Voice in Worship: The Contemporary Worship Singer

Abstract

Who is the Contemporary Worship Singer? In the past church singers have either been thought of as choristers or as a soloists but recent developments in Christian worship have seen vocal leadership of congregational singing evolve. Historically founded in the emotive hymnody of the Holiness movement (c.a. 19th Century) as well as the impassioned delivery of black gospel (c.a. 19th–20th Century), the worship setting of the Contemporary Worship Singer is not a simple ‘subset’ of either (or both), but an idiom that now, at the commencement of the twenty-first century, forms the umbrella under which both hymnody and gospel find their place among a range of Christian worship expressions. This chapter will seek to develop a map by which singing teachers might understand the multiplicity of today’s worship constructs. With five distinct worship settings using three worship forms, the vocal task of the Contemporary Worship Singer in the twenty-first century has taken on a variety of expressions. This multiplicity of construct challenges today’s singing teacher to step beyond the ‘one-size-fits-all’ application of vocal technique to the ‘task specific’ tuition that today’s church singer requires; classical or contemporary. The chapter then informs vocal pedagogues to be mindful of specific cultural influences, environmental considerations and unique vocal challenges facing the Contemporary Worship Singer and their ‘Voice in Worship’. The chapter commences with a defining overview of worship constructs.