A Capella Singing

“There’s within my heart a melody.”  A lyric from an old hymn that speaks to what most believers feel when worshiping.  Visit any place of worship today and you are bound to hear singing.  Scripture assures us that God hears what our heart produces, regardless of what our voice sounds like.  This is comforting when we listen to some who are tone-deaf.  My wife fits into that category, but she loves to sing and praise the Lord.  She often says that she knows she will be a singer in heaven, because she can’t sing on earth.

In our travels we come across quite a variety of churches and music.  Some have instruments, ranging from a single organ or piano, all the way up to a full blown orchestra, and everything in between.  The music ranges from rock ‘n roll to classical, and all points betwixt.  It can put worshipers in a somber mood, or hyped up to a fever pitch.  People raise their hands, eyes tear up or close, and toes often pat the floor.  The music follows a theme, or not.  It coincides with the sermon or misses the mark.  The one thing we have found is that we are sure to find something different wherever we visit.

Our tradition is a capella.  Historically, our people have learned to sing four-part harmony from hymnals that use fasola notation.  That means that instead of the standard form of notation, our music has shaped notes, identifying the do re mi notes instead of by the letter.  This has been useful in helping our congregations learn the four parts that make up the harmony.  For this to work well, a small church has to be gifted with really talented singers, or grow themselves to a point where the stronger voices can help those who are weaker come out with their part, be it soprano, alto, tenor, or bass.  When you are blessed to be in a large congregation of believers who know how to sing, the music can be awesome.

In years past, this beautiful form of music was very prevalent in churches of Christ, and can still be found.  However, over the past several years we are seeing a decline in our ability to generate four-part harmony in many of our congregations.  This has led to lively discussion of the cause for this apparition.  Many of our churches have been using overhead projection for some time.  Many of these projected songs are not accompanied by the written music.  There are those who feel this is the reason we seem to be losing our harmony.  Another change has been the use of praise teams.  Again, some feel these have aided in the decline of four-part congregational singing.  And, then there is the practice followed in many churches where they use anybody and everybody to lead the worship, whether that person is qualified or not.  This would seem an obvious contributor to our lack of harmony.

I’m not going to offer an opinion, other than to say that it would seem that all of these are contributing factors.  I will say that it saddens me to see us losing this tradition.  Our ability to produce beautiful music from the voices of our members has long been an asset, and a distinction among churches of Christ.  Unlike many in my tradition, I don’t believe a capella singing is a legal requirement.  In fact, I firmly believe that when we make it so, we take away from its beauty.  Having said that, a capella singing, done right, is like no other music.  It is beautiful and brings glory to God.  There’s nothing that can stir the soul like good, harmonious congregation singing. However, if we are going to hold on to this tradition, we need to make some hard choices in reinventing the ways to bring about good congregational harmony.  I pray it is done soon!