When I was in high school, I volunteered to have my saxophone quartet play a special musical number in sacrament meeting.
My offer was declined.
I suspect it was declined on church policy grounds. The 1989 Handbook—the one that would have been in effect when I was in high school—didn’t have explicit policies on the types of music and the types of instruments permitted in sacrament meeting; rather, it limited its guidance to the requirement that “[m]usic and musical texts are to be sacred, dignified, and otherwise suitable for a Latter-day Saint meeting.”
But that wasn’t the last word in music; the church had a publication (a pamphlet, I assume) entitled Church Music Guide for Priesthood Leaders. I don’t have a copy in front of me, but, according to a late-1980s Ensign article, the Church Music Guide provided that “[o]rgans and pianos are the standard instruments used in sacrament meetings. Other instruments such as orchestral strings may be used. Brass and percussion instruments are not appropriate.”
(A quick aside: to be clear, though they are made of brass, saxophones are woodwind instruments, not brass instruments, so the prohibition didn’t apply. And at the time my friends and I were very good classical musicians. I was taking two saxophone lessons a week, one for jazz and one for classical.)
This limitation was expanded and codified by the 2010 Handbook; in it, we read that
Organs and pianos, or their electronic equivalents, are the standard instruments used in Church meetings. If other instruments are used, their use should be in keeping with the spirit of the meeting. Instruments with a prominent or less worshipful sound, such as most brass and percussion,[fn1] are not appropriate for sacrament meeting.
Last month, the church released a number of updates and changes to the Handbook, changes I didn’t bother blogging about because, well, the holidays were coming up. But I want to highlight two changes here, changes that are incredibly positive and that I hope we wholeheartedly embrace.
The first is this: the church has removed specific instrument prohibitions from the Handbook. Moreover, it has expanded the range of instruments that can accompany congregational singing in church. The updated Handbook says “[t]he piano, organ, or another instrument approved by the bishopric may be used to accompany hymn singing in sacrament meeting” [emphasis added].
Now I don’t expect that we’re going to see a massive shift away from pianos and organs. At least, not in the U.S. But it turns out that there are plenty of places where the church is that don’t have pianists. On my mission in Brazil, for instance, I played piano in every sacrament meeting (except in my first area, where my companion also played piano). Wards were devastated when piano-playing missionaries were transferred away because it meant some period of unaccompanied singing.
(I realize that today, theoretically, you can sing along to church recordings. But, and excuse my French, the church-provided recordings are LAME.)
But if they could be accompanied by a guitar? or a ukelele? or another culturally-relevant instrument? Wards wouldn’t have to worry about losing the one person who played piano. And frankly, piano and organ aren’t universally viewed as worshipful instruments, our prior notwithstanding.
Which takes me to the second change: “Sacred music that is written or sung in culturally diverse musical styles may help unify congregations. Music coordinators and priesthood leaders may include a variety of appropriate musical styles that appeal to members of various backgrounds.”
I don’t even know what to say about this, except thank goodness.
Again, I don’t think this is going to revolutionize our sacrament meetings, at least not yet. We’re familiar with the 19th century folk song-style hymnody we’ve grown up with. But this is a long-overdue recognition that our hymnody is not somehow True, and that music we’re unfamiliar with isn’t wrong. It’s a recognition that God does not center white Western aesthetic tastes.
And this move is going to take some work: as a people, I think we now face an obligation to search out sacred music from traditions other than our own. Not because we have to figure out how to put together a gospel choir, African sacred music, Shinto music, or other sacred music. But with luck, at some point, we’ll be exposed to it and we would do well to recognize the Spirit in music that doesn’t come from our own traditions.
As the church has become (and continues to become) more diverse, we need to recognize the things that bring spiritual uplift not only to us, but to our brothers and sisters who have different sacred backgrounds than we do. And inviting our brothers and sisters to experience and share music from their cultural backgrounds, music that speaks directly to their experiences and their hearts, is one way we can.
[fn1] This characterization of most brass and being somehow “less worshipful” is tremendously dumb and culturally specific. But even if we stick to white Protestant culture derived from the 19th-century United States, it just doesn’t make any sense. My wife was in New York years before I was. She tells me that in one singles ward sacrament meeting, a trombone quintet crossed the street from Julliard and played in sacrament meeting. And I can guarantee you that five Julliard trombonists was better than roughly 100% of orchestral strings you’ve ever heard in sacrament meeting.
Photo by Maxence Pira on Unsplash