Comments on: Singing Difficult Hymns http://lutherankantor.com/2008/01/16/singing-difficult-hymns/ Receiving the gifts God gives through Word and Sacrament Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:36:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: David Lee http://lutherankantor.com/2008/01/16/singing-difficult-hymns/comment-page-1/#comment-12 David Lee Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:11:26 +0000 http://lutherankantor.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/singing-difficult-hymns/#comment-12 Susan: The original point was, I think, about trying to keep the hymn texts alive in the living tradition of the liturgy. (And then, by extension, into our daily lives, as the hymn texts live with us through the week of work, school and play, with a tune of some sort to serve them.) The living tradition evolves to become incarnate in its contemporary world. Would we want the church in a totally different culture (Chile, Palestine, China, Japan) to sing our Western hymns to our Western tunes in our Western manners? I hope not. Rather, I hope we would want them to sing their hymns to their tunes in their way. (It would, of course, be good if there were at least some overlap when we met. And if we could borrow and adopt from each other.) So how do we, the 21st century English speaking, car-driving, centrally-heated, Internet-enabled culture, inherit the treasures of 500 year old German texts? Looking just at the text (ignoring the tune) "May God bestow"... The text has already been translated away from the original... from German to English. And then re-translated again between The Lutheran Hymnal and Lutheran Worship. So even before LSB, the one text has three different forms. Should we (English speakers) sing the text in the original German? Is any English translation itself a "dumbing down"? Who sets the criteria for "dumbing down"? And to what criteria? I presume that we all agree that it is right that we (English speakers) should sing it in an English translation. But that very act (German to English translation) is an implicit acknowledgement that it is right to make the text "culturally relevant". So (turning towards the tune) given that we wish to keep the text in a culturally relevant translation, how then do we sing it to music in a culturally relevant manner? (This question is left as an exercise for the reader...) We all agree on your "Get rich. Get more than educated. Get illuminated. Get the hymnody"! We are simply exploring the "how" in today's world. P.S. Regarding the tune "Elvet Banks", I ought (in British Parliamentary tradition) to "declare an interest"... Susan: The original point was, I think, about trying to keep the hymn texts alive in the living tradition of the liturgy. (And then, by extension, into our daily lives, as the hymn texts live with us through the week of work, school and play, with a tune of some sort to serve them.)

The living tradition evolves to become incarnate in its contemporary world. Would we want the church in a totally different culture (Chile, Palestine, China, Japan) to sing our Western hymns to our Western tunes in our Western manners? I hope not. Rather, I hope we would want them to sing their hymns to their tunes in their way. (It would, of course, be good if there were at least some overlap when we met. And if we could borrow and adopt from each other.)

So how do we, the 21st century English speaking, car-driving, centrally-heated, Internet-enabled culture, inherit the treasures of 500 year old German texts?

Looking just at the text (ignoring the tune) “May God bestow”…

The text has already been translated away from the original… from German to English. And then re-translated again between The Lutheran Hymnal and Lutheran Worship. So even before LSB, the one text has three different forms. Should we (English speakers) sing the text in the original German? Is any English translation itself a “dumbing down”? Who sets the criteria for “dumbing down”? And to what criteria?

I presume that we all agree that it is right that we (English speakers) should sing it in an English translation. But that very act (German to English translation) is an implicit acknowledgement that it is right to make the text “culturally relevant”.

So (turning towards the tune) given that we wish to keep the text in a culturally relevant translation, how then do we sing it to music in a culturally relevant manner? (This question is left as an exercise for the reader…)

We all agree on your “Get rich. Get more than educated. Get illuminated. Get the hymnody”! We are simply exploring the “how” in today’s world.

P.S. Regarding the tune “Elvet Banks”, I ought (in British Parliamentary tradition) to “declare an interest”…

]]> By: Susan http://lutherankantor.com/2008/01/16/singing-difficult-hymns/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Susan Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:08:01 +0000 http://lutherankantor.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/singing-difficult-hymns/#comment-11 It's really a semi-circular logic that stops at the notion that those hymns are too difficult, without progressing to complete the circle with the idea, 'But not too difficult to learn.' Choirs and organists are co-liturgists with the pastor, at least in a practical sense, and have a direct and a directly descendent responsibility to challenge themselves musically and liturgically, with the precise intent that they reduce the challenge of these hymns and unfamiliar elements of liturgy for the congregation. In dumbing-down their own standards, they dumb-down those of the people in the pews as well. Also, choir directors should encourage among their singers that the hymnal is to be opened, read, digested more often than at choir practice sessions and during divine service, and pastors the same to their congregations. It can't be said enough: confessional hymn texts are poetic renderings of the faith, only slightly lower than the Psalms themselves. They speak the truth, and the same truth as the confessional pastor's sermons or the scriptures themselves. Get rich. Get more than educated. Get illuminated. Get the hymnody. It’s really a semi-circular logic that stops at the notion that those hymns are too difficult, without progressing to complete the circle with the idea, ‘But not too difficult to learn.’
Choirs and organists are co-liturgists with the pastor, at least in a practical sense, and have a direct and a directly descendent responsibility to challenge themselves musically and liturgically, with the precise intent that they reduce the challenge of these hymns and unfamiliar elements of liturgy for the congregation. In dumbing-down their own standards, they dumb-down those of the people in the pews as well.
Also, choir directors should encourage among their singers that the hymnal is to be opened, read, digested more often than at choir practice sessions and during divine service, and pastors the same to their congregations. It can’t be said enough: confessional hymn texts are poetic renderings of the faith, only slightly lower than the Psalms themselves. They speak the truth, and the same truth as the confessional pastor’s sermons or the scriptures themselves.
Get rich. Get more than educated. Get illuminated. Get the hymnody.

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