Here goes....
Well, here we are, my first official blog. Yes, yes, I know, I know, you say, "WHAT? You've never BLOGGED?" Well, I'll just admit right of the top that I'm a bit, shall we say, "e-challenged". When your fearless, all-knowing, all-opining leader asked me to do this I instantly thought, "Oh dear, now the whole WORLD will know that I'm stuck in the dark ages." But I'll admit that it wasn't as difficult as I thought, what with the patient, all-wise council of the powers-that-be.
"Oh, sweet wonder......"
I've been poking around in the UPC Historical Center (actually it's official title is the Center for the Study of Oneness Pentecostalism, affectionately known as CSOP, "see-sop") this summer, scratching this itch I have for history. I landed squarely in G.T. Haywood's file yesterday and I'm still there! For those of you young, whipper-snappers, he's the author of many of our great hymns as well as one of the great pioneers of our faith. "Hymns?" you say? Yep, that's right - HYMNS!!! Okay, so I guess it had to come out some time. That's my soapbox - officially. I love to juke and jive with the best of 'em, but there's something about those old standards....
"Hello.....Hello.....is anybody out there............?"
Just wondering if I stand alone on all this. I teach a class here at Gateway called "Hymnology" and believe me, I go in armed, prayed up, prayed through, and ready for battle. But then, I'm ususally pleasantly suprised to hear someone say, "I LOVE these songs!" or "Can we sing today?" I have this form of slow torture that I inflict on my students by requiring that we sing something old at the end of each class. It's funny how those words stick with you if you let them.......
And now something a little lighter...
"Summertime, and the livin's easy...." I love summer. At first I'm spending the days thinking I just MUST be forgetting something I have to do today, only to realize that I have all this free time. What to do? Indulge my SECOND great passion - read! I'm a history lover (I swear I was born 150 years too late) so I just finished "From Midnight to Dawn", a history of the underground railroad from Detroit to Canada. Any of you Canadians in Ontario ever run across any of the monuments to the fugitive slave communities? Very fascinating stuff, I must say.
Now, as is my usual disease, I'm plowing through not one, not two, but FOUR books at once. I don't recommend this. Getting the most attention is "Blood and Thunder" by Hampton Sides. It's all about Kit Carson and his life. My faves usually center around WWII, but Sides writes such great stuff - very readable. He wrote a great one entitled "Ghost Soldiers" about the Bataan Death March of WWII. I really recommend this one.
Okay, so I'm off the music subject. I'd love to know what someone else thinks - am I all alone? Let me know.
"Oh, sweet wonder......"
I've been poking around in the UPC Historical Center (actually it's official title is the Center for the Study of Oneness Pentecostalism, affectionately known as CSOP, "see-sop") this summer, scratching this itch I have for history. I landed squarely in G.T. Haywood's file yesterday and I'm still there! For those of you young, whipper-snappers, he's the author of many of our great hymns as well as one of the great pioneers of our faith. "Hymns?" you say? Yep, that's right - HYMNS!!! Okay, so I guess it had to come out some time. That's my soapbox - officially. I love to juke and jive with the best of 'em, but there's something about those old standards....
"Hello.....Hello.....is anybody out there............?"
Just wondering if I stand alone on all this. I teach a class here at Gateway called "Hymnology" and believe me, I go in armed, prayed up, prayed through, and ready for battle. But then, I'm ususally pleasantly suprised to hear someone say, "I LOVE these songs!" or "Can we sing today?" I have this form of slow torture that I inflict on my students by requiring that we sing something old at the end of each class. It's funny how those words stick with you if you let them.......
And now something a little lighter...
"Summertime, and the livin's easy...." I love summer. At first I'm spending the days thinking I just MUST be forgetting something I have to do today, only to realize that I have all this free time. What to do? Indulge my SECOND great passion - read! I'm a history lover (I swear I was born 150 years too late) so I just finished "From Midnight to Dawn", a history of the underground railroad from Detroit to Canada. Any of you Canadians in Ontario ever run across any of the monuments to the fugitive slave communities? Very fascinating stuff, I must say.
Now, as is my usual disease, I'm plowing through not one, not two, but FOUR books at once. I don't recommend this. Getting the most attention is "Blood and Thunder" by Hampton Sides. It's all about Kit Carson and his life. My faves usually center around WWII, but Sides writes such great stuff - very readable. He wrote a great one entitled "Ghost Soldiers" about the Bataan Death March of WWII. I really recommend this one.
Okay, so I'm off the music subject. I'd love to know what someone else thinks - am I all alone? Let me know.
Labels: Dustin' off...
posted by aahrens at
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
9 Comments:
Ann,
Kudos to Kent C for inserting you in this discussion. I say that because our congregation www.gbfpc.org is 60+ years old, and to forge on with a vision for revival and at the same time refuse to disassociate from your roots...you have to have musical sensibilities that include everyone. My question for you is, "Why have we allowed doctrine (most of the hymns are very doctrinal) to disappear from our music?" Much of the music today is very emotional driven with less cognition. AND I like the new stuff, but I also think there is great opportunity for someone to incorporate doctrine in modern and fresh ways. Last question: does it bother you when the hyms are entact lyrically but not melodically? If so, why?
Kind Regards,
Kevin Bradford
Well...why not one more comment. Anyone serious about AP music, even those who want to get creative with it, MUST have an appreciation for its origins. Any accomplished artist, secular or otherwise, realizes music is not born in a vacuum. So, chill out, Ann...your good and I look forward to more of your thoughts.
Oooooh Ann, good stuff! My church is only 11 years old and 80% (or more) of our congregation is first generation. Once in a while the "dyed in the wool" gang gets together to play "name that page". One person yells out the page number and we all guess which hymn it is.
I also feel that we need to make a stronger connection between those songs and the newbies who come in with no clue. That is why we often tie in a hymn at the end of a more current worship song (e.g. "Jesus, What a Wonder" tied in with "Oh Sweet Wonder" or "Breathe on Me" with "I Need Thee Oh I Need Thee"). Since we will NEVER have the good ole hymnals on every pew of the church, we can at least sing it with words on the overhead.
Oh and Ann, you mentioned "juke and jive", well what about "It's All in Him"? That was "juke and jive" at one point in time, right?
Hymns are not replaceable. I am very intrigued by K. Bradford's question regarding the relation between the lyrics and the melody. What is your response to that?
Marjorie,
I know you asked Ann to respond but it got me thinking: the presentation of the song may depend on the part of the country in which it is being sung. Very few churches sing the song exactly the way the music is written in the songbook (so many AP musicians use lead sheets or play by ear). It give way to loose interpretations. One cannot be a purist unless they perform it in it's most literal form.
Courtney:
I don't know if you will ever check back here, but is there some virtue in being a purist? I don't disagree...I just don't know.
I'm in the 40 something group, raised AP, and have lived with the jump from hymnals to media projection.
I LOVE the old hymns for their doctrine. I love the new worship/praise songs because so many times they voice what I'm feeling. AND I love that our music director combines both to minister through the worship service to all of the saints.
Wow Ann....your words are very powerful on the "old hymns". What has happened to the the hymnal books?? Have we got tooo educated and tooo sophisitacated to go back to our roots and really see and feel the words that are being sung that are "hymnal" songs? I'm sorry, but today's "words on a wall" just doesn't fill my heart and soul with the spirit that I can feel with the old songs. Yes, some of the "older contemp" songs had some good measure, more than todays songs. My son even asked me one time, "Mom, how do they make a song just using two words?" I was like "wow", even he recognized that there wasn't much to the song.
Kudos to Ann, for even bringing up the subject on the hymals. Ann is a very talented young lady that plays exceptionally well.
Kevin,
First let me apologize for not responding sooner - been away and didn't have computer access.
To be honest, your questions to me are some that I've wondered about for some time. Sometimes I think the reason we've allowed doctrine to disappear is because, well, we already KNOW what we believe, so why sing about it? I mentioned that I've been working at CSOP this summer and I have learned so much about the life experiences of the hymn writers. Many of the hymns that are our standards were written when the UPC as we know it was being formed. Take, for instance, "It's All In Him" by George Farrow. Jesus Name baptism was an amazing revelation to him - I read some of his personal letters to his fiance, Lu Lu, during the time the onness of God was being revealed to him - very fascinating stuff. So, it was logical that he wrote that hymn! The same with many of Haywoods songs - written during a time when what we believe was being established and the church as we know it being formed. I may be way out in the third stratosphere here, but I wonder if this could be the case, at least partly.
As for it bothering me when hymns are intact lyrically, but not melodically, well, yes and no. I think some hymns just have GREAT music. Take for example the rise in the beginning of the chorus of "Blessed Assurance" - that just tears me up! On the other hand, with some hymns, the music is okay, but doesn't make me run laps. One that drives me nuts is 4-Him's re-arrangement of "Great is Thy Faithfulness" - it sounds like the Beatles to me - not that I'm a Beatles fan - I'm not THAT old! HA! One project I have students do in my Hymnology class here at Gateway is to have them take an old hymn and rework it, lyrically or musically. I find that mostly, they don't do much to the hymns as a whole. Many students said after they worked and experimented that they found that it tainted the song and changed it too much- took away from it's meaning. You know, I like to hear reworked songs, but don't we always usually go back to the original?
I'm not saying this is all my hard and fast opinion, just a thought.
Ann
Ann,
Thanks for the response!
KB
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