Schedule

From the outset of Martin Luther’s Reform 500 years ago, Lutherans have sung. Through singing in congregations and choirs, the theology of Luther was brought into the hearts and practices of the people. Garrison Keillor popularized “Singing with the Lutherans” on A Prairie Home Companion over the last decades but, in many forms, Protestants have raised voices of protest and faith for hundreds of years.

For music to be “Lutheran” the music is to be eclectic, as it has always been. From the earliest accounts in Hebrew Scriptures, to the Psalter, to the stories of Jesus and the disciples, and continuing throughout history, the People of God have sung.  Each era of time, each place on earth, has left a remnant of song in the sung repertoire of the church, a remnant which provides a glimpse into the practice and theology of each era and place. The Reformation initiated by Martin Luther marked a new direction in the church’s song, spurring a new wave of creativity that continues today across the whole church. What makes what the church sings “Lutheran”? What does it mean to carry on the tradition of Lutheran music in the church?

45 minutes of celebrating the Lutheran singing tradition, lead by the Choir of the West, brass, piano, and the mighty Gottfried and Mary Fuchs organ in Lagerquist Concert Hall in the Mary Baker Russell Music Center on the Pacific Lutheran University campus.

Lutheran college and university choral programs have had a large impact on the development of choral music in America. This presentation will highlight the history and major figures of this great hallmark of Lutheran higher education.

In African American Sacred Song, the human body represents the rhythm, the soul, the melodic range and the spirit articulates meter and time. For African American Christians, this holistic way of experiencing and creating music is a means of serving and enjoining oneself with Jesus Christ. The awareness of sacrificing the body in Christian worship can be connected to the slave trade history. Giving over one’s body to God in the worship gathering was a not only a response to fighting against the physicality of enslavement and oppression, but moreover, a way of rising above the atrocities and immersing oneself in spirituality. In the worship experience, there is practice of solidarity for God’s people when they become enjoined physically through singing and dancing. During the slave trade African bodies were not given, they were stolen and broken. Out of these black broken bodies arose songs of long-suffering, lament, and liberation.

Conference Participants are welcome to join PLU’s Choir of the West and The National Lutheran Choir for their Joint Rehearsal where we will be allowed to watch the everyday life and work of the choirs as they embody the conference theme. As a part of the rehearsal, we will also be the first to hear some collaborative work the choirs are planning.