Some topics I've thought about covering in this blog include:
Overview of select hymns (AND praise choruses) with a study of their poetry and/or how their words relate to their musical settings
Definitions of hymns
Hymns arranged by topics
How particular hymns have been edited over the years, with speculations on why
Really bad hymns
Which topics would you enjoy reading about? Is there any particular hymn or question that's piqued your curiousity over the years? I'd be happy to do the legwork and check into it for you.
My goal is to keep doing this blog for at least a year. It's wonderful therapy--having to write every day or every other day should whittle down the proverbial "log in the eye" of perfectionism. Writing a blog is very different from writing for a newsletter or a professor because it's more conversational and, no matter how much you research the content that goes into a particular post, the actual writing and reading of blogs happens on the fly. There really isn't time to make every word perfect!
My husband, a professional writer and also a blogger for about a year now, chuckles. He's very encouraging, but curious to see what happens in a household of two bloggers.
3 comments:
I have just found your blog and am really enjoying it. As a lifelong Lutheran, Hymns are so much apart of my life, my prayers, my identity, and I feel a duty to guard and cherish them and hopefully pass them on to future generations. So much has been lost already through revisions, replacement by more "relevant" praise songs, and by spiritual illiteracy; (how many average hymn singers know what raising your Ebenezer means?)
I like the choice of hymns you are discussing. Just bringing them up reminds us of our rich heritage and maybe introduces ancient hymns to those who may not be familiar with them.
I find hymn origins fascinating, along with the changes that have occurred over time. For instance I am using the Great O Antiphons as an advent study/meditation. I was unaware of the history of O come, O come Emmanuel until just a few years ago and how it takes names of Christ from the Old Testament. It has added a new dimension not only to the hymn, but of how I read the Old Testament.
Thank you so much for your comment, Nan! How did you find this blog?
Also, how did you learn what "raising your Ebenezer" means? Did you hear it in a sermon in the Lutheran church, or have you had to research it yourself?
Final questions (I'm very interested in your background!): how did you come to use the Great O Antiphons as an advent study? Were they personally chosen or is your church banding together to study these?
I stumbled across your blog by way of the hymn society site. Though not a professional musician, I am very involved with worship and music.
Music is the air we breath in our home. Both daughters started Suzuki violin at 6, and I teach Suzuki and traditional piano. We home-schooled (more like unschooled) our daughters and the CHURCH YEAR guided our curriculum. (They are both in college, now.) We learned in those few years more than our 20 plus years of weekly doing the liturgy. ( I was raised Lutheran, my husband, Episcopal, though he converted when we married).
My husband teaches catechism/church history and "raising your ebenezer" was kind of a private joke he had going with freshly graduated/ ordained Pastor, (who preferred ignoring hymns with challenging vocabulary rather than teaching about them)-though he did finally preach a sermon on
raising your Ebenezer.
As I get older, I am finding the beauty in the quieter seasons of the church year/ Ten years ago, I ran across the O Antiphons in a book-"Words that Sing" by Gail Ramshaw. With each passing Advent they have called to me and I finally let them wash over me with everything they've got. They became irresistible, and I'm sure the Spirit is behind it, so here I am--listening to what they have to teach me. I think its going to be a long relationship.
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