hymnology

Asian-American Hymnology

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According to this author’s view, there is no distinctive hymnody that prevails in Asian-American churches, but there are certain characteristics and trends that typify these congregations. In providing detailed distinctions among the various Asian groups, this article does give some perspective on the music used in Asian-American churches and the challenges that these churches are facing.

Background of Asian-American Groups

The Chinese were the first to come to the United States over a century ago. Since most of their churches continue to be affected by immigration and are mainly immigrant (first-generation) churches, the worship services are in Cantonese and/or Mandarin. A sizable group of Chinese born in the U.S. are English-speaking members of the Chinese churches, and a few hold English services.

The Japanese, whose immigration to the U.S. basically stopped in 1924, is composed of second to fifth-generation English-speaking congregations, with a smaller group of immigrants worshiping in Japanese.

The Koreans are the largest Asian Presbyterian group. Immigration from Korea is resulting in a great increase in Korean churches. Today there are approximately 250 churches, and the number is still increasing. These churches worship in Korean, mainly with ministers who were trained in Korea.

The Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotians are all mainly first-generation persons who worship in their native tongue, with the exception of the Filipinos, who use English.

Types of Worship Services

In the early years, the worship services were essentially informal, patterned more on the synagogue style (simple structure with emphasis upon teaching) rather than the temple style (formal worship utilizing more rituals). We must remember that there is little in the way of history and tradition to give shape to their liturgy and music, for the heritage of these ethnic groups is non-Christian. For example, in Japan, where the religious philosophy is predominately Buddhist and Shinto, only one-half of one percent of the population are Christian. Since most Asian-American Christians are first-generation converts, there has been no pressure for traditional formal worship or cherished rituals.

In recent years, Asian churches have developed a slightly more formal style of worship, following the denominational lead in liturgy.

The Need for Bilingual Hymns

Worship serves are often bilingual in order to accommodate the immigrant native tongue and second-generation English-speaking persons. Hymns, prayers, Scripture readings, and sermons are in both languages. Sometimes there is a repetition of everything, and in other cases, only selected items are translated. This bilingual worship service may take place every Sunday or only on special occasions. In the latter case, there are two worship services held on Sundays: one in the native Asian tongue, one in English for the second- through fifth-generation members.

The impact of bilingual services on congregational singing is felt in several ways. Hymns must be provided in both languages. Some have published their own bilingual hymnbooks that include most of the familiar and basic hymns. Others use hymnbooks published in their native countries. We can see that because new hymns need constant translating, this poses a predicament for first-generation churches wanting to sing current hymns.

Further problems arise in hymn selections that are limited to hymns that are published in both languages. On special Holy Days and Communion, when bilingual services are usually held, finding hymns in both languages utilizing the same tunes and text is difficult. This lack of a full range of hymns to enrich a special worship service acts as a restrictive force in Asian congregations, and worship becomes static because of limited hymn selection.

Bilingual services also mean that the congregation sings in both languages at once, often confusing the worshiper because translations are not directly word for word. These words are not heard as one uniform sound, diminishing the power of the hymn. In spite of this, music continues to be a very important part of their churches, for they all come from cultures that love music and, more importantly, that love to sing.

Most of the hymns sung are those which were taught by the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century missionaries who ministered to the Asian people, both here and abroad. Many hymns are tied in with their life’s struggles upon leaving their homes for a strange land. Hymns such as “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and “The Church’s One Foundation” have found deep-rooted meaning.

There is also a small core of original hymns that were written by persons in their native country, most of which are in the style of our missionary hymns. Others are based upon old folk tunes with newly written text.

The Need for Trained Leadership in Music

There is very little trained leadership for music in the church. Pastors need to provide leadership, but for the most part, their seminary training does not prepare them in music, and often very little in the way of liturgy. The instruments with which they work are usually minimal. Pipe organs are rare and unaffordable and very little is directed towards the development of music. Thus, in our churches, we find very few trained Asian church musicians, namely, organists, choir directors, and ministers of music.

It is my opinion that as this development takes place in the ethnic churches, the possibility of developing music that may be distinctively Asian-American will emerge. For there is a vast richness in the Asian musical and historical tradition that could be utilized to direct our Christian worship toward a higher realm of consciousness.

Possible Future Directions for Asian Ethnic Hymns

Many of the tunes used in the Hymns from the Four Winds are folk songs set to Christian texts (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983). The problem we face here is that these traditional and popular songs are rooted in the common experience of the people. Can the text of the hymn rise above the claims which the tune will be making upon the minds and emotions of the people? Can Christian affirmation come out of a musical setting that is heavily non-Christian in its background? Many great hymns have come out of symphonies (e.g., “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” and “Be Still, My Soul”) and some out of love songs (e.g., “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”) but the cultural setting from which these tunes came is essentially Christian. This is not the case with Asian tunes. They evoke feelings that may have consciously dissociated Christianity from the tune. Thus, no matter how beautiful and appropriate the tune may be, the more familiar you are with the culture from which it comes, the harder it is to allow the tune to carry you into Christian worship.

Perhaps an alternative may be found not in using Asian tunes, but rather Asian musical forms which have been written down in the Western mode by Asian musicians or ethnomusicologists. We find that the basis of music, scales, harmony, rhythm, notation, forms, and styles are very foreign to the Western musician, for the subtleties of Asian music include the use of quarter-tones and use of ornamentation and improvisation. This may be the providential task for the Asian American: that they find their forms of expression in hymnody for they are the unique ones that merge the Eastern and Western and upon whom rests the name Asian-American. They are challenged to slowly break the boundaries that limit the East and West, and to cross the line to new frontiers:

Everything which I have said about crossing the frontier is true too for crossing the line which is today hardest for the Western world to cross, the frontier toward the East. It is wrong when the Western people are prevented by education, literature, and propaganda from crossing this frontier.… We must also see what is going on in-depth over there and seek to understand it. (Paul Tillich, The Future of Religions [New York: Harper and Row, 1966], 56-57.)

Hispanic-American Hymnology

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Recently published hymnals have included a wide variety of congregational songs from Hispanic churches. This article describes the experience of Hispanic Christians in America and the music that is often used in Hispanic-American churches.

Like other minorities in the USA, Hispanic congregations have been known for the manner in which they worship God by singing their favorite hymns. In order to understand this, one must go to the roots of Hispano churches all over this country. In the Southwest, which includes California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, the Mexican-Americans, which constitute most of the Hispanic people, trace their history back to the days when this territory used to be part of Mexico. Contrary to popular opinion, Protestants did not start their work in the Southwest by sending Anglo missionaries to convert the Catholic Mexicans. By the time the mainline denominations sent their missionaries, there were already evangelical cells functioning in private homes—the result of religious persecution in Mexico, and of the work of the colporteurs who traveled north from south of the border.

Because of this, one finds a lot of strong feelings against the Catholic church, feelings which have survived in many cases up to this date. The Protestants coming to the USA from Mexico brought with them similar feelings to those brought by the religiously persecuted Pilgrims who came in the Mayflower.

Since they were in quite a few cases running away from intolerance and prejudice, they wanted to do away with anything related to the Catholic church, including worship practices. Thus, one can understand the rejection today in Hispanic evangelical churches of such things as Gregorian chants, kyries, classical music from the Middle Ages, and even those seventeenth- and eighteenth-century hymns that in any way reflect values and theologies that may sound similar to those they knew from the Roman Catholic tradition.

The mainline denominations in the USA have tried, in some cases with a degree of success, to incorporate in their worship directories quite a few elements that could be characterized as “high church.” Such elements are frowned upon, however, by such denominations as the Assemblies of God, the Church of God, Southern Baptists, and other fast-growing independent or nondenominational churches. Hispanic styles of worship, therefore, tend to do away with acolytes, candles, crosses, collects, robes, and kneeling (except at the front of the sanctuary), and the singing of anything that may sound Catholic.

The fast-growing barrio churches reflect the culture of those they serve. In quite a few churches, the congregation will include recent arrivals from Mexico or other Central American countries, plus the Mexican-Americans who can trace their roots to the days when the Southwest was Spanish. Most of these congregations include a high percentage of people from the lower socioeconomic classes who prefer coritos to hymns and who favor charismatic-oriented liturgy. The seventeenth- and eighteenth-century hymns they use have been translated to Spanish by missionaries and hymnologists who did their work at the turn of the century. A few hymnbooks were produced by the mainline denominations using some Spanish melodies and indigenous compositions, but seldom to the exclusion of “the great hymns of the church,” as understood by their Anglo spiritual mentors. Only recently has a distinctive effort been made by both mainline churches and others to produce hymnbooks and collections of hymns that characterize the Hispanic tradition or reflect its values.

Some of the Hispanic hymns have the “South American Sound.” But this sound has been traditionally associated with a lifestyle that is not acceptable to the pietistic values of many Hispanic churches. New compositions, widely used by charismatic Hispanic churches, reflect the contemporary music and words also used by the charismatic Anglo churches.

One of the most widely used Hispanic hymnbooks was produced in the early 1960s by COHAM (at that time COSAW), an interdenominational council that included both mainline churches and sects, and even at times liberal Roman Catholics. The hymnbook El Himnario is mostly a collection of traditional hymns and old-time favorites, translated into Spanish by one of the most prolific translators and composers, a Presbyterian missionary, George Paul Simmonds. But it also includes the work of both Mexican-American and Mexican hymnologists, plus a few indigenous works from south of the border.

Hispanic composers known to most Hispanic Protestants include names like Vincent Mendoza, J. B. Cabrera, Abraham Fernandez, Epigmenio Valasco, E. Martinez-Garza, Pedro Castro, E. A. Diaz, Marcelino Montoya, Jose de Mora, Sra. S. Venecia, and of course George Simmonds. These are the better-known composer-authors, but there are many others.

Hispanic congregations, like any other congregation in any culture, will sing what the pastor will choose. And the pastor, in most cases, selects what his or her favorites are. The young new pastors are heavily favoring contemporary music and words, either compositions imported from Latin American countries or produced in the Southwest, Florida (owing to its large Cuban population), and other areas with heavy concentrations of Hispanic parishioners, such as Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and so forth. Hymns are also selected because of either the music or the words. Favorite hymns become favorite because the music is easy to learn and the words easy to remember. Coritos are popular. Their theology usually is shallow, but there are exceptions. One finds many mainline denomination Hispanic churches using guitars and singing coritos these days. This goes hand in hand with a return of emotionalism and preaching on moral issues, emphasizing conversion experiences. It is “the Old Time Religion,” all over again.

Those Hispanics who prefer to follow the lectionary and to use hymns related to the theme being developed find themselves in a minority and not gaining many members. But they are not alone. Many also try to include what is considered as “ethnic hymnody,” provided it is a valid contribution to the total worshiping experience. The issue remains whether Hispanic congregations are playing the numbers game, and therefore, attempting to be popular and fill churches, or whether they are trying to proclaim the gospel in a relevant and meaningful manner. By and large, the socioeconomic factor is determinative. The level of education and the degree of sophistication of the congregation must be considered, but not at the expense of excluding others from coming to join the brotherhood of believers.

Service books can be helpful, limited by the fact that, if they were as comprehensive as needed, they would be too hard to handle, and too bulky. But Methodists, Episcopalians, and Lutherans, among others, do use them every Sunday, in Hispanic churches as in any other ethnic or Anglo church. One of the all-time favorites with Hispanic congregations is the hymn “Jesus es mi rey soberano,” with words and music by Vincente Mendoza, a prolific author, and composer of Hispanic hymns. The words were translated to English (a welcome change!) by George P. Simmonds in 1966, and have been used occasionally by Anglo congregations at special times. Another favorite all over the world is “Santa Biblia Para Mi,” in English in The Hymnbook, number 131.

African-American Hymnology

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There are considerable resources for black songs among African-American denominations and churches that are now widely available for churches in every tradition. This article is especially helpful in describing the different types of songs that have developed from the black worship tradition.

Black Methodists, Baptists, Holiness, and Pentecostals, as well as black Episcopalians and Catholics, have each produced their own hymnists and hymnody. Among nineteenth-century black clergy who were also hymnists are Bishop Daniel A. Payne of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Rev. Benjamin Franklin Wheeler of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Among early twentieth-century hymnists were Charles Albert Tindley of the Methodist church, Rev. F. M. Hamilton of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, William Rosborough of the National Baptist Convention, USA, and Charles Price Jones of the Church of Christ (Holiness), USA.

The Episcopal church has to its credit such contemporary black hymnists as David Hurd and William Farley Smith. In addition to singing the hymns of the traditional black churches, black Episcopalians have at their disposal complete musical settings of the Communion service by black hymnists. Smith’s setting in the black Episcopalian hymnbook, Lift Every Voice and Sing (New York: Church Hymnal Corp., 1981), is entitled “Communion Music for the Protestant Episcopal Church.” Its eight parts include the Introit, Gloria in Excelsis, the hymns “Hungry and Thirsty” and “Lord, We Come,” Doxology, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, The Lord’s Prayer, and Benediction.

African-American Catholics have at their disposal a distinctive body of hymnody composed by black Catholic hymnists. Included in the hymnal entitled Lead Me, Guide Me: The African American Catholic Hymnal (1987) are not only the standard favorites of the traditional black church but also Edward V. Bonnemere’s jazz-styled “Christ Is Coming: Prepare the Way’ ” (complete with guitar chords) and Fr. Clarence Joseph Rivers’s “Mass Dedicated to the Brotherhood of Man” (1970). Other black Catholic composers represented in this hymnal are Edmund Broussard, Marjorie Gabriel-Borrow, Avon Gillespie, Rawn Harbor, Leon C. Roberts, Grayson Warren Brown, and Edward V. Bonnemere.

Black Methodists, Baptists, Holiness, Pentecostals, Episcopalians, and Catholics also share a body of hymnody that is hardly differentiated doctrinally or denominationally, namely the spirituals and gospel music. The antebellum spirituals may still constitute the largest body of black sacred music in this consortium of black Christians known as the black church. Among the several thousand spirituals handed down to the present generation of black worshipers, spirituals often found in black denominational hymnbooks, are songs reminiscent of the wide range of sentiments felt by the enslaved. There are songs of joy such as “Every Time I Feel the Spirit,” songs of thanksgiving such as “Free at Last,” and songs of praise such as “Ride On, King Jesus.” The spirituals also expressed with unyielding faith the belief that God would repeat on behalf of the Africans enslaved in America the liberating act performed for the biblical Hebrews subjugated in Egypt. Spirituals of this mood include “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel,” “Freedom Train A-Comin’,” “Go Down, Moses,” and “Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho.”

Also among the spirituals are the “sorrow songs.” These songs, which seem to be individual rather than communal expressions, include “I Been in the Storm So Long,” “Nobody Knows the Trouble I Seen,” and “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.” Many of the sorrow songs, illustrating the unyielding faith of the enslaved, commence on a low note of dejection but conclude on a high pitch of praise. Two of the very few exceptions to this characteristic are “Were You There” and “He Never Said a Mumbling Word,” both of which show no glimmer of hope. Today, spirituals have been arranged in hymnic, anthemic, and soloistic forms to be sung by the congregation, choir, and trained soloist, respectively. Among the musical arrangers are such historic figures as H. T. Burleigh, R. Nathaniel Dett, and John Wesley Work, Jr., and such contemporary musicians as Verolga Nix and Roland Carter. In whatever form spirituals are arranged—as hymns, anthems, or solo songs—they can be used to complement every phase of the church year.

Complementing the spirituals in the folk, hymnic, and anthemic repertoires of the black church are the songs of racial pride and liberation. The most important song of racial pride is the “Black National Anthem,” J. Rosamond Johnson’s setting of his brother James Weldon Johnson’s poem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The principal song of liberation, made popular during the civil rights movement, is “We Shall Overcome.” Like numerous civil rights songs, this historic piece is a synthesis and adaptation of extant hymnody. Combining the tune of the old Baptist hymn, “I’ll Be Alright,” and the text of the Methodist gospel hymn, “I’ll Overcome Someday,” the anthem of the civil rights movement is emblematic of how the black oral tradition adapts extant hymns to meet new social and religious needs.

The composer of “I’ll Overcome Someday” is the great Charles Albert Tindley, the creator of such well-known gospel hymns as “We’ll Understand It All By and By.” Many black hymnologists have considered Tindley, a Methodist minister from Philadelphia, to be the most important, if not prolific, hymn writer in the history of the black church. Actually, the most prolific, and certainly one of the most significant, is Charles Price Jones, the founding bishop of the Church of Christ (Holiness), USA. While Tindley composed approximately forty gospel hymns, Jones composed over one thousand hymns (including anthems). Among his hymns is the resplendent “I Will Make the Darkness Light.”

Following the Tindley and Jones era of the gospel hymn (1900–1930) arose what has been called the “golden age of gospel” (1930–1969). This period is represented by the “gospel songs” of such black composers and arrangers as Doris Akers, J. Herbert Brewster, Lucie E. Campbell, James Cleveland, Thomas A. Dorsey, Theodore Frye, Roberta Martin, Kenneth Morris, and Clara Ward. Two of the most famous gospel songs of this period are Campbell’s “He Will Understand and Say ‘Well Done’ ” and Dorsey’s “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.” Together, the musicians of this era transformed the congregational gospel hymn of the Tindley and Jones era into the solo, quartet, and choral gospel song of the “golden” period.

Succeeding the golden age of gospel is the modern gospel era. This has been, from its inception in 1969, dominated by black Pentecostal artists of the Church of God in Christ. Among these artists are Walter Hawkins, Edwin Hawkins, Andrae Crouch, Sandra Crouch, and Elbernita Clark (of the Clark Sisters). Among the popular pieces of this period that have been sung by young adult “inspirational choirs” in the black church are Walter Hawkins’s “Be Grateful” and “He’s That Kind of Friend,” Andrae Crouch’s “Through It All,” and Sandra Crouch’s “Come, Lord Jesus.” Some of their songs have appeared in the black denominational hymnals published since 1980.

Christian hip-hop is the newest form of gospel music. Similar to modern gospel, Christian hip-hop (orginated c. 1989) began as concert rather than liturgical music; it too will likely find its way into the black churches that are seeking to speak to today’s youth. Among hip-hop gospel singers are PID (Preachers in Disguise), ETW (End Time Warriors), SFC (Soldiers for Christ), DC Talk, Witness, D-Boy Rodriguez, Helen Baylor, Michael Peace, and Fresh Fish. These groups often have a message that is experientially oriented. For instance, PID addresses such issues as homelessness, sexually transmitted disease, and racism, and does so in a language that today’s inner-city youths speak and relate to.

The music that falls into the gospel hymn, gospel song, and modern gospel eras still coexists in the black church, and it is unlikely that even the rise of gospel hip-hop would ever change this inclusive nature of the black church music ministry. These three kinds of gospel that continue to co-exist in the black church generally fulfill the three principal liturgical functions in black churches—testimony, worship, and praise. The testimony hymns are used by worshipers to commence their “testifying” during the testimony service, a ritual practiced especially in black Holiness and Pentecostal churches. In testifying, a worshiper stands, sings a verse or two (or the chorus) of a favorite hymn, and then gives her or his spoken testimony. Using the theme and language of the song, the speaker tells the story of how God has worked positively in their lives during the past week. The fact that testimony typically begins with and is thematically built upon a hymn illustrates that these songs have been an essential source of theology for black worshipers over the years of social, political, and economic struggle. One of the favorite testimony hymns of the black church is “Jesus, I’ll Never Forget What You’ve Done for Me.”

The worship and praise songs have a close kinship. The worship hymns do not focus on individual experiences like the testimony hymns, but specifically on the worship of Jesus Christ. Familiar examples of worship songs are “We Have Come Into This House” by Bruce Ballinger and “Bless His Holy Name” by Andrae Crouch. The kindred praise songs are cheerful declarations of exaltation to God, which welcome God’s presence in the life of the believer. Among the best-known songs of praise are “Yes, Lord” and “My Soul Says, ‘Yes.’ ” Both of these were composed by Charles Harrison Mason, the founder of the Church of God in Christ, and are published in that denomination’s first and only hymnal, Yes Lord! (1984). Either during or following the singing of worship and praise songs, Holiness and Pentecostal worshipers may engage in giving the Lord a “wave offering” by means of the “lifting of hands,” or by giving “hand praise” (applause in gratitude for the Lord’s blessings).

Much of the music that is sacred to the tradition of black worship can be found in hymnals compiled by black denominations. Among the most recent and historically important are the American Methodist Episcopal Church Bicentennial Hymnal (1984); The New National Baptist Hymnal (1977) of the National Baptist Convention; His Fullness Songs (1977) of the Church of Christ (Holiness), USA; and Yes. Lord!: The Church of God in Christ Hymnal (1982). Among the important hymnbooks published by the black constituencies of predominantly white denominations are Songs of Zion (1981) from the United Methodist Church; Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Collection of Afro-American Spirituals and Other Songs (1981), from the Episcopal church; and Lead Me, Guide Me: The African American Catholic Hymnal (1987) of the Roman Catholic church.