Most congregations’ repertoire of hymns and songs is relatively small. This article shows the church musician how to introduce and teach new hymns and songs and thus broaden the spectrum of music in the local congregation.
Members of the congregation need and appreciate assistance in singing hymns and responses. Their hymnal provides them with a collection of perhaps 600 hymns, but they probably know only forty to sixty of these. And all too frequently these are “old favorites” that have been worn threadbare through overuse through the years. Members would like to know more about how to sing these favorites with greater understanding and enjoyment. But they also can be conditioned to anticipate with pleasure the prospect of learning some new hymns.
But when a brand new hymn appears in the bulletin, the organist plays a tune never heard before by this congregation. Consequently, there is often a negative reaction—“Why don’t we sing some familiar hymns?” Suppose it is the new hymn by Jeffrey Rowthorn, the last stanza of which is: Indwelling God, your gospel claims one family with a billion names; let every life be touched with grace until we praise you face to face.
Without singing, everyone could read this splendid text aloud with no hesitancy and with comprehension of what the words mean. But, in a hymnal, texts are accompanied by music. Suppose worshipers are confronted not only with these three stanzas but also with this lovely old folk tune kedron: “Spirit of god, Unleashed on Earth”
Some members can readily sing this tune at first reading. But many people are either partially or totally illiterate when it comes to reading a music score. They do not know that the tune is in the key of C minor, or that the melody begins on the third of the scale. The half note as the unit of beat would probably mean nothing to them. The subtle rhythms have to be read and interpreted. These and many other aspects of the notation are ingrained in the consciousness of able music readers but are Greek to music amateurs.
When a new hymn and tune are announced without proper introduction, your congregation will experience discomfort when faced with musical language they cannot interpret. So we will discuss the introduction of these two components of a hymn—words and music—and how to improve your congregation’s skill in understanding and interpreting them.
Hymn Texts
Reading Hymns. It is a fact that the meaning of hymns can be grasped more readily by reading than by singing the texts. Therefore worshipers should be encouraged to read the texts of hymns as they sit in the pew and prepare for public worship. Also, this habit of reading hymns can be further ingrained by urging members to purchase a copy of the hymnbook for use at home. Or you could consider providing a small free booklet of hymn texts, printed in the church office, which can be taken home and used in private devotions. Any hymns which are in the public domain could be included.
Singing Hymns Intelligently. John Wesley realized that one’s mind can wander during hymn singing and so he advised his followers: “Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing Him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this, attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually.… ” One simple way to concentrate on the hymn texts while you sing is to be aware to whom you are singing—being aware who is being addressed as you sing.
If you see that the hymn is “Fight the Good Fight With All Thy Might,” you realize that you are encouraging everyone in the congregation to fight the battle of life in the strength of Christ. Hymns like “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” and “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty” are obviously addressed to God. This habit of focusing your attention will lead to intelligent hymn singing.
Memorizing Hymns. If a hymn has been memorized and repeated scores of times as needed in daily life, you may be sure that the text has been comprehended and appropriated. Hymns thus become a means of grace. John Calvin commented on the importance of memorizing in the preface to his 1542 Psalter:
We must remember what Saint Paul has said, that spiritual songs can only be sung from the heart. Now the heart seeks after understanding, and in that, according to Saint Augustine, lies the difference between the songs of men and that of birds. For a finch, a nightingale, a parrot may sing well, but they do so without understanding. Now the proper gift of man is to sing, knowing what he says, since the intelligence must follow the heart and the emotions, which can only be when we have the song impressed in our minds in order to never cease singing.
Hymn Music
If the majority or all of the congregation knows how to read music notation, then there is no problem in introducing a new hymn from the musical standpoint. But the average congregation probably has a majority of people who would say that they “couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket.” How do you teach these people to learn a new tune?
You can hardly hope for much success simply by printing the number of an unfamiliar hymn (text and tune), having the organist play it over once, and expecting these music amateurs to sing it with ease. Some may even give up and close the hymnal.
Since they can’t read the notes, they must learn the tune by rote—by repetition—by hearing the melody over and over. So considerate organists can play the new tune as a part of the prelude, having informed the people somehow that this is the new tune of the service. Also, the choir could sing the hymn the preceding Sunday as an anthem with the congregation having been told that this hymn is to be sung the following Sunday. The people are also urged to turn in the hymnal to the particular hymn.
I have heard a pastor give a brief introduction to a new hymn in which he said that, since the tune was unfamiliar, he suggested that the congregation listen to the organist play the tune and to the choir sing the first stanza in unison. Then the people could join in the remaining stanzas.
The ideal occasion for learning new hymns is in the informal atmosphere of a hymn sing or congregational rehearsal. At these events, the leader can give the group some general information about the hymn and its origin and especially some facts about the structure of the tune.
For example, ask the congregation to sing the first stanza of a favorite hymn, say “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” When they have finished, ask if they noticed any repetition of melody from line to line. Someone may have noticed that the first, second, and last lines are identical. Affirm this and then tell them that the third line also has some repetition of the musical theme. Have them sing the line. They probably will observe that the two halves of this line are almost identical. If we labeled the lines alphabetically, the pattern of this tune would be A A B1B2A.
It might be helpful if you told the people that one-way hymn music is unified is by the exact repetition of a group of notes as in the tune to “Silent Night,” where the first four-note theme is repeated three more times. Then tell them that in many hymn tunes a brief musical phrase is repeated but at a higher or lower pitch and that this device is called a sequence. A familiar tune with two sets of sequences is “Fairest Lord Jesus.” The Welsh tune bryn calfaria has three in the third line.
This kind of insight may whet your people’s appetite to pay attention to hymn tune shapes, and consequently, to be more eager to tackle new tunes.