Icon entitled: ‘The Lord is my shepherd’ from an unknown source.

     Singing something "by heart" is an interesting expression. It means that we are not relying on printed music. And it.s very close to singing something "with heart," in which case we love what we.re singing or are inspired by it. The Revs. Donald Schell and Richard Fabian, retired co-presbyters of the Episcopal Church of St. Gregory of Nyssa in San Francisco, have formed an organization called All Saints Company that is devoted to the encourage-ment of "paperless music" that requires us to sing "by heart" and, after getting to know the music, might also lead to singing "with heart."
      Earlier this month I attended a conference in Ottawa, Ontario, entitled "Music that Makes Community," presented by All Saints Company. Both Frs. Schell and Fabian were there along with a group of gifted presenters representing a spectrum of denominations including Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, Roman Catholic and others. In this month's "Icons in Sound" I'.d like to report to you what I learned at this conference and give you an idea of things we might try at St. John's in the coming year. Much of what I state in this column is taken from Fr. Schell's introduction to a new publication, Music by Heart: Paperless Songs for Evening Worship, published by Church Publishing Inc., New York.
      Before Gutenberg invented the printing press or Petrucci invented printed music the music of the church was largely paperless. Choirs are shown in paintings singing from a large, handwritten choir book with the director often pointing with a stick at the words and notes. But congregations had no such materials. What they sang they had to learn by ear and by heart. Some denominations were “paperless” because the majority of their congregants were illiterate. An example is the African-American slave congregations in the pre-Civil War South. Other denominations continue “paperless” to the present day where certain parts of the service are known by memory and sung without books. An example of this is Eastern Orthodox worship where a choir may lead the congregation in singing refrains until the whole congregation is singing with the choir but never seeing anything written out. Psalms are usually sung this way. The congregation learns a simple response and the choir sings the verses of the psalm.
      °Paperless music" often involves what is known as "call and response" in which a song leader intones a refrain that will be used throughout the song. As soon as the refrain gets going, the leader then inserts phrases between repetitions of the refrain and an entire piece comes to life. An example from recent worship at St. John's is the negro spiritual "Amen" in which the congregational part is simply the word "Amen" sung to a lively rhythm. The song leader inserts verses such as "See the little baby."
      Fr. Schell comments that, "Such singing is immediately relational. Singers trust and follow the leader into the music. It's a different cognitive activity from reading and uses different parts of our brain from reading and synthesizing notes to melody. In traditional singing we are collaborating with one another the moment we open our mouths, following a leader, yet taking initiative and supporting each other."
      The “paperless music” concept is not intended to replace written music. Far from it! We need written music in order to sing multi-verse hymns, for choirs to sing polyphonic (multi-voiced) works and to perform music that is long and varied. But “paperless music” does have the edge over printed music in that we can skip the problem of interpreting what all the written symbols on the page mean. In a typical choir rehearsal one starts by looking at a page of music and then turning it into the musical idea it represents. Symbols become sounds. With “paperless music” sounds are immediately shared between the leader and the singers.      But printed music does something else that isn't always desirable in church: it isolates us. We have little eye contact with each other when our heads are buried in a hymnal. We also probably don't listen to each other as much when we are dependent on the printed word. We're too busy. We're "looking at two different languages" (the words and the notes). Fr. Schell adds, "People who enjoy reading music and are good at it can take pleasure in this multi-dimensional shape recognition, simultaneous abstraction and synthesis in two different modes of thinking, and interpretation. In recent times the challenge of this double-reading system has also drawn a harder line between musicians and non-musicians, singers and non-singers. Self-described non-musicians and non-singers are generally people who can't sight read. How do we get them to venture in? to begin singing? How does the church welcome their voices (and their music)? How can the church help them free the God-given music in their hearts? People today still want to sing, even those who call themselves non-singers. Non-singers hope something could replace what they can't do with a freedom and renewed desire to sing, and where better than in church?"
     There are different forms of "paperless music." Here the most common types as cited in Emily M.D. Scott's introduction entitled "Singing Paperless Music in Your Congregation." I've added examples from recent services at St. John's:
     
Simple Melody: We already know the doxology by heart ("Praise God from whom all blessings flow.")
Echo: The cantor (song leader) sings a phrase and the congregation sings it back. Example: "The disciples knew the Lord Jesus" we sing before communion. Round: Mozart's lovely and simple "Alleluia" has been sung at communion.
Call and response: "Amen" mentioned above.
Layered: Taize chant that we've sung at communion creates an ongoing musical line that then has other melodies added on top of it by cantors or a choir. We've done several of these from Wonder, Love & Praise.
     
     So how will this come to fruition at St. John.s? We.ll need to be brave enough to try singing something without having it in the hymnal or the bulletin. The only rule will be "Do not be afraid!" (We are fortunate to have that reminder in the stained glass window behind the altar!) For the musicians among us, put away judgment and be willing to allow lots of repetition! Look at each other! If you're comfortable making up a harmony, do it! Others may soon join in. When we do this the music is a sonic icon for community building.