Sprechstimme of Reverence

By Camille

Something interesting that I was thinking about in church yesterday (May 19th) was the vocal inflections of my pastors. They both are great at spreading the word in a clear and concise way, it is very soothing. But something else I heard was a difference in vocal tonation. While one pastor speaks in a bright tone that simultaneously has a "dark" undertone meaning that there is a very rich, velvet, authoritative oomph that rings out, the other pastor speaks with a more warm tone that is inviting and conveys approachability. Both pastors have the ability to reach the masses and share the word, but I was thinking about how cool it would be to translate their sermons whether individual or as a duo, as a dramatic classical, instrumental piece, or maybe even a jazz piece. 

Music is evident everywhere, it is in the strides of our walk, the sounds of our speech, the formation of breath to form a word, sentence, and phrase. Music is the creation of organized sound that involves pitch, tone quality, timbre, rhythm, texture, and dynamics. Those qualities are also important to sermons. If you listen to Emilie M. Townes's speeches, you can hear a musical notation to their speeches that feels heavenly to the ears. One that I enjoy is "The Dancing Mind". She speaks in a horizontal line at a velvet tone that graciously glides like a theremin instrument.

When the voice tone goes up, the mind creates an understanding that that point in the speech was a climax inching its way to the grand finale. I also think about the song "Saved", if we were to listen to that song without the musical notation, there would be a natural shift in speech sounds to a more formulated structure that mimics musical sound, and it is because of the attitude, the oomf, the sass, that voice that comes from deep within that is articulated from the intake of air, as it flows from the outside to the lungs, through the trachea, to the larynx, vibrating within the vocal folds to produce a guttural, physically moving sound that brings out a trapped spirit, a spirit that could no longer be contained, a spirit that didn't want to miss out.

It is incredibly fascinating the avenues that music can take. I never would've thought of speech as being music. As being a traveling sound that just flows around in waves to the ear canal, to the eardrum, vibrating and sending those vibrations by the masses to the middle ear bones that oscillate and amplify the vibrations into messages for the cochlea, and ripple like trickling water into a still river along to the basilar membrane. Regardless of whether a person is receiving the information to convert it to memory and to practical use, it is cool to think of the cochlea as being another receiver of your message. While the pastors speak in their musical tones, sharing an important message about being God's people for the people and it starts within your community, not only is the congregation receiving that message and taking it all in, but so are the vibrations carrying that message to your ear bones to oscillate and amplify the glory for your cochlea and basilar membrane to feel. 

Your body can feel those vocal inflections, the dramatic operatic and classical orchestrations of their sermons by the Lord, the ultimate conductor. Music is everywhere, music is in my ears as I can very clearly hear my heart pumping at various speeds but it sounds muffled so the tone quality is not there, but the pulsating beat is like striking a bass drum with a soft mallette. That is my internal metronome, it tells me when I need to slow down, and when I need to speed up, and it tells me when I am in a safe zone, a neutral zone. 

Part of me is interested to see how composing my pastor's sermons into music would sound. How would I go about doing that? I could pair a flute or a violin as they have a beach wave and horizontal texture, with the cello or a bassoon as they both have that scratchy and buzzy texture, and in this, I could take one of their sermons and turn it into a dialogue of music, back and forth the instruments go building up to a resolution that blends the bright and authoritative tones of my pastors. I have not mastered the art of musical composition onto staffs, but I know how to do so just by playing around on my instruments and on my MIDI, but it would be so cool to translate the English language sermon into the musical language, maybe even specifically a jazz piece that incorporates the sounds of their adlibs and imperfections of speech.

By translating the unique vocal qualities and delivery styles of my pastors into musical compositions, I can create pieces that capture the emotional and spiritual contour of their messages. This approach enriches the experience of the spoken word and highlights the profound connection between music and human expression. Music is indeed everywhere, in every breath, word, and gesture, resonating through our bodies and spirits in waves of sound and meaning.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Boop.

Terms- Sprechstimme- A blend of articulate enunciation and musicality evokes a sense of dramatic storytelling, where each phrase is imbued with heightened emotion and textured nuance, often employed to bring avant-garde compositions to life with an otherworldly resonance.