Hymnals as a Cultural Resource

I’m waiting out a storm. We’ve moved everything that could get damaged by hail into the barn. Since it’s Holy Week, the menacing clouds and thunder seem right in tune.

from the mid50s fsodIn my lap is a 1956 edition of The Baptist Hymnal. I now have 35 of these, happily rescued from a dumpster by a friend. They are traveling with me now to conferences where I give workshops on “Using Hymns as Resources in Home Education.”

These workshops start and end like an old-fashioned hymn-sing. But in the middle, we delve into the history of hymnody and analyze the indexes (tune names, metrics, text sources, poets, composers, liturgical/topical themes). We even practice a bit of metrical psalmody by pairing familiar texts with other familiar tunes based on their metric content (LM, CM, SM, 8.6.8.6., etc.). This can be startling to younger people who haven’t grown up with this old musical practice. In fact, some have grown up without any kind of traditional hymnal in their hands.

There’s so much more to say about hymnals. But for the moment, I’m content tracking the storm and leafing through my 1956 Baptist Hymnal as I prepare for a webinar on The Homeschool Channel Thursday afternoon (April 5).

Music for Holy Week: that’s the topic. Might as well take on an impossibly huge topic, yes? In leafing through the hymns in the “Lenten” section (called “His Suffering and Death”), I’m transported back to another world.

These are the tunes our great-grandparents sang. Yet, I learned them as an organist in my first church job in Chase City, Virginia in 1970. The 11:00 service at First Baptist Church was broadcast on the radio. Dear Pastor Romney loved to change hymns at the last second, usually just as I started the one printed in the bulletin! Sometimes he shouted out the number, but sometimes only the title. The church had a fantastic, new pipe organ and I guess that’s when I learned to improvise with two feet, turning pages frantically with my hands. In retrospect, I’d say it’s the best way to learn new repertoire!

A traditional hymnal is indeed a grand historical, literary, geographical, theological, and cultural resource. But for now, battered by sheets of rain and hail, I’m hearing the wistful tunes of There is a Fountain and ‘Tis Midnight and on Olive’s Brow and thanking Pastor Romney for the invaluable education he gave me.

Image: PinkMoose - Creative Commons

3 thoughts on “Hymnals as a Cultural Resource”

  1. Well, I think you just convinced me to come to this talk in Cincinnati next week! We do hymns in our Circle Time and it is always so exciting to see the faces of the children when they hear an introduction they recognize during worship :)

    Our pastor always chooses “Sing, Choirs of New Jerusalem” for Resurrection Sunday. We learned it this spring and the children sang out Easter morning. A joy to hear!

    We use the Trinity Hymnal, though (OPC).

  2. Had a wonderful time chatting with you in Cincinnati. (Hopefully we didn’t make you late for other sessions.)

    I enjoyed What Wondrous Love Is This so much that I had to go searching for more on it. I found a new-to-me online resource at Hymnary.org where you can not only see hymn text, meter, tune, etc; but also see related text versions. It will even let you look at one text and then click on another source and see highlighted comparisons of similarities in the two texts. Great for comparing versions across time and denominations. Here’s a jumping off point for What Wondrous Love: http://www.hymnary.org/text/what_wondrous_love_is_this_oh_my_soul

    I had mentioned The Military Wives Choir project with Gareth Malone. Here is a link to part of an episode to get you started with them. The comment that they needed a voice and the choir gave them one is about as close as I can come to why this project touched me so deeply. As did the Hymn Sing workshop. Thank you.

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