Praise the Lord and Pass the Immolation

Praise the Lord and Pass the Immolation

By Anne Kilstofte
We’re sinking to new lows in terms of trying to appease listeners in a sacred space.

Written By

Anne Kilstofte

Radiance. The lusciousness of that word. Doesn’t it sound wonderful, especially in regard to sacred music? But I have found that in sacred music, it has little to do with the kind of radiance to which I’m referring. We have a lot of churches out here in the Southwest, the “feel good” churches (yes, I know they’re everywhere) that do not want to offend, that offer a million, ok, only a few thousand support groups, and a “feel good” ministry. People put little decals for their churches on the back window of their cars to show off their affiliation—that they’re part of the cool, radiant crowd.

Unfortunately, this radiance doesn’t translate to the music that is offered. Yes, we have new music. Yes, it has a message. While we were just talking about mediocre music a month ago, this music not only raises the decibel level, it raises the mediocrity level right with it. But it must be good, because it’s supposed to make the listener “feel good.”

I’m going to take a shot as to how I think this music could be better. First of all, we’re sinking to new lows in terms of trying to appease listeners in a sacred space. That includes the form, structure, and sound in general. Can’t it be musically interesting as well as listener-friendly? Secondly—and many musicians have found themselves in this unenviable position—after years of specialized training, musicians are receiving mandates to make the music more people-friendly (translated in this case as dumbing down the music so that listeners can appreciate it).

I think this is one of the few “new music niches” where mediocrity is actually something people are trying to achieve—and it is not being led necessarily by musicians, but by the politics. If you aren’t getting the people, there must be something wrong with the music. If you want more money or a bigger church, then play plenty of rock or pop music.

We are actually losing good musicians over the fact that they are now forced to lead a praise band—a small rock group of sorts—along with the other music that they play (the music they were trained to perform and conduct). This is added to what these musicians already do, while understaffed and underpaid. And it has very little to do with many of us composers and what we are doing—the types of pieces that we are writing are for choirs, acoustical ensembles, pipe organ and taking into consideration the use of acoustics with our training. So, we are losing good musicians to poor music, and with it the very people who would choose to program the kind of music that we would write. Praise the Lord and pass the immolation.

If you don’t want to talk about God, then here’s a little sample of a piece from a poem by Carl Sandburg, “For You.”