"Our church won't do any songs over a year old..."
Then write better songs. If you're sick of it after a year, it was never good enough. A tweet from worship leader Aaron Keyes, 20 September, 2013 Part 1—What If There Were Less New Worship Songs? Every time I go to select the music my church will sing during worship there is one simple question lurking behind every decision: I wonder if people will still be singing this song in a hundred years?
And so Jesus, in answering the question "Who is the greatest?", said to his disciples "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all," and then another time, referring to those who are worthy of following him, he said "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Mark 9:35 and Matthew 10:39)
Christians have come to see the above contradictory statements as true not merely because their Lord said it to them, but because within the perplexing contradictions there is indeed great truth. This perplexity is the beauty and mystery of paradox, of two contradictory ideas coming together to form a greater truth, to reveal greater mystery. Some paradoxes consist merely of frustrating mind games which lead nowhere, but paradoxes of any worth lead us to greater heights, despite any initial confusion they may cause. So in the case of Jesus' latter paradox above, the only way to find our true life while on earth is to lose our lives entirely, only to be found in Christ. Thus, in giving up everything, we gain true life. This is the aim of my series Worship in Full Spectrum: to find truths within the paradoxes of the Church's worship and its worship music. Or perhaps my aim is to create paradoxes about worship and worship music in order to lead us to a greater understanding of it. My belief is we will arrive at the greatest truths by simultaneously embracing concepts that seem to contradict each other, that in order to be what we want to be we will have to become its (seeming) opposite.
Last week I shared about some new music I have been listening. This post is a closer examination of one of the songs I linked to.
A few months ago I found out about a worship leader (lead worshipper, song leader, praise and worship artist, church music leader [pick your title]) named Aaron Keyes. The first song I heard from him was "Sovereign Over Us," a tender and powerful song whose lyrics delicately balanced acknowledging our suffering as people (making it in some sense a song of lament) while also fully giving God his place as being "sovereign over" the trials of life, that God works all things ultimately to his glory (making it a song of both intimate and transcendent praise). In the same way, the music of the particular version I heard (recorded live for his project In The Living Room) matched the lyrics perfectly. The music starts slowly and builds throughout but never to the point where it overwhelms. Instead the music is always inviting the worshippers in, allowing them to sing it themselves and make the song their own. As are the lyrics, so is the music tender and its a tenderness that brings strength and healing.
In other words the text and arrangement match. They complement each other. The song would not work as a loud or quick-tempoed arrangement. It would not work if the instruments were not sparse. It would not work if it built up too much so that it became overbearing.
It would appear though in recording the song for the studio album on which the song in contained Keyes and his producers (one of them being Stu G. from Deliriou5?) thought differently. Here is that version of "Sovereign Over Us" from his album Dwell:
Did your heart rate increase steadily? Did you wish it was slower, or did you like the fact that it was so fast you had no time to contemplate the lyrics? Did you wish the piano was not playing that agitated many noted riff throughout most of the song? Did you like the drum beat which seemed like it was constantly trying to throw us off balance? Did you find yourself actually feeling the stress and burden the song was attempting--according to the lyrics--to lift off us, instead of the peace and sovereignty of God? Taken by itself, there is nothing wrong with the music--I like intensity--but the music paired with those lyrics simply will not work--they are antithetical to each other, constantly pulling against each other, negating each others' intent. The live version of the song has been crafted to be sung by people in a congregation; it intends to slow them down and bring them to a place where they are both contemplating and actually dwelling in God's presence. The studio version was meant to be a radio-ready product.
