MESSY MASS LISTEN HERE: MUSICAL LITURGY FOR YAGM BY NATE CRARY. goo.gl/nsqe9x

Transcription

1 MESSY MASS LISTEN HERE: MUSICAL LITURGY FOR YAGM BY NATE CRARY goo.gl/nsqe9x

2 MESSY MASS: Notes About Nothing I wrote this musical liturgy from a very personal place, as it provided me a medium to acknowledge, process, embrace, and respond to my context at the time of writing it. Most of the music came to me (as cliché as that sounds) while waiting for the daily drama of my 7 th grade Palestinian guitar students to simmer down on Tuesday afternoons. We re talking lots of down time alone in an echoey classroom. Most of the lyrical ideas came out of reflections from reading George S. Johnson s Beyond Guilt. I only wrote music. I think spoken parts (readings, prayers, homily, what have you) could be interspersed throughout the music portions, but that s not my forte. I welcome any suggestions or creative input to fill out the liturgy. Currently, this liturgy only has a 28 waist and is wearing a 42 belt. Picture the reverse of a Jenny Craig commercial. Someone needs to get it a hamburger! In general, I write lyrics or text for music using pretty ambiguous language or phrases. I did this intentionally in specific places in this liturgy to encourage individual interpretation to come from the people singing it. I think writing liturgy or worship music is tricky when considering its point. A friend told me once that a friend told him once that liturgy is the people s active participation in worshipping God. I really like that. So, in order to create a space where people can actively participate, which most obviously to me means singing, speaking, moving, standing, sitting, reading, or listening while finding a personal connection with the text, I used some ambiguous language. I also like to blend old with the new, as I think the active participation in worshipping God, whether we like it or not, connects us to everyone who is worshipping now and everyone who has worshipped in the past, remaining relevant to our current contexts while responding to the past. Liturgy transcends place and time! WOW! I tried to use some older framework, like the Kyrie, Gloria, and Agnus Dei to support this brand new music s connection to its sacred roots. Musically, I tried to stick to basic music theory rules of singable melody and harmony. From my worship/music leading experience, brand new music that is difficult to sing can discourage and frustrate people, leading participants away from a meaningful worship experience. If all people do is worry about singing the right notes, then they ll probably have a hard time worshipping. From what I remember about music theory, singable melodies are ones with notes that rarely (if ever) fall outside of the chord supporting it at the time, and include notes that do not travel over great or awkward intervals (bigger than a third, augmented or diminished) from one step to the next. Also, I greatly considered syllabic stress and placement, as well as melodic line and onomatopoeia, when molding the lyrics and melodies together. The chords and chord progressions I used draw from basic pop and blues music principles. I won t qualify that statement with any solid proof or examples, so just trust me. If you are wondering who influenced me musically during this project, those artists include Eustace the Dragon, Chris Koza, Nate Houge, Holly Hansen, Marty Haugen, Jay Beech, and Brian DeRemer. Most of them have a Minnesota connection! ALL TEXT & MUSIC WRITTEN BY NATE CRARY COPYRIGHT

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