Concordia Publishing House has announced the release of Lutheran Service Book: Guitar Chord Edition. Now I already know what the liturgical cathari are going to say about this, but as a guitar player, I welcome this with open tuning. I've been chording hymns for years since my grad school years prior to sem. It's amazing how fresh some of those Reformation rouzers can sound accompanied by guitar. If this should cause anyone to have a case of the liturgical vapors, recall that Luther was an accomplished lute player.
I'm hoping that the chords were done by actual guitarists and not piano players, since pianists tend to want to plunk a chord on every note while guitarists like to noodle around on a chord for a while. This is also true for people who play by ear and charts rather than musical notation. The Lutheran Church in Australia published a modest version of such a chord book for their hymnal produced by Claire Kleinig, who happens to be John Kleinig's wife. The chording in that book is nicely done, though you have to know the name of the tune and it's lacking an index. It's too bad the service orders aren't chorded, though DS 4, which is based on hymn tunes, would be quite easy to pull together.
The guitar is an incredibly versatile instrument, spanning the range of classical to flamenco to jazz and all the forms of rock music. It is both percussive and melodic; it can be played alone or as part of an ensemble, amplified or acoustically. The guitar makes a wonderful texturing instrument alongside the piano or even the pipe organ. I would hope that congregations that use bands might pick up this book and explore the possibilities of giving traditional hymnody a contemporary vibe.
It will be very useful for liturgy on the go, such as retreats and other events where you would like to sing hymns but don't have an electrical outlet. This is also the kind of book you want to put into the hands of budding, young guitarists to give them a chance to play the hymns they hear in church every Sunday as they are learning the instrument. I would have loved to play hymns along with the Cat Stevens, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Jim Croce, James Taylor, Leo Kotke, and others on whom I cut my guitar chops long before I took up classical. I date myself seriously with that, I realize, but guitar afficianados will know what I'm talking about. Just ask Fred Baue.
Speaking of the guitar, here is an amazing piece by virtuoso fingerstyle guitarist Andy McKee with definite overtones of Michael Hedges. It has nothing to do with sacred music, but I really like it:
Pr. Cwirla,
The Guitar Edition was done by Kurt Von Kampen, from Concordia Seward. He is the choir director there and an accomplished guitarist, so it should be good. Just thought I'd share.
Thanks for posting a hopeful/positive outlook on the guitar chord edition. I've already heard other conservative Lutherans pan it because they mistakenly equate guitars with modern worship, but I'm convinced that the guitar could be used tastefully in Lutheran worship. Since Higher Things Scranton I've been working out an arrangement of LSB's Evening Prayer, and I think it could be _great_. The Celtic overtones in the Psalmody come out really colorfully on the guitar, especially with an open tuning.
By the way, Reformed University Fellowship (don't hold that against them) has been doing a great job arranging hymns tastefully for guitar in a sort of reverent-contemporary style. Their entire hymnbook is free online, with many mp3 snippets of the arrangements. Check out the site here: http://www.igracemusic.com/hymnbook/home.html. I've been playing a few of these hymns to open up our youth's evening Bible study, and I've been happy with them.
I have a pretty decent chording of Evening Prayer I could send you. "Let My Prayer Rise Before You as Incense" works particularly well. The new version of the Magnificat will work better than the old version, in my opinion.
I'd love to see that chording of Evening Prayer you mention. Please do send it over when you get a chance. I think my email address will come through in the comment, but if not it's rob dot brazier at gmail dot com.
I've just borrowed a guitar from Nathan Rose (son of Charles Rose), intent on learning to play. Do you think the LSB guitar chords are something I'd be able to handle? Or is this pretty difficult stuff?
From the few pages I have seen, the chords are easy, if you use a capo. At my current level of guitar playing, the keys of C, G, and D along with the relative minors, are highly favored.
Yes, you will be able to handle them and will grow into the more difficult ones.
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