The Importance of Chant

I went to disputatio today at NSA to hear Dr. David R. Erb--from Trinity Church in Kirkland Washington, a Reformed evangelical church--who is candidating for being NSA's new music professor and choir director. My first concern was whether there would be enough work at Christ Church for Mark Reagan to stay in town. Fortunately, there will be. If Erb is hired then Mark will focus on training the congregation. And if I know Mark, he will probably use the lighter workload to further pursue his education.

Anyway, this Erb guy seems like a good sport. He even came out to play at NSA basketball game. Erb spoke about chants, something very foreign to the vast majority of contemporary American churches, yet something integral to the Christian tradition. American church music today, stylistically speaking, is a no-man’s-land. It has no distinguishable features to relate it to the great tradition of western sacred music or even the music of the early church. However, one thing that all sacred music has had in common through the centuries, whether that of the early Christian synagogues or that of the medieval churches and monasteries, is chant. Chanting the psalms more directly connects the congregation with scripture than do most “praise choruses” and liturgical chants allow the service to proceed by singing, which is more glorious than just speaking. Erb began his talk by quoting Zephania 3:14-17.

(14)Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. (15)The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. (16)In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. (17)The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

God not only commands us to sing, but He himself sings about us. Thus, singing is extremely important for those who would be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Historically, Christian services were often entirely composed of singing. The creeds were sung. Scripture as well was chanted, not merely read, and even sermons were chanted. Martyn Loyd-Jones was the last of the Scottish sermon chanters.

Erb would like to see a revival of chant, not in the same way it was sung during the Middle Ages, but new renditions of the Psalms, which may be half sung and half chanted. We need to draw on the chants when putting the Psalms to music and knowing them will also make the music of the masters (Bach and Mozart and Durufle, etc.) much more relevant and understandible.

This is certainly not a perfect summary of what Dr. Erb said; nevertheless, I thought he was compelling. My guess is that they'll probably hire him.