During the two Shabbatot of my stay at Eisner Camp, I heard a very pretty setting of a Shabbat prayer. It was sweet and hummable. Some of our congregant-campers wanted to know if we could sing it "back home" at the UJC. I thought... hesitated... and said, "I don’t know; it’s not really Shabbat-sounding... it’s not quite ‘right.’"
On the other hand, during those two weeks, I participated in an exciting Jewish musical/worship adventure to (quoting Director Louis Bordman) "get it right." You see every Jewish experience has a unique sound. The larger differences are obvious: Rosh HaShanah sounds different from Pesach, which sounds different from Shavuot or Sukkot or Chanukah. Shabbat nusach (sound) (which differs for Shabbat afternoon, evening and morning) is different from the daily one.
Because Judaism is so time-based, I believe that it’s important to maintain the distinction in the sounds. This year, at each day’s evening worship, Eisner campers learned to chant the Avot in the special nusach for mid-week worship. This marked a huge change from the years’ long practice of chanting the weekday Avot (and G’vurot) with the Shabbat melody. As Louis explained to me, daily UAHC worship services are correctly chanted according the daily nusach. Since he believes that his job is to help grow educated Reform Jews, the kids, too, should be doing it "right."
Making the Avot adjustment went smoothly. The campers understood and appreciated Louis’ rationale as explained to the unit song leaders by head song leader, Eric. Although for years they had been singing the Shabbat melody, singing the correct daily melody marked the difference between Shabbat and the rest of the week and made Shabbat that much more special. Louis, Eric, and the song leaders were using camp to teach the next generation of Reform Jews to value and appreciate "getting it right" Jewishly. I think that is great, and I say "kol ha-kavod" to everyone involved.
Oh, and that Shabbat prayer? Well. Maybe we can use it; we just need to do some tweaking to "get it right!"