Sing Together - Often!

Sing Together – Often!

BY KATIE HOUTS SACRED CHORAL EDITOR

In 2018, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation featured psychology professor Daniel Levitin (McGill University, author of This Is Your Brain on Music) during a program on the science of singing. Research indicates that our brains release the chemical oxytocin when we sing with others. Oxytocin is involved in social bonding, which is one reason why singing together often results in feelings of community, friendship, and fellowship.

This summer, I hope you have the chance to peruse your choral packet of new Choristers Guild anthems. Our talented composers continue to capture the heart of the Church in their music - celebrating all that builds and strengthens communities of faith. In this fall choral release, you’ll find anthems fostering love and courage, acceptance and beauty, peace and outreach. Many new pieces offer intentional, memorable opportunities for children and adults to sing together.

Begin your season with “Come, Let Us Worship God,” (Makeever, arr. Houts) an easy two-part echo song which extends the invitation to eat, rest, and find hope together as God’s people. A wonderful congregational piece - have your children’s choir lead the Call, and teach the Echo to your adult choir so they can reinforce congregational singing.

Benjamin David Knoedler’s “A Beautiful Land” is a wonderful choice for All Saint’s Sunday, painting a lovely picture of the life to come. Feature one or two talented adult soloists, or consider using a children’s choir to sing the soloist’s line.

Celebrate an attitude of gratitude with “Thankful,” a new piece by Mark Burrows. This unison/two-part anthem gives thanks for all of God’s gifts - gifts we see and gifts we feel - and incorporates a stanza of “For the Beauty of the Earth.” Your adult choir can easily join the hymn stanza for a combined-choir presentation.

A stunning new piece from Mark Miller and Lindy Thompson is an earnest prayer for love. “Show Us How to Love” is a transformative piece for your youth or adult choir. Consider teaching the refrain to even younger choristers. (My four-year-old loves singing along to this piece with me!)

Our new offerings for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany are filled with beauty and awe.

• One of my favorite new Advent pieces, “Prepare Ye the Way,” contains vivid imagery of the messagebringers who share the good news of “a bright star that turns all our darkness to day: Emmanuel!” – some of Mark Burrows’s best writing.

• Trevor Manor’s arrangement of “Silent Night” offers a glimpse into the wonder of that first Christmas Eve. Two voicings provide an opportunity to combine choral forces at Christmas.

• Tim Osiek’s arrangement of “When God Is a Child” is a tender and beautiful choice for your adult choir this Advent or Christmas. God’s entrance into the world as a baby gives us reassurance that there is nothing to fear; we are set free to proclaim hope, joy, peace, and love.

• Josh Sparkman’s arrangement of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” exudes joy! This Celtic-style setting will enliven your worship or concert and be such fun for any youth or adult choir to learn.

We hope these new choral anthems from Choristers Guild will inspire and enliven your worship as you gather together to sing!

Let’s draw the circle wide, inviting all to join the song.

-Katie

June/July 2019 | thechorister | 3