Sound Theology by Colleen Butcher

This week we return to Victor Wooton’s book The Music Lesson. We have explored groove, notes, articulation and saying ‘thank you’. Today’s lesson is technique.

Technique is the skill or ability to carry out a particular task. It is the result of attention and practice. read more…

In the days following Pentecost, I offer you music about fire. I am reminded by these wonderful works to be intentional about giving the fire inside the oxygen that he needs to flourish. read more…

Say Thank You

We’ve been playing with Victor Wooten’s book “The Music Lesson” where he invites us to a bigger understanding of what makes music. Today I’m going to jump to the end of the list. His final lesson is a postscript, really, but it’s an essential element. It is the affirmation that music is more than an external “thing”, it is a relationship:

“Say Thank You. In all your musical years, have you ever, truthfully, said “thank you” to your instrument?” read more…

If articulation is the metaphor of giving yourself away for the music, then our sound theology must consider great music teachers as some of the best examples of this metaphor . . . and at the top of that list must be French musician Nadia Boulanger.

American composer Ned Rorem said this about Boulanger after her death in 1979, “So far as musical pedagogy is concerned – and by extension, musical creation – Nadia Boulanger is the most influential person who ever lived.” read more…

As an introduction to sound theology, we are working our way through Victor Wooten’s 10 principles of music. If you missed the first element “groove,” you can find it here. There were two entries on “notes,” you can find them here and here.  The third element of music is “articulation.”

Articulation is a short-hand that musicians use to describe the duration and shape of a note. It is as unique and individual as your eye color or facial expressions; it is dependent on the shape of your embouchure and the weight of your breath. The language that describes different kinds of articulation is precise, but its implementation is particular. read more…