A COURSE OF STUDY ON THE HISTORY OF CONGREGATIONAL SONG FOR USE IN MAINLINE PROTESTANT CHURCH CLASSES BY MONICA ALEXANDRA HARPER Submitted to the graduate faculty of the Jacobs School of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Music, Indiana University May 2012 Accepted by the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Music. ___________________________________ Janette Fishell, Research Director __________________________________ Christopher Young, Chairperson __________________________________ Marilyn Keiser __________________________________ Patrice Madura ii Copyright © 2012 Monica Alexandra Harper iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My profound thanks are offered to Janette Fishell, Estelle Jorgensen, Marilyn Keiser, Christopher Young, and Patrice Madura for their assistance with this project. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................1 Statement of the Problem .............................................................................1 Rationale ....................................................................................................12 Thesis .........................................................................................................31 Methodology ..............................................................................................33 Delimitations ..............................................................................................34 Document Organization .............................................................................35 2. PHILOSOPHICAL ASSUMPTIONS AND FOUNDATIONS .......................37 Students and Teacher .................................................................................37 Intended Use of the Course of Study ..........................................................39 Course Content ..........................................................................................40 Explanation of and Support for Course Content Ordering .......................43 Objectives ...................................................................................................46 Outline of Topics ........................................................................................47 3. COURSE OF STUDY ......................................................................................49 Pre-course Survey for Students ..................................................................50 Post-course Survey for Students ................................................................51 Teacher Workbook .....................................................................................52 Student Handouts .....................................................................................177 4. USING THE COURSE OF STUDY ..............................................................217 5. SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS .............................................................225 Summary and Implications for Musicians and Churches ........................225 Implications for Practice .........................................................................226 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................228 v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Congregational song is an important part of Christian worship. Because of its importance in mainline Protestant church services in the United States, congregational song is worth studying, talking about, learning about, and writing about. This document is devoted to doing just that. The denominations of mainline Protestant churches that are addressed throughout the document are Baptist, Methodist, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Episcopal. In this first chapter, I will establish the premise for the document, beginning with the statement of the problem, and proceed to discussion of the need for the study, the statement of the thesis, explanation of the methodology, and the delimitations of the course of study. In the final section of chapter one, I provide a snapshot of the document organization. Statement of the Problem The starting point for this document and course of study is the analysis of a problem, fleshed out below. Doing this is necessary because the foundational material of the study is predicated on the problem. In my informal experience talking with congregants one-on-one about the congregational songs used in worship, I have seen how people show excitement and interest when I tell them a little bit about the history of congregational songs sung in 1 2 worship. This excitement leads to questions that open more doors for sharing. I have also perceived how little some congregations know about the congregational songs they sing in worship and how restricted their repertoire of congregational song is. Before taking college courses in church music, I knew little about the congregational songs that I was singing and had a very narrowly defined repertoire of congregational song. How much richer my own worship experience has been because I have explored the depths of the congregational songs that I sing in worship every week. Many people are happy to explore this subject but have never been afforded the opportunity to learn more about it. Many more people have given no thought to the music or texts that they sing, nor do they realize the vastness of congregational song repertoire and the wealth of information on the history of congregational song. It is probably fair to say that in many of today’s churches, little is being done to teach congregations to sing thoughtfully, and as a result, many congregants might not be engaging with their worship music and singing the congregational songs of their worship with thoughtfulness and understanding. Research conducted by Barna Research and presented at the 2002 Hearn Symposium on Church Music demonstrates that many adults do not even know why they are in a worship service. Furthermore, the researchers concluded that many worshipers have a passive music-making attitude in worship and that adults see worship as most effective when it is “something that is done to us, not by us.”1 This is quite a problem. Many congregants are not engaging with or understanding what is happening in worship. 1 George Barna, “Music and the Church” (Keynote Address presented at the Billy Ray Hearn Endowed Symposium on Christian Music, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, 9 October 2002); Available from http://www.baylortv.com/video.php?id=000037; Internet; accessed 9 April 2009. 3 Have people always sung in church? What did Jesus sing? Have people always sung hymns, and where did hymns come from? What is the meaning of the hymn text? Is the hymn text a paraphrase of scripture, a direct quotation of scripture, or freely written? Who wrote the texts that we sing? Why did the author write the text and in what circumstance did the author write the text? In what century was the text composed? Who wrote the tune and in what circumstances was the author of the text also the composer of the tune? These are questions that students of church music may have already answered in their studies. There are many textbooks and history books that provide copious information for intellectuals seeking answers to these questions. Some recent examples of these resources that are not known by most congregants are Erik Routley’s A Panorama of Christian Hymnody, William J. Reynolds and Milburn Price’s A Survey of Christian Hymnody, Harry Eskew and Hugh McElrath’s Sing With Understanding, Paul Westermeyer’s Te Deum: The Church and Music and Let the People Sing: Hymn Tunes in Perspective, and Friedrich Blume’s Protestant Church Music: A History.2 This document seeks to take information from sources such as these and organize and present the information in a way, through a structured course of study, that it may be helpful to congregants in a church setting. As opposed to simply providing a book that 2 Erik Routley, A Panorama of Christian Hymnody (Chicago, IL: G. I. A. Publications, 2005); William J. Reynolds and Milburn Price, A Survey of Christian Hymnody, 4th ed. rev. and enlarged by David W. Music and Milburn Price (Carol Stream, IL: Hope Publishing, 1999); Harry Eskew and Hugh McElrath, Sing With Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Hymnology, 2nd ed. rev. and exp. (Nashville, TN: Church Street Press, 1995); Paul Westermeyer, Te Deum: The Church and Music (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1998); Westermeyer, Let the People Sing: Hymn Tunes in Perspective (Chicago, IL: G. I. A. Publications, 2005); Friedrich Blume, Protestant Church Music: A History (New York: Norton, 1974). 4 students may read, this course of study provides lessons, questions, and activities that enable the participant to engage with the material. To initiate active, rather than passive, corporate worship, congregants should be aware of the central role that congregational song has in the worship service. Active worship occurs when a congregant is actively participating in worship, showing an understanding and awareness of what is happening around them and in them. Passive worship is the opposite. It occurs when congregants “go through the motions” and show up to worship only to have events happen around them without really understanding