Some Things I Have Learned about Worship Music

By Robin G. Jordan

And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” Mark 1:7, ESV

Reading Chuck Lawless’ article, “10 Distractions Regarding Worship Music,” prompted me to think about distractions that may be encountered in the music part of worship in Anglican churches in North America. Among those distractions is that churches in the Continuing Anglican jurisdictions cling tenaciously to the use of a 75-year-old hymnal and “the dreary practice of singing ‘Amen’ at the end of each hymn.”

Eric Routley included a essay on the liturgical use of “Amen” in Church Music and the Christian Faith (Carol Stream, IL: Hope Publishing Co., 1978) I first read this essay in the 1980s. Except where amen was integral to the text of the hymn, Routley took the position that singing amen at the end of a hymn was unnecessary. (Routley, I must point out, otherwise had a high opinion of The Hymnal 1940.)

Eric Routley was an English Congregationalist minister, composer, and musicologist. He was a leading twentieth century expert on hymns and hymnody.  Among his publications were Congregational Praise (1951), The University Carol Book (1961), Dunblane Praise (1962), Cantate Domino (1968), New Church Praise (1972), Ecumenical Praise (1977), and Rejoice in the Lord (1985). He has been credited with being “the catalyst for much that helped produce ‘The Hymn Explosion’ of the 1970s.”

In Exploring the Psalms (1975) Routley championed the singing of metrical versions of the Psalms and canticles rather than see the practice of singing these songs disappear from the Church. He himself composed a metrical version of Psalm 98,”New Songs of Celebration Render.”

Routley’s essay on the liturgical use of “Amen” proved very influential. Its influence can be seen in most hymn collections produced since the publication of Church Music and the Christian Faith.

Dean McIntyre summarizes Routley’s argument in an article, “Why Don’t We Sing Amen Anymore?” on the United Methodist Church’s Discipleship Ministries website:

1. It was in medieval Ambrosian chant that amens were first added to the final stanzas of hymns in praise of the Trinity. These final stanzas are known as doxologies, many of which may be found in our United Methodist Hymnal (nos. 61, 62, 64, 102, 160, 184, 559, 651, and others).

2. The custom of adding amens to hymns did not exist in Lutheran, Reformed, seventeenth- or eighteenth century Anglican (including the Wesleys and early Methodism) or evangelical congregational song.

3. By the middle of the nineteenth century, hymnbook compilers were including translations of some of the ancient hymns that included amens. The problem arose with the musical style of the hymns of the nineteenth century; that is, they were composed for the meters of the poetry of the texts, and the amens were usually two short syllables added to the final stanza, so the music of the hymn tune did not accommodate them. As a result, the doxological amen was added to the final stanza following the completion of its singing, usually set to the familiar IV-I plagal or amen cadence.

4. Eventually, additional concluding doxologies with amens were added to hymns that originally did not contain them — to the point where the most influential hymnal of the nineteenth century, Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), added an amen to every hymn.

5. Some American hymnals picked up the practice, including the Presbyterian hymnal of 1895. The Methodist hymnals of 1905 and 1935 did the same. The 1966 Methodist Hymnal began to reverse the process by deleting the amen from selected hymns, including "How Great Thou Art" and "The First Noel."

6. By the middle of the twentieth century, British Anglicans dropped the amens, while American Episcopalians continued it until their 1982 hymnal, which also dropped the amens. Most hymnals toward the end of the century dropped the amens, and the Southern Baptists never included them.

The introduction of the practice of singing amen after each hymn can be traced to the nineteenth century Anglo-Catholic movement. It sought to reshape the hymns of the Church of England and the then Protestant Episcopal Church along the lines of the hymns of the pre-Reformation medieval Roman Catholic Church.  It also introduced vested boys choirs and organs and positioned the choir in the chancel between the altar and the congregation. It suppressed a body of indigenous church music sometimes called “West Gallery Music,” which was written by local musicians and singers to be performed by local musicians and singers.

Except in cathedrals the music part of Anglican worship had at the time been led by groups of these musicians and singers, sometimes referred to as the “quire” to distinguish it from the “choir,” the group of boys and men singers modeled on the pre-Reformation medieval cathedral choir with which Anglo-Catholic clergy replaced it. The “quire,” unlike the “choir,” included both men and women musicians and singers. The "quire" lead the congregational singing and performed special music from a gallery at the west end of the church. 

In my library I have an 1889 Episcopal hymnal that has a list of doxologies and amens set to various meters, which may be appended to hymns of the same meter. This enabled congregations wishing to sing a doxology and an amen at the end of hymns in those meters to do so. It also enabled congregations not wishing to adopt this Anglo-Catholic practice to continue to sing hymns as they had always done.

While The Hymnal 1940 was an excellent hymnal for its time, it suffers from a number of other drawbacks. The Hymnal 1940 uses tunes that while they may have been familiar to many British congregations were not familiar to most American ones. Consequently someone visiting a church using the hymnal and coming from a different denominational background might recognize the words of a hymn but not its tune.

In reaction to the outbreak of World War II the editors of The Hymnal 1940 changed the names of a number of hymn tunes. MIT FREUDEN ZART, for example, was changed to BOHEMIAN BRETHREN.

The Hymnal 1940’s editors also omitted a number of the great hymns of the Christian faith from the collection.

A comparison of The Hymnal 1940 with its predecessor, The Hymnal (1918), reveals that a substantial number of hymns and gospel songs by evangelical Anglican hymn writers were dropped from the collection in favor of hymns written by Anglo-Catholic hymn writers or translated from Greek and Latin.

A substantial number of the hymns and service music selections in The Hymnal 1940 presume that a congregation will have strong musical leadership in the form of a choir and an organ. This limits the usefulness of the hymnal for congregations with limited musical resources.

At the time The Hymnal 1940 was published, the average life of a hymnal was 25 years. Nowadays the average life of a hymnal is 10 years or less!

When Lifeway published The Baptist Hymnal (2008), it anticipated that this hymnal might be the last paper hymnal that it published. It created a website on which digital supplements to the hymnal are published. In this way churches that purchase the hymnal may keep pace with changes in church worship music.  Lifeway also published an electronic version of the hymnal.

I became well acquainted with the shortcomings of The Hymnal 1940 in the 1980s when I was involved in the music ministry of an Episcopal mission, one of the last of the new churches planted in the Diocese of Louisiana. The Hymnal 1982 had not yet been published. I was worship coordinator on the mission’s launch team, chaired its worship committee, and subsequently collaborated with its music director in planning the music for its services for the seven odd years she served in that position.

We took a number of steps to make the music on Sunday mornings more accessible to the average singer in the congregation, as well as to tailor it to the mission’s musical resources and to mission’s particular circumstances.

Needless to say we dispensed with the practice of singing an amen after each hymn except where the amen was integral to the text of the hymn.

We used an upright piano rather than an organ to support the congregational singing. Notes played on a piano can be heard more clearly than those played on an organ, making the piano the preferred musical instrument for teaching new music to a congregation. It is also easier to find people to play the piano than it is to find people to play the organ.

The guitar is also not a good instrument for introducing new music as the guitarist does not play the actual notes of the song tune. Rather he or she plays the chords of the guitar accompaniment. The congregation must pick up the song tune from whoever is singing the lyrics of the song. The singer, however, may not be singing the song in the right voice part for congregational singing, which increases the difficulty of learning the song tune for the congregation.

We used the Ecumenical Hymn List, a list of 227 hymns developed by the Consultation on Ecumenical Hymnody, to determine what hymn tunes were widely used in American hymnals and to guide our selection of hymns and hymn tunes. As much as possible, we made a point of using hymn tunes that would be familiar to people coming from a variety of denominational backgrounds rather than those which would be familiar to only Episcopalians.

We also used the index of The Hymnal 1982 to guide our hymn selection. The index had been published in advance of the hymnal itself.

We supplemented the hymns and service music selections of The Hymnal 1940 with material from Songs for Liturgy, More Hymns & Spiritual Songs, Hymns III, Songs for Celebration, Come Celebrate, and other sources. I would attend a workshop on integrating contemporary music into traditional worship, as well as do extensive reading on the subject.

Even thought it was written for congregations in the 1980s, a book that is worth reading is Betty Carr Pulkingham’s Sing God a Simple Song: Exploring Music in Worship for the Eighties, now out of print.  Her book is not about using a particular repertoire but “making the most of music in worship.” It examines “how a variety of styles can be successfully blended to enrich the experience of worship.” It is full of valuable insights that may be applied to today’s worship.

We gradually built up a congregational repertoire of hymns, worship songs, and service music from these sources. We were deliberate in introducing new music and gave ample opportunity to the congregation to learn and master new hymns, worship songs, and service music. We held congregational rehearsals before the service and on other occasions. The latter we combined with a potluck supper and congregational hymn sing.

We did not initially form a choir but invited the stronger singers in the congregation to practice the music for Sunday morning on a weeknight and then sing with the rest of the congregation on Sunday morning. As the congregation grew, we had these singers sit in a bloc in the midst of the congregation and support the rest of the congregation from its midst. As more people became a part of the congregation, we formed a modest-sized choir that sat to one side of the chancel platform where it could provide vocal leadership but not draw attention away from the liturgical centers on the platform—pulpit-lectern, communion table, and font. This choir at first was unvested and then wore a simple one-piece choir gown that zipped up the front.

At the top of the list of things that newcomers told us attracted them to the mission was its worship music, its informal atmosphere, and the friendliness and warmth of the congregation. We not only attracted newcomers from our immediate area but from the other end of the parish, which is what counties are called in Louisiana.

Essential to this approach is sizing up the musical resources of the congregation and the demographics of the community, including the culture and subcultures of the community, and deciding the best way to use the congregation’s musical resources to reach and engage the unchurched in the community. It involves maintaining a high degree of flexibility. Churches particularly small churches fall too quickly into rigid patterns of how they do things, which in the long term are likely to keep them from growing not only numerically but also spiritually.

One of the reasons that churches in the Continuing Anglican jurisdictions are declining is that they have largely depended upon one source of new members—traditionalist church folks like themselves who have a sentimental attachment to the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and the 1940 hymnal. However, this people group is disappearing. These churches may be compared to fishermen who go to the lake or river to fish at the wrong time of day, during the wrong season of the year, with the wrong tackle and bait. They come home empty handed even though the lake or river is swarming with fish.

In the 1980s we were faced with a choice. We could cast our line into the water, hoping to catch the rare and elusive unaffiliated traditionalist Episcopalian who was not only difficult to attract to a storefront church but also to retain. We could not offer them the kind of ambiance that they associated with the Episcopal Church—needle point hassocks, organ music, polished brass candlesticks, stained glass windows, and wooden pews. Or we could cast our lines baited for the fish that swarmed in our area, one of the fastest growing areas in the state, for families and individuals who came from a variety of denominational backgrounds and who were looking for a new church home. We chose to do the latter.

It is a choice that faces a number of Continuing Anglican churches today. They may keep baiting their line for a fish that may be extinct in their area. Or they may take a hard look at themselves and their community, make some necessary changes including the bait and tackle they are using and their approach to fishing and start to catch fish again or perhaps even for the first time.

If God has given them a boat or pier to fish from and they no longer feel up to fishing, they might consider letting another congregation use that boat or pier. While they may disappear as a church, they can leave a living legacy behind them.