Praise songs without pentinence

In the past, I’ve expressed my skepticism about Christian Contemporary Music. But as I keep running into (intelligent and capable) CCM advocates, it’s clear I need to identify more theoretical and empirical evidence supporting these concerns. 

This month, Terry Mattingly of GetReligion highlighted a study of CCM texts by Prof. Michael J. Rhodes, a Baptist Old Testament professor in New Zealand. (Strangely, the original story and Twitter tweets are from last September).

The story was about how Rhodes looked at the lyrics of the first 25 songs in the CCLI Top 100 worship songs. He contrasted the themes of the top 25 praise songs to those of the 150 psalms of the historic psalter. Here are a few highlights from Rhodes’ Sept. 30 column in Christianity Today:

• “There is only one passing mention of the word justice in the Top 25. …
• “There are zero references to the poor or poverty in the Top 25. …
• “The widow, refugee, and oppressed are completely absent from the Top 25. …
• “References to enemies are rare in the Top 25.”

And his final point:

Maybe most devastatingly, in the Top 25, not a single question is ever posed to God. When we sing the Top 25, we don’t ask God anything. By contrast, prick the Psalter and it bleeds with the cries of the oppressed, pleading for God to act.

So without assessing the pros and cons of Rhodes’ argument, his premise is indisputable: the themes of 2500-3000 years of Judeo-Christian worship are the gold standard, and today’s praise hymns don’t measure up to that standard.

Penitential Hymns

To be fair, the typical Christmas, Easter or Trinitytide hymns tend to be upbeat as well.

Still, when considering the psalms, I spotted what I thought an even more striking omission: no mention of the pentience, repentance and confession by King David and others throughout the psalms, repeated by worshippers across the centuries. The first and last verses of this hymn — sung by Episcopalians at Lent — seems an appropriate example of what such pentinence might look like:

With broken heart and contrite sigh
A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry:
Thy pardoning grace is rich and free
O God, be merciful to me.

And when, redeemed from sin and hell,
With all the ransomed throng I dwell,
My raptured song shall ever be,
God has been merciful to me.

Authored in 1852 by English Baptist preacher Cornelius Elven, for Episcopalians it has been sung regularly since it was first published in The Hymnal of 1874.

God be merciful to me...

Regular readers know I love singing harmony — which usually means straightforward voice leading and harmonies, sung several times a year. Today our communion hymn (H40: #60) was one of my favorite Lenten hymns, “With broken heart and contrite sigh”:

With broken heart and contrite sigh
A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry:
Thy pardoning grace is rich and free
O God, be merciful to me.

I smite upon my troubled breast,
With deep and conscience guilt oppressed;
Christ and His cross my only plea:
O God, be merciful to me.

Far off I stand with tearful eyes,
Nor dare uplift them to the skies;
But Thou dost all my anguish see:
O God, be merciful to me.

Nor alms, nor deeds that I have done,
Can for a single sin atone;
To Calvary alone I flee:
O God, be merciful to me.

And when, redeemed from sin and hell,
With all the ransomed throng I dwell,
My raptured song shall ever be,
God has been merciful to me.

There were four surprises in singing it today.

Liturgical Year

My favorite hymnal recommends it for Ash Wednesday (HC), Lent I (MP and HC) and Lent V (EP). Not surprisingly, Hymnal 1940 and other hymnals list it as a Lenten or penitential hymn.

However — contrary to our hymnal guidelines — today we used it to support the gospel reading. The hymn is about the tax collector (publican) from this parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, which is Luke 18:9-14 and Trinity 11 in the historic one-year lectionary.

The usage was perfect. Today’s sermon was about the (familiar) lesson that Jesus teaches about confession of sin, penitence and humility, and the hymn allowed all of us to cement this message in our hearts by singing it.

It turns out this usage is exactly how it is scheduled in the 1996 Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, the hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the Norwegian Lutherans who didn’t join the ELC in 1917 (which later became the ELCA).

Origin of the Text

I didn’t recognize the name of the author, Cornelius Elven. So when I got home, I looked up the origins of the text and author. Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology (via Hymnary) says

Elven, Cornelius, pastor for fifty years of the Baptist Church at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, was born in 1797, and died in 1873. His hymn, "With broken heart and contrite sigh” (Lent), is found in several collections in Great Britain and America. It was written in Jan., 1852 (Miller’s Singers & Songs, p. 449) for use at special services by his own congregation, and was included in the Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858.

The Hymnal 1940 Companion helpfully adds

This digression on the Parable of the Publican was written by Cornelius Eleven … It is based on St. Luke 18:13. It was first published in Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858, and in the [PECUSA] Hymnal of 1874.

So the intended use is actually for the parable and not the penitential season.

Recent Unpopularity

Hymnary is biased against older hymnals: by default, it only shows hymnals listing from 1979 onwards. Only 5 hymnals since 1979 list this hymn — but 202 before that date. Among the five, three are US denominational hymnals:

• Christian Worship: #303, the 1993 hymnal of Wisconsin Synod Lutherans
• Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary: #455
• Baptist Hymnal [2012]: #286, from the American Baptist Churches (a smaller, and more liberal denomination than the Southern Baptists). Google Books suggests that indicates that this is a slightly updated edition of the 1920 American Baptist hymnal, albeit one from the official American Baptist publisher located a few blocks from the denominational HQ.

Not surprisingly, seven other Baptist hymnals list the text, including the 1871, 1883, and 1904 Baptist hymnals. 

However, I was shocked to discover that this Baptist stalwart has not appeared in a Southern Baptist hymnal of the 20th or 21st century. I manually verified with my bookcase that this text (or anything by Elven) does not appear in the 1940 The Broadman Hymnal or the 1956, 1975, 1991 or 2008 editions of The Baptist Hymnal — nor does it appear in the 2010 Celebrating Grace, an unofficial (and slightly less conservative) Southern Baptist hymnal.

Seeing such omission makes it less surprising that it was dumped by contemporary Episcopalians in Hymnal 1982. Also not surprising is that it passed unchanged from Hymnal 1940 as hymn #97 in Magnify the Lord (aka Book of Common Praise 2017), the 2017 Reformed Episcopal Church hymnal.

Melodic Divergence

In looking at US hymnals, these are the tunes I found

• Migdol: [PECUSA] Hymnal 1896 (87)
• Eisenach: [PECUSA] Hymnal 1916 (133)
• Nuremberg: [PECUSA] Hymnal 1872 (71, 2nd tune) in the Goodrich & Gilbert edition† of Hymnal 1872.
• St. Cross: the 1930 American Lutheran Hymnal and the 1958 Service Book and Hymnal
• St. Luke: Evangelical Lutheran Worship and Christian Worship

† In 1872, PECUSA standardized the text but not the music, so each edition had its own tune choices.

Babylon’s Streams is the tune I sang this morning. It is the tune Episcopalians (Reformed or not) published 2017, 1940 and the Goodrich & Gilbert edition of Hymnal 1872 (71, 1st tune), and has a very penitential feel. Also using this tune is the 1970 American Baptist Hymnbook for Christian Worship (#50), which lists three verses under “Forgiveness” rather than repentance.

Other than these three hymnals (BCP 2017 is not in Hymnary), the other 23 uses of the tune are given for other texts. The tune is also the subject of an organ chorale by English composer William Henry Harris (1883-1873), who served as the court organist of Windsor Castle. The “Fantasy on the Tune Babylon’s Streams” was performed as early as 1923.

The tune by composer and poet Thomas Campian (1567-1620) was the most lasting contribution of what would be an important transitional collection of tunes for the Church of England. As Valnetine (1951:254) summarized:

Thomas Campion's First Book of Ayres, published in 1613, shows the influence of the madrigal in the loosening of the rigid form imposed in the Church Tunes. Thomas Campion wrote the words and composed the music for such hymns as "The Weather-beaten Sail" (S.P. 567) and "The Song of Joy" (S.P. 639). The best-known tune from this important book is "Babylon's Streams" (S.P. 124, E.R. 487, A.M.R. 228). These tunes, it is to be observed, were composed for hymns and not for Metrical Psalms. This is an advance in the history of the hymn tune.

How this pairing was created in 1872 is not explained by the Hymnal 1940 Companion, and my search of Google Scholar produced no answers. Because it is not used in any other major hymnal (with a published hymnal companion), this story may be lost to history.

References

Valentine, Cyril H. "The Hymn Tune in the English Church." Theology 54, no. 373 (1951): 250-257.

Christian penitence: Ash Wednesday

Next to Advent, Lent is my favorite season of the year. We are anticipating the most important event of the church calendar, and so Lent provides an opportunity to contemplate and prepare for that event over the next 46 days (including six Sundays).

Ash Wednesday itself is also very special. Since I returned to the faith as an adult, it’s the only time that I religiously (!) attend church midweek during the year. To me, Ash Wednesday sets the tone

Every year I also have the scramble of juggling work, commuting and spending an hour in church on Ash Wednesday. Last year, I had meetings both at breakfast and lunch, so I had to go after work.

And then there's the question of the ashes. At a previous job, I was a coward about wearing ashes to work — how people would react, having to explain, possible stigmatizing as a crazy Christian. Non-Christians (and most Protestants) did (and do) ask “what’s the smudge” as I walk through the day. (At my current job, there are two Catholics who regularly do Ash Wednesday so I don’t feel so alone.)

Ash Wednesday and Lent have historically been associated with fasting. This morning I've already failed on the fasting — in part due to forgetfulness, in part because I don’t want to fight the freeways when there’s a possibility of fainting (unlikely in the morning, a serious issue at the end of an all-day fast).

Searching for Ashes

Given my work and travel schedule, many years I’m searching for a parish to attend with a compatible schedule. In downtown London, these would be CoE, but here in California, Continuing Anglicans are few and far between.

Who might have such service?

1. Any 28 BCP parish
2. Many ACNA parishes
3. TEC parishes
4. LCMS Lutherans
5. Other Lutherans
6. Presbyterian?
7. University Chaplaincy
8. Catholic

I normally do #1, #2 or #4, but have also done #7 or #8 when that was all that worked. Since the RCC practices closed communion, I try to respect their policies and avoid that option whenever possible.

Today I went to an Anglican Catholic Church, one of the four founding provinces from the Affirmation of St. Louis that kicked off the Continuing Anglican movement. It reminded me of an English village church, with a small sanctuary (<100 seats in the pews) and a young rector and his wife.

It was a wonderfully moving procedure. After many months of ACNA worship in a strip mall, it was great to hear the classic liturgy again. Most of all, it was great to be kneeling again: it’s hard to imagine the Lord’s Prayer (let alone the General Confession or the Prayer of Humble Access) without kneeling, particularly during Lent.

In general, any parish that bothers to hold Ash Wednesday services tends to convey the theology correctly. For me, the culmination is to hear the phrase “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (which is not in the 1928 BCP but is in the 1979 prayer book). Still, the Lutherans — with Luther’s fixation on us as “poor miserable sinners” — tend to be particularly evocative this time of year.

Ash Wednesday Music

One thing I’ve always had mixed feelings on is music at Ash Wednesday (and Good Friday). During my LCMS days, the choir showed up for Ash Wednesday and we all sang a hymn or two. I don’t doubt that there are pieces that could be programmed, such as excerpts from masses during the golden era of sacred music (roughly from Palestrina to Brahms)

However, to me Ash Wednesday is a penitent, somber event and so a simpler, less ornate (and less celebratory tone) seem most appropriate. In fact, if the normal Sunday service is a nicely done high mass, the contrast of the spoken service (IMHO) emphasizes the somber and penitential nature.

For a contrary perspective, I listened to this year’s Ash Wednesday service from St. John’s College, Cambridge, as part of the BBC’s semiweekly Choral Evensong broadcast. It was great to hear the service begun with the full General Confession (not the Confession Lite begun with the 79 prayer book). And the plainchant for the service music does link the service to the weekly liturgy.