Music for the Pastor's Study: Part XVIII. The Psalms! The Psalms!

Hopefully it is clear that with this little series of entries on music that sets the tone for devotional study in the pastorate, I do not intend to "rank" these suggestions; rather, these are simply posted as they occur to me and as time allows. Were they ranked, the Psalms would, of course, have to stand in a list of their own for their qualitative distinction as Scripture itself. That they have not been mentioned so far is simply that one can easily take them for granted, they are so obviously essential and indeed stand far and away above everything we have said so far. It should go without saying, right? But just in case anyone stands in the need of the reminder ...

Meanwhile, the staggeringly diverse cultural styles and modes in which the Psalms have been rendered is a topic far beyond the scope of this modest post and ever further beyond my own expertise. From the rich cantorial art of synagogue worship to Gregorian chant and plainsong to the Genevan Psalter and on and on, down to fresh settings in CCM and the Jewish messianic strains of Paul WIlbur, the Psalms are truly enduring, an endless source of inspiration!

Perhaps the most intriguing and moving record I have run across in this area recently is Days of Majesty (below), where the letters of the Hebrew text of the psalms (and canticles) have been encoded or translated into the notes of music, i.e., the melody, itself; hence, the delightful and breathtaking designation: "Music from God." Who would have imagined the beautiful order of the text would lend such beautiful order in the musical dimension as well. Peculiar, but inspired and inspiring. Listen and select with reverence and wonder and care.

Music for the Pastor's Study: Part XVII. "Hear My Prayer"

Without prayer, there is no true preaching ...

Music for the Pastor's Study: Part XVI. John Rutter

I realize I began this series of posts with some pretty obscure suggestions for what makes for a good, studious, contemplative musical environment in the pastor's study, putting gleanings before the harvest perhaps, but we must finally ask, where would sacred music be today without John Rutter (and the Cambridge Singers)?

Music for the Pastor's Study: Part XV. Bruce Cockburn

It's hard to believe Bruce Cockburn's career is now entering its fifth decade. Like Van Morrison or U2, the Canadian songwriter, guitar player, environmental activist is a Christian whose career has been spent on secular record labels, striking the all but impossible combination of credible artistic reputation in the secular world with an equally credible Christian witness. Cockburn (pron. "COE-burn") has been issuing roughly an album every year for the last forty years, most of them including an instrumental track or two. More recently the best of his  instrumental pieces, ranging from folk and country to rock and jazz, were compiled on a lovely CD entitled Speechless.

Although Bruce's music gets more of a workout in this pastor's car than in the study, his "Salt, Sun, and Time" never fails to transport one to warmer climes. My iTunes has a playlist of Cockburn favorites that I call "Cockburn the Confessor," a compilation of both instrumental and vocal tracks that contain his most overt (though perhaps more often covert) expressions of Christian faith, hope, and love, in some of which he even dares to invoke "the name above all names," even "Jesus"! You go, Bruce!

Bruce Cockburn has produced an admirable and significant catalog of enduring character, and though the production quality often betrays the technical limitations of the times, in the end it is all good. Here are just a few pastoral and "faith-based" highlights.

What Every Pastor's Study Needs?

If your pastoral library is like mine, and your brain ever more challenged with multi-tasking: exegesis, sermon writing, worship planning, prayer, journaling, the novel, current events, etc., in short, if your short-term reading is too diverse and voluminous to carry around with you, but not yet all available on Kindle or iPad, ... well, consider one of these babies!

I'm wishing now I hadn't paid quite so much for the Book Buggy at Levengers!

Meanwhile, I suppose these really are becoming the new standard in portable libraries:

Music for the Pastor's Study: Part XIV. Camel/Richard Sinclair

Before we leave the peculiar and historic Canterbury progressive (art) rock/jazz fusion scene entirely in the rear view mirror, let's mention a track or two by a great, but overlooked band, and some of its personnel. Camel is one of those groups like King Crimson that changed lineups with nearly every album. In this case the common element was/has been Andrew Latimer, who has been in ill health for the last several years, though I believe he's in recovery. A terrific guitarist, primary composer, and lead singer in the band, Latimer shared the microphone for a time in the late seventies with Richard Sinclair, who has in my view the most pleasing male voice in rock music. I suppose that is a somewhat moot point, since in the pastor's study I tend to privilege instrumental tracks, such as "Elke," from Camel's Rain Dances album (1977), which bears the "ambient" engineering fingerprints of Brian Eno. I always look forward to iTunes circling to this track for the same reason I've mentioned in connection with what makes for a great prelude to worship: it slows me down, pulse rate and all.

Meanwhile, I mention Richard Sinclair (Caravan, Hatfield and the North, The Wilde Flowers) and his soothing baritone voice because his own vocal tracks tend to fall into one of two categories that are virtually instrumental: on the one hand, he has a lovely wordless way of singing that should technically be called "scat," but for the fact that it bears no resemblance whatsoever to the North America jazz form that is normally associated with the word, and on the other hand, his songs with lyrics are delightfully non-sensical (i.e., he usually sings about the fact that he is at present singing the particular song to which you are listening), so they may either be enjoyed for their silliness or tuned out altogether with the knowledge that the words are just placeholders. "Umbrellas" on Before a Word is Said is a nice example of Sinclair's Kentish "scat," as is "My Sweet Darlin'" on R.S.V.P. "Going for a Song" on Caravan of Dreams, and "Tell Me" on Rain Dances represent his circular singing about singing. Enjoy.

Music for the Pastor's Study: Part XIII. Beethoven

There is something so very intimate about the Piano Sonatas of Beethoven, not only those with the most famous adagios, such as the Moonlight Sonata (No. 14) and the Pathetique (No. 8), but even the more bombastic, like the Hammerklavier (No. 29). Not surprisingly, for our purposes here, the Pastoral (No. 15) is a favorite.

Music for the Pastor's Study: Part XII. Alan Gowen

At the risk of going way, way, WAY off the charts of most readers' pastoral tastes, let me mention the late Alan Gowen, a bright light on the Canterbury jazz fusion scene in the 1970s, who died of leukemia in 1981. As a tribute, his band mates from National Health, Gilgamesh, and Hatfield and the North recorded a number of his charts brilliantly on an album entitled, D.S. al Coda (1982). "Arriving Twice" is the most contemplative, "studious" track.

Although Gowen's material is not generally meditative from beginning to end, it has many such moments, yet these are often punctuated with rather complex, meticulously scored melodies that are meant to sound improvised. In the study, I return again and again to a handful of quieter tracks from various albums. As with Lyle Mays' Oberheim synth patch that has the mood and the feel of a whistle, Gowen's use of old analogue tone generators and flute-like patches has always struck me as a happy sort of meandering. Would that he had left us more material.

Perhaps I would not have mentioned him at all, but for the fact that, some thirty years before "double rainbow guy" went viral on YouTube, Alan Gowen and Hugh Hopper put together their prescription for Two Rainbows Daily (I assume - perhaps naively - no pharmacological references here), which includes "Morning Order," the one track that has registered more plays on this pastor's iTunes than any other. I like the title as much as anything, but the simple combination of bass, Fender Rhodes, and lead Moog synth is sufficiently sparing and pensive, yet bright and cheerful, to serve as a pleasant greeting most mornings, a smiling "Welcome to the day!"