Singing from Our Soul: Worship music development in Latin American Vineyard Churches (1994-2017)

Abstract

The purpose of this article, besides highlighting some of the history of Vineyard worship in Latin America, is to bring to the table a discussion about the use of translated songs and their influence in the development and maturation of Vineyard worship music in the region. This analysis is done from the points of view of the complexity of the esthetic problem that song translation creates; the signification of worship music as a turning point in a process of rupture with the past of Latin American worship leaders and musicians; and the role that song translation plays in musical localization. The final section is a call to reconsider diversity and the need to create new worship music from the realities and contexts where Latin American Vineyards are immersed, according to the variety of possibilities that the continent offers to local congregations, theologians, composers, and musicians, for missional reflection and agency, and for poetic and musical composition in different indigenous styles and themes.