Design in Worship -- Beyond the Visual and Architectural

There are many great articles on the visual and architectural aspects of worship and liturgical aesthetic; however, such writers (many of whom are architects, engineers, and interior designers) sometime forget one crucial aspect of church design: i.e. sound. This failure to consider "sound" above the visual (as oppose to sound after the visual) leads to frustration among the worship leaders (the singers, musicians, and speakers) and distraction and irritation among worshipers (those listening to the singers, musicians, and speakers). MY FIRST MAIN POINT: I have been in beautiful sanctuaries (traditional Gothic structures) whose acoustical properties did not match the instruments and style of music used for their worship service. What was originally a good acoustical design for the natural, unamplified, human voice was less than optimal for a group or chorus of human singers who are miked and are being accompanied by acoustic and electric instruments. Even an acoustic orchestra and a choir singing Handel's Hallelujah Chorus would song awful in a Gothic cathedral because of the type of harmony used (thirds, sevenths, and ninths as oppose to the voicings in octaves and fifths that are the hallmarks of the chants) and the rhythmic melody and counter-melody used (contrapuntal forms with abundant usages of trills, eighth and sixteenth notes, etc. as oppose to the whole, half and quarter notes and simple melodic form of the chants). Gregorian chants were designed for Gothic churches and cathedrals. Classical orchestras and orchestra works were designed for the concert and opera halls while modern electronic music as used in praise and worship settings were designed for outdoor arenas or specially built performance venues. Gothic Cathedrals are perfect places for the chanting of cantors and singing of Gregorian Choirs, not so for baroque to modern genres of music and their accompanying acoustic and electronic instruments. THIS BRINGS ME TO MY SECOND POINT. There is a real need to design sanctuaries or chancel areas to optimize the use of modern musical instruments as well as to optimize the singers' and musicians' level of aural and musical interactions in real time. In the former, this means designing the interior spaces to match the types of instruments being used (acoustic or electronic) and the number to be used (single, small group, or large orchestra (string or jazz)). In the latter, this means designing the interior spaces of a church so that singers and musicians are clustered together to provide eye-to-eye, line of sight and to achieve ultimate aural responsiveness and cohesiveness in timing (in notes or vowels onsets and codas, and in rhythmic syncopation), timbre, tone, pitch, and harmonic blending, etc. While personal, in ear monitors, may help with the problem of acoustical drift, delay, and echoing for the singers and musicians who are separated from one another in large sanctuaries or auditoriums, they don't solve the problem for the hearers. (Imagine again a large Gothic Cathedral as the venue for a Van Halen concert. What the musicians may be hearing in their personal, in ear monitors will not be what the audience is hearing.) Unfortunately, it has been my experience that most churches have sanctuaries and chancel areas that are at odds with some of the design principles just mentioned. I have been in too many congregations where the piano and organ are on opposite ends of the visual field: e.g., the piano is placed far right of center with the piano placed far left of center with both on the floor of the nave while the choir is slightly higher than and directly centered behind the pulpit and/or the altar. This often means that the pianists and the organists are out of the direct line of sight from one another and are often out of the direct light of sight of the choir who must turn away from the congregation towards the organists or pianist who is doubling as the choir director. Are there standard solutions? Yes. Just attend a local symphony or community choir or community band concert to find the answer and solution. And then ask yourself several questions. What types of materials are used on the walls, chairs, and ceiling and how are they designed: straight with smooth, flat edges or with angles and/or raised and diffuse surfaces with padded or cloth like materials? Where are the instruments and choirs located-especially the piano? Where is the piano located when a community chorus is in concert and it is the only instrument: stage far right, stage far left, or left or right of center stage? When a fifteen-to-eighteen-piece jazz orchestra is playing, where are the piano, bass, drums, and guitar located? I assure you that you won't find the guitar far right and the piano far left. The rhythm section will be grouped or clustered together in a very particular way. Go to a solo recital (instrumental or vocalist); notice where the soloist is located in relationship to the pianist. Having set the stage visually (imaginatively), the question can now be asked anew. If professional musicians (those who make their living playing music or singing) are organizing their spatial and acoustical relationships in certain ways that they feel optimizes their line of sight and aural cohesiveness, why wouldn't churches and congregations do likewise when designing their worship space, especially when church musicians and singers are rarely as gifted, talented, or accomplished? Why place the piano far left and the organ far right in a church auditorium and the choir in the center or off to the opposite side of the chancel? It doesn't add up. The simple answer is, of course, congregations and churches have always done so. To which the standard reply should be, "No, they haven't." As mentioned above, medieval churches were built to aurally enhance the naturally spoken word of the priest, the cantor, and the unaccompanied choir (think Gregorian chants). As a natural consequence, the choir was seated in the chancel area along with the priest, cantor, and reader in order to take advantage of the natural acoustics of a Gothic Cathedral. When organs were introduced, they were naturally place in the chancel behind the choir with the pipes facing the nave and congregants. (The choir often faced inward-half sitting to the left and half sitting to the right of the chancel.)1 The instruments of worship, the voice (speaking, canting, and singing) and the organ were placed front and center. With the advent of the 19th century traveling revivals by Dwight Moody and R.A. Torrey and others, the piano was gradually accepted as a sacred musical instrument that was worthy to be included in church worship services (Howlett 2009). Howlett claims that this was partly due to the piano accompaniment style of R. A. Torrey's pianist, Robert Harkness, and Harkness's various music publications, especially his Gospel Song Accompaniment (Harkness 1921). In Torrey's revival, Harkness's piano was placed center-left (center right of the preacher) and slightly behind the pulpit and closer to the choir (Sanders 2007). Given this history, why are the piano and organ placed to the far right and far left when they clearly were in the center of the visual field earlier? Ignorance and the perceived need for visual, aesthetic balance. Since the pulpit, altar, pulpit or sanctuary cross, or the stain glass window were (so argued the architect and/or interior designer) the focal center or focal point(s) of the structure according to their plan and vision for the church, the organ and piano were used to balance the visual field. Such placement appears to have been a necessary, functional, evil for the sake of visual aesthetics. When designing a music or concert hall, most architects and interior designers, however, would not dream of situating the piano and organ to the far periphery of such halls. Why? Because those concert spaces are being designed for aural performances, they are not being designed as the architect's visual symbolism of the faith or visual representation of Christianity. Worship spaces like music and performance spaces must be designed for their line of sight and for their aural clarity. We must stop letting the tyranny of the visual aesthetics of the architecture oppress and victimize the aurality of the gospel that is being preach, sung, and played. We must stop letting the visual symbols of the faith suppress the spoken, sung, and chanted proclamations of the faith. We must stop letting the visual imagining of the architect and/or interior designer dictate and drive the principles of design. The solution is to start where the churches began with basic principles that flow out of the churches purpose and function: that is proclaiming the Word of God for the purpose of making Disciples of Christ who make Disciples and who serve and love God as a community through the worship of God, the encouragement and edification of one another, and in the service to others and the world near and close. This main function of proclamation and teaching must come first. The visual and acoustical aesthetics must come second and harmonizes and support the former. THIS IS MY THIRD POINT: Design is to follow the principles of our theology of worship. As Christians, we are to worship God who is the object of our worship and the patron (the sponsor, receiver, and hearer) of our worship. The Spirit directs us to focus our worship on God for who God is and what God has done. The Spirit, who dwells within us, is the one who enables us to reject our own visual and acoustical, aesthetic preferences in worship to please God aesthetically and theologically. Worship should not be driven by any human aesthetics or desires, but by our efforts to be aesthetically pleasing to God. We are to use our aesthetic senses and talents to honor and glorify God. The triune God is the protagonists who occupies center stage. God is in the divine spotlight; the triune God is the audience of one. Christians (the members of the congregation, worship team, choir, and ministers) are simply the background singers, pit musicians, extras, and stage hands in this live enactment of God's condescension and accommodation. God does not need or crave our worship; God instead allows us to worship and adore Him. We are not the focus or cause of worship. Our worship is more like the natural outpouring of a heart filled with praise for the beauty and goodness we experience in God's presence. (See John Piper's Desiring God, Revised Edition: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist.) Our outpouring of praise and worship is more like a soundtrack or a score for a movie or play or as the background scenery designed to complement the perfect foregrounded reality and presence of the One who occupies the center of our hearts and minds. We--who are attentive to God's presence, who see, hear, and commune with One who is absolute beauty, absolute goodness, absolute truth, absolute love, and absolute glory--should be arrested, awed, and overcome with joy in that encounter. Consequently, congregants who come to corporate worship as patrons or subscribers and who expect the worship leaders, ministers, and musicians to cater to and to placate their whims and preferences are crossing the lines of idolatry and hubris. Congregants are to come to Sunday services as servants who are there to please the one and only patron and the one and only audience of one for worship-God. Congregants are never the audience or stakeholders who have the right to demand that worship services meet their cultural and aesthetics preferences. For when congregants demand and expect their own preferences for worship to be honored, they are putting themselves in the place of God. When we do so, we, the congregation, worship leaders, musicians, and pastors are seeking to place ourselves in the spotlight at center stage and as the consumer and producer of worship where only God should be. When we see worship as something done for us instead of something we do for God, we usurp God's throne, prerogatives, and position. We should come to worship as servants (as stagehands, pit musicians, extras, background performers and choral members) who seek to support and highlight the One who is at the very center of the divine drama that we call life. To God be the Glory, Honor, and Praise, forever and ever. Amen. THEOLOGY APPLIED TO WORSHIP DESIGN. When we design our worship spaces, we should ask the following questions within the context of true worship that is pleasing God. We start with what will glorify God. In this case, the principles listed in 1 Corinthians 13-14 are to be applied: worship should be euphonious, not cacophonous. It should also reflect the principles of freedom and sacrifice: For although we "are free and belong to no one, [we] have made [ourselves] slaves to everyone, to win as many as possible . . .. [We] have become all things to all people so that by all possible means [we] might save some. [We] do all this for the sake of the gospel, that [we] may share in its blessings" (1 Cor. 14:19, 22-23). Given these core principles, we should seek to make what is preached, taught, and sung as clear as possible aurally, visually, and kinesthetically. Consequently, I would tailor the aural features and components of the worship space first and then the visual and kinesthetic features and components second. To this end, we should ask the following: (1) What types of instruments (electrical and/or acoustic) and instrumentalists (vocalists, pianist, organist, guitarist, bassist, wind, brass, or string) will be used and in what configuration (soloist or choir or orchestra or band)? (2) Where are they to be placed vis-à-vis other musicians and vocalists for maximal line of sight (eye-to-eye contact) and aural clarity (for blending of sound and matching of tempo, attack, and pitch)? (3) Will there be a separate conductor or will the conductor or choir director double as a musician? (In the later, professional musicians often arrange themselves in a half- or semi-circle to facilitate group communication. See images of classical strings quartets and octets as well as jazz versions of the same.) By undertaking an earnest consideration of the above, architects, builders, pastors, and worship leaders, and other stakeholders will be able to design better church auditoriums and worship spaces for maximal utility and functionality-a space where (a) the spoken and sung words will be heard over (b) music played (i) by amplified instruments, (ii) by acoustic instruments, or (iii) without music, i.e. acapella. It will be a space where the Good News is clearly presented aurally, visually, and kinesthetically to those in attendance and a space where the saints gather to worship, glorify, honor, and Praise HIM who will reign forever and ever. As Christians, we are to worship God who is both the object of our worship and the audience and patron of our worship. Amen. 1 Locating or placing the organ and the choir in the balcony on the rear wall of the nave (to the back of the congregants) was said to have been a modern design (Jebb 1843). --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ Design in Worship: Beyond the Visual and Architectural Copyright (c) 2012, 2018 by Floyd Knight. All rights reserved.