Blending old and new music

We are a confessional, 2nd LBC (1689), reformed baptist church. One can safely assume we love to sing old hymns. Toplady, Kent, Watts, Gadsby, Cowper, Bonar, etc. We love to sing new hymns, too. Carson, Kauflin, Dudley-Smith, Clarkson, Getty, Townend, Kendrick, Boice, etc. And we love to sing the psalms (usually newer settings). This is who we are. We are happy being this way!

We also want our music to be consciously missional -- as we are able, to sing in the musical vernacular of our culture. I don't want folks having to walk through a musical time-machine when they come to our services. So we also love to sing 'contemporary' worship songs (long list here)...


You might call our music style "blended piano-driven" -- piano, synth, acoustic guitar & bass, djembe, violin and other inst. sometimes. It wouldn't be accurate to call what we do "guitar-driven pop style." We're much more acoustic than that. (Though I wouldn't mind....)

I'm not talking here about singing hymns (anything old & from the blue book) vs. choruses (new stuff). That's an inaccurate distinction anyway (many of our hymns are new, and most contemporary worship songs today can't be called "choruses."). No, I'm talking about the sound of our music. How do we blend old and new styles in the same set or service?

Part of the answer is just old-fashioned work. It takes time to be sure the flow continues through the set without interruption. We can and do sing hymns (old and new) in an older manner -- one has to be careful where to place them in the set, to be careful the style contrasts aren't too sudden from one song to the next. [Tech-speak: by "older manner" I mean songs having frequent and complex chord changes, piano leading with melody, no/almost no guitar, little percussion.]

The flow between songs is critical to removing distractions in worship. We just can't bump from one good song to the next w/o thinking through key and tempo changes, style contrasts, instrumentation, etc. I am convinced that we need to give as much attention to transitions as we do the songs themselves.

But another part of the answer is something we've begun doing this year -- downloading hymns settings arranged in a 'contemporary' style. Hymns with a new hair-do! Singing 'classic' hymns in a way that sounds current. I've been getting our songs (1 or 2 per week) from lifewayworship.com -- the Southern Baptist development of their new hymnal. There are other sources,too (see Don Chapman at hymncharts.com).

So this last Sunday, when we sang "Holy, holy, holy," it fit right into the set. It was a classic hymn in a contemporary setting -- we got into it easily from "The gospel is true" and went from it easily into "How great is our God." Isn't downloading songs expensive? On average, I'm spending about $7 per lifewayworship arrangement, I think I can justify the expense.

Why download music:
1. We're blending our hymn heritage (old & new) into a more contemporary style. Our musicians and I need help in learning how to play hymns in a contemporary sound.
2. Our instruments (synth, guitars, percussion, violin, others) can't play from a hymnal (designed for voices, piano, organ).
3. I want our rich hymn history arranged for our music team -- a both/and approach (so we can do both 'traditional' and 'contemporary' versions). This isn't about never singing again in an older style -- it is a matter of now having a choice.
4. The music we download we own. These are one-time purchases!
5. These are internet downloads -- so we save enormously from purchasing pre-printed music arrangement books.
6. Many favorable comments so far.
7. Couldn't I arrange these songs myself? I suppose -- if I had the time. But I don't. I work without pay. And it's hard to increase the 15+ hours I already spend outside of our services. Full disclosure: downloading these arrangements does make it easier for me.

I'd be interested in your thoughts!