If I could condense the process of planning church music down to one question, it would be this. Is it appropriate? Is the music we are doing appropriate for this setting, this congregation, these musicians? What is the purpose and desired outcome of this meeting and is this music appropriate for it?
This morning I played accordion at my church. It was a light acoustic set with an accordion, one guitar, and three vocalists. After the service one of the church members said, "I kept waiting for you to break into a polka." My response was, "No, it wouldn't have been appropriate for this setting."
I like playing polkas. I would have no problem playing a polka on the same instrument, in the same room, for the same people, at a different time. For a dinner, social event, fellowship event, fun event, or family event, let the polkas play and the dancing begin. But this was not that event. This was a more serious event with an air of reverence to it. It was intended to be quiet and contemplative, instructive and inspirational. And the music choices we made were...appropriate.
Appropriate to whom?
ReplyDeleteGood question. Short answer, the people who have agreed to meet together for some purpose. In theory it should be possible to arrive at a consensus on a range of music that would be appropriate to the purpose at hand. The problem is that when people don't agree on the purpose of the event they will have different opinions on what would constitute appropriate music for the event. Each participant will tailor their definition of "appropriate" to correspond to their own purpose or agenda for the event.
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