by Hope Andersen |
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| photos by
Carolyn Herring and Chrissie Knight |
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| ONE of
Martin Tel’s earliest memories involving
music comes from his youth in Graham, Washington,
where he and his family lived on a farm in the
shadow of Mt. Rainier. Tel recalls listening to
his father’s singing "all the psalms he
had learned" in Dutch as he milked the cows. Tel, who joined the Seminary
community in August 1996 as the C. F. Seabrook
Director of Music, belonged to the Tacoma Christian Reformed
Church and worshipped there in his youth. For
Tel, the strength of that experience was that,
because there were both morning and evening
worship services on Sundays, there were more
opportunities to sing. And congregational singing
is what Tel loved—and loves—the most. |
A member of the American Guild of
Organists, Tel has been awarded numerous
scholarships including the Ringerwole Organ
Scholarship, the Joe J. Dahm Music Scholarship,
and most recently the prestigious Fulbright
Scholarship, for which he and his wife, Sharilyn,
spent a year in the Netherlands. There, he did
research on the organ as an instrument of
accompaniment and studied organ improvisation and
design with Hans van Nieuwkoop of the Sweelinck
Conservatorium in Amsterdam. He also worked with
Jan Luth, a specialist in Dutch liturgical music,
at the Instituut voor Liturgiewetenschap of the University
of Groningen. Tel is currently enrolled in
the Doctor of Musical Arts in Church Music
program at the University
of Kansas.Obviously a talented organist, Tel
nevertheless chose to pursue a liberal arts
undergraduate degree at Dordt College in
Sioux Center, Iowa, because, as he says,
"I didn’t think of myself solely as an
organ performer. I wanted to be a
generalist." Still, the focus of his first
master’s degree, which he earned from the
University of Notre Dame in 1991, was in organ
performance. It was during these years that Tel began to experience what he calls "a tension of calling." |
| The third son of Dutch
parents who emigrated from Friesland, in the
northwest Netherlands, at the end of World War
II, Tel acknowledges the importance of his
heritage in shaping his attitudes toward music.
"The Dutch hymn-singing culture is not
refined," he says. "It is a folk
culture, a culture in which authenticity and
unity, rather than a ‘polished
quality,’ is revered. And behind the unison
singing is the organ, inciting the boisterous
singing." For Tel, music has primarily
emotional attachments; it will always be an
emotional experience. This is not to suggest that Tel lacks formal training. On the contrary, he began playing the organ as a young boy and continued studying the instrument throughout his adolescence. "Being the third son," he says, "there simply weren’t that many chores left to do. So, my parents encouraged my interest in music." Already at eight years old, he was playing the offertory anthem during worship. Later, he took advantage of the resources available to him at nearby Pacific Lutheran University and the University of Puget Sound, where he studied with organists David Dahl and Edward Hansen. |
"I didn’t know
whether I was called to be a pastor or a
musician," he reflects. "But I did know
that I wanted to pursue theological study." His desire prompted him to pursue a second Master of Arts degree, this time in Christian education, at Calvin Theological Seminary, which he completed in a swift two years.
While at Calvin, Tel became increasingly aware of the crisis in church music, a crisis that he believes stems in part "from our contentedness to live with half-truths. When we separate the counterpoints of relevance and excellence, this becomes apparent." Simply put, Tel is wary of church music that settles for current musical trends or that "paints a happy face on God" at the expense of genuine interest, content, and substance. He is skeptical, too, of excellent music that lacks spiritual integrity. He quotes Harold Best, dean of the |
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© Copyright 1998 Princeton
Theological Seminary
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| last updated 08/18/98
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