Special Music

Heard in the wild

The longer version

What it means

Special music is a song performed by a soloist, a small ensemble, the choir, or the youth group, while the congregation listens — as opposed to the hymns and worship songs everyone sings together. It usually comes during the offering, between the singing and the sermon, or at Christmas and Easter, when there's more of it. The performer is typically a church member with a good voice, a piano or a track for accompaniment, and a song chosen to fit the sermon or the season.

In liturgical churches the equivalent is the choir's anthem or the instrumental offertory, and "special music" isn't the phrase.

Why people say it

Music that's listened to does something that music sung together doesn't: it lets a congregation receive, be moved, and hear a text carried by a single voice. Special music also gives gifted members a way to serve and lets the church hear from its own — the teenager who's been taking lessons, the grandmother who's sung the same Easter solo for forty years. Churches call it "special" because it's a change from the ordinary pattern of the service.

How to respond

Listen. At the end, watch the room: if people clap, clap; if they say "amen" or sit in silence, do that. If you know the singer, tell them afterward that it was good; they're a volunteer who's been anxious all week. If the special is the youth choir, applaud regardless of quality — that's the rule everywhere. If you're asked to do special music, the church thinks you can sing, and it's a real gift to offer.

If you hear it in different churches

Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, and evangelical churches have "special music" as a named slot in the service. Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Anglicans have the choir anthem and the offertory. Catholics have the choir or cantor's pieces and a "meditation" song after communion. Contemporary churches sometimes have a "featured song" by the worship team. Black churches have the choir's selection, which is often the highlight of the service and applauded without hesitation.

Where does “Special Music” come from?

David appointed Levite musicians "for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals" (1 Chronicles 25), and the temple had trained singers. The medieval and Reformation churches had choirs performing while the congregation listened; the Lutheran tradition produced Bach's cantatas as the ultimate special music. The soloist singing a gospel song during the offering is an American Protestant custom of the late 1800s, tied to the gospel-song era (Ira Sankey performed solos at Moody's revivals). "Special music" as a bulletin heading dates to the early 1900s.

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