Bob Hurd, a leading composer of church choral music, presents a concert and workshop, April 24 and April 25, St. Ann\u2019s Church, Emmaus.<\/p>\n
Hurd and the St. Ann\u2019s Choir will have the audience singing with them from the hymnal on most of the songs. Hurd writes his music to be integrated with church services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis music is all written for congregations to sing. We are not performing for a passive audience,\u201d Hurd says in a phone interview from Claremont, Calif.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic is the servant in presenting Christ. It serves the readings and the rituals, the rite of gathering and the message of spirituality,\u201d says Hurd.<\/p>\n
Carol Traupman-Carr, who will lead the choir of 35 to 40, says, \u201cBob\u2019s primary focus is on congregational singing. He is not interested in complicated work. He wants songs that people can learn easily and can sing while going up to communion.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur choir is not a performing organization. Our primary role is to enhance the service,\u201d Traupman-Carr says in a phone interview.<\/p>\n
Hurd says that his songs are not all hymns:<\/p>\n
\u201cA hymn is a specific type of music with a certain structure. A congregation has the right to experience all different things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hurd\u2019s music includes gospel and folk influences.<\/p>\n
His Saturday morning workshop will be about the meaning of music in the liturgy, and about liturgy and spirituality. He will use much of his own music, which he will perform with guitar or backed by a pianist.<\/p>\n
Although most church music is keyboard-based, Hurd was in seminary right after Vatican II, the Second Vatican Council that modernized Catholic church services.<\/p>\n
He was influenced by the guitar masses that were popular at the time. He also had a rock band during high school.<\/p>\n
Hurd received a BA from St. John\u2019s Seminary College in 1973 and an MA in 1976 and PhD in 1980 from De Paul University.<\/p>\n
He has taught philosophy and theology at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles; Franciscan School of Theology, Berkeley; St. Patrick\u2019s Seminary, Menlo Park, Calif.; Santa Clara University, and Seattle University\u2019s School of Theology and Ministry.<\/p>\n
His book, \u201cCompassionate Christ, Compassionate People: Liturgical Foundations of Christian Spirituality\u201d (Liturgical Press, 2019) is an in-depth study of the public ritual of Christian worship.<\/p>\n
Hurd, who is Catholic, believes in sharing among all Christians. He is known for his bilingual songs. In California, he has been in contact with Spanish and Vietnamese language speakers, and writes compositions with them in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are for everyone who belongs to the parish. It invites people to experience other people\u2019s language and to get to know each other as brother and sister. For those in separate parishes, it can bring people together around major feasts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traupman-Carr has been at St. Ann\u2019s, a Catholic church, for 33 years. She is Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness and Dean for Academic Operations Assessment and Accreditation Consultant at Moravian University.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople liked explanations of the music during services and how it related to the season we were in. I started a podcast called \u2018On the Musical Road to Emmaus.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe St. Ann\u2019s hymnal has 40 or 50 pieces by Bob. I contacted him through his publisher [OCP Music Publishing]. After a wonderful chat with Bob on an episode, he said he would love to come and work with our choir.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hurd says he may or may not have visited the Lehigh Valley before in his many travels:<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been doing this for 50 years. I have been all over the U.S. and England, and even once in Italy. I know I have been in Pennsylvania, but not if I was in your area.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the Musical Road to Emmaus\u201d podcast by Carol Traupman-Carr: https:\/\/caroltcarr.podbean.com<\/p>\n
\u201cEvening Concert with Bob Hurd and the St. Ann\u2019s Choir,\u201d 7 p.m. April 24; \u201cMorning Conversation: Interactive Learning Session,\u201d 9 a.m. April 25, St. Ann\u2019s Church, 415 S. Sixth St., Emmaus. Ticket not required. \u2006610-965-2426, https:\/\/www.churchstann.org\/<\/p>\n
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOBob Hurd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bob Hurd, a leading composer of church choral music, presents a concert and workshop, April 24 and April…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-174642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}