Then Let Us Sing! Materials Curation

This piece was written for the Then Let Us Sing! launch, which took place in Ottawa, Ontario, in October 2025.

The work of the Materials Curation group was, primarily, to curate the material for the collection. This means picking the music for the book. Simple enough!

Underneath these words, though, was a fulsome process. I think fulsome as a word captures both the immensity of the task and the fact that it was both wonderful and difficult. It worked us hard.

For the group, materials curation meant:
•             consulting with many different communities through Sing and Share meetings
•             gathering suggested songs
•             reviewing, reviewing, reviewing: hymnals, supplements, single-author publications, collections from publishers, newly released and not-yet-released material, and newly submitted material (more than 1,500 songs)
•             assessing what we winnowed down from previously published and new material, and then winnowing it down some more
•             finding gaps in the collections
•             searching for new songs (and then reviewing those songs)
•             transcribing recordings
•             finding arrangers; making arrangements
•             making translations
•             editing language to make poetry gender neutral and texts non-ableist, and to refute darkness being equated with badness, finding ways to sing of the goodness of blackness
•             suggesting changes to music, accompaniments, and tunes
•             searching out new tunes and songwriters

And, in case you think I’ve forgotten, we reviewed everything we had done to make sure we captured the spirit of what we longed for in this collection.

Today, we’re still reviewing those things we missed, even as we pass along this collection to all of you.

Materials curation also meant many people. Our core subcommittee was Matthew Boutda, Deb Bradley, Bruce Harding, David Kai, Amy Lee, Sandra Litt, Lloyd MacLean, Maren McLean-Persaud, Sartu Mohamed, Geoff Pritchard, Norman Robert, David Roger-Gagnon, Monica Rosborough, Alydia Smith, and me (Josh Zentner-Barrett).

But materials curation was also John Ambrose, Tonya Antone, Claire Borel, Teresa Burnett-Cole, Andrew Donaldson, Jack Eby, Pam Eby, Jessica Gauthier, Michel Gauthier, Pierre Goldberger, Fred Graham, Tessica Hackshaw, Terry Head, David Lefneski, Chad Linsley, Jason Locke, Susan Lukey, Susan McPherson Derendy, Tammy-Jo Mortensen, Kevin Parks, Lydia Pedersen, and Marie-Claire Saindon.

Thank you for what you gave. And what you’re still giving. Thank you that through you—through the song—the church goes on.

Josh Zentner-Barrett, Materials Curation, Then Let Us Sing!, Winnipeg, Man.