In addition to its own publications, Northwestern Publishing House sells worship resources from a dozen sacred music publishers—publishers you probably recognize such as CPH, Augsburg, GIA, Hal Leonard, Hope, MorningStar, and Lorenz. We do this for two reasons:
- To ease the vetting process for WELS churches, schools, and individual musicians/worship planners—we save you time, energy, and offer the ease of carefully curated one-stop Lutheran worship music shopping!
- To help support the NPH publishing ministry (a portion of proceeds from non-NPH titles purchased through NPH is retained by NPH).
So how does NPH decide what to feature from other publishers? That’s a great question!
CHORAL
NPH takes much of the work out of sacred choral music review by first reviewing texts for Scriptural accuracy, doctrinal clarity, and richness of content. When a text proves worthy, the music is reviewed for excellence of craft and broadness of Lutheran worship market appeal. Musical criteria are a bit more subjective, but basic elements include difficulty, appropriateness to Lutheran worship, relationship/service to the text, uniqueness/originality of musical ideas, etc. In other words, if an anthem appears on nph.net, you can trust that its text is biblically solid and its music is excellent in craft, accessibility, and appropriateness for Lutheran worship.
KEYBOARD
The first item considered is the table of contents. With the emphasis on a broad use of hymnody in Lutheran worship, collections based on familiar and oft-used hymns in our churches are preferred (driven largely in part by the hymn corpus of the Christian Worship hymnal suite). If the table of contents fits this bill (at least to a good extent), the music is then reviewed. Again, excellence of craft and broadness of Lutheran worship market appeal are key elements considered. Difficulty, uniqueness, and originality of musical ideas are again reviewed. Key is an important consideration: does an arrangement end in the same key as the hymn in Christian Worship on which it is based? Those that do might serve as hymn introductions in addition to pre- or post-service music (whereas those that do not will have a more limited use strictly for the latter). In short, if a keyboard collection appears on nph.net, it is likely accessible to a broad range of worship keyboard player abilities and by-and-large supports or complements hymn-based worship.
SPECIAL ORDER
We hope that this curated group of resources—doctrinally sound and likely-to-serve-well your confessional Lutheran congregational worship practices—offers you a more efficient look through the newest titles from the broader sacred music publishing market. The chaff has been removed, so to speak. But here is an important item to note: we are able to order any music item from the publishers we represent, even if it doesn’t appear on nph.net. Because of some of the review subjectivities involved (such as difficulty or style), you may learn about titles that do not appear on nph.net but that you would like to purchase. And you can still purchase them through NPH, thereby supporting the NPH publishing ministry to the fullest extent! We call this a special order; these can be easily placed by calling 800-662-6022 and talking with a member of our Customer Service team.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
It’s the Lutheran question, right? NPH is your source for trustworthy, confessional Lutheran music and worship (and all other Christ-centered) resources. We serve you by curating the best of what other sacred music publishers release regularly. You partner in the WELS publishing ministry by purchasing those resources through NPH. Win-win.
Together in Christ Jesus,
Jeremy S. Bakken, DMA
Director of Worship and Sacred Music
Northwestern Publishing House
bakkenj@nph.wels.net