| dc.description.abstract | Music has been used for worship since the early church. Historically, choirs and instruments have been used to lead congregations in worship; however, since the twenty-first century there has been a push toward contemporary style worship. Traditional styles of worship continue to make use of a choir, piano or organ, and sometimes other instruments. For the purpose of this study, contemporary worship is defined as "that expression of worship within the Christian church today that is marked by the primary usage of ontemporarily written worship lyrics and music, is sonically concurrent (to some degree) with the music of popular culture" (Sweetman, 2014, p. 2). Recently, churches increasingly combine traditional and contemporary worship styles. Because worship styles are different, many churches have different-style music programs, if any, for children. Traditional churches typically have a children's choir program, but contemporary churches are less likely to have such traditional choirs. Because of this, children across different worship styles receive different levels of musical training. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to document the structure of children's choir programs, their instructional practices, and their performances in churches with traditional, contemporary, and combined traditional/contemporary worship services. | |
