2020-07-19T12:09:42Ztag:sursumcorda.salemsattic.com,2018:/isso/thread/post/christian-reflectionstag:sursumcorda.salemsattic.com,2018:/isso/1475/49652020-07-19T12:09:42ZSursumCorda<p>Absolutely. And if anything could make it worse for church music, it's this pandemic. Much of Switzerland has opened up, and they still can't sing in church. We can sing, but only with masks on. No choirs at all. Solos and small groups are okay if they are 12 feet away from anyone else. They can sing without a masks if they wear them at all other times. Instrumentalists, however, must wear masks at ALL times—I'm guessing we're not going to have oboes, trumpets, or flutes any time soon.</p> <p>And the congregation is back to your experiences in England: There are no longer any hymnals nor prayer books, but everything is in the bulletin. Correction, not everything: there is no music, only text. And musician that I am, I cannot deduce notes from words.</p>tag:sursumcorda.salemsattic.com,2018:/isso/1475/49642020-07-17T18:53:23ZKathy Lewis<p>I didn't understand Lewis' view of church music until I attended church services in England. The congregation had hymnals containing only the words, so they had no clue often what they should be singing. Even someone with very little knowledge of musical notation can learn to recognize when a particular word gets two notes, so they don't jump to the next word too soon. Unfortunately, most American churches are now doing the same thing, and lots of people just listen and don't even try to sing along. I only too late learned to appreciate the music in the church I grew up in, where we were all given the full four-part harmony in our pew hymnals.</p>