On the Unifying Power of Singing
and musings on resonance
What’s good everyone,
My new single When Souls Cry Out is now on Bandcamp, and today Bandcamp is donating 100% of its proceeds to help artists in LA impacted by the fires. Thank you for all the ways you support music - it is never taken for granted.
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This week I was at Calvin College for the yearly Calvin Institute of Christian Worship symposium. It is an excellent conference about the ongoing public worship life of faith communities. The seamless blending of jazz performance, gospel music, and provocative academic presentations, I experienced a deep sense of belonging. There were two outstanding moments I wanted to share with you.
Dynamic Stabilization v. Resonance
In a session on worship life in the secular age, Dr. Andrew Root analyzed the problematic of acceleration in modern life. He turned to sociologist Hartmut Rosa who argues in his tome Resonance that all of our institutions - religious and non-religious - are socialized to grow at breakneck, unending speed in order to stay attractive, competitive, and stable. We make money and commodities in order to make more money and more commodities. Rosa calls this dynamic stabilization. Such breakneck speed leads to self-alienated and depressed institutions, where its members are too burned out to choose health. Neither the earth nor our bodies can sustain this kind of eternal growth.
We can, however, stabilize our institutions in other ways, such as choosing resonance. Resonance requires going slow enough to really connect with other people and with a moment. Acceleration destroys connection whereas resonance builds it. (To be sure, I am not doing this concept of resonance much justice, but I wanted to offer at least a quick shorthand of his response to the problem of acceleration.)
I had heard of Rosa and this argument, but found it helpful to hear again for two reasons:
First, it is an important way to think about music as a contemplative practice. Our bodies turn sound into music when the sound waves vibrate in our ear drums in a discernible pattern. If sound flies by us too quickly, we don’t have the time to process it as music, it may just remain noise. We need enough time with the sound entering our bodies for it to be recognized as music. This may feel like a heady concept, but it is in fact a very embodied one, ha.
I also appreciated hearing this message again about resonance during this period of Trump’s dizzying issuing (and rescinding) of executive orders here in his second term. He won in part because he promised to grow our economy, and people believed him, and now chaos is ensuing. The federal government is modeling a pace of change that underscores the deleterious effects of acceleration. We will do well to notice Trump’s practice of overwhelm and resist. (NYT columnist Ezra Klein offers helpful perspective on the strategy, and problem, of Trump’s pacing.)
Singing in the Choir
This morning I had the glorious opportunity to sing in a choir again. I haven’t done so in years, because normally I’m the one directing or playing for the choir. But I attended a session led by the living Gospel legend Dr. Raymond Wise about singing gospel music, and he had us all sing together in a choir.
Having been engaged in contemplative practices for the last few years such as centering prayer, I entered this moment of singing in a new way. I have heard many say how singing in a choir connects you to humanity, and today I felt it. Today I felt the similar feeling of being connected to all of humanity like I do when I engage in deep meditative prayer with others.
But I also felt deep pride in how the Black church had gifted the world a tradition of singing that brings transmutes suffering into joy, beauty, and hope. Gospel music, as Dr. Wise noted, is becoming increasingly respected in academic institutions, which is significant because historically it has often been devalued by both White and Black institutions of higher learning has being inferior to other kinds of music, particularly classical.
I’ve studied Gospel music academically and teach on it through Notes of Rest, but it’s wholly different to be led as a vocal member of a group. In a way, that reminded me of a lesson that God has been working out in me through silent retreats: the importance of sometimes just being part of a group and not standing out.
Being part of a communal group was a new musical muscle to work out as a pianist because often I am playing a part that nobody else ever doubles. The way I have to blend with others is usually through playing supportive chords that I choose, be it on the bandstand or for a congregation singing. But in a choir, there is no spotlight on your individualized creativity. To the contrary, your strength comes from blending in and following specific instructions.
Singing in a choir today reminded me of one reason I so enjoy singing in a congregation at church. It is good cross-training for a performer like me, because it reminds me of the humble role that I play around the throne of God. In biblical scenery of heavenly singing, the writers’ imagination focuses on the collective praising God in one voice (e.g,. Isaiah 6 when the cherubim and seraphim cry “holy, holy, holy,” or Luke 2 when the heavenly host says “glory to God in the highest.”) Of course, I don’t get too hung up on whether we’ll all actually be standing for all eternity singing four-part harmony (how British, ha!). The point is, rather, to focus on the unitive nature of adoring God in song.
One reason I mourn church decline is because it means humans are singing less together in large numbers. Yes we sing at concerts, but that’s often a privilege for those with discretionary income. Yes we sing at weddings and funerals, but that might just be a song or two and often on an infrequent basis. Religious gatherings are one of the few places in society - if not the only - where people consistently gather to sing as a group (and oftentimes a group that includes strangers) and for free. Lord, revive us again.
On what occasions do you sing with others, and who does that connect you to?
May the music get down in your soul, resonating with you and with those you love. May God inhabit our praises as we resist the disconnection thrust upon us by sin, death and satan. Come Lord Jesus.
abundantly,
Julian
P.S. Here’s a live version of Moan and Mercy We Need that vocalist and bandmate Tramaine Parker and I did last week at a show in Chicago. Tramaine BECAME. A. VESSEL. I almost stopped playing.
What’s Next
Feb 8 Notes of Rest at Yale Divinity School Black Church Studies (Private, Madison, CT)
Feb 9 Notes of Rest at Dominican University (Private, La Grange Park, IL)
Feb 14 w/ Denise Thimes at Winter’s Jazz Club (Chicago)
Feb 22-23 Black Contemplative Prayer Summit - Notes of Rest on Feb 23 (Virtual)
Feb 23 Notes of Rest at West End UMC & TheoEd Talk (both in Nashville)
Feb 26 w/ Thaddeus Tukes at City Hall (Chicago)
Mar 7-8 Circle of Trust & Notes of Rest at Princeton Theological Seminary
Mar 12 The JuJu Exchange at Promontory (Chicago)