CREEDE HINSHAW: Of all places for an awakening

The highly acclaimed, award-winning symphony conductor Edward Outwater, music director of Ontario, Canada’s Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, was a Southern California devotee of punk music and skateboarding until the day he walked into a church.

Learning about Outwater’s story on National Public Radio, I looked him up on the Internet and watched him, accompanied by a string quartet, tell a 14-minute story about how he considers classical music to be “rebel music” because it is countercultural, acoustic, slow and requires some level of knowledge to be appreciated. He is devoting his career to bringing this “rebel” music into society’s consciousness and appreciation.

Mr. Outwater explained that his “moment of awakening” happened when – as a teenager – he walked into a chamber music concert where a string quartet was playing Opus 132 by Beethoven, a piece written by the famous composer to thank God for surviving a near fatal illness.

“Of all places,” Outwater said, he heard the string quarter in Southern California, implying that very few people would consider the land of surf music and punk rock to be conducive to Brahms, Bach or Strauss. But the disorientation was not yet over.

“Of all places,” he said, to hear a string quartet, he heard it in a church. What an awakening! I’m not sure exactly what kind of music Outwater thought was typical for a church setting; maybe he had a decrepit, upright out-of-tune piano or an electronic organ in mind, or maybe some really old rhythm blocks, rusty triangles or tambourines for a children’s choir.

Outwater and others may be surprised to know that the only institution where most Americans will ever hear any kind of vocal and/or instrumental music is the church. Symphony goers, theater attendees and rock/country/etc. fans pale in comparison with the number of Americans who are exposed to music – in its many genres, often on a weekly basis – in the church. Far from being an unusual setting for a string quartet, the church, often acoustically favorable, built for choirs and having very fine piano and pipe organ available, is a natural setting for excellent music

Music – in many, many forms – is crucial to the mission of the church, and much of that music is very, very good. Although I could decry bad church music I’ve heard over the years, those minor irritations pale in comparison to the way the church has introduced people – worshipers and visitors, children, youth and adults – to the joys and appreciation of instrumental and vocal music. Many children, youth and adults would never have learned how to sing were it not for the church. And more musicians will play their instruments in the church than in any other setting.

The strings of a quartet playing the moving music of a gratefully recovered Beethoven in the welcoming venue of a church opened an unexpected door for the gifted Outwater. I’ll write more about church music next week.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].