Psalm 40 is a piece written based around the concepts of spontaneous worship, in an attempt to experiment with the repetition and the flexibility of chord progressions and the capabilities of the vocalists. As discusses briefly in the explanation of spontaneous worship, within the church it is almost expected that whatever songs are performed will most likely be performed differently to their original recording and even the original plan for that day. The band needs to therefore needs a unique level of preparedness where they are both prepared enough to know exactly what each section of the song sounds like and instantly recall it while being able to create something new while retaining the feeling and sound from before. Where in a church setting this would be done through the aid of technology such as in ears, tracks and a Music Director speaking to the band, I have had to take a very different approach. As my band will be relying on sheet music, I have created a song that has clear structure in terms of chord progressions and sections, but have left everything else up to the discretion of the live performance and the musical stylings of the band. 

​

The piece is divided into 4 sections of improvisation designed to experiment with a different scope of spontaneity. The first is what I would call semi-structured, like the concept of adapting a well established song to suit the atmosphere of the room, the band has been provided with a suggested melody, rhythm and chord progressions. While the band will stick to the chord progressions to keep unity within the band, the extent at which the instrumentalists choose to use the pre-given music is up to them. As the chord structure and foundations of the song shall remain consistent I am curious as to how the band approaches the one structured section of this piece, whether they will take the ideas given to them and use it for the rest of the sections or if they will abandon the suggested music and create their own and make that fit around the following score. The section B containing only the piano, bass and vocals, is a continuation on from this experimentation of seeing where the band takes their previous ideas. In christian worship culture often vocalists will fall into a pattern of repetition with regards to what their are singing, either to invoke congregational participation or simply to emphasise the value of the words they are singing. This section however is not repeated, so the band has a limited timespan and a limited chord sequence to perform what they wish. 

​

Section C is arguable more structured with suggested rhythms for the bass and cajon, although again there's no certainty they will even stick to this. This section involving the whole band will be repeated for an undetermined number of times and through that the band will attempt to create movement and change. In the context of Christian music it is not uncommon for swelling to occur, where the music builds up emotionally and audibly, and then slowly falls back again to be more sombre or alternatively completely cutting back. The only uncertainty faced with this is that without the guidance of a Music Director feats as large as this may be difficult. The final section is where the chord progression looses its consistency and predictability. With this I am testing to see how the band reacts, whether they revert to simpler concepts and ideas or bring back old ideas. I also believe this section will be a strong example of how truly adaptable people in worship are. While I did originally have the vocalists performing ad. lib over this section as well, there were points where in rehearsing this, sounded somewhat off, as vocalists do not have the same level of predictability in their voice so much as they do an excellent response mechanism. Going back to the primary purpose of worship as a tool the forcus should be on God and eliminating distraction, as such the decision was made to allow the band to play freely while the vocalists remain silent.