Holy Week Music Resources

As we approach Holy Week it's timely to remind you of the resources currently available for use in worship on this blog:

For Maundy Thursday

Sounds of the Supper (a soundscape) 

For Good Friday

Friday Lament (song for soloist and community)

For anytime during the week:
Shine a Candle (community song)

You are welcome to freely make use of each of these for worship or Christian education purposes, with due acknowledgement.

Soundscape: The Israelites Cross the Red Sea

On Sunday 11th September (2011) the account of the parting of the Red Sea is included in the lectionary readings. To this end I offer the Soundscape: The Israelites Cross the Red Sea to accompany Exodus 14: 19-31.

This soundscape requires 7 players, a few everyday items and, depending on your preference, may involve the participation of the gathered people. You may choose to reduce the number of players should you so wish (eg: have a chorus of 3 voices instead of 4, and use the chorus members to manipulate other sounds).

Please remember soundscapes are aural, not visual, presentations and balanced amplification of each sound and speaker is crucial to success. I cannot stress the importance of rehearsal strongly enough.

The soundscape is freely available for use in worship with due acknowledgement. If you do make use of this soundscape, I'd be interested to hear about your experience.

 

More about soundscapes

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Sounds Outside the Square

Hands up those who've ever switched off during a bible reading? Perhaps it has something to do with delivery. This coming month the Revised Common Lectionary includes numerous opportunities to think outside the square with sound, and reviving effective story-telling in your faith community.

Over the forthcoming July - August period alone, sounds that are suggested or stated include birds singing, wind blowing, thunder storm, crowds talking, individuals and crowds walking on dry earth, water by the lake, water lapping against a boat, birds, people, water dripping, fishing, a donkey, a marketplace, murmured conversation and drinking water. I'm certain there are many more. Some, such as the kingdom of heaven is like series, may allow for a single sound to be played in a loop as a background to the reading. Sounds such as crowds, or water lapping on the shore would work well here.

Thanks to the age of computers, faith communities have access to all the wonderous resources available online. You can accompany readings with wind sounds by using applications on your computers, such as  windmachine. Alternatively visit one of the sound effect libraries.stores such as Soundeffect which has literally thousands of sounds to purchase for between $2 - $5. Given so many of these sounds reappear in our stories, this may prove a worthwhile investment: animals, crowd, beach, footsteps, birds, weather, eating, wind in the grass, chimes, rooster crowing, carpentry.

Thinking literally goes without saying, but imagining what is implied by the story you are reading is quite liberating. In an upcoming 1 Kings reading, Elijah shelters in a cave. I imagine there may have been dripping water in that cave, or perhaps birds nesting inside.

If you prefer a more hands-on approach, consider enlisting your gathering to make sound effects in your faith community. You can simulate your own rain shower or thunder storm in a fun participatory way..

Your imagination is a gift, as are our stories - don't hide either under a bushel!
And please, share your ideas with others here on this blog.

You may also be interested in Soundscapes and Sounds Like Pentecost

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Soundscape: Sounds of the Supper

On Maundy Thursday, many faith communities will gather to remember the events of the Last Supper. To that end I offer Sounds of the Supper soundscape for use in your faith community.

Please remember soundscape are aural, not visual, presentations and amplification of each sound effect and speaker is crucial to success. Rehearsal with amplification is also important.
What is a soundscape?

The soundscape is freely available for use in worship and for christian education with due acknowledgement. If you do make use of this soundscape, I'd be interested to hear about your experience. 

View/Print Sounds of the Supper


More soundscapes
How to write a Soundscape
Sounds Outside the Square 
More seasonal resources

6 Sound Innovations for Worship

Music in worship is too often limited to community song. Sound can be utilised in most aspects of the liturgy, although it would be a brave worship leader who detemined to use all of these innovations in a single week! Let's take a look at some common liturgical elements and consider how music might enrich each of them.

Entering - sound effects
Consider how people are greeted as they enter your particular worship space.Are they confronted with the last minute rehearsal of the instrumentalists. If there is music playing, is it merely there for entertainment value, or to fill an uncomfortable silence? Surely not! Sound can help to centre thoughts, and focus our purpose.

Consider how you might help to focus the thoughts of people as they arrive. Instead of music, you may choose to amplify a soundtrack of wind blowing or crackling fire (Pentecost). A journeying theme might be enhanced with the sounds of shoes on gravel, or the sound of crashing waves (calming the storm, crossing the Red Sea), bird calls (celebrating creation), kitchen sounds (Mary and Martha) or crowd noise (Palm Sunday, Christmas Eve, Feeding the 5000). Entering the worship space should be far from ordinary. Engage people with the unnexpected.

Processional
If your community processes bible, water, candle or communion elements, it could be time the shake it up a little. Rather than carrying the elements at waist height, they can be presented more dramatically held above the carriers head. Perhaps a dancer can 'dance' the bible in, or a trumpeter walk the aisle with a solo fanfare. Perhaps the musicians can join the procession with portable instruments, or as a singing ensemle. Each of these possibilities will elicit a different response from the gathered people, and will set the tone of anticipation for worship to follow.

Praying with eyes wide open
Sung prayer responses are very common: following a spoken prayer, the gathered people join in a sung response. Consider too that some songs can stand alone as prayers, and are in fact written in the language of prayer. Perhaps a sung response can be interspersed with images, gestures, dance, or silent reflection rather than spoken words, leaving space for the personal prayers to be offered.

Prayerscape
A prayerscape can be made by providing candles, windchimes, gongs, triangles, large cymbals (with soft mallets) at several points around the worship space. People are invited to make their unspoken prayer by lighting a candle, striking a gong or stroking chimes. Musicians may play some unobtrusive music as people move around the space. Prayerscapes are most effective where varied sound sources are provided at multiple places.

Teach a Song - Proclamation
No I am not about to suggest that the sermon should be sung - never fear ye clergy folk! But have you consider engaging the community in a conversation about song text, its meaning and implications? We can sing songs for years without fully considering what is being espoused. Perhaps we will find, as we converse with others, that the meaning they derive from a song is quite different to ours. These encounters offer opportunity to discuss faith with those we are sitting close to, perhaps being tounched by a line or two we had never considered before. When you've talked about the text, sing the song together.

Create a soundscape
Soundscapes are an effective way of enhancing bible readings. By using sounds to accompany spoken words, they may become more engaging and memorable. More on soundscapes....

You are welcome to share your own innovative ideas with others by reply to this post. Let me know if you use any of these ideas, and what you learnt/gained/experienced by using them.

how to write a soundscape

Soundscapes are an effective way of entering into read text such as bible reading, prayers and reflections.

Choosing a text

Choose a reading that suggests concrete sounds people will readily identify with. Epistles are not going to work, but many of the parables and action stories will remain in people's memories after an effective soundscape. 

Getting started 

Type the text out for yourself.
If I am working on a bible reading, I like to allocate a separate line to each verse. This can be time consuming, but it helps me focus on parts of the text I didn't notice in my reading. It also helps to ensure sounds are spread well throughout.  

List the sounds you 'hear'.
This is not about dialogue, but other background sounds such as wind, water, footsteps, chains, crowd, animals, building etc..)  

Identify one unifying sound.
This sound may not be present the whole time, but may begin and end the soundscape. This sound is your starting point.  

Choose several other sounds from your list.  

Find a way to represent each sound.
Please don't resort to musical instruments - very few sounds will be effectively represented in this way. For example, claves (rhythm sticks) sound nothing like footsteps, but wearing shoes on your hands and 'walking' in a sandbox does. Raid your cutlery drawer, the shed, the toy box and see what you can come up with. Once a group of children I was working with used a couple of teapot coasters which, when clapped together, sounded just like wet sails on the Sea of Gallilee! Be ruthless. If it doesn't sound like the real thing, it will be a distraction.

Get rid of half your sounds
At this stage you will probably find there are some unsuccessful sounds. Lose half of them so that you have about four in total. Less definately IS more. Remember soundscapes are about leading people into the reading, not distracting them from it.

The Players
Work out how many players you will need. The reader should not play anything but should rehearse with the players, so that mutually agreed timing is decided.

Amplification
Work out how you will amplify the sounds  

Rehearse with amplification.  

Modify your plans as required.

Questions to ask

• Is the soundscape balanced?
• Do any sounds overpowering the reading.?(Remember this is not about making "sound effects".)
• Do any of the sounds detract from the reading? If so, they have to go! Be ruthless.
• How will you introduce the soundscape in the worship context?
• Where will he players be situated? My view is that soundscapes work best when the sounds are kept out-of-sight. This avoids the problem of people looking for the source of the sounds instead of engaging in the experience.

You may also be interested in Sounds Outside the Square