Sixth Sunday of Easter - Hymn Tune Names

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Hymn Tune Names

Today our sending hymn is “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.”  When I think of this hymn, I immediately begin to shuffle through my brain for settings of OLD HUNDREDTH as I identify potential prelude or postlude music.  I suspect that you may have encountered this common designation for the hymn, too.  So, what’s the reason for having a hymn tune name?

About a generation ago, many church bulletins included the hymn tune designation as part of the listing for the hymn.  You would see “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” paired with LOBE DEN HERREN and “Amazing Grace” attached with NEW BRITAIN.  Why this particular information was listed in the bulletin, I don’t know, although I suspect that it might be a throwback to a time when hymn texts were printed in the hymnal without the melody included.  In that case, it was important to know what melody should be sung, since often, hymns can be sung to multiple tunes. 

A hymn text is usually in poetic form, with a set rhyme scheme and poetic meter.  Meter indicates the number of syllables per line (or technically “verse,” although for many, this word means the grouping of lines complete a stanza.)   In the case of “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,” there are 8 syllables in the first line.  Counting onward, we find that all the lines in the stanza have 8 syllables.   Hymnists (and poets) recognize this organization as Long Meter or 8.8.8.8. 

A hymn tune, also organized into a pattern of predictable stresses and rhythms, can be observed in the same way.  The tune ST. ANNE (associated with the Isaac Watts text “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”) shows a metrical scheme of 8.6.8.6, or Common Meter.  Musically, the combination of seven quarter notes and one half note in the first line helps convey the completeness of thought in the eight syllables; likewise the longer dotted quarter note at the end of the second line, helps glue the two lines together as one phrase. 

It is useful to identify a hymn tune melody by a separate name than simply by the first line of a commonly associated hymn text.  Sometimes, a melody is used often in a hymnal.  DUKE STREET is an example in Evangelical Lutheran Worship that appears several times, each time with familiar texts.  “I know that my Redeemer lives,”  “Give to our God immortal praise,” and “Jesus Shall Reign” are all texts which match the DUKE STREET melody. 

I think this topic warrants another entry, next week.  You may still have lingering questions, such as “Why the ALL CAPS?” or “How do the hymn tunes get their names?”  or “Where can I find this information in the hymnal?”  Check in next week for answers!

Fifth Sunday of Easter - This is the Feast

Fifth Sunday of Easter

May 18, 2014

Easter Canticles

One of the wonders of the liturgy of the historic Western church is the flexibility to do different things within the parameters of a relatively fixed order.  In a general sense, the liturgy follows the pattern of Gathering, Word, Meal, and Sending.  Specific elements that happen within that larger pattern often emphasize something about worship that is appropriate to a time of the year, a specific place, or a particular event.  For example, we tend to omit the Kyrie during the season of Easter, since some feel it has a penitential quality not desired during this joyful season. 

One part of the Gathering segment of the liturgy we often do celebrate during Easter is the canticle “Worthy Is Christ.”  You might know this better by the words of the refrain “This is the Feast.”  By definition, a canticle is a prose hymn that often comprises biblical words.  This particular canticle is a new addition to the liturgical repertoire, written by John Arthur in 1970.  The text draws images and words from the hymns in the book of Revelation, and “joins Passover and Easter with a glimpse of the eschatological kingdom.”[1]   Worthy is Christ is from Revelation 5:9; Power, riches . . .  is from Revelation 5:12 – 13; Sing with all the people of God is from Revelation 25:3-4, 19:5; and For the Lamb who was slain is from Revelation 11:17.  Though this is a new text in the liturgy, older settings included a similar canticle based upon the same biblical sources.  The musical setting we sing today is by Richard Hillert.  This particular setting has enjoyed ecumenical inclusion in a number of other denomination’s hymnals. 

Curiously, the fascination with Revelation texts extends into the music of the next generation of song writers for the church.  One particular song, Revelation Song, touches upon some of the same themes, albeit in a much different stylistic language.  Here you can see some of the similarities in text:

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain 
Holy, Holy is He 
Sing a new song to Him who sits on 
Heaven's Mercy Seat 

Holy, Holy, Holy Is the Lord God Almighty 
Who was, and is, and is to come 
With all creation I sing: Praise to the King of Kings! 
You are my everything, and I will adore You                 (Jenny Lee Riddle)

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[1] Philip H. Pfatteicher and Carlos R. Messerli, “Manual on the Liturgy: Lutheran Book of Worship,” (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1979), 213.

Fourth Sunday of Easter - Julian of Norwich

May 11, 2014

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Julian of Norwich

Mother’s Day always provides an opportunity to sing the hymn “Mothering God, You Gave Me Birth.”  This lovely hymn (ELW 735) encourages us to consider images of God, Christ and Spirit in the feminine form, or with the caring and nurturing aspects we associate with mothers.  Perhaps this is fascinating to you, or perhaps it is discomforting.  The poetry does challenge us to break away from our conventional view of the Trinity and imagine something new.  Creative challenge is not a bad thing in good hymnody!

This hymn is found in the Creation section of Evangelical Lutheran Worship, and is evocative of what we might consider “Mother Earth.”  Paul Westermeyer notes that “the images are richly earthy: gave me birth, took my form, nurturing in patience to root, grow and flower.”[1]

The tune name for this hymn, NORWICH, is revealing.  The hymn writer, Jean Janzen, based her text on the writings of the fourteenth century mystic, Julian of Norwich.  Julian was an anchoress - a devout recluse who vowed a life of spiritual contemplation by entering a small cell (attached to a church) and remaining enclosed there for her remaining life.  After receiving fifteen initial visions early in her stay in the cell, she devoted the rest of her life to meditating and writing about them.  Her writings, the first book known to have been written in English by a woman, explore the mothering aspect of God.  Westermeyer writes that “these visions . . . yielded for her a theology of God’s love in which God was viewed as a mother with mercy rather than wrath, and sin was seen as necessary for learning but did not proceed from evil.”[2]

From Revelations of Divine Love, Julian writes:

A mother’s is the most intimate, willing, and dependable of all services, because it is the truest of all.  None has been able to fulfill it properly but Christ, and he alone can.  We know that our own mother’s bearing of us was a bearing to pain and death, but what does Jesus, our true Mother, do?  Why, he, All-love, bears us to joy and eternal life!  Blessings on him![3]

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[1] Paul Westermeyer, Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), 595.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, chap. 60, trans. Clifton Wolters (Baltimore: Penguin, 1966), 169-70 in Philip Pfatteicher, New Book of Festivals and Commemorations (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008), 211-212.

Third Sunday of Easter: Jaroslav Vajda

Third Sunday of Easter

May 4, 2014

Jaroslav Vajda

Today is Confirmation Sunday, on which we celebrate the “Affirmation of Baptism” with nine of our young adults in the congregation.  We celebrate the continuing presence of God in the lives of these ninth graders, as they grow in the love of Christ and explore the ways they are called to serve and be faithful members of the body of Christ. 

We sing today hymns that celebrate the festival of Easter, which often speak of themes of baptism.  In Christ we are made new, through Christ’s resurrection.  Images of the waters of the flood and the travels of the Israelites through the Red Sea abound in these hymns. 

One hymn we sing today expresses the theme of our calling as baptized Christians to go out and serve.  We all are the body of Christ as we go about our daily lives.  The hymn “Go My Children, with my Blessing” is by a prominent twentieth-century Lutheran hymn writer, Jaroslav Vajda.  Of Slovak descent, Vajda translated hundreds of Slovak and Czech poems into English as a young adult, learning the craft of poetic meter and imagery.  He was a pastor in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, and created several well-known hymns, such as “Now the Silence.”  On a personal note, my father believes that his mother (my grandmother) may have once dated Jaroslav while attending teacher’s school.  (My grandmother’s roots are Slovak; I suppose it’s not unlikely for those in that small community to eventually get together!)

“Go My Children, with my Blessing” is a benediction in which the congregation sings the words of God, based upon Numbers 6:22-27.  Vajda says “I placed the words of the hymn into the mouth of the blessing triune God dismissing the congregation after worship while drawing together a review of the events that transpired during the service.”[1]  Some writers, including Paul Westermeyer note some problematic aspects of a congregation singing the words of God, since if the hymn is not carefully written, the congregation seems to be blessing itself. 

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[1] Paul Westermeyer, Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), 377.