A Middle Way
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Come O Spirit! An Anthology of Hymns and Spiritual Songs |
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Salvation is Created |
Conscientious objectors to the worship wars seek a way through the minefield of organs and choirs, drums and amplifiers. One such objector is Bifrost Arts, a nonprofit organization founded by creative director Isaac Wardell and executive director Joseph Pensak. With a vision for innovation, beauty, and songs that draw worshipers to participate in singing, Bifrost has released its first two albums, Come O Spirit! An Anthology of Hymns and Spiritual Songs and Salvation Is Created.
These are also the first two releases from Great Comfort Records, whose mission is to produce worship music with high standards of musical and lyrical creativity using an independent business model. This is a natural fit for Bifrost. Wardell and co-producer and arranger Mason Neely toured churches across the United States, holding workshops in which Wardell said he frequently heard Christians talking about "wanting something more transcendent, more participatory, something less commercialized in the way that we do church music."
Come O Spirit! stands in that gap, offering both traditional hymns and original compositions that are painstakingly arranged and have congregational singing in mind. The music, played mostly by Wardell and Neely, is clearly influenced by the classic pop canon—Townes Van Zandt, Nick Drake, George Martin—but feels both timeless and timely, thanks in part to an impressive slate of vocalists like Damien Jurado, Leigh Nash, and Denison Witmer, to name a few.
Salvation Is Created—a Christmas album—is similar, though it feels a bit weightier, its arrangements more classical and epic. This is especially true on the opening "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," an instrumental rendering by a string quartet, and on the title track, which builds to a joyful Sigur Rós style climax of hallelujahs.
Both albums come with songbooks and instructions for how best to use the songs; Bifrost has plans to release additional compilations. Though modest in scale compared with the pomp of a pipe organ and power chords of a praise chorus, these records are the future of a church music that acknowledges tradition, innovation, and above all, excellence.
Joel Hartse is a Ph.D. student at the University of British Columbia.
Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere:
Come O Spirit! An Anthology of Hymns and Spiritual Songs and Salvation is Created are available at Amazon.com and other retailers.
Christianity Today reviewed other Christmas albums and has more articles on worship, including:
Transcending the Worship Wars | Bryan Chapell urges Christians to move past musical preferences toward Christ-Centered Worship. (September 21, 2009)
Here We Are to Worship | Six principles that might bring a truce to the age-old tension between tradition and popular culture. (August 21, 2009)
Memo to Worship Bands | Five sound reasons to lower the volume. (February 2, 2009)
The 'Handicap Icon' Gets New Life
Sidelining the Stigma of Mental Illness
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Matt Stephens
It's called folk music, which is by nature less "commercial," more raw. I think the album is beautiful, and absolutely refreshing. Then again, I'm pretty eclectic and find modern rock anthems just as capable of embodying and facilitating true praise and worship as more subtle styles. The key, from a musical perspective, is genre. Some musical styles lend themselves more to praise, others to lament. Then there's variation required by differences in song theme. But even these distinctions are different from culture to culture. What is very unfortunate is that the cultural nature of musical, and even lyrical, expression is almost universally overlooked. This only serves, on the one hand, to idealize some forms over others, and on the other hand, to make stylistic issues out to be non-issues. Neither response is appropriate or helpful, and until the true nature of the issues is understood, the "wars" will go on.
Paul Aarden
This debate is so sad, so worldly. The idea of Worship Wars or such debate is unbecoming of what God has done for the world through Jesus, conscientious objection almost makes sense were it not for the fact that we are called to come to Jesus, to focus on Him and to believe. If Jesus came into a church would He concentrate on the worship quality or the people and their real situations, attitudes and faith? I suspect that latter.
Hatji
Uhh, I don't get it, and I admit it. I listened to a couple samples from one of the albums. My impression was: "Let's do everything we can to sound as basic as we can, with as little glorified glitz as possible. Then we will have created an honest worship album." They succeeded in part, but I had a hard time finding any majesty on one side, or much warmth on the other. And I could not picture any church that I serve using their renditions and creations to express worship. I applaud their desire to simplify the what has become ridiculously complicated: worship. Why, oh why, did we let it become a product and a performance? When did it stop being a response from our hearts to a holy, loving, and faithful Father? I know the answer. The danger has always been there, from days of old. So thanks for the effort and the heart that goes with it. Many will appreciate this musical style as well as your heart. I appreciate the heart, but the style misses me.