A colleague recently asked how I go about evaluating new music. Here, I share a recent experience.
Background
In 2006, I worked with a rhythm section that included acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitar and drums. The ensemble was keyboard driven, because I am a keyboard player and was leading the group. This church had a history and existing repertoire of contemporary folk music, primarily that of composers such as Marty Haugen, David Haas, and other composers associated with GIA Publications (http://www.giamusic.com/). Through-composed liturgies had been preferred and there was a desire to continue with a liturgical service that contained elements of folk, pop and rock music.
There was a strong desire to learn new music and to experience more contemporary rock/pop forms. Most of the current repertoire was based on GIA's Gather hymnal, published in the early 1990s. The music is liturgically and scripturally based, with a strong theology of social justice. The lyrics are well written and theologically substantial. Musically, the tunes are singable and not difficult to learn. It would not be appropriate, given the context, to abandon that established criteria. There was a further mandate to include popular Christian youth music and songs from the Christian radio charts when feasible.
What did I look at?
The pastor was familiar with music by Dakota Road Music (http://www.dakotaroadmusic.com/)and suggested that we look there. I ordered their anthology, which includes over one hundred pieces. Most fall somewhere between folk and pop music. Their lyrics are often thought-provoking and sometimes quite radical. I played through the book on two different occasions and made some decisions after that, choosing about 6 pieces to bring to the other musicians.
What were the criteria?
As mentioned above, finding music that is liturgically or scripturally based with a solid theological foundation is important. The Dakota Road composers have a knack for singable melodies and because they perform as a band, their music works well with a rhythm section. My basic criteria for this style of music is codified in a list from Dr. Paul Westermeyer:
What else did I look at?
A few years ago, OCP Publications (http://www.ocp.org/), also a large Roman Catholic music publisher, sent out a demo CD for some new music they were showcasing. It sounded like something beyond folk music, perhaps more like rock with alternative instrumentation. I was impressed with their forward thinking, even though the music itself was not particularly interesting.
It seems that OCP has latched onto the growing "worship experience" movement exemplified in the Catholic LifeTeen program. One of the leading musicians, Matt Maher, apparently provides the Catholic connection into the mostly protestant group of musicians collected in the worshiptogether.org website. These are mostly younger musicians with rock and pop bands performing and recording Christian-oriented music for youth.
OCP has two songbooks in this series, Spirit & Song (volumes 1 and 2), which includes a supporting website: http://www.spiritandsong.com/.
The first volume is comparable to GIA's Gather hymnal (http://www.giamusic.com/ ), although considerably smaller. It includes Bob Hurd's Mass of Glory, which we identified as having good potential for our group. Like the Gather hymnal, there is also a varied selection of musical settings of the Psalms. The remainder of the book is music suitable for different parts of the liturgy. It is focused more on the folk and pop styles.
The latest Spirit & Song 2 volume includes even newer music, a number of pieces by Matt Maher, including a complete liturgy, plus other Christian artists, such as Chris Tomlin, who are receiving radio airplay. The music in this book is in much more adventurous styles and oriented towards guitar based bands.
The criteria here changes slightly, because there is a different expectation of "audience participation" with this kind of music. Some of the melodies are initially difficult and rhythmically complex. There is a greater focus on repetition and learning through rote, rather than sight-reading or immediate singability. Further, the driving force behind much of this music is the band itself, especially the drums and bass. The motives that the melodies themselves are based on are often repetitive and harmonically simple, while at the same time, rhythmically challenging.
One has to remember that many of these songs are transcriptions of performances and not notated by the actual composer. The notation is done after the fact and tries to convey the personal idiosyncrasies of the artist. Melody notes tend to fall off the beat as a counterpoint to the rhythm provided by the drums. Melody notes that happen on the beat are often used for emphasis and pulling the listener into a new section, refrain, etc.
Popular songs that are well known from recording artists often present their own difficulties. I recently chose a set of pieces for a special service, working with this same group of musicians. These were ballads, mostly written with the past 15 years and were songs that had received a significant amount of attention in the popular culture. The transcription or edition that you find may not match what you've heard on a recording. Further, there may be some awkwardness that can be fixed with editing and arranging. In short, some pieces can be used if you're willing to adapt them to your own situation. One has to act as a sort of producer to see the potential that a given song may have in the right circumstances.
How do you evaluate these?
Here, I give preference to pieces that maintain some sense of singability, even if it's only a portion of the song. Auditioning this music on the piano requires some creativity, because most of it is driven by guitars and the unique sounds they are capable of. With that in mind, guitar-based music generally has a slower harmonic rhythm. One has to be careful not label a song "boring" just because the chords don't change as often. If there is some melodic interest, an interesting and learnable rhythm, then the song has some potential if the lyrics are appropriate.
What are the other consideration?
Secondly, but not of lesser importance, is the capability of the musicians I have to work with. In this case, I have very good amateur and semi-professional musicians in this group. For many smaller churches, it is rare to have that level of musicianship in a mostly volunteer group. For my situation, I have to choose music that I am capable of teaching them, arranging for them, or describing the kinds of sounds that I believe are right for the piece. With pop and rock music, not only do you need criteria for choosing the music, you have to be willing to produce it with your own group. Knowing what your musicians can do and what they are capable of is critical.
Bringing it together
Out of some 300+ songs, I garnered about a dozen that had immediate appeal. I intentionally left out pieces that had a similar sound or were seasonally inappropriate, which happens with liturgically-based music.
The litmus test is to have the group play through them and ultimately see if the singers can learn them. While a 1 to 25 ratio may seem depressingly lopsided, it is quite high in my own experience. Ask a church choral director how many hundreds of anthems they read through before finding one that's usable. It speaks very highly of the Dakota Road and OCP editors to bring together such a large body of good music.
-Kevin Keele, 2006
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