Newspapers / Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.) / Aug. 18, 1932, edition 1 / Page 1
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Africo-Ameri ‘AND YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH MAKE YOU FREE.” —John ▼«. 82. VOL. LIIL CHARLOTTE, N. 0,THUi , AUGUST 18, 1932 NO. 32. HYMNOLOGY By Prof. Thos. A. Long, Ph. D. (Dr. Long was formerly Pro fessor of Music in Johnson C. Smith University, and is now Professor of Social Sciences, _ Rtid organist in the University Chuirch. The following article is an address delivered at the Ministers’ Institute, held at the University, June 27-July 1) The study or science of hymns, including their history, use, and classification, treatises on hymns, is called hymnolo sry A hymn is a metrical compo sition divided into stanzas or verses, intended to be sung in religious worship, or as an ex pression of praise, adoration or lofty emotion. Early Christian Hymns In the time of Christ the rit ual of the Temple was elaborat ed to a degree exceeded only in the days of Solomon. After the ascension of Christ the mem bers of the ancient Church continued for some time to use the hymns of Jewish origin. But soon they had songs of their own, distinctly Christian; some were direct products of inspiration, and others, if not inspired, were invested with peculiar sacredness. There are eight of these most ancient Christian hymnis, Viz: “The Gloria in Excelsis,” called the greater doxology, traceable to the Second century. The* words are: “Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, good will toward men,” etc. “The Gloria Patri,” called the' lesser doxology, words, “Glory be to the Father and to the Holy Ghost,” was from tjje ear liest times the common doxolo gy of Christendom. ‘“As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen,” was added -^«tJ» ^Westem .Chuxch jrftes. the close of the Arian coiitro The “Sanctus,” based on “Thrice Holy,” Isaiah 6:3, and Revelation 4:8, “With angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name saying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of Hosts-Amen.” “The Hallelujah;” this was a response of the people to the call of praise. “The Benedictus;” this was a naraphrase of the 48th Psalm, “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised,” etc. “The Nunc Dimittit;” so called from Simeon’s words, Luke 2:29. “The Magnificat;” the song of the Virgin Mary, Luke 1:46. “The Te Deum;” the Latin version is based on an early Greek original. This is familiar to all worshipping Christians throughout the world. It is used bv all denominations. The op ening words are: “We praise Thee. O God, etc.” “The Benedictusfrom the pong of the priest, Zacharias, on the birth of his son John, Luke 1:68. Among the He brews the record of the use of ?acred songs begins with the beginning of their national life. In the progress of Hebrew his tory song was added to song until a rich and varied reper toire was gathered. The wor ££5 the Tabernacle was Leatly enriched in David’s time. Sacred music was regu larly taught in the Jewish schools and the people became quite proficient. The first systematic at tempts in Christian Hymnolo try were an outgrowth of ortho dox opposition to heresy. The oldest distinctive hymn writers were Gnostics, and following them the Arians, who sought to propagate their errors, as Luther long after this time sought to propagate the truths of his reform through sacred song. This opposition began in the second century A. D., and it was not until the 4th century that there was any concerted action against the Agnostics, when under Constantine Chris tianity became the religion of the state and the songs em ployed in public worship as sumed new and greater impor tance as a part of the Tfturgy of the Church. However, the oH/hqdox hytams were few in number and consisted chiefly of dogmatic formulas. Latin hymns surpass Greek hymns both in number and quality. The special character istic of the Greek hymn is its objectiveness, divine perfec tion, and the divine incarnation of Christ. The Latin poet and song writer was more of a mys tic. While not oblivious to the high themes which engaged the Greek mind, he added a tender suibjectiveness and en gaged himself with the person al appropriation of divine re demption. Greek hymnology has very little value for the ordinary worshiper of the present day, and its value grows less each clay. Latin hymnology has in it very much of value and this is on the increase. Another distinctive feature of the "Latin hymnology is its absolute departure from the form of classic models of poet ry, in the substitution of accent for quality and the addition of rhyme. One Latin poem by Ber t:ai»l of Cluny, about 1156, bear* mention here: it contained nearly three thousand lines, en titled, “De Contemptu Mundi.” It is a lamentation over the wickedness of the World. But in 1 u final meditation, he turns from his contempt of the world to sing the praise of the celes tial fatherland and thus we have that wonderful passage that has evoked the praise of Christendom. This part of the poem is known as “Laus Patria Celestia.” There is in it mar vellous beauty of diction and pathos. It runs thus: “Urbs ?yon aurea, patria lactea, cive decora, omne, obruis obstruis et cor et ora,” etc., translated: "Jerusalem, the golden, With milk and honey blest, Beneath thy contemplation, Sink heart and voice oppressed. I know not, Oh, I know not, What joys await us there, What radiancy of glory, W>i*t bliss beyond compare. German Hymns With the Reformation came the most important era in the development of hymnology and the most important figure was Martin Luther, who, with in domitable faith, foresight and untiring labor, published a hymn book in 1542. His Ein i>;-i, Berg” inspired the whole body of Protestants with such courage that it was called the "Marseillaise” of the Reforma tion. The lines are: “A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never fai ing,” etc. Luther wrote both the words and the music. Hymns of the 18th Century While hymns were being sung in Germany, Psalmody was beginnning in France and England. < The tunes in these English and French psalters were de signated by numbers. Tate and Brady produced the “new ver sion” of the psalmody in the 18th century, with words and music, and from this time dates the custom of prefixing the word “old” to tunes which belonged to the old version. So ;n this way we have the “Old Hundredth,” or the “Old 124.” With the early part of the 18th century came the hymns of Isaac Watts and then those of the Wesieys and the tunes along with them. Cardinal Newman wrote “Lead, Kindly Light” when he was leaving the English Church to take orders in the Catholic Church, following the Oxford movement in which he took a prominent part. The hymn tune is beautiful (Duke tune) but is difficult to sing, in that it is not pure lyric and the rhythm as a bit irregular. There are certain striking passages which appeal to those who for any reason are beset by darkness, ft can only be said that both in sentiment and meter it well ex presses the state of mind of its author—a man who sincerely desired to find light, but these curious mental processes were his own confusion. Mrs. Adams wrote “Nearer, My God to Thee.” This takes rank as one of the best hymns in the English language. We are indebted to Bishop Heber for the finest of martial hymns: “The Son of God Goes Forth to War,” Heber’s “From Green land’s Icy Mountains” is incom parably beautiful in fiction and is conceded to be the most in spiring of all missionary lyrics in Christendom. Toplady’s “Rock of Ages” grew out of his very pronounced Calvinism and no other English hymn has laid so broad and firm a grasp upon the English speaking world. Watt’s “Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun,” and “When [ Survey the Wondrous Cross,” ind Wesley’s “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” and* “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” are out standing and place them in the front rank as contributions to the hymnody of the evangelic al Church. There are scores of other great writers but we will mention just one more: Joseph Addison (1672-1719) wrote one hymn, out of five, each cf which is good, that has immor- • tidized fcis name. It isthat grand' and glorious hymn known as “Creation:” “The spacious firmament on high, And all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shin ing frame, Their great original proclaim.” It is called “Creation” because the tune is a selection from Hayden’s great Oratorio of that name. Tunes Where do we get our tunes? Many of the excellent tunes come from various sources, but for the most part they are de rived from old folk songs, bal lads and operas. What is it that makes a tune sacred or secular? There are indeed some intrinsic differ ences7 some characteristic ele ments whereby the two are dif ferentiated, but sharply de fined reasons for certain dif ferences may not be satisfacto rily given in every case. Very much, however, de pends upon the treatment; then, too, some tunes are set to Scriptural words and senti ment but do not fit in, in that from long association with purely secular usage and asso ciation shows bad taste in the transference, in that they car ry along with them and other wise suggest improper scenes, objectionable to every devout worshiper. Particularly true is it now, in a large way, that there are found in anthems, Sunday school song books, and special arrangements, Adapta tions of tunes from very secu lar settings, purely sentiment al love songs, jig tunes, polkas, minuets, and some are jazzed to suit the trend of the period. A few examples will suffice. Tunes that are transferred: “Love’s old sweet song,” “The Rosary” (a love song as re gards which not only the tune has been adapted, but the. song as a whole is often used in re ligious seiVice) ; “The Baiteo role,” from the opera Countes Des Hoffman (Tales of Hoff man) by Offenbach, has also been taken over. Those who are familiar with Offenbach’s writ irigs and the nature of the op erij would hardly accept this transfer as of fidelity and good tas e. There are others adapted fro o dance music. It must be coe ceded, however, that some of these excerpts are gems of th^ eomposer’s art and make a gre at appeal. Some by the depth of appeal nave become ►Id and still live, and the of it all is that such sub harmonies were not in the iet made the vehicle of the r Spirit-life. e writing of tunes has gone or .a long time and they now be numbered By the hiiidreds of thousands. Each hy hn has at least one tune; sojae of them have many tunes; and each tune has at least one rupne, depending upon ifeage, ;he country of its appearance. ly tunes have been named persons. One of our finest es is “Rockingham,” named the Marquis of Rocking Sullivan wrote “St. Ger ” tune to “Onward, istian Soldiers,” and it was ed for Mrs. Gertrude Clay vsey-mer, at whose home he s a guest. rThat splendid tune, “Men dplssohn,” to Wesley's wojrds, rk, the Herald Angels g,” bears the name of the t composer of the Sonata which it was taken, who said, it would never do to go to sbered words. Mendelssohn was 4 Jew. I “Ewing,” used with the Words, “Jerusalem, the Gold en,” takes the name of its com poser, Lieutenant-Col. Alexan Ewingt of the British Ar In various hymnals are nd tunes by Handel with names “Samson,” “Siaul,” -'“SOhyuon-” These are adap tations from the Handel Orato rios of the same names. Bishop Reginald Heber wrote “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,” and Lowell Mason wrote hi* best tune to it and called it “Heber.” The tune “Artaxerxes” was named for the old Persian King. He was the hero in an opera by Dr. Arne. In Ameri ca the tune is known as “Ar lington.” This was taken from the opera and made into a hymn tune by Rev. Ralph Harrison in 1784. Rev. A. M. Toplady wrote “Rock of Ages.” Thomas Has tings wrote a tune for it and called it “Toplady.” Many tunes are nameu aiier places or churches with which the composers have had some association. Thus “Hollingside” was named for the composer, John B Dykes, who once lived in Hollingside. “Nicaea” was- written for “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,” a hymn to the Trinity, and named* for the place where the Nicene Creed was formulated. William Henry Monk, whose influence was the strongest of any one person in England and America, was or ganist at St. Matthias at Stoke, Nervington, England. Among his tunes is “St. Matthias.’ William Croft, organist at St. Anne’s church, gave us that lofty tune, entitled, “St. Anne,’ to Sir Isaac Watts’ words, “Our God, Our Help in Ages Pajt.^ Jno. Hattace gave “Duke St., the name of a street on which he lived. The Bible gives many names of tunes, as names of places; some among them are “Antioch,” “Gethsemane,” “He bron,” “Manoch,” “Dilvon,” and “Olivet.” Dykes Latinized ms tunc, “I ux Benigna,” for Cardinal Newman’s words, “Lead, Kind ly Light,” when he left the An glican Church and became a Catholic. “The Old Hundredth tune is found in the Genevan Psalter and was set to Psalm 134 by Burgeois and has had the longest unbroken associa tion of any kind of our hymns and tunes.__ (Continued on page 2) THE HODGE PRESBYTERY AND SUNDAY SCHOOL CONVENTION The Hodge Presbytery and Sunday School Convention convened at the John I. Black burn Memorial Presbyterian church, Boggs Academy, Keys ville, Ga., from the 20th through the 22nd of July. The ministers and delegates were highly en tertained by Dr. J. L. Phelps and his loyal co-workers. The Presbytery opened on Wednesday night at 8:30. Music was furnished by the lo cal choir; the Scripture lesson was read by Rev. J. F. Young, pastor of of the Westminster Presbyterian church, of Waynesboro, Ga., and the invo cation was made by Rev. Frank lin Gregg, of Newnan. The Introduction of the speaker was by Dr. S. D. Thom, Synodi cal Evangelist, of Atlanta, Ga. The opening sermon was de livered by Rev. H. F. Anderson, of Christ Presbyterian church, cf Augusta, Ga. Rev. Anderson is an interesting speaker His subject was: “Kejs to Success” taken from Joshua 1:8. Thriee of his main points were: Stick ing to God's Word, meditating on it and making it a part of life. The welcome address was delivered by Mr. Dunbar Gresh am, of Boggs Academy. The response was given by Miss Georgia Ransom, of Union Point, .Ga. The business of the Sunday School Convention began with the election of officers as fol lows! Dr. J. L. Phelps, President; Mrs. Ransbm, Vice-President; Miss Viola Harris, Secretary; Rev. F. Gregg, Treasurer. The enrollment of each minister and delegate was requested by the President. After the close of the opening session water melon was served on the lawn. Ou Thursday morning at 9 o'clock the Convention re sumed its work. After a brief song service and prayer, the following subjects were dis cussed: “How To Get and Hold Young People in the Sunday .Scihoofl.” This was opened by Rev. J. F. Young. He said that the young people should be given a part in the church work so that they could be interested and take their part as their du ty to keep the church going. “The Qualifications of a Sunday School Superintendent’^ was next discussed. This was opened by Rev H. F. Anderson. He said that a Superintendent must ibe patient, kind and will ing to see the facts as the young people of this day see them. The discussion of amusements was opened by Mr. Frank Yer by, of Augusta, Ga. He told bow such recreation as tennis, swimming and basket ball were helpful to the body. At 12:00 o’clock the Convention ad journed for devotions with the Boggs Academy summer school students in attendance. The sermon was delivered by Rev J. F. Young, of Westmin ster Presbyterian church, of Waynesboro. Mr. R. L. Jeans, the Sunday School Missionary, arrived Thursday morning in time for the discussion. He ex pressed the pleasure of his coming. He told of his work, stressing the work of the Daily Vacation Bible Schools in dif ferent sections of the State. At 2:00 o’clock the Convee lion re-assembled and other im portant subjects were dis cussed. The Convention ad journed at 4 o’clock. At 5 0C10CK xne rresu.y LCijr met on the lawn with Dr. J. L. Phelps as Moderator. At this session Mr. Haston F. Boulware was presented^ by Christ Pre§ byterian church to the Presby tery as a candidate for the ministry. Mr. Boulware was questioned as to his reason for wanting to enter the. ministry. His answers satisfied those present and Mr. Boulware was taken under the care of the Presbytery. He intends to pur sue his studies in Johnson C. Smith University in the Pall. He is a graduate of Harbison institute. A popular program was giv sn at 8:30 o’clock. The main Mature was an address given i>y Rev A. C. Griggs, of Haines institute, Augusta. He spoke Forcibly on the four touch stones: Purity, Honesty, Con secration and Self-sacrifice. The rest of the program con sisted of papers and musical selections, vocal and instru mental, from the delegates. At the close of the program re freshments were sold on the lawn by the ladies of the mis sionary society. The Convention met for the last meeting at 9 o’clock, Fri day morning. The remaining sub jects of the last session were Mscussed. Three representatives to the Synodical from the Presbytery were elected. They were Mrs. Wilson, Miss Thomp son, both of Decatur, and Rev. Anderson, of Augusta. About 11 o’clock Dr. A. B. McCoy arrived, bringing greet ings from the Sunday School Convention of McClelland Pres bytery which met at Irmo, S. C. Dr. McCoy outlined the fu ture program of the Church for Sunday School Conventions. He gave the idea that the future program will be in the form of the Junior School of Methods. He granted to the Convention a scholarship to the .Synodical Conventiv'u Miss Etriei Williams, ot Wayrtesibc^ro, got fthe schjolar ship by vote of the Convention. The Convention adjumed at 12 o’clock and held devotions with the summer school students. Dr. S. D. Thom delivered the sermon. His subject was “Faith and Works.” The text was Jas. 5:16, “The effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous avail eth much.” He stressed the power of prayer, faith ' and works. On Friday the Convention closed. An address was given by Mr. R. L. Jeans. His subject was: “What Is My Life?” He stressed the danger of wasting one’s life and the value of us ing it profitably. The program consisted also of papers and musical selections, vocal and in strumental, from the delegates and friends of the Convention. The churches represented were Westminster, of Waynesboro, Christ Presbyterian church, of Augusta, Pleasant Grove, of Union Point, St. James, of De catur, First Presbyterian, of Newnan, Rand Memorial, of Midville, and John I. Blackburn, of Boggs Academy, Keysville. The number of delegates present was thirty-five. Miss Julia Young read the resolu tion of thanks for the enter tainment of the Convention by the members of John I. Black burn Memorial church. The Convention gave a rising vote of thanks and appreciation of the cordial welcome and ,the hospitality received. The Con vention adjourned by singing: “God Be With You Till We Meet Again,” to meet next year as the guest of Pleasant Grove church, Union Point, Ga. HASTON F. BOULWARE. CATAWBA PRESBYTERY The Presbytery of Catawba will convene in Fall meeting, Thursday, September 8th, 7:30 P. M., with the Good Hope church, Kings Mountain, N. C. The opening sermon will be preached by Rev. C. N. Jenkins, D. D., retiring Moderator. Every minister is expected to be present and each congre gation represented by a ruling elder. H. WILSON, S. C. If we commune with God more and more, His beauty will illumine and reflect itself in our lives.
Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.)
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Aug. 18, 1932, edition 1
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