Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands, II

One of the hallmarks of a great hymn is the number of spin offs it inspires over time.

A hymn--a song of praise--by nature is corporate in its reach. Not only is it shared among a people in the present while they celebrate some thing but it has the power to endure, engaging the memory singing it in church as a kid and with grandmother peeling potatoes. A hymn is a folk song, a song of a people--an identifier of who they are and what they believe is important.

To Martin Luther if all God's people were to live out God's grace through faith, they would have to be full participants in worship and this certainly included singing. The Latin Mass was exclusive in that regard. But if illiterate German Christians were more or less silent when they went to church, they weren't silent after, especially on festal occasions. The people sang many faithful songs in their own language. These folk hymns were Luther's inlet to congregational song in worship. By taking vernacular hymns and fitting them with new words the modern notion of hymnody came to be.

By the time Luther wrote "Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands" this hymn's ancestry had spread into a mighty tree. It has two predecessors: one a Latin Easter hymn, "Victimae Paschali laudes," Praise the Paschal Victim, the other a German vernacular song, "Christ ist erstanden," Christ is Risen. Both these songs have long histories of their own. Suffice it to say Luther was not intent on abandoning these songs but wanted rather to bask in the light of their tradition. These are faithful songs, why toss them out? Are they honorable? Then honor them. Build on them and extend their reach. The Master gave you a talent. Don't bury it.

But to build and invest necessarily will bring change and even improvement. With "Christ ist erstanden" improvements were needed, if only for the sake of clarity. An early English translation by Miles Coverdale reads:

Christe is now rysen agayne

From his death and all his payne:

Therfore wyll we mery be

And reioyce with Him gladly.

Kirieleyson.

The problem with this is the incongruity between the merriment celebrating the Resurrection (that parties with Jesus Himself) and the phrase "Kirieleyson," Lord have mercy. 

Really there's nothing wrong with that. We beseech Mercy in everything. But the ordinary connotation is that we need mercy to cover our sins. And since Christ is risen we are no longer in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17).

See the problem? 

To make a clearer response to the Resurrection, Luther proposed this first verse as an alternative:

Christ Jesus lay in death's strong bands,

For our offenses given;
But now at God's right hand He stands
And brings us life from heaven;
Therefore let us joyful be
And sing to God right thankfully
Loud songs of hallelujah. Hallelujah!

The party is still there. Christ is risen. Indeed. But the refrain is different. Let's not sing loud songs of "Lord have mercy," but "Hallelujah."

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

A Question

Why do Keith Getty's hymns sound like Twila Paris ripoffs?

Ethnocentric Church Music

For all that evangelicals say condemning racism, it remains present in contemporary church music.  Grasping at idol of relevance inevitably leads to marginalizing slices of the populace.  Certainly we ignore the covenantal (i.e. multi-generational) aspect of worship when we turn to pop music as a model for worship song.  But perhaps more subtly, a lot of contemporary church music I know tends to appeal to white people, finding its inspiration often in rock or celtic styles.  Church music can and should have its own local flavor, but for the sake of unity, church music should also have broad appeal: "there is one Church, one Lord, one Baptism..."

Old hymns (texts and tunes together), particularly from the 16th century until the Second Great Awakening, remain the best congregational music the church has created.  These hymns teach Biblical truth in a way that is rather easy to sing and sing together as a body of believers; they move the affections while avoiding unhelpful sentimentality.  This style ought to form the model of new worship song.

Congregational Hymn: Sing and the Mystery Declare (Pange lingua)

I arranged this hymn for a congregation looking for something to sing during the Lord's Supper. The Pange lingua chant is an ancient hymn of the church and quite un-Protestant in its original poetry.  This newer version of the text is more useful.  Enjoy!

Judging a Bad Hymn

Until rather recently, Westerners believed that pure music is meaningful apart from extra-musical texts, narratives, or images.  Plato and Aristotle had a lot to say about music's meaning and use in affecting society.  The early Church Fathers, taking up the baton, condemned pagan musical practice using the logic they inherited from the philosophers and combining it with sound Biblical reasoning.  Throughout its history, the Church has maintained that music is meaningful and thus ought to be closely regulated.  It is only in the last couple of centuries that Western opinion has become skeptical of the idea of musical meaning.

In our present situation the Church is at best reluctant to make musical judgements.  At worst, the Church is unable to make such judgements at all.  One of the primary areas in which we've abdicated judging musical meaning is how we match texts and tunes inappropriately.

For example, the following text represents the direst spiritual situation any human could experience: 

Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night,
Jesus, I come!
Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee!
Out of my sickness into Thy health,
Out of my want and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee! 

This is a beloved hymn text and for good reason: it describes the sinner's lost condition apart from the Savior and does so with clear imagery.  Yet when it comes the music, the hymn fails.  This is because the tune has nothing to do with bondage, sorrow, night, sickness, want, or sin.  The tune is breezy, and carefree.  Combined with this text, the hymn is flippant and makes light of a grand and serious subject.  This is not to say that their isn't happiness in the text--the text IS happy, but there is a difference between flippant happiness and the happiness of relief from hardship.  The tune sounds like carousel music from a really old one.  There's nothing wrong with music like that or feeling nostalgic listening to it.  It simply fails to convey the text in an accurate and meaningful way and in that sense the hymn fails.  

God calls us to real abundant human life in Christ.  Our hymns--text and music together--ought to portray our life accurately and sincerely.

Puritans and Church Music

I have recently been reading Percy Scholes's Puritans and Music (OUP, 1934), a work that examine's the Puritan attitude toward music--an attitude that by no means condemned music in general, but rather served to elevate secular music as a noble pursuit.  Through a series of essay-like chapters, Scholes convincingly makes a case for a high view of music and the arts among the English Puritans.  Time and time again Scholes reiterates Puritan disapproval of instrumental and polyphonic music in church and in one chapter devoted entirely to the subject, he outlines various manifestations of this point of view in and outside of English Puritanism.  

Iconoclasm is useful in church history to purge abuses of the arts but I think it ought to be the exception and not the rule, namely because it can tend to misplace our priorities.  The worship of God is our highest calling as men and the character and setting of our worship reflects the greatness of God's glory.  If secular music is the "best" and most cultivated music, then church music essentially lies about the character of God.  Obviously there is a lot to be qualified in these statements, but simply put, plain worship poorly represents the great God it seeks to serve.

A Problem with Contemporary Worship Music

While trying to be relevant and contemporary-sounding, praise music falls sadly behind the pack of cultural progress and becomes irrelevant.  New trends and fashions change continuously and are difficult to keep up with.  Some may claim they are not trying to be cutting edge but are rather trying to do music in a style that the culture understands.  But what does the culture understand and what sort of music has broad appeal that church people young , old, black, white, life-longers, new converts, and seekers can all appreciate?  I suggest that contemporary worship music can't do what its proponents say it can.

A problem that plagues all art is the reality of context; that a work of art is tied to a point in time, and has particular audience in mind.  The context of worship song is the worship service itself, while the context of contemporary praise music is popular music which is in constant change.  For all its merits, this video to the writer sounds like post-grunge music that appealed to young white people back in the mid-1990s .  (I may be hearing a trace of The Wall Flowers?)  In such a case, how does invoking this music actually side track and distract from authentic worship?  I say we must consider our music choices carefully, keeping the special character of worship in view.  God does not share His glory with a competing god, and we must take care to make sure this doesn't happen when our music suggests something other than God's glory.

Psalm 119:103-4

Here's another setting I recently completed of a couple verses from Psalm 119.  Enjoy!

Setting of the Magnificat

Here's a new Magnificat setting I composed last summer.  We've used it at our church with some success.  Give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing. (Psalm 65:13)

This verse supports the medieval notion that creation is ordered much like a piece of music. The order and harmony of the earth itself sings God’s praise. In Paul’s language, God’s invisible attributes are known from the things made. Our songs then should reflect the harmony of the Godhead, the wisdom of God in creation, and strive remind us of God’s manifold attributes.

Church Music as a Genre, II

One reason we need to think of church music as its own thing has to do with its distinctive sound. Psalm 92 v. 3 commands praise upon a harp "with a solemn sound." It is this solemnity of sound that makes church music sound the way it does, distinguishing it from other genres.

What does solemnity mean? I think it means what most of us think of when solemn church music is heard or mentioned. It does not mean the music is always quiet or controlled as most would the define the word itself (think Geneva Jigs). But the music must be fitting for the praise the Most High. Good church music is often loud and can be energetic. The bottom line is that it is to be solemn in a way that is fitting for worship of our Holy God.

Other kinds of music entertain and divert. Some music is even profound. Church music is not any of these although there is sometimes overlap.

Church Music as a Genre

One point that I think has been overlooked in the so called "worship wars" is the fact that church music is a musical genre. Usually I wouldn't be keen on such categories as they tend to be arbitrary labels used for marketing purposes. (In that sense the genre called "classical music" is misleading because it includes everything from Gregorian Chant to Johann Strauss Jr to Stravinsky. You couldn't get any more diverse.) But for the purpose of this discussion and the greater effort to reform worship in our time the genre/category called church music deserves its own consideration.

The problem with church music in general is that it has lost some of its own distinctives that make it church music. A number of unhealthy assumptions have lead to this including gnosticism, pragmatism, and pluralism. Church music fails to be distinct from popular music and folk music. In some cases it has failed to be distinct from classical music.