Is It Feasible to Worship with Public Domain Songs, Exclusively?
This last week I had the privilege of playing for a healing mass in Bloomfield, CT. The Charismatic Office which runs these events, is a stalwart example of hanging strong, even though they are deprived of funds. As it happens, their budget is so low, they were no longer able to replace the old, weathered Holy Is the Lord songbooks they once had. The chapel we play in is at the seminary, which also has no hymnals, and only a small amount of missallettes. It was my job to craft a songsheet for use in the liturgy.
Since I had given up on CCLI, I had to craft a songsheet with songs/hymns that were solely in the public domain. I had to focus entirely on the intersection of three things: songs which were liturgically and doctrinally appropriate for the liturgy, songs which the congregation knew, could pick up, and sing, and songs that I had the rights to reprint: either songs/hymns older than 1922, or had no author attribution (like the majority of short, simple praise choruses that I’ve kept a running tally of in charismatic songbooks over time).
In the process of crafting such a list, it got my mind to thinking again about CCLI. I do not doubt, that for the vast majority of people using CCLI, it is a tremendous resource, plugging people in to the vast network of great songs. I, myself, have songs on CCLI, and I plan to add many others from the Prayer Meeting Podcast later this year.
But because of the limitations of above, I decided to weigh out the pros and cons of dropping CCLI, if the circumstances call for it. If one was to drop CCLI, and rely solely upon the combination of public domain hymns and chants, author-unattributed spirituals and choruses, and original material, what would be the circumstances that would make this attractive?
I posited this question to a number of worship forums that I frequent. The response was overwhelmingly negative.
I began to list some of the possible benefits of relying solely upon the above:
- You have a worship resource that may have been written by Wesley, Crosby, St. Francis, some of the giants in Christian history. There is a wealth of great lyrics, richly poetic and doctrinally dense, that is almost becoming forgotten. There is also no shortage of fun, simple, Scripturally-based praise choruses, that have been proven over time.
- You have a worship text that is altogether malleable; you have the freedom to rearrange verses, change melodies, upgrade archaic terms, and insert your own additional choruses/bridges to the song, rendering it acceptable to modern sensibilities.
- You also have melodies that are also malleable; you are free to tweek melodies so that they don’t sound antiquated and like a museum piece, and–if it calls for it–you can add choruses to long hymns to break up the monotony of long stretches of the same melody.
- You have the freedom to record such songs and disseminate it freely, via podcasts, or to YouTube, or to friends, not hindered by copyright laws.
- The money saved from a CCLI membership (hundreds of dollars, annually) could go a long way towards other parts of your ministry, including possibly setting up a podcast/blog which could disseminate such material, creating a broader reach.
Still, a number of people saw this as a hindrance, not a benefit. The songs that they relied on needed to be songs that their congregants could relate to, and the vast majority of such songs came from Christian radio.
I pointed back that a sizable percentage of the most popular praise and worship songs of today have, at their root, borrowed from the very same well that I had been proposing. Songs like “Cornerstone“, “My Savior My God” and “The Wonderful Cross” all were written with help from the public domain hymns “On Christ the Solid Rock”, “I Am Not Skilled to Understand,” and “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”
A few years ago, a then-unknown worship leader stepped in front of an arena of thousands of young adults, and, backed up by the worship band, belted out “Jesus Paid It All“, which, save for two original lines of an outro-chorus, was left entirely intact. This rendition is now a modern worship standard, under copyright, being used in churches worldwide.
It’s stories like this that make me wonder why there’s so much reliance upon the newest songs, when there’s so much wealth of great material outside of copyright. There are tens of thousands of great songs, from all centuries, all vetted and proven, waiting to be rediscovered; why are we so lax in taking advantage of such songs?
As an aside, the songsheet consisted of songs as varied as “Alleluia, Sing to Jesus,” “On This Day, O Beautiful Mother,” “Come Bless the Lord,” “Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit,” and “Adoro Te, O Panis Caelice” (in Latin and newly-translated English). And, furthermore, there is time for music after the mass itself, where I introduced the rediscovered songs “Holy Ghost, Descend Upon Your Children,” and “Beneath Our Lady’s Shadow”, a reworked Marian-Pentecost hybrid from “O Mighty Mother, Why That Light” by Frederick Faber. I will introduce both of these in an upcoming Prayer Meeting Podcast.
What do you think? Feel free to comment below.
I find it interesting (though not surprising) that you got pushback on the forums. I think it’s more a kneejerk response rather than a thoughtful position. Also, to them it upsets the status quo.
I’ve attended far too many Masses where the ‘Youth Choir’ performs (relatively) modern songs – poorly. What makes it even more disturbing is they seem to only use less than 10 songs in their rotation. You’d think they would improve, but they don’t. In the end, congregational participation is uncomfortably weak. In other words, it isn’t working.
Go ahead and mine those old treasures or write your own. If you make good creative choices with the material and give them a modern arrangement, you will increase your chances for success.
Bottom line is, it all comes down to execution.
Interesting topic. Looking forward to hearing how it progresses.
Thank you for your comments.
Songs that get airplay on the radio do not always translate well to a live, intimate setting like a church hall (which may have echo-chamber acoustics). One of the reasons is because the majority of singers that make it to radio have very high ranges (thus, making it distinctive for that medium). Another venue are these arena-type worship events, where getting people to sing extremely high forces them to sing loud; in an event like that, it works. But most of the time a regular church–irregardless of denomination–doesn’t have that raw energy, nor should it. And while many musicians do lower the songs appropriately, most do not; or most cannot, as some songs are split into two separate singing octaves–an extremely low and an extremely high section.
In terms of lyrics, some are atrocious, and some are exceptional. It’s easy to generalize, but there really are some fantastic lyrics in songs being written today. They do exist. I am a big fan of “Speak O Lord” by Keith and Kristyn Getty. But that said, the vast majority of these worship songs with well-written lyrics just so happen to be songs reworked from older material. And once you understand that, you have to ask, what’s the point of continuing on?
Thanks for the comments.
I think it’s perfectly feasible to worship with only public domain hymns and songs: there are lots of them about every topic you could imagine. And it’s a great approach for the church which is broke, or the one-man-band travelling musician, or the small chaplaincy.
But I don’t think it’s a good idea for most parishes /churches to do this. The biggest reason is that it’s simply not a fair way to treat today’s composers. But there are an number of other reasons, too, which I’ve outlined here: http://www.liturgytools.net/2014/05/doing-church-music-with-public-domain.html . Thanks for the inspiration to finally write this post, which has been brewing for a while.
“Holding the act of worship hostage for a price is an obvious mistake. Imagine David charging King Saul to harp away those troublesome spirits, its simply improper. Praise and Worship have always been free will offerings. Are we entertaining crowds or leading worship? The path that leads to life is a narrow one, God forbid we turn it into a toll road. I GARAUNTEE that there will be no copyright restrictions or minstrels for hire in heaven. We might as well get started now. JESUS laid down his life to pay for our very souls, the least we can do is share our gifts with others. He said freely you received, now freely give.” – Anonymous
Worship songs are not worship. Songs can lead one to worship, certainly, but they do not replace worship. So in this regard, there is no hostage-taking.
Furthermore, I believe we are to give our best when it comes to worship music–but to do so requires that the musicians dedicate a considerable time towards this endeavor. This time takes away from other activities that would lead to a full-time income, as they (and their families) have gotta eat. If a church wishes to not pay for their services, that is the choice of that church (and the musician who agrees to this), but they still are not obligated to use any worship song under copyright. There are hundreds–thousands–of powerful worship songs, hymns, spirituals, Gregorian chants–all within public domain, all outside the shackles of copyright.
To state that your worship is somehow stunted because one is deprived from the use of Chris Tomlin’s latest is to put Chris Tomlin’s own songs to a standard that he had not intended. Do not place any particular song in idolatry. If you are looking for a perfect song for a church event that you want, you can either find it and pay for it, or you write your own. And that latter option is not a bad one.