{"id":22,"date":"2010-04-06T10:01:46","date_gmt":"2010-04-06T15:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ylvisaker.com\/wordpress\/?p=22"},"modified":"2015-01-07T10:47:59","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T15:47:59","slug":"indigenization-in-church-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ylvisaker.com\/?p=22","title":{"rendered":"Indigenization in Church Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Cross Accent Magazine:<\/p>\n

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the Folk Process Is Alive and Well<\/h3>\n

Webster defines the term \u201cindigenization\u201d as the practice of \u201cadopting beliefs and customs of others to local ways, \u201c or \u201cincreasing local participation in or ownership of.\u201d\u00a0 Either way, it is a good word to use in defining the practice (the \u201cfolk process\u201d) of adapting traditional material of one culture into another culture.\u00a0 One of my favorite quotes on this subject comes from a sixteenth century Moravian bishop:<\/p>\n

Our tunes are, in part, the old Gregorian, which Hus used, and, in part, borrowed from foreign nations, especially the Germans.\u00a0 Among these latter tunes are popular airs according to which worldly songs are sung.\u00a0 At this strangers, coming from countries where they have heard them used in this way, sometimes take offense.\u00a0 But our hymnologists have purposely adopted them in order through these popular tunes to draw people to the truth that saves.1<\/sup>
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\nAnother Moravian, Clifford Edwin Bair, in an article written for The Hymn<\/em>, journal of the Hymn Society in the U. S. and Canada, writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus was the first god who had become truly human . . . This fact required a new, more intimate expression, and the Spiritual Songs became just that.\u00a0 They were most likely love songs to Jesus, very personal prayers, and ballads about his remarkable life here on earth.\u00a0 They could very well have been \u201cindigenized\u201d from popular culture in contrast to the hymns and psalms which came from the worship life of the Greeks and Hebrews.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The sources of the tunes were Gregorian chants, secular folk songs, and tunes with Latin verses used for personal devotions. . . And then there were tunes \u201ccomposed,\u201d that is, \u201cput together\u201d by Luther, Walther [we could add Klug, Werckmeister, Freylinghausen, Rhau, K\u00f6nig, Schumann, Marot] and other early church fathers and musicians.\u00a0 The secular folk tunes always had dance rhythms, often in triple meter, which were retained in the Scandinavian countries.2<\/sup><\/p>\n

Here we see ample evidence of free adaptation.\u00a0 The German hymnologists tended to change the tunes from dance rhythms to a more sober 4\/4, or to \u201ccompose\u201d them into syncopated rhythms which often varied the meter from one measure to the nest.\u00a0 This became the characteristic which we define as \u201cchorale.\u201d\u00a0 The tendency of Scandinavian editors to \u201cindigenize\u201d or re-adapt the tunes to dance rhythms was clearly upsetting to the Germans \u2013 it still is. But then, the Catholics were furious with the Reformers for what they did to the chants, and the Germans were upset with the Swedes for what they did to the chorale, the Swedes are upset with the Liberians for what they did with the Swedish folk hymns, the Liberians were upset with me for what I\u2019ve been doing with the African songs, and I\u2019m upset with the American churches for singing them as if they were Gregorian chants.\u00a0 So, we\u2019ve come full circle!<\/p>\n

Rather than all this \u201cupsetness,\u201d wouldn\u2019t it be more productive to accept the fact that borrowing ideas from another culture is a natural phenomenon?\u00a0 After all, this process has been going on since the origins of human life and will no doubt continue until the end of it.\u00a0 The compliers, editors, adapters, arrangers, whatever, that are responsible for all this are not necessarily less brilliant or creative than those who specialize in original composition.\u00a0 I like to think of it as a recreative activity, or the art of recycling.\u00a0 For the liner notes on an album by Kirsten Braaten Berg, a Norwegian musicologist wrote this:<\/p>\n

Traditional music, like the god Janus, has two faces.\u00a0 One of them is turned backwards, its gaze directed at what once was.\u00a0 Traditional music\u2019s other face is turned forwards, surveying the present, absorbing its teeming life, and this ear can hear other notes and sounds, unknown and constantly changing, and something of this can be fused into the soul of the music without renouncing its own.\u00a0 This is a paradox:\u00a0 tradition without renewal is stagnation.\u00a0 But not just innovation for the sake of it.\u00a0 It all depends on who does it.3<\/sup><\/p>\n

We\u2019re all familiar with the most well-known examples:\u00a0 \u201cO Sacred Head, Now Wounded\u201d (a 3\/4 sensuous love song changed to a 4\/4 chorale) and \u201cWondrous Love\u201d (a bawdy sea chanty turned into a powerful Lenten hymn), but approximately 250 hymn tunes in the Lutheran Book of Worship<\/em> have come to us as a result of this indigenization process.\u00a0 To deny the process is to deny some of the very best hymns of the church.<\/p>\n

Anscar Chapungco, the oft-quoted Filipino liturgiologist, is writing here about liturgy, but the same thought could be applied to hymnody:<\/p>\n

The liturgy is inserted into the culture, history and tradition of the people among whom the church dwells.\u00a0 It begins to think, speak and ritualize according to the local cultural pattern.\u00a0 If we settle for anything less than this, the liturgy of the local church will remain at the periphery of our people\u2019s cultural experience.4<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rather than all this \u201cupsetness,\u201d wouldn\u2019t it be more productive to accept the fact that borrowing ideas from another culture is a natural phenomenon?\u00a0 After all, this process has been going on since the origins of human life and will no doubt continue until the end of it.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In this article I will present examples of a continuation of this tradition for the purpose of demonstrating that the process is alive and well in our time.\u00a0 Most of the examples represent the Scandinavian practice of returning tunes to their traditional origins.\u00a0 The Danish compliers especially loved to adapt German tunes, such as Vater unser<\/em>, Erhalt uns Herr<\/em>, Christ ist erstanden<\/em>, and set them to the more incarnational texts of Kingo and Brorson.\u00a0 We could think of the \u201cSpiritual Song\u201d tradition as incarnational in the sense that Jesus was a unique god.\u00a0 There have been humans who have made themselves gods (Nero, Caligula, Hitler, etc.), but Jesus was the first god who had become truly human, who had a mom and dad, siblings, and good friends with whom he walked, talked, and ate.\u00a0 This fact required a new, more intimate expression, and the Spritual Songs became just that.\u00a0 They were most likely love songs to Jesus, very personal prayers, and ballads about his remarkable life here on earth.\u00a0 They could very well have been \u201cindigenized\u201d from popular culture in contrast to the hymns and psalms which came from the worship life of the Greeks and Hebrews.\u00a0 The fact that Paul lists them (Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16) right along with the psalms and hymns, and doesn\u2019t scorn them, indicates that they were an important part of the spiritual expression of the early Christians.\u00a0 The importance of this subject has been elevated in our time because of the revolution in mass communications, giving people access to and appreciation of musical styles they would previously not have known.<\/p>\n

The following selections are not intended to be lasting treasures, but merely examples of the various techniques and practices of tune adapters.\u00a0 They are in four categories:\u00a0 altered meter, altered modality, altered structure or form, and altered rhythm.<\/p>\n

Altered Meter<\/strong><\/p>\n

[CW = Christian Worship<\/em>.\u00a0 LBW = Lutheran Book of Worship<\/em>.\u00a0 LW = Lutheran Worship<\/em>.]<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Veni Creator Spiritus<\/em> (CW 178; LBW 472; LW 158) \u2013 A traditional tune associated with a plainsong sequence, returned here to a 3\/4 ballad style.<\/p>\n

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2.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Princess Eugenie<\/em> (CW 364; LBW 326) \u2013 A traditional Norwegian tune, changed from a heavy 4\/4 to a lighter 9\/8 gospel meter.<\/p>\n

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3.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Wer nur den lieben Gott<\/em> (CW 414; LBW 453; LW 420) \u2013 A tune by Georg Neumark, changed from 3\/4 to 4\/4 to provide for syncopation possibilities.<\/p>\n

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4.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Truth from Above<\/em> (LBW 82; LW 76) \u2013 An English tune with measures of 4, 5, and 6 beats is evened out to a 4\/4 meter.<\/p>\n

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Altered Modality<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Naar Mit \u00d6ie<\/em> (CW 106; LBW 301; LW 96) \u2013 Actually, Heilig And O Himmeliue<\/em>.\u00a0 Changed back to its original modality as a Norwegian folk tune, Lindemann, to whom this tune is credited, merely set it in a major key.<\/p>\n

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2.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Picardy<\/em> (actually, Romancero<\/em> or La Femme du Roulier<\/em>) (CW 29; LBW 198; LW 15) \u2013 Changed from its more frequently found minor modality into a major key.\u00a0 It was a French drinking song.<\/p>\n

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Altered Structure or Form<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Easter Hymn<\/em> (CW 157; LBW 151; LW 127) \u2013 An English tune with phrases 2 and 4 shortened to accommodate \u201clining out\u201d of phrases 1 and 3.<\/p>\n

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2.\u00a0\u00a0 Nettleton<\/em> or Praise the Mountain<\/em> (CW 484; LBW 499) \u2013 I\u2019ve begun this American tune on the third phrase, slowed it down, and changed the feel completely.<\/p>\n

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3.\u00a0\u00a0 Ellers<\/em> (CW 321; LBW 262; LW 221) \u2013 A tune by Edward Hopkins, to which I have added a chorus.<\/p>\n

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4.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Sko Hesten<\/em> \u2013 A short one-phrase Norwegian tune used as phrases 1, 2, and 4, with a new third phrase added to complete the bar form.<\/p>\n

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Altered Rhythm<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Allein Gott in der H\u00f6h<\/em> (CW 69; LBW 166: LW 181) \u2013 A jig attributed to Nikolaus Decius, with its 6\/8 feel changed to 4 eighth notes and 2 quarter notes.<\/p>\n

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2.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Vater unser<\/em> (CW 306; LBW 310; LW 234) \u2013 A very popular tune among hymn adapters, changed from quarter note chorale style to eighth notes with rests emphasizing new rhythm and providing for internal rhyme.<\/p>\n

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3.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Beach Spring<\/em> (CW 353; LBW 423) \u2013 An American tune with pickup notes changed to downbeats and rhythm changed to the choppy singing style of the Sacred Harp<\/em>, from whence it came.<\/p>\n

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The tunes acquire new texts because of the change in mood and rhythm caused by the alterations.\u00a0 In this case I was trying to return them to their song origins, so the texts are simpler lyrics, reminiscent of biblical songs and carols of the medieval period.\u00a0 In a footnote to an article in The Hymn<\/em> on James O\u2019Kelly\u2019s collection, Hymns and Spiritual Songs<\/em>, the author writes:<\/p>\n

The \u201csongs\u201d are in a separate section from the hymns at the end of the book . . . The \u201csongs\u201d tend to be cruder than the hymns and include short choruses, refrains and repetitions that are reminiscent of folk songs.5<\/sup><\/p>\n

Song writing is quite different from hymn text writing.\u00a0 The texts of songs are called lyrics, not poems, and they include much more repetition with refrains, choruses, call and response techniques, and space for \u201clining out\u201d the words before the people sing them.\u00a0 The sound of the rhyme scheme is more important than the look; so, rather than using \u201ceye\u201d rhymes (\u201clove\u201d with \u201cprove,\u201d \u201cone\u201d with \u201calone\u201d), the song writer will be more concerned with the sound of the rhyme, even though the ending consonants are not the same.\u00a0 There is also more attention paid to rhyme as an aid to memory, with lots of internal rhyme schemes utilized.\u00a0 The texts are more subjective and less metaphorical.<\/p>\n

The indigenization process is something that has been going on for countless centuries, but in the twentieth century we have become much more self-conscious about it.\u00a0 We\u2019ve even started putting copyrights on harmonizations and simple arrangements (David Evans, Winfred Douglas, Ralph Vaughan Williams) which a good player can whip out in a few minutes.\u00a0 Adaptations and harmonizations should never be locked up in someone\u2019s private copyright.\u00a0 Sooner or later we run out of successful alterations or pleasing harmonies, and natural process is thwarted.\u00a0 If the tune is in public domain, it should remain available in order that this process may continue.<\/p>\n

So, if you want to have some wonderful, creative fun, try your hand at recycling tunes.\u00a0 You can give an old melody a brand new start, keeping it alive for many years.\u00a0 These songs are also fun to use with children\u2019s choirs, informal worship settings, and hymn-sings.\u00a0 Keep in mind that the melodies are timeless and indestructible.\u00a0 They don\u2019t belong to the Germans or to the Scandinavians or to me, they belong to everyone.\u00a0 It is my hope that church musicians will recognize the legitimacy of this process, in order \u201cthrough these popular tunes to draw people to the truth that saves,\u201d as the Moravian bishop put it.<\/p>\n

Indigenization:\u00a0 the art of \u201cadopting beliefs and customs of others to local ways.\u201d<\/strong> The folk process should be alive and well in the twenty-first century.<\/p>\n

1\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Edmund De Schweinitz, The History of the Church Known as the Unitas Fratrum or the Unity of the Brethren, second edition (Bethlehe, PA:\u00a0 Moravian Publication Concern, 1901), pp. 402-03.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Clifford Edwin Bair and Alma W. Bair, \u201cThe Restoration of the Traditional Interpretation of the German Chorale.\u201d\u00a0 The Hymn, XLV\/3 July 1994, p.36.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Paul-Helge Haugen, liner notes to the album Min Kverdarlund, Kristin Braaten Berg (Heilo HCD7087, Oslo, Norway, 1993).
\n4\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Anscar J. Chupungco, Liturgical Acculturation:\u00a0 Sacramentals, Religiosity and Cathechesis (Collegeville, MN:\u00a0 Order of St. Benedict, 1992), p. 30
\n5\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0J. Timothy Allen, \u201cJames O\u2019Kelly\u2019s Hymns and Spiritual Songs.\u201d\u00a0 The Hymn, XLIII\/4 Oct. 1992, p. 28.<\/p>\n

John Ylvisaker, well-known writer and performer of spiritual songs, publishes music under the imprint of New Generation Publishers, Waverly, Iowa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Cross Accent Magazine: the Folk Process Is Alive and Well Webster defines the term \u201cindigenization\u201d as the practice of \u201cadopting beliefs and customs of others to local ways, \u201c or \u201cincreasing local participation in or ownership of.\u201d\u00a0 Either way, it is a good word to use in defining the practice (the \u201cfolk process\u201d) of … Continue reading Indigenization in Church Music<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-by-john"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ylvisaker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ylvisaker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ylvisaker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ylvisaker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ylvisaker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ylvisaker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"https:\/\/www.ylvisaker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ylvisaker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ylvisaker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ylvisaker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}