Instrumental Music In Service To The Text

A wide variety of musical instruments can be used effectively in accompanying hymns and anthems. Creativity in the use of instruments should always seek to reflect and illuminate the text that is sung. The following article gives suggestions for how a variety of instruments can be used to proclaim the text. Music Proclaims the Word As a church musician I am vitally concerned about, almost obsessed by words. This is because I believe strongly that music in worship, and by extension a musician making music for worship, is a servant of the Word assisting in leading God's people in prayer and praise, Word and sacrament. The musician encounters text, be it biblical, prose, or poetry, and responds to it. Thus the music, its style, character, timbre, and spirit has evocative power to communicate a sense of the text's focus. The musician (composer or performer) functions exegetically to proclaim and, in the process, to interpret the text. Instrumental Color in Proclamation One of the mos…