As I watch the evolution of Christian music (can you say "evolution" and "Christian music" in the same sentence?) I see a trend where all contemporary praise and worship seems to want to turn men into women. Praise groups and gospel choirs have little use for men who actually sound like men. We're not quite to the point where male choir members are required to be neutered, but we're not far away.
What does that mean? Let me give you an example of a recent situation. We had visited a church that had the obligatory loud praise band, but the music pastor announced that they wanted to have a choir for Easter. That kind of intrigued my wife and I. She loves singing good choir music and I can tolerate it if it's got a good bass part.
We sent a note to the music pastor and ask what type of music they were going to do for Easter. He wrote back that they would be doing contemporary gospel choir songs, and sorry, they don't use bass singers. If I could sing an F or G above Middle C I'd be okay.
Well, if I could sing those notes I wouldn't be a bass singer. We declined.
I'm not a tenor or even a baritone. I'm a true bass, and with the right head cold I can hit notes only dogs can hear. Even without the cold I can get down there and rattle the building pretty well with the right sound system. Don't believe me? Here you go.
For 35 years I've been part of gospel quartets and have watched audiences react to bass singers, not only myself but my dad or others we sang with. They love that stuff. You just don't hear those kind of voices everyday. Why do you think the audience goes crazy when Richard Sterban of the Oak Ridge Boys goes "Oom-pa-pa mau-mau" on Elvira?
In addition to quartet work I've been asked on rare occasions to sing some low bass in front of thousands of people at a very contemporary church where they never hear that stuff. The audience goes nuts. After the service or concert lots of people stop me to tell me how much they like the low bass singing. I've even gotten stopped in stores and restaurants by people who remember me singing bass at the church.
I'm not saying all this to toot my horn, but to demonstrate that there's a demand for certain kinds of vocal harmony out there that rarely gets met in church these days.
Contemporary praise and worship music, including gospel choirs, now pretty much has only three parts - Soprano, Alto and Eunuch. I've stood on stage and watched the men in gospel choirs turn red with the veins popping out in their neck while they try and hit notes most men shouldn't be hitting. And anyone who sings can tell you that when you're reaching for a note at the top of your range and being told to sing it loudly (another frequent requirement of gospel choirs) there's more yelling going on than singing.
Sadly, much of what's done in gospel choirs today consists of three-part yelling. It's all about the volume, energy and emotion and not so much about musical quality. The higher and louder, the better.
We've lost the vocal foundation of our songs. Men with deep voices have become irrelevant in modern contemporary Christian music and I hate to see that, not only for myself, but for many other guys whose baritone or bass voices just don't fit the vocal demands of what passes for church music today. Yes, I'm getting older and the songs I grew up on are now relegated to "Traditional" services where I'd be the youngest guy in the room, but the quality of the harmony and lyrics is simply unmatched.
I really hate seeing Christian music become a genre where men are unwelcome unless they can sing like girls. The younger generations coming up are missing a lot of great music and powerful harmonies.
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12 comments:
This post is so right. My hubs and I can't stand the stuff that passes as Christian music these days. We love listening to the Gaithers on the dish.
As I've mentioned before, these songs will not be around for hundreds of years like the hymns of old.
BTW, I love listening to the bass parts. We got to hear the Oak Ridge boys last year at our county fair. It was packed!
I, too, long for good bass singing. Even the Gaithers (since the passing of George Younce in 2003) have come to RARELY feature good bass singing anymore.
And in the local churches here in Central Illinois, perish the thought of finding someone willing to ALLOW a bass singer on stage.
Being only 20-years old, I, too, am found left out to dry in the "Traditional" services, but gosh! I LOVE this music!
Rick, very good commentary. I have just about come to the point of staying home on Sunday and enjoying Church In The Home, or as some would call it- The Electronic Church. I am sick, sick, sick of this junk they call Contemporary Christian Music. There is rarely any musical score utilized, it's all just about melody, very little harmony, and if you haven't studied music or sung music from a musical score no one has a clue what to sing other than something like the melody, and often that in itself is all screwed up. Then there are the words. You rarely ever here a song about the Blood, Heaven, the Holy Spirit, etc. These are just feel good ditties which lead to a lot of hype by the director. When you come to a point in your life that you go through severe trials these little choruses rarely give you any help like the older hymns which have substance to their verse. Then there is the 4 part harmony....it's been years since I've even heard this type of wonderful harmony sung by a church congregation, why, even the Hymnbooks are no longer used so a person can't even see the musical score, all you get is the words to some little chorus, and then they often have colored lights or some moving picture background on the screen so you can hardly make out the words. I guess about all we can say is, Thank God for some of the Good Old Days!
I have a recommendation -- but it's a tough one: sing Bach.
Talk about traditional, and Bach has real bass parts back from the days when men were men and women were women.
You want the BWV numbers?
Someone once said that those who marry the spirit of this age are destined to be a widow in the next.
Just give it time Rick. The singing pansies will fall out of favor, and your resonating voice will be in demand again, in any venue.
It's just too bad Christians are so dopey.
Thanks for a great post. As a former Christian Worship Leader at the church I too miss the old gospel songs. Nobody wants hymns anymore but they have such a story to tell. Hopefully there will be more gospel groups that love harmony coming along.
Sharron from Christian Praise Blog
Completely on target. Fortunately I have found a church with great music... they have the contemporary service... then a later one for those of us that like hymns. You can't beat southern gospel though.
Are you what used to be called a "basso profundo" or something like that?
Can you tell me the names of some CD's (yours or anybody else's) that have tracks featuring the bass voice?
Larry - Basso profundo is more an operatic voice than mine, but I do okay. If you go to this page: Crimson River Quartet on YouTube and look for these songs you'll get an idea: Echoes From the Burning Bush, Thanks to Calvary, Plan of Salvation, Going Home...just to name a few.
All of our CDs feature some low bass stuff. You can find the CDs here: Crimson River Quartet Online
Thanks--If my wife has not confiscated my credit card I'll order some.
I like quartets (i can't carry a tune if it has handles, but I like to listen).
When I was younger there was an organization in Glendale (don't remember the name but trying to pronounce the acronym made you sound like Sylvester The Cat) that produced shows pretty regularly.
I renumber one quartet (don't remember the name) that had a very short, little man that stood on the stage right and sang in the richest bass, while the man on the other end of the line--a huge man (not fat, just big) sang tenor (and alto).
I also like big choirs--we used to listen to the Mormon choir every morning on the radio (I don't remember if we could hear KSL in the day time if KFI or somebody carried the program.
Have you seen the video of the boys choir singing "Meow"? (No bass, but I just though of it again.)
http://interesting-weird-educational-videos.blogspot.com/2010/02/catalunia-catholic-boys-choir-sing-meow.html
In the Watchman Tracks you sound like somebody from deep in the memory--Gene Autry?
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