Second, about the settings themselves:
Setting 1 is a compilation of music by: Mark Mummert, Robert Buckley Farlee, and Thom Pavlechko.
Setting 2 is composed by Marty Haugen. You may recognize his name as the composer of Gather Us In and As the Grains of Wheat, among others.
Settings 3 and 4 are well-known, having been sung in LCM for decades. They are the first two settings in the LBW. We sing both of them several times a year.
Setting 5 is less familiar, but has a much larger Lutheran pedigree. It is actually Setting 2 out of the “Old Red Book” (Service Book and Hymnal), and the only setting to have passed on through all three hymnals. It is based on old Swedish Lutheran liturgical tunes. If you know much Scandinavian music, you will know that a lot of it is in minor keys and is serious sounding. The hymn “Built on a Rock” is a good example of this minor mode Scandinavian music—serious but not sad. People often mistakenly equate minor keys with sadness. (but consider all the joyous Israeli folk tunes like Siman Tov and Mazel Tov or Havah Nagilah—all in minor modes). Setting 5 is, however, solemn, and so it is most often used in Lent and during the end of the church year, from All Saints through Christ the King.
Setting 6 includes music brought forward from This Far by Faith, our church’s African American worship book. Most of this music is in a Gospel style.
Setting 7 includes music brought forward from Libro de Liturgia y Cántico, our church’s Spanish language worship book. Both English and Spanish are included for all sung texts. Trying at least a little Spanish encourages all assemblies to experience the unity and some of the diversity of the church.
Setting 8 includes music from a variety of composers, all in contemporary musical styles. The Kyrie comes from Dakota Road, a Lutheran band in South Dakota.
Setting 9 is by Joel Martinson and was composed for the Renewing Worship Songbook.
Setting 10: We had the opportunity to experience this setting in 2016 during the season following Pentecost called Ordinary Time. All of the liturgical texts are paraphrases in simple metric form and, as you probably noticed, set to familiar hymn tunes.
In Advent we are learned Setting one and have now returned to the more familiar setting three for the Christmas and Epiphany seasons. The next setting change will happen as we enter into the season of Lent. (setting four) If you are in church and struggling to learn a new setting, please know that it is a normal process to learn these tunes over time. If you walk into a church with the congregation singing a setting they have sung for 30 years and everyone knows it by memory, you will be supported all around you and it is simple to be swept along. If the church is undertaking to add less familiar settings, there will of course be a learning curve. This is normal. But it is not possible to learn anything without going at it time and time again. How many times do we tell this to our own children who are struggling with a new musical instrument, struggling to learn to read, to do math problems, to learn a language, or anything else new? We don’t expect to learn quality things instantaneously. We know they take work, which will be rewarded with knowledge and skill.
Luther elevated the singing of the people in worship. He gave them hymns to sing, and intended that their voices carry the liturgy. The Lutheran approach to music in the service is to have it carry the Word of God, which is a serious endeavor, and deserving of everything we put into it.
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