All of the information in these indexes is already in LSB — these indexes will just minimize some page flipping going back and forth to cross reference hymn numbers.  They answer two primary questions: What tune does a hymn use? What hymns use this tune?  Who knows, some of you might find these useful.  If you do, I’d be interested to know – please leave a comment.

1. LSB Hymn Names, Number, and Tune sorted by Hymn Name
2. LSB Hymn Names, Number, and Tune sorted by Hymn Number
3. LSB Hymn Names, Number, and Tune sorted by Hymn Tune
4. NEW FEATURE!: A spreadsheet with the LSB Hymn Names, Numbers, and Tunes

Thanks for reading LSB Resources: Additional Indexes.

Wanted: One Outstanding Church Organist.
Music adds much to our worship, but musicians can be hard to find. Well, look no further.

The reality is that many churches have a difficult time finding an organist or even someone who can play the piano for worship services. Enter CPH. They have created Concordia Organist, a 31-CD set of all the hymns in LSB which can be used to accompany hymn singing. CPH is having an “essay” contest (though the Official Rules say it will be a random drawing) to give away a free copy of the Concordia Organist (retail value: $699 with an introductory price of $499) to a LCMS or LCC congregation.

On the plus side, the hymns are played by the very capable Paul Grime, Kevin Hildebrand, and Richard Resch of Concordia Theological Seminary on the wonderful Schlicker organ in Kramer Chapel. Any congregation would be blessed to have either of these organists and/or the Kramer Chapel pipe organ. (As an aside: I have to remind myself to not covet my neighbor’s pipe organ.)

However, I’m a little unsettled on the use of a CD as a hymn accompaniment in congregational worship. I understand that for some churches the Concordia Organist may be the only way that they can have a “church musician” for worship. Singing to a recording, though, lacks the vibrancy of the relationship between the musician and the congregation. On some Sundays, my own hymn playing will take on a new dimension as a result of the energy of the hymn singing. And conversely, the congregation’s hymn singing can be energized by skillful hymn playing. I would hope that these CDs are a last resort and not a substitute for a “live” church musician if one is available.

And we need not forget the possibility of a capella singing. You never know when the organ might “blow up” just before the service begins and “Let my prayer rise before You as incense” takes on an entirely new meaning as electrical parts are burning. Singing without accompaniment can add a new dimension to worship that is often hidden when there is always background music.

I suppose, though, that the moral of the story is to encourage our young people to pursue church music – either as a profession or avocation. Our churches are always in need of faithful musicians with a passion for the church’s song. If we had sufficient numbers of church musicians, a product like Concordia Organist wouldn’t have much of a market.

Thanks for reading The Concordia Organist.

The stanza numbering for O, Lord, How Shall I Meet You (LSB 334) is incorrect in the LSB pew edition (or at least the copies I have seen).  The six stanzas are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, but omit 5.  The Hymn Accompaniment edition and the Guitar Chord edition have the stanzas numbered as 1-6.

If you ever choose to sing selected stanzas of this hymn, you should verify the stanza numbers in your editions to minimize confusion during singing.

Thanks for reading LSB 334: O Lord, How Shall I Meet You.

“The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of with the least surprises . . . Today it is a liturgical fruit basket upset.” — David Scaer from the Advantage of Liturgical Ruts (Logia 6:2 pg 53-54)

At one time a typical American Lutheran church would be using the Lutheran Hymnal or Service Book and Hymnal depending on which acronym of Lutheranism it was affiliated with.  The worship service each week was familiar (which to some meant repetitious).  The young children learned the liturgy and hymns next to their siblings, from their parents and grandparents.  New members to the church or the Lutheran faith learned from being immersed each week in the Divine Service and catechesis.

Now you have to contend with the likes of traditional, contemporary, blended, emergent, progressive, multi-generational and try to determine what it all means. Liturgical innovation is the name of the game.  As a liturgical Forest Gump might have said, “Worship is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’ll get.”

I find a calmness in the predictability of the Divine Services in Lutheran Service Book.  They all follow the same outline, granted with different musical settings and different texts, and offer opportunities for variety  — elaboration and simplification during the rhythm of the church year.  Some might lament five settings of the Divine Service in LSB, but I tend to like an intentional and planned use of the settings throughout the year.  At first, learning a new service setting or hymn might be challenging, but soon the challenge fades away.  It becomes like breathing — it just happens and is natural.

Ultimately, I think careful and deliberate worship planning comes down to a respect and reverence for the worship patterns that we have as Lutherans.  Not that we “idolize” these forms, but we ask ourselves why we may want to deviate from them.

Just as Dr. Scaer provided the introduction to this blog post, I will also let him end it.

“We don’t notice a good shoe, which is often an old one.” (Logia 6:2 pg 53-54)

Thanks for reading The Liturgical Fruit Basket.

And what are these 100 songs? The list has yet to be released — it isn’t on the Commission of Worship’s website. Evidently, they used CCLI data from LCMS churches to determine frequently used songs. I am interested to see what songs made the cut of the Synodical reviewers — what do these songs proclaim?

What bothers me about many “praise and worship” songs is what they often don’t say rather than what they do say. In particular, I recently reviewed a list of these types of songs to be used in a worship setting — out of the list of a dozen or so songs, Christ was mentioned once or twice directly, and a couple more times as indirect assumptions. Many tread lightly on sin and focus on the theology of glory rather than the theology of the cross. In comparison, I can randomly page through LSB and Christ and what He has done and continues to do for us is seen page after page. I assume there are some “praise and worship” songs that also do this, but these are not the norm from what I’ve seen.

Thanks for reading LCMS Approves 100 "Worship / Praise" Songs.

Take for example this last Sunday – The Baptism of Our Lord. The “official” Hymn of the Day from Lutheran Service Book was Luther’s wonderful baptism / catechism hymn “To Jordan Came the Christ, Our Lord” (LSB 406/407). How many of our Lutheran congregations sang this hymn? My congregation didn’t, but they did get to hear an organ prelude by Zachau.

Lutheran Service Book has made an attempt to make some of these unsung hymns more accessible. In addition to the tune Christ, Unser Herr typically associated with “To Jordan Came the Christ, Our Lord,” LSB also has a new tune Elvet Banks. This last tune also happens to be paired with another of Luther’s hymns “May God Bestow on Us His Grace” (which happened to be the Office Hymn for Morning Prayer at Concordia Theological Seminary on 1/16/08). There are a number of other hymn texts in LSB that have been paired with “new” tunes in hopes they get sung more frequently.

Here’s my plea:

Dear Choir Directors and Choirs – Take the time to learn unfamiliar hymns and gradually share and teach them to your congregation. See my previous post on The Lutheran Choir.

Dear Organists and Instrumentalists – Take the time to learn chorale preludes on unfamiliar hymn tunes and introduce the tune over several weeks or months in different parts of the service. You are preparing the people.

Dear Pastors – Take the time to talk to your parish musicians about choosing hymns. Don’t shy away from a hymn because it is difficult or unfamiliar. Your musicians are valuable assets in introducing and leading the people’s song.

Dear People in the Pews (and Choir Directors, Choir, Parish Musicians, and Pastors) – Take the time to read and meditate on the hymns in the hymnal – at home and church. Deepen your familiarity with the church’s song by listening to CD’s that focus on this hymnody. For example:

• Martin Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth
• Concordia Theological Seminary Kantorei
• St. Paul’s Lutheran Church Children’s Choir
• Hymns for All Saints
• Paul Manz Hymn Improvisations

All of these resources should be available by contacting the Concordia Theological Seminary Bookstore at CPHBookstore@ctsfw.edu. Many are available by contacting Concordia Publishing House.

Blessings as you grow in your understanding of our rich hymnic heritage.

Thanks for reading Singing Difficult Hymns.

I shouldn’t be surprised — many churches that have hymnals increasingly relegate them to the pew rack (assuming they have pews) and instead use a self contained printed worship folder. And for those churches that have “contemporary” worship services, it is trendy to project the service on the “big screen.”

Why would I recommend a printed hymnal?

• Worship folders and Powerpoint slides are transitory. They lack the permanence of a bound book.
• A hymnal is a prayerbook and sung confession of the congregation and the individual Christian. It is a resource to be used during corporate worship and at home and should be a resource of the best material available — in our case material that is Christ centered, cross focused, and in harmony with the Word and the Lutheran Confessions.
• It is sometimes difficult to sing liturgy and hymns without at least a printed melody line. Often times “music readers” can enliven singing because they can see where the music is going. Powerpoint slides usually don’t contain any musical notation. Worship folders start looking like books when music is included.
• When a hymnal is purchased, you don’t have to gain copyright permission to use the materials straight from the hymnal (this assumes no photocopying, projecting, recording, etc.). Projecting the text or liturgy via Powerpoint slides or printing text and/or music in a worship folder requires permission of all affected copyright holders. Even churches have to follow the copyright laws.

Thanks for reading Powerpoint and Hymnals.