Two crucial observations are in order before discussing the use of popular music in First UU Springfield.
First, in contrast to the non-creedal stance of the UU church, the services at First UU Springfield are tightly structured and highly liturgical, meaning that even if a striking variety of music is performed, the songs themselves still have to fit into an outline of worship that allows for little if any deviations on a week-to-week basis. The placement of particular songs or pieces in the service, along with the resultant juxtapositions of genres and styles, is anything but an accidental or haphazard process. Furthermore, weekly services are always arranged around a specific theme, such as “What I’ve Learned from My Children” (October 2, 2011) or “Blessings from the Animals” (October 9, 2011), meaning that selections either fit the week’s theme, fulfilling both a structural requirement and, possibly, an instructional role, or the selections depart from that theme, creating an unresolved dialectical tension within the constructed narrative implied by the service.
Second, a review of the music performed over three weeks of observation reveals a striking variety of genres: included in the services were hymns derived from Protestant Christianity and gospel songs (often rewritten with specific doctrinal or mythological references omitted, though sometimes these references are retained), hymns specific to the UU tradition, classical music, popular (“secular”) songs, and (for lack of a better term) “ethnic” music. In addition to displaying a remarkable capacity for integration that disturbs normative distinctions between “sacred” and “secular” music, the act of incorporating genres with such a multitude of cultural referents problematizes the division between “mass culture” and “high culture.”
