Christian Hymns Words And Music

Evening of Gospel Music Keeps Songs of Faith Alive

The House of Elohim sits neat and tidy at 1920 N. Fourth St. in St. Charles. I’ve passed it a few times before. Elohim, I know, is a Hebrew word for God. And, yes, I’m always interested in discovering something new.

I'd come after reading a notice in a newspaper that read, “Gospel music night from 7 – 9 p.m. June 17.”

Sometimes what is new is old, ageless and timeless.

It was obvious that I was new and I was greeted right away by a woman who encouraged me to help myself to water or soda and to make myself comfortable, which was easy to do since the pews in the sanctuary have cushioned seats and backs.

I sat toward the back. The first thing I do when I am in a church for the first time is to look at the hymnals and Bibles in the pews. I know that many churches have moved away from hymnals and now use video screens for song lyrics, scripture, prayers, but there are still churches that use bound Bibles and hymnals. If there are Bibles and hymnals, I always take a look.

It was no surprise to me that the Bible was the King James Version, original completion date 1611. The hymnal was Heavenly Highway Hymns , 2 edition, 1989, and I don’t have that hymnal. I own many  different Bible translations - including the King James Version - and many hymnals, but this one was new to me. I knew many of the songs but there were a whole lot of songs that I did not know.

The musicians gathered at the front of the church. There was easy banter among them. This was not a band, but a group of pretty gosh darn good musicians who knew each other and gathered together  on a Friday evening to sing songs to glorify the Lord.

Guitars and a piano player, fiddle and harmonica, electric mandolin, and a bass fiddle. And they all were singers.  Each took a turn suggesting a song and taking the lead. I recognized “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” The other songs I did not know and turned to the hymnal for help.

At one point, Marilyn, the piano player, asked if the others knew “Like a Mountain Railroad.” (Since the event, I have discovered that the full title of the song is “Life is Like a Mountain Railroad.”) Enough of them did and so that’s what they played. My favorite song of the evening was “Love’s Gonna Live Here Again.” Lots of bass, harmonica, and always the fiddle.

There is “gospel music” and then there is “gospel music.” There are different types of gospel music, such as country gospel, urban contemporary gospel, bluegrass gospel, and so on.

“Barroom Tunes”…Again! « Wordwise Hymns

.) If you study the history of the hundreds of tunes currently found in our hymn books (as I have done), here’s what you’ll discover.

An overwhelming majority of the tunes for the hymns were written especially for their texts, or were borrowed from earlier hymns. Those that were not come to us from a variety of sources. A few are of unknown or uncertain origin. A very few were adapted from oratorio or operatic melodies. And an even smaller number are recognized as adaptations of traditional ballads or folk melodies.

Martin Luther is one on whom this argument is based. Those wanting to bring the excesses of worldly music into the church do so on the basis of something they heard or read about him–that he commonly used the music of the drinking songs of his day, and put Christian words to them. We hear about Luther’s use of “barroom tunes.” But careful research has shown this is a total myth. Of the 37 chorales (hymns) written by Martin Luther, here is the source of his music:

of taking drinking songs and making hymns of them. But what of that one exception? The original words were “I Arrived from an Alien Country.” Luther wrote words for a Christmas hymn and used the tune. But within the next four years he replaced it with one of his own. More than one scholar suggests that he became concerned that the secular associations of the earlier tune diverted people’s attention from the worship of God.

Actually, the word “bar” was . When part of a song was to be repeated, a special sign known as a “bar” was used to indicate this. (It saved ink and paper–precious in those days–not to repeat lines already given.) Many of our hymns and gospel songs today do the same thing, to save space in the hymn book. Thus the “bar” in connection with Luther’s music had nothing to do with taverns. It just signified a repeat With thorns Thine only crown.

The tune we commonly use for this hymn appeared as a secular love song in 1601. The song was called “My Heart Is Distracted by a Gentle Maid,” and it was published in a collection of music by Hans Leo Hassler, one of the best German composers of the later Renaissance.

Significantly, the melody was not wedded to Gerhardt’s lyric until 1644, more than forty years later. Before that it had already been associated with another German hymn for thirty years.