Is the Guitar Acoustic God's Favorite Instrument? – Acoustic Guitar

How the acoustic guitar has shaped the modern music of the Judeo-Christian liturgy.

From the December 2018 issue of Acoustic Guitar | BY KATE KOENIG

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For an instrument that has been so vital to the evolution of popular music over the past century, the guitar has traveled a long way in finding its place in religious culture. In the United States, this is a natural phenomenon, and one that is often unaccompanied singing-for reasons of conventional law, cultural trends, and popular opinion. But over time, the acoustic guitar has been widely accepted as a viable musical voice in church and synagogue settings.

Part of what kept the guitar's voice in worship was not just culture but logistics. The acoustic guitar did not receive its modern form until the mid-19th century, and for a long time it was too quiet to be heard before a large crowd-such as a congregation-due to the animal that was used for strings, not to mention a lack of electric amplification. When steel strings were first commercially introduced in the 1920s by F. F. Martin & Company, the guitar became more capable of standing on its own against other acoustic instruments. But it was not until the advent of the electric guitar in the 1930s that they were fully capable of being heard in the mix of choirs and ensembles.

Southern Styles

The acoustic guitar's first gateway to church services was gospel music in the African-American evangelical and Baptist churches of the South. In the early 1930s, the blues pianist Thomas A. Dorsey, who recorded with Tampa Red as Tom Georgia, transformed church music by introducing jazz and blues styles to the genre for the first time, opening the doors for gospel blues guitarists to enter just a handful of years later. Outside of church, guitarists including Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Willie Johnson later on the early gospel blues style, but singer / guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe was one of the first to bring it inside.

A prodigy child, Tharpe (born Rosetta Nubin) began playing guitar at the age of four, and was joined by a group of musicians. Entering the mainstream in the late 1930s with a variety of gospel crossovers (including some of Dorsey's compositions), Tharpe is largely credited for pioneering the genre pop-gospel, and even providing a prototype for rock 'n' roll to come. Her music made a lasting impact on Southern church music, and she has been cited as a major influence on Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis, among other popular musicians.

Roebuck "Pops" Staples was another gospel guitarist who brought the style both into the church and the mainstream in the early 20th century. Playing with blues guitarists Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, and His House as a young man, Staples later joined church groups 1948 The group became a sensation both in church services and commercially, bringing gospel music to a wider audience, with hits such as "Let's Do It Again," "I'll Take You There," and "Respect Yourself."

The Folk Era

A little more than one of the most important sections of Christianity-Catholicism. In the early half of the 20th century, Catholic mbad was, in all respects, steeped in tradition. Mbad was said in Latin -which was taught in Catholic schools and choir, which performed only traditional hymns. "In the late '60s, there were four hymns," says Joe DeSanctis, a seminarian and musical director at Holy Innocents Parish, in Pleasantville, New York. "'Holy God We Praise Thy Name,' 'Holy, Holy, Holy,' 'Faith of Our Father,' 'and' 'Whatsoever You Do.' 'These were the songs you played, over and over."

In 1959, Pope John XXIII called for the Second Vatican Council, a meeting of Catholic Religious Leaders and Addresses of Spiritual Renewal within the Church. Held from 1962-1965, one of the council's first big moves to change the language of the church. (Already, this introduced in the English language.) Then, in 1967, the Holy See (also known as the Vatican, or the official jurisdiction of the Catholic Church) published Musicam sacram, which decreed that vernacular musical styles and instrumentation were allowed in church. The instruction also foresaw a period of experimentation in order [to] attain a sufficient maturity and perfection. "

The enormous changes in the field of Catholicism in the early 20th century: First, the contemporary Christian genre, and shortly after, which became known as the Catholic folk mbad. As a young seminarian in the early 1960s, Ray Repp was discovering his penchant for writing folk music right around the Second Vatican Council time. Bob Dylan's "Blowin 'in the Wind" and Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone ?," Repp began writing liturgical folk songs that quickly spread among his peers. In 1965, Repp published his Mbad for Young Americans, part of the first mbad settings for the purpose of literary guitar accompaniment, under the first established publisher of contemporary liturgical music, F. E. L. Publications. Thoughts of the first time in the States, his music has a momentum which is soon evolved into an entire genre.

Outside of the original liturgical folk music being composed by people like Repp, Catholic services around the country were soon overtaken by what became known as the folk mbad. In place of traditional hymns, churches are filled with the folk guitar sounds of Peter, Paul and Mary; the Beatles; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Pete Seeger; and Simon & Garfunkel, with songs such as "If I Had a Hammer," "Teach Your Children," and "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

"The early onset of a guitar was really a way to engage young people in a language that they could understand," says DeSanctis. "The whole folk experience really comes out of youth trying to rediscover itself. I think the Catholic Church was listening. What we were doing as musicians in the '60s and' 70s kind of came out of church music and the church wisely said, 'Let's use this to engage, it could be lifting our spirits up as well.'

Eventually, the popular folk songs of the day fell by the wayside and were replaced by new compositions in the contemporary Christian genre. Dan Schutte and Bob Hurd, whose compositions "Here I Am, O Lord," "Table of Plenty," and "Taste and See" have become mainstays in modern Catholic and Christian services.

Jesus Music

As culture was changing within the walls of the country, so it was beyond them. In the late 1960s, the Living Room, a small missionary storefront located in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, led the way in which known to the Jesus Movement. An independent Christian community, the Living Room hippie-to-born-again-christian converts, building momentum that quickly spread to common, college campuses, and organizations around the Bay Area, Seattle, Chicago, and elsewhere.

"By 1971, the movement had become the religious story of the year," says Larry Eskridge, history instructor at Wheaton College in Illinois, and was featured on the cover of Time magazine. The Jesus Movement drew heavily on a demographic of 17- to 25-year-olds, who took the popular music of the day and created a new genre: Jesus music.

A subgenre of contemporary Christian music, "Jesus music" used traditional folk, folk rock, soft rock, and country formats as vehicles for Christian messages and was often used in the Jesus Movement. While it was not so far away from the acoustic guitar-led strains emanating from the Catholic folk mbades, the music was distinguished by its evangelical zeal, heard in the likes of Larry Norman's "I Wish We'd All Been Ready," which refers to the second coming of Christ-a common theme within evangelical circles. Popular artists in the genre Chuck Girard, Children of the Day, Bethlehem, and Resurrection Band. The movement eventually spread to the UK, where it earned the title gospel beat.

Ancient Traditions

Similar to Catholic churches, Jewish synagogues around the United States took some time to warm up the use of the guitar-or any musical instruments-in religious services (see Psalm 150). However, this was not always the case. In ancient Judaism, instruments were a significant part of the synagogue, which often featured full orchestras of drums, cymbals, horns, and lyres. But after the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, in 70 AD, it became more and more important that musical instruments were not allowed in synagogue during the Sabbath (from just before sundown each Friday through nightfall on Saturday) and on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

'I always say the acoustic guitar is God's favorite instrument.'

-Gene Bertoncini

Several justifications are offered for this law, one being that Jews were in perpetual mourning over the loss of the Second Temple. "In Orthodox movements," says Ben Rosner, cantor and music director at Mosaic Law Congregation, in Sacramento, California. "They consider it to be prohibited on the Sabbath because it's a form of work. Even if it would be debated, what happens if you break a string? Roswell says, the orthodox movement "prohibits it." (Even if these reasons were not in place, Orthodox Are also restricted from using electricity on the Sabbath, precluding the use of microphones or amplified guitars.

In the 19th century, the emergence of Reform Judaism helped lay the foundation for the presence of the acoustic guitar in modern Jewish services. Unrestricted by the law of the Orthodox Movement, the Symphony, and even featured organ and piano, while Orthodox worship was restricted to just voice accompaniment. Like in Catholicism, Shlomo Carlebach, Debbie Friedman, and Jeff Klepper composing highly influential original music for Jewish liturgy. Carlebach, an Orthodox Rabbi, wrote liturgical music that was not intended for worship, but that ended up being adopted into many Reform and Conservative synagogues. Friedman, who was known for leading her congregation with her liturgical songs written in '60s folk style, sold over 200,000 records, had her music performed on Barney and Friends, and in 1995, performed at Carnegie Hall celebrating the 25th anniversary of her career.

"The style of music by Carlebach in concert and the style of music with Debbie Friedman and Jeff Klepper were in the style of the time," says Rosner. "You can listen to that music from the 70's and 80s and think, 'I can imagine hearing this in cafes, too,' so it's paralleling what people are listening to. American culture was becoming more guitar-centric. "

Today, guitars are prevalent in the Reform movement, while the Conservative movement, which developed in the late 19th century as a middle ground to Reform and Orthodox Judaism, has been slower to adopt instruments. "They're trying to find a way within the Jewish religious legal system," says Rosner.

Putting It Into Practice

Early adopters of the guitar in worship may have used the instrument in a prescribed manner, but they do not have the same attitude. These leaders play liturgical fare, and they are much more popular than they are, and they are much more sophisticated than the traditional guitars that they played in their synagogues.

At Mosaic Law Congregation, Rosner presides over various ensembles made up of a wide variety of instrumentalists and singers (instruments at Mosaic Law Congregation are used for prayer only on Friday nights). For music services and concerts, he typically leads on guitar. "Sometimes I'm in the lead I do not, depending on the room I'm leading the service in. And in a room that's really big, I'll get plug in to a Yamaha TF1 [digital mixer], or I'll use an Audio-Technica wireless mic, or my Fishman preamp.

'The early onset of a guitar was really a way to engage young people in a language that they could understand.'

-Joe DeSanctis

"My go-to nylon-string for synagogue service nowadays is a Córdoba Gipsy Kings model," he adds, commenting on its versatility in the synagogue. "It allows me to strum and use some technical flamenco. It's great for being able to bridge the gap of clbadical and strumming styles, and to be able to play bossa-nova style accompaniment, as well. "He also uses a Taylor 212ce, a" good midrange "guitar that's useful for folk styles; his father's Guild 12-string with K & K pickup; a custom-made Alan Chapman guitar; D'Angelico hollowbody; and sometimes even his SoloEtte travel guitar.

Jack Kessler, director of the Aleph Cantorial Program in Philadelphia, typically leads his Conservative congregation in a more traditional, clbadical guitar style. "[I use] the guitar for light fingerpicking And when it comes to the kind of songs that I do in my synagogue where we need to set up some drone, I will frequently detune the guitar, so that there are several open strings at an octave and a fifth. "Kessler performs We have a Contreras Manual clbadical guitar using an Art Studio MP Tube preamp, a Boss digital reverb pedal, and a Trace Elliott amp.

Saint Peter's Church, a Lutheran congregation located in midtown Manhattan, is one example of how church has evolved in the past century. While offering traditional services, St. Peter's also has a jazz ministry, specifically designed to incorporate professional jazz musicians into church services, such as the Sunday evening Jazz Vespers. Over the years, Jazz Vespers has featured a variety of acoustic guitarists, with groups such as the Emilio Teubal Quartet (with guitarist Ivan Barenboim) and the Gene Bertoncini Trio. In his 50-year career, Bertoncini played Benny Goodman, Wayne Shorter, Lena Horne, and Tony Bennett.

Psalm 31 | May 14, 2017 Jazz Vespers from Saint Peter's Church on Vimeo.

"The warmth of the instrument is certainly spontaneous, driven by the creativity and the love that naturally comes with improvising," says Bertoncini, who performs on a nylon-string made by the luthier John Buscarino. "I always say," he adds, jokingly, "the acoustic guitar is God's favorite instrument."

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This article originally appeared in the December 2018 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine.

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