even as a prelude or special music) will help people become familiar with the music, reducing the effort required to learn the melody and allowing the congregation to focus more on the words.

Playing a Round (and a Canon and a Fugue)

The terminology describing the forms of imitative, contrapuntal music is slippery. Here are some definitions I developed for a recent presentation for recorder players.

According to Dufay

Canon = the application of a rule to a musical piece
Rondelus = the musical form which results
Fugando = the relationship of the voices

Glossary

Bicinium – A two-part composition. The were often used in German-speaking areas as a teaching tool, so they may be relatively easy to play. They are very often (but not necessarily) canons.
Canon – Usually in two voices, beginning with strict imitation then using other devices (inversion, augmentation, etc.) to continue the counterpoint. Some kind of imitation continues throughout the canon.
Catch – A comic round for male voices (England, 1600-1800). Sometimes, the voices eventually catch up with a conclusion.
Fugue – Counterpoint with each part participating equally. The development starts with a subject, then an answer. The theme (or “dux”) is developed in different keys and fragments are explored (without imitation between the parts), before returning to where it began.
Ricercare – A prelude or an imitative motet, very often in the form of a complex fugue. From Italian for “research” or “try out.”
Round – A canon with perpetual imitation, often in 3 parts.

Deceptive Terms

Canso, Canzona – A song.
Rondeau –A medieval French song with verses and refrain which don’t strictly alternate.
Rondo – A movement or aria with two tempos or keys, often in ABA form.

A great pickup

For the last few years, I've been using a Pick-up the World piezo pickup. I can't speak highly enough of this pickup. The sound is clear and balanced, rejection of ambient noise is great, and best of all, it allows full acoustic use of my violin.

Here's what the installation looks like:
The PUTW pickup is a very thin piezoelectric film which fits underneath one foot of the bridge:
Installation tip: To prevent buzzing where the cable touches the top of the violin, I wrapped a bit of gaffer tape around the cable, then placed a small piece from an old sock under the cable. Note that the fabric is not attached to anything; the springiness of the cable is more than enough to hold it in place.

This pickup can be ordered from the manufacturer's web site: http://www.pick-uptheworld.com/.

What is your Nehushtan?

In Numbers 21:9, Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole. This bronze snake was a divinely instituted part of the spiritual and physical life of God's people. But then we see this:

2 Kings 18:4 (NET) He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole. He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan.

Just because something came from God, doesn't mean we must keep it forever. And when we start worshiping that thing, when it distracts us from focusing on God himself, we must get rid of it. Those of us involved in leading worship, even peripherally, need to pause and take an inventory. Is there anything--an element of the worship service, a habit, an attitude, a physical object--which has become Nehushtan for us?

The NET Bible® is freely available at www.bible.org/ .

Notebook or not

Now that so much sheet music is downloaded or photocopied, a common way for musicians to manage their stack of 8.5x11-inch paper is to use a 3-ring binder notebook. Indeed, notebooks can look professional and keep everything in order.

When not to use a notebook

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that notebooks are always good. There are some times that notebooks don't work very well:

• Originals - You might not want to punch holes in expensive sheet music, and it's not always possible (and often not legal) to make copies.
• Oversize pages - If pages are larger than the notebook, it's really easy to tear them.
• Multi-page works - If a piece is longer than two pages, page turns may work better if the pages are loose. With loose pages, you can place 3-4 pages side by side, and you can slide a page to the side during a mid-page rest if there isn't a rest at the end of the page. (This can be a source of conflict, when the group leader is a vocalist who is working off a one-page lyric sheet, while the instrumentalists are juggling multiple pages.)
• Last-minute changes - If you'll need to change the order of the pieces just before or during the performance, notebooks can be inconvenient. On the other hand, notebooks can make it easier to find the pieces when you need them.
  
• Legal/ethical considerations - Using copies is often illegal. Contrary to popular belief within churches, it is usually not legal to use photocopies. Even if the church purchased the music. Even if the originals and the purchase receipt are sitting in a box at your feet. Even if the stupid publisher bound the originals in a way which would make them impossible to use on stage. Even if your church has a CCLI license. And it doesn't matter one bit that your group is nonprofit and for a good cause. Should a music industry "enforcer" be in the congregation, the presence of music notebooks on stage is a tip-off that you're a juicy target for legal action.
  

Notebook tips

Use black notebooks. Beware of decorating the notebook--anything light or bright colored peeking over the side of a music stand will be a huge visual distraction to the audience.

If there's any chance that you'll need to open your notebook during a prayer or other quiet time, make sure the notebook is easy to operate. The Staples "Better Binder" notebooks are great--the rings open easily and close quietly!

Use Post-It notes or add divider sheets so that you can easily flip to a particular piece.