Music at Emmanuel reminds and challenges us to make of our lives an offering, not a performance. – a parishioner’s comment
Our cantata season runs from September to May. During this time, our ensemble-in-residence, world-renowned Emmanuel Music, offers sacred music by Bach, Schütz, Mendelssohn, and others including motets written expressly for us by living composers such as John Harbison and the late James Primosch. Recordings can be found on our Youtube page. During the cantata season, please see Emmanuel Music’s schedule for notes, translations, and other details. From May to September our Chapel Choir, comprised of both professional and volunteer singers, offers its musical gifts to the service. See also History of Music at Emmanuel.
Emmanuel Church has become known for our Bach cantatas, which started more than 40 years ago, and music is essential to our worship and the life of our community. After all, there are places along a spiritual journey that only music can go. For both the musicians and the congregation, the music is not just a performance but an offering and an invitation to go deeper into the mystery of the divine. In her reflection on the oldest Bach cantata (BWV 14) Emmanuel Music’s communications intern Claudia Dorian says:
Bach is a Cantor, leading the congregation in lessons through text and music. He is no longer relegated to four strings, instead he is reaching his hands into every instrument and voice, and wrapping their sound around the entire sanctuary.
The contributions of Emmanuel Music do not stop with the cantata. Our talented choristers support the congregation in singing hymns and service music. They physically join worshippers by singing the Gospel hymn from both side aisles of the nave. A cantor often leads the congregation in the Kyrie and the Fraction Anthem. The musical offerings of Emmanuel Music are interwoven into our whole service.
During our summer months, when we worship in the splendid Leslie Lindsey Chapel, Emmanuel Music is in recess, and our Chapel Choir supplies music for the liturgy. This non-auditioned, non-robed choir made up of talented volunteers from the congregation learns an anthem every Sunday before the 10AM service. New members are always welcome, but they need some experience with choral music. Please contact John Dilworth [organist@emmanuelchurch.org] if you are interested in singing. The Chapel Choir also participates in other services throughout the year including Maundy Thursday and the first Sunday after Christmas.
At the heart and soul of our music program are Ryan Turner, Music Director of Emmanuel Church and Artistic Director of Emmanuel Music, and John Dilworth, Organist and Chapel Choir Director. They meet with our rector to choose music that resonates with the liturgical message for the service. Please read this interview with Ryan Turner to learn more about his approach to musical programming.
Interview with Ryan Turner
Ryan turner is the Music Director of Emmanuel Church and Artistic Director of Emmanuel Music. The following interview was conducted by Rebecca Lightcap, a member of Emmanuel Church and writer for our Communications Commission.
What are your favorite musical moments in the service? When the music and the service are working well together, what is happening? When the orchestra processes up for the cantata, it reinforces the idea that this music is an offering more than a performance. And I also like that there is no applause after the cantata. It frames the cantata in a way that is meditative. It’s easier to absorb the experience and prepare myself for it. (B) When I first started here, I wanted the comfort of the service music always being the same. Pam helped me understand that changing things up helps to please more people over time. I do like embracing a single style for service music through a liturgical season.
What do you hope to achieve each week when you sit down to prepare the chorus? Does it vary from week to week? Personnel can vary quite a bit from week to week. An enjoyable challenge is choosing motets with the singers in mind. My goal is to offer to the congregation a product of the highest quality and musical integrity. There is an intentionality and a commitment to the text. I hope to encourage the singers, regardless of their own personal spirituality, to present the text and the music in a way that leads to more questions for the listener. I want the congregation to either be moved or to ask more questions – listening and engaging at a deeper level.
What is your process for preparing the music for the service each week? Does it vary? What are the considerations for making connections between the hymns, the scripture, the motet, and the cantata? The readings and cantata are in dialogue with each other. Bach composed his cantatas based on an early 18th-century Lutheran lectionary that had a one-year cycle. It’s challenging that EMI is in recess between May and September.
How is the cantata schedule determined? What informs your decisions? I try to get through all 200 sacred cantatas. The more cantatas I encounter, the more I realize one truly does not understand Bach until all the cantatas have been studied. My hope is to have conducted all of them by the spring of 2020, just in time for Emmanuel Music’s 50th anniversary and our trip to the BachFest in Leipzig. First I consult the lectionary, then my “Bach Bible”, a comprehensive text by Melvin Unger, which catalogues and cross-references all of the scriptural references in each cantata (both direct references and paraphrases). I am also informed by budgetary constraints and at times, personnel availability. I plan all cantatas, even if a guest conductor will be here. I, of course, consult with our rector, Pamela Werntz, who is an especially creative resource when it comes to planning cantatas that do not fall within the Revised Common Lectionary!
Do you get feedback about the music? Does the feedback influence your decisions? Yes, I do; most feedback is encouraging. One year we suspended Bach cantatas for Lent, and the feedback was critical. We decided not to do that again.
How is the experience of offering music in the context of worship different from your experience of performing music in a concert hall? Is this important? If so, how? Does the experience of ending in silence differ from that of ending to applause? Cantatas are meant for worship, not the concert stage. Celebratory or secular cantatas work well in concert.
How has music shaped your spiritual journey and your views on music and spirituality? Which shaped which? There’s a means by which one can encounter faith and spirituality through music. Sometimes music provides a “back door” to encounter spirituality. Music can be the path to spirituality when you’re not expecting it. Conveying the text with a sense of commitment and intentionality. Music helps you transcend the contradictions of the Bible, helps you focus on the result rather than the details that can be huge obstacles to belief. You don’t need an immediate understanding, because there’s a visceral effect.
What else would you like me to know? I am first a father and husband, then a conductor, then come my hobbies – running (I’m a marathoner), gardening, and working on my old house. I’m a man of faith. Revisiting music after you’ve conducted it numerous times gives new perspectives; it’s like peeling an onion. I feel very fortunate that we as a parish and as a community of musicians get to do this every week. There’s a unity of purpose and a constant awareness of the blessings that we have in being able to do this type of music for believers and non-believers who appreciate the music, and I even have a rector who supports the effort.