Hope College Arts Events

Veritas Prequel November 3 & 4
Presenting Poet and Songwriter Reverend Vito Aiuto of the Welcome Wagon

November 3:
Chapel
  10:30am Dimnent Chapel

“The Sacred & the Creative Process: Reflections on Ministry and Art Making” the Reverend Vito Aiuto of the Welcome Wagon followed by a panel discussion with Trygve Johnson and Joshua Banner
   3:00pm Hemmenway Auditorium

Poetry and Songs by Vito Aiuto of the Welcome Wagon, Joshua Banner and Susanna Childress of the Ordinary Neighbors and various Hope College students
   7:00pm Hemmenway Auditorium followed by a dessert reception in the Martha Miller Rotunda

November 4:
“Reflections on Worship Music by Vito Aiuto”
9:30am Dimnent #16


The Veritas Forum is a biennial event at Hope College. This year’s topic is “True Community True Selves: Exploring True Community in a Virtual World,” with lectures Thursday January 13, 2011 through Saturday morning, January 15. The forum will conclude with a concert featuring The Welcome Wagon (read below to learn more about this musical group). The Veritas Forum Prequel is a series of events to launch interest in the forum as well as various arts events that will coincide with the January forum which include:

Poetry Contest: $50 Prize* Winners to be judged by Professor Pablo Peschiera. All submissions should be sent to opus@edu.edu Deadline for Opus Submission is November 14. However, you can still submit poems for the contest as late as January 10.

Visual Art Contest: $50 Prize* Winners to be judged by Professor William Mayer. Artists submitting should contact Professor Mayer. Photos of works can also be submitted to Opus. Again the deadline for Opus Submission is November 14. However, you can still submit visual art for the contest as late as January 10.

8 Minutes Max*: we are seeking auditions of any original performance art pieces (songs, bands, singer songwriters, classical or jazz compositions, dance choreography, short film, theatrical vignettes. Selected performance pieces will perform January 15 before the Welcome Wagon at the Knickerbocker Theater. Auditions will be held December 9. Please contact Joshua Banner to sign up for an audition time.

*All visual art, poetry and performance pieces must somehow respond to the Veritas Mission statement, the focus of the lectures for January 2011. Contests and performances are only open to Hope College students.

Veritas Mission 2011
Perhaps no other human longing is more powerful than our desire for true friendship and true community. While ever-changing technologies provide instant connection with others, we often suspect that connection and community are not the same thing.  While information abounds online, intimacy eludes us.  We struggle even to maintain a sense of personal identity in the face of an avalanche of insistent marketing, must-have products and impersonal branding.  What is required at this cultural moment in order to cultivate true communities and to interact authentically with others and in our increasingly virtual world?  How can we experience authentic friendship, stable relationships, and an identity that was not manufactured for us?  Simply put, where do we find true selves and true communities?  Please join us as these and related questions are thoughtfully explored in light of the enduring truth of the Christian gospel during the 2011 Hope College Veritas Forum.



                           

The Welcome Wagon is a married couple, the Reverend Thomas Vito Aiuto and his wife Monique, who execute a genre of gospel music that is refreshingly plain. Their hymns are modest and melodic takes on a vast history of sacred song traditions, delivered with the simple desire to know their Maker—and to know each other—more intimately.

Vito was born in Tecumseh, Michigan, and attended Western Michigan University where he developed a love for writing poetry.  His first book of poems, Self-Portrait as Jerry Quarry, was published by New Issues Press in 2002.  A self-described agnostic, Vito experienced a spiritual conversion at the age of 20 and soon after enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary to study theology and prepare for ordained ministry. Currently he is the senior pastor of Resurrection Presbyterian Church, a church he planted in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, in 2005.

Raised on a farm, by a gentleman farmer father and choir teacher mother, in the same small town as Vito, Monique moved to New York City after high school to study art, first at the Cooper Union (BFA), then Columbia University (MFA).  Since then she has worked as a pre-school teacher, craftmaker for Martha Stewart, and as a mother.  She also serves as the Welcome Wagon's resident visual artist.

The Welcome Wagon began as husband and wife singing in the privacy of their home.  Having little to no previous musical experience or training, Vito purchased a guitar with the desire to sing hymns with his family.  With Monique accompanying on toy glockenspiel or harmonica, the two would amble through old hymnals, psalters and prayerbooks. Their inability to read music was no big issue; Vito simply made up new tunes to old words.

While their most familiar venue was (and is) their living room, the Welcome Wagon have been periodically coaxed to small stages at bars, parties, and seminaries throughout the New York City area, often joined by friends on upright bass, drums, piano, and banjo.  These intimate arrangements preserve the delicate nature of the Welcome Wagon's identity.

But there is another Welcome Wagon, the one that can be heard on their debut album, Welcome to the Welcome Wagon.  This version of the band retains the heart and soul of pastor and his wife singing together, but dresses them up in the transcendent musical vestments of Sufjan Stevens, who produced and helped arrange the record.

The collaboration between Stevens and The Welcome Wagon began in 2001 with their appearance on the Asthmatic Kitty compilation To Spirit Back the Mews (2001), debuting the first song they ever wrote and recorded, "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood." Since that time they have been patiently recording an album of hymns, pop covers, and folksy originals with their friend and Brooklyn neighbor.  But it was the nativity of that first song which established their pattern of work together: husband and wife write and arrange songs with the architecture of a country chapel, while Stevens (as latter-day Christopher Wren) designs and attaches flying buttresses, soaring spires and reliquaries, gargoyles, gryphons and cherubs dotting the façade. Somehow this unlikely partnership has produced a sublime addition to that genre called "church music".

Admittedly, for a gospel duo, there's far less soul than sweet sincerity in the casual songs of the Welcome Wagon. Vito and his wife are unabashedly Midwestern, ordinary and uncool.  But this is precisely what sets them apart from the standard fare of contemporary liturgical music. It doesn't feign emotion; it doesn't pander to stylistic pretensions; it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is: the result of countless, informal social exchanges between friends. A home-cooked meal followed by a few microphones taped to folding chairs. A family gathering, a summary of happy noises, and a room crowded with familiar faces. Sure, there are showy guitar riffs and piano codas and harmonica solos, a rowdy chorus, an imposing flourish of brass instruments like wartime canons. But at the heart of it—if you really listen carefully—there's just a pastor and his wife tentatively singing in the quiet privacy of their own home.

More Friendship

We need a theology of friendship like we need a functional democracy. If I had the patience or the frame of mind to draw the connections, there could be much to say about the way government might work more successfully if we knew how to be better friends to each other. I found this piece on Slate.com that compares the troubles between the Left and the Right in need of marriage counseling. The comparison is a bit sentimental and overwrought. It fears the democrats' jaded and cutting cynicism is more destructive to our country than the republicans' anger. And this quirky analysis is just the bread and butter of quirk that Slate puts out: how to look at an issue from a somewhat less than conventional twist.

However, I'm thinking about friendship because I've just had a visit from Judson Tompkins. He flew into GR on Thursday. We drove on over to Royal Oak for a Sufjan concert. What a trippy and delightful evening. I got to see David Stith if even for just a second. Jud and I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the studio working a bit on his music and some on mine too.

And now the day after he's gone I find myself feeling somewhat barren and this makes me feel guilty. I'm here at home, a day off with Susanna and Casper trying to take it easy and quiet and I'm feeling sorry for myself...the sap that I am? Casper is a delight. He is moving into his personality in a vivid way. Sharing these discoveries with Susanna is rich. I can feel parts of my insides expanding, becoming something more. And still I miss the Judson Tompkins, the Brad Kilmans, the Josh Bottomlys of my world.

If there is anything that I really care about it is connection. Art, music, the studio, the creative process, worship, the rehearsals, the services, food at the table, film, literature...hospitality in all its forms. These are all ways to be with people. It is what I've been able to share with deep friends like Judson for years. It is what I share with Hope College students now. I work to create arenas for this to expand the way we think about our capacity for sharing our lives with each other.

Let's all promise to not take each other for granted. Let's promise to go out of our way more each week to share and give something. Let's imagine a way of sharing our times and energy on new people. Let's open ourselves and be surprised by someone we've not been paying attention to. It doesn't have to be grandiose in a dramatic fashion. In fact it is better if it is small and subtle because otherwise the gift ends up being more about us than the other. I feel kinda silly saying these things. I don't want to be naive or to add panic to our already busy lives. I'm working against that mantra, gotta do more...gotta be more. I don't want to be cheesy either. I want the real thing. I want history with people. Rootedness. To be known and to know. To move past small things.

I'm surprised by how much I want to be better at sharing myself. Where does this urge come from? Big thanks to Judson for reawakening this ever so painful yet hopeful ache. It is an ache for my Oklahoma family, but it is more for that. How to find the words tonight? I better not try to say more for now.

QUICK: After the Crowder Conference

I hate talking about a movie or a concert immediately after it is over. I always feel awkward trying to put the experience into words too quickly [READ Annie Dillard's "Total Eclipse" for a better description of why we should take our time assigning language to experience].

Just finished attending THIS event.  I normally don't look into conferences except a few. It isn't clinically diagnosable, but I choke up in large crowds and long lines. I get anxious, feel trapped and annoyed. But I decided to attend this event because David Taylor was presenting and I could get a free place to stay in his hotel room and a free admission as his guest. Further David and some of us have had this on running discussion about the state of contemporary worship music throughout the summer and the overall framework of this conference seemed like a great way to continue that discussion and the learning curve. It is intriguing that David Crowder included everyone from the Welcome Wagon (who will be at Hope College a few times this year), the Bifrost Arts, Israel Houghton, Gungor, John Mark McMillan, Matt Maher, Matt Redman, Hillsong London, along with speakers like David Dark and Rob Bell. It is apparent that Crowder put this particular group of people together because despite their various disparate musical styles and positions within the church, each impress representing something substantial in Crowder's mind about what is happening in the realm of church music.

My favorites were David Dark because he has always been such great insight and is versatile within pop and higher, historical (or canonical) arts/culture, Israel Houghton because I'm pretty high on gospel music right now with all the good, sweet things that are happening at Hope with our choir, and John Mark McMillan because I love his voice and the raw place he writes and sings from.

It was a very overwhelming experience especially since I had the backstage access and got good time with many of the artists and speakers. I went knowing that It'd be overwhelmed praying that the Spirit would keep me teachable and tender and that I'd have some good connections without having to go way out of my way to ingratiate myself. I'm a bit shy about these things. To top it off, I woke up at 4am Thursday to have time to get my 5:50am departure out of GR with a burning throat. It's been a head cold that has now moved into my chest. So it was really hard for me to feel emotionally present with the people and the worship. Maybe some how the sickness has been good, relieving me of the pressure of having to emotionally connect with the whole enterprise. In fact, this morning I put in ear plugs during the music because the subs were pumping so loud the night before that I felt dizzy.

It will indeed take me some time to fully get my head wrapped around what this all means to me and I don't want to rush that process. I want to at least say a few things.

1. I love the church. I renounce cynicism and judgmentalism. I began renouncing cynicism a while back, but it is a discipline to practice regularly. Each portion of the last three days contained something that I can learn from. I may not agree with all they do musically or say theologically and I may not be able to replicate exactly what they are teaching or representing, but the event in all its odd eccentricities leaves me loving God and the church more. I'm tired of cynicism. Create in me a clean heart Oh God. I believe, help my unbelief.
2. With all that I've been exposed to in the last three days, I feel even more delight with what God is doing through us at Hope College. Yes, I've just seen some world class musicianship and some powerful examples of worship leadership, but there is something lovely about the ministry and spiritual community at Hope College. I'm so grateful. We have World Communion Sunday tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to it even if I'm so sick I can't sing.

I'm still in Waco for the night and fly into GR at 1pm. If you read this before then, please pray that my flights are all on time so that I can get back for rehearsal for the Gathering tomorrow night.

PEACE

Response To David Taylor's Questions About Worship Song Writing

David Taylor is the pre-eminent asker of questions. I love him for many reasons (I met my wife through him, he enjoys spicy food, has a great laugh, he lives deeply and deliberately, is generally a good time) but especially for his ache, his insistence, his persistence, even his obsession with putting a fine point to every good conversation. I recently completed the Gallup Strengths assessment test and one of my top five is “intellection,” meaning I like to spin abstractions around in my head. “Discipline” was not in my top five, thus my irregular blogging and thus my need for people like David Taylor in my life to keep me on task. In his most recent blog post he asks some poignant questions of worship songwriters. I presume much of this musing is prep for his pending presentation at David Crowders worship extravaganza at the end of the month yet the musing is also I’m sure a result of his deep love and concern for the church. So, I’ll bite.

Question 1: When you sit down to write a song, who are the people that inspire, or perhaps we should say in-form, your work?

Part 1a: the people who really matter… Part one of our first question, then, asks to whom a songwriter feels a sense of primary allegiance.

These kinds of questions can be answered both musically and textually. Trying to answer the question musically is somewhat of a mystery. I love George Steiner’s quip, “can anything meaningful be said about music?” For all of music’s physicality, the rhythmic pulse, the visceral response to melodies and harmonies, the tactile execution and reception of music…there is still an ineffable quality to any primary creative act. Scholars have wondered on this question endlessly. Where does creativity come from? Do we really have any control over it? Can a person be taught to write well or compose a song? Further is there really anything new ever made? See David, your attempt to put a fine point on these things only makes my head spin with more questions.

So let me just answer from my personal experience. For some reason I have melodies always inside of my head/heart. I can find several different melodies for any given chord progression. I don’t know why. They don’t all sound pleasant. They are just ideas. I have to sift through them and get to question #2 below briefly here. I know they are right when I’ve not become tired of them, when they stick inside of me, when I find that I still want to hum or sing them.

Some songwriters start with a text. Others with music. Some have varying mixtures between both. I mostly start with the music, but I do on occasion like to find ways of singing texts that have already been written.

So, who inspires me musically? Yes, definitely the Triune God. I feel the most joy and satisfaction when writing music. Often I try to find melodies in response to my daily Scripture readings. Singing is my most natural response to the Word of God and prayer. But I’m also informed and inspired by the music I’m listening to and playing at the time. The chorus of one song of mine, “Fairer,” turns out to be almost identical to the song “Death of a Salesman” by the band Low. I didn’t mean to steal it and didn’t realize what I’d done until a few months after the song was written. If I make the song more accessible, I may be contacting Low to square off on intellectual property rights and legally give what is due them (namely Alan Sparhawk).  My point is that if song writers want to make certain kinds of songs, they need to immerse themselves in that kind of music by listening and playing it.

I listen mostly to avant, indie rock and down tempo. Lots of the National, Arcade Fire, Bibio, Boards of Canada, DM Stith…. This stuff can actually hinder me in my ability to write contemporary worship songs. I’ve finally found a few worship song writers that I really like: Paul Baloche, Robbie Seay, some of the Jesus Culture stuff, Brooke Fraiser, most recently a song by Phillip Rice. My mainstays are of course Brad Kilman and Charlie Hall. I’ve been listening to lots of worship music this summer and it is finding its way deeper into my heart.

What inspires my textually/lyrically? Again, it all comes out of my regular Scripture readings/meditations. If a certain idea of thought strikes me and if it seems like something that I haven’t noticed in other contemporary songs, then I’ll give it a shot. Much of this is just part of my private prayer life. Most of it doesn’t occur to me as something that I will bother forming into a full song. As they say, most of art is made not by inspiration but simply by showing up at the page or the canvas or whatever the medium. The act of creating a ‘thing’ is when the artist is able to pay attention to what emerges and the artist can recognize it as something worth developing and focusing on and what is crap. The rest, the bulk of it, is left on the cutting room floor.

If I find a connection between some words and a melody that seems worthwhile, I sing it and pray it over and over to see if my own heart is warmed…if my mind is lit up. Then I take those bits and pieces and put my thinking cap on and begin another kind of work to flesh out the song. Much of what inspires and informs me is good ole bible study, word searches, cross-referencing, reading and re-reading passages and taking a few pages of notes. I keep a hymnal at hand and do some searching through topical and Scriptural indexes. I use Witvliet’s Worship Source Book and do some thematic searching. All along the way I’m asking what the full song is about, the chorus/refrain and then how do verses, bridges, tags reinforce that overall meaning.

I also have the blissful pleasure of being married to a fantastic poet, so I sing parts to her. She tells me very quickly what is good and what is not. If she is inclined she starts toying around with phrasing with me.

My favorite texts are by Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, Bernard of Clairvaux….

Part 1b: what functional authority do they play? What functional authority does the songwriter’s “primary community” play in his or her work?

On a whole other level, what inspires me? My congregation, the gathered worshipers at Hope College. I write for them. It is in my job description and it is my joy to supplement our worship diet with original material. Back in 2000 or so I heard how much money Martin Smith was making quarterly on his popular song “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” and suddenly it became impossible for me to write corporate songs. I couldn’t stop myself from wondering if somehow I’d someday write a hit and start making gobs in royalties. It wasn’t until the summer of 2006 right before I started here at Hope that I was able to write another corporate song. It came out of my excitement of serving this new community. That first song was my experiment in wondering what would interesting in the context of a campus ministry. It was initially sparked by a desire to say to God in song what the disciples said to Jesus when he wondered if they too would leave him, “where shall we go? You alone have the words of life.”

I don't feel any particular allegiance to a denomination though. What I’m doing is explicitly ecumenical. I’m most enthused about injecting high biblical/theological content into contemporary forms. Yet, I am for the most part a Reformed creature, so I work to remain true to those theological convictions. I also make myself accountable to our staff. If they find something funky about a line, I’ll definitely change it.

Alternatively, does a songwriter sense a responsibility to write songs inspired by and in service of the global church, with a respect for the unique concerns of other cultures?

I’m not trained yet or equipped to know how to write for the global church. I don’t know if such a thing is possible. Is there a song that could be globally received? Even “Amazing Grace” may seem funky to someone somewhere. When trying to be hospitable to students of color or international students, it is much more effective to get them involved in the worship leading. I’ve stepped things up with our Gospel Choir for just this reason. I also love to meet and learn songs from the international students. We’ve been deeply affected by these songs from across the globe.

Here is a tricky counter question with issues of global music: globalization has made Western, contemporary music styles almost ubiquitous. For example, hip-hop is really popular in many many cultures because these cultures want to Westernize musically as well as technologically. What are we to do with Spanish speaking churches that would rather sing Hillsongs music in Spanish translation rather instead of using their indigenous musical styles? This is happening with contemporary Black Gospel music, a kind of fusion of sorts between contemporary rock worship styles and Gospel Choirs. This can create very exciting results, but it makes ‘global’ music a pretty complicated topic. Check out this song for example: 

It is arguable that much of what is on the top 40 charts is some blend of hip hop, hard rock and bubble gum pop. Much of popular music is becoming an aesthetic mishmash.

2. How do you know that you have written a right song?

Constance Cherry has a great checklist of things to consider in evaluating a worship song in her new book The Worship Architect. It is a pretty daunting list of criteria, but I rest in the knowledge that there is no such thing as a perfect worship song. In my journey of song selection for this summer, I found myself spending more time in prayer with a song. I’ve had to set my critical faculties aside for a bit to sense if a song makes sense to me spiritually. I’m growing back into some old habits I used before graduate school to discern a song. I’ve found that my biblical/theological training has somewhat crippled me to fully trust any songs at all. Of course, it is easy to rip any given contemporary song to shreds. I’ve been heavy handed and cynical even and so it has been a season of repentance and trust. Yes we must be “shrewd as serpents” in discerning worship music, but we also must be “as innocent as doves.” This has freed me as a leader too. During the first week of worship services, I’ve found that I can give myself to a song in a more deliberate way to lead more fully and confidently.  So there seems to be a dialectic of moving back and forth between mental and heart assessment. After doing this for so many years, for the most part, I can tell which songs will work. Constance Cherry’s criteria is a good rubric, but ultimately it is an intuition you develop after years of failures and successes. You judge a 

tree by its fruit, and so we develop a taste for the fruit.

Ironically, I had the morning off from leading and my students led in my place. They picked two of my songs. It was the first time that has ever happened—me being led by two songs I wrote for Hope College by Hope College students. I was in tears. Deep gratitude. It is a kind of fruit that blows my mind. They are such strong leaders. Hearing the whole of the chapel sing so fully. Rehearsing these lines Susanna and I wrote together. Sharing with the gathered saints. An absolutely remarkable blessing.

QUICK REVIEW: The Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services

I've been teaching a Theology and Worship course for four years now and have struggled to find the right readings because, as Paul Westermeyer and Charlotte Kroeker both agree, the study of Church music is vastly interdisciplinary. While I delight in the theoretical questions that surround the church and its musical culture, when we get down to the rubber hitting the road applications like the order of service, song selection, and congregational participation, The Worship Architect serves us well.

Honestly, I typically have an 'allergic reaction' to prescriptive ministry texts. While the book is filled with lists and lists of practical questions and ideas, it avoids being pedantically heavy handed. Cherry's intent is to direct our attention to the important issues that must be addressed in order to plan our services well and she does this efficiently. The exhaustive content may be dizzying for my students but it is a valuable reference to have on hand for leaders. The book is worth its price if only for the concise list of questions for evaluating a worship song. I had groups of my student leaders use this in a training retreat last week and there was much fruit from their discussions and discernment.

The theological content in the first half of the text (Cherry's "four load bearing walls") may be relatively cursory, it serves as a good primer for opening the discussion of liturgical theology for novices--for the college student.

This will be an important book for training worship leaders from both traditional and contemporary churches but especially the contemporary. With the boom of contemporary worship in the last 20-30 years we need to expect more from our contemporary leaders than to be talented, winsome and spirit-filled. Many of the books with this kind of liturgical content are written in a tone and vocabulary that will only preach to their respective choirs. But Cherry's approach is accessible and ecumenical and will help contemporary leaders conceive a substantial approach to worship planning, a weighty respect for each part of a service and an appropriate discernment essential to leading well.

[p.s. thanks to Matt Westerholm for catching my typo. It is just as loving to tell someone when they have a booger,  food in their teeth, a button undone or a fly unzipped.]

Review of For the Beauty of the Church

The good folks at Transpositions have had the mind to review For the Beauty of the Church chapter by chapter. My chapter was reviewed, incidentally, on my birthday. They brought up a good concern about what I'm suggesting. I copied my response below. There is good discourse on each chapter in the respective comment sections.

I don't know if anything could be more exciting than this! Thanks to you guys for taking such care with this book. Your collective thoughtfulness will make us better pastors and leaders in the future.

For the record, I'm aware of the 'cute' factor of my three P's. I had come up with that language back in '98 when I wrote out the initial mission statement for the arts ministry. The P's were a coincidence then. That same language has served me thus far, so I kept it the unintentional alliteration.

Regarding the factory concern: yes, a very good concern. Another reviewer elsewhere suggested that what I'm suggesting is tantamount to turning pastors into "talent scouts." Well, yes indeed. I do believe that pastors are talent scouts but not just of artistic gifts but of all gifts. Those of us who have the privilege/burden of being paid in ministry--I believe--are paid primarily to identify and release the many gifts within our congregations, preaching, teaching, worship leading, outreach, service, intercession as well as painting, poetry, composition etc.... We are called to "equip the saints for the work of ministry." Much of what I do as a campus minister can be called vocational counseling. I help students identify, trust and test their passions. I would LOVE churches to be better equipped to maybe not become 'gift' or 'talent' "factories" but perhaps conservatories, gardens, flourishing farms.

Peace of Christ to you. Thanks again.

Book Review: What Language Shall I Borrow?

 My review of What Language Shall I Borrow? is now printed here in Perspectives.