--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Kimball, Edward P. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 28 number: 4 published: 1925-02 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Edward P. Kimball, “Church Music Committee: Choristers’ Manual—Lesson XIII—Hymns and Anthems,” *Improvement Era 28, no. 4 (February 1925)*: 386–388." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2804unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2804unse start_page: 386 end_page: 388 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1925-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2804unse publication_year: 1925 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1925, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Church Music Committee: Choristers’ Manual—Lesson XIII—Hymns and Anthems CHURCH MUSIC COMMITTEE Choristers' Manual — Lesson XIII — Hymns and Anthems By Edward P. Kimball The most frequently employed agency in our worship next to prayer is the hymn. Like everything else which oft repeated usage is apt to dull the keener appreciation of, our singing of hymns and their choice in the service has to be constantly watched in order that this important part of the service does not become merely lip-worship. Compared to the tremendous wealth of material to be found in the hymns of the Church, there is a woeful lack of acquaintance with any great number of hymns by the people generally, and a paucity in their use. A strong and viril religious people is always one that employs freely the hymn, because if this kind of church music is to be made to approach or ever has approached its ideal possibilities, it must be through the personal education of worshippers to the point where they shall regard it as their own and shall actually use it for themselves. The choice of a hymn for a service is not an unimportant task, if the service is really to be enriched by its rendition. The Priesthood and the music leaders under its direction have here a rich opportunity to render lasting good to the people. This opportunity will become plain if a few facts about hymns and hymn-singing are established as guides, and if the use of hymns is done with positive intentions of achieving certain results, rather than haphazardly and casually with no positive intention and without knowledge of the im- portant elements functioning in the service aside from worship. In the first place, what is a hymn? Jeremiah Bascom Reeves offers this definition: "The hymn itself may be defined as a lyrical composition expressive of religious aspiration, petition, confession, communion, or praise; a song devoted to the fellowship of souls and the worship of God. In its broader sense the term includes canticles, psalms, carols, "spirituals," and chants; in its more limited sense it includes only religious lyrics in rime and meter — in a style of very definite and narrow restrictions. The good hymn combines in quite remarkable effect the straightest simplicity, clarity, dignity, and melody, rich ideas about the basic matters of life and death, with strong emotion under sure control. In another passage in his excellent book, The Hymn as Literature, this author continues: "The hymn is a quite definite and distinct type of poetry. Its boundaries as regards both form and content are plainly and narrowly laid down. It is of all types of literature perhaps the most rigorously limited. Merely as a lyric it would of course have narrow limitations; as a religious lyric its limitations are multiplied; but in that it must be the medium of concerted social thought and feeling on the gravest matters, and yet simple enough in form to be sung chorally by an assemblage not assumed to have any special choral practice or skill, it is very much more limited. The hymn must be a lyrical poem, simple of form, easy and smooth of movement; its ideas must be direct, unified, immediately apparent; its manner must have the decorum and gravity befitting public worship." According to one great American authority, Waldo Selden Pratt, hymn- singing is fitted to serve three general purposes, all of unquestionable im- portance. To quote him: "First, it is one of the best methods by which a company of people can offer both praise and prayer to God. It is therefore a means of social worship. Second, CHURCH MUSIC COMMITTEE 387 it is a reactive form upon those who engage in it, helping them to define and crystalize their religious thought, stimulating their religious sentiments, and often rousing by suggestion a positive religious ambition. It is therefore a means of spiritual self-culture. Third, it not only draws many persons into a form of united action, so as to declare their actual sympathy and strengthen their sense of real brotherhood, but at the same time there is exerted through it a decided spiritual influence back and forth among those who thus act in concert. It is therefore a means of mutual edification among those who are spiritually minded and often of evangelistic pressure upon others. * * * Hymn singing may surely be called successful when it affords an avenue of true approach to God in earnest and noble worship; when it exerts a wholesome and uplifting reflex influence on those who engage in it, establishing them in the truth and quickening their spirituality; and when it creates an atmosphere of high religious sympathy and vigorous Christian consecration, so that even unbelievers are effected and con- strained by it. If it does not accomplish these results in some real sense, it cannot be called successful." If these standards be applied it will be seen why all hymns are not equally successful, and also why the choosing of them for any part of a service is so important a matter, and should receive more than perfunctory attention from those responsible for the selection. In examining hymns it is well to remember, in addition to the above suggestions, that the value of any particular hymn is partly to be judged by the state of opinion and sentiment in which its actual use leaves the worshipper. Is it true in the. thought of God and Christ, in reference to all the manifold aspects of sin and salvation, and in its representation of spiritual life? And is it healthy in general tone, affecting in its imagery and master- ful in its progress, and sufficiently noble to awaken enthusiasm for what it treats? Was it written out of a deep experience of the gospel? Does it fittingly embody some part or aspect of that experience? Is it so wrought out that it is true in your own soul history or true to your ideals? Is the picture it gives of the nature or providence or grace of God, or Christ's offices or person, or of the ministry of the spirit, or of the Church and its activities, joys, and hopes, or of the life that now is, or of the life beyond — is the picture that it gives of any of these, one that commends itself to you as true? Is it presented with sympathy and insight? Does it have majesty and contagious power? And how does it all effect me? Does the attempt to make it my own expression give me a wider vision, quicken into life my dormant sensibility, and rouse within me a higher aspiration? Am I helped to be a larger and better son or daughter of God by it? The permanent moral influence of hymns has always been recognized by men of experience. Henry Ward Beecher expressed his conviction in these words : "If one had a hundred hymns in his memory, and if with every changing mood he was accustomed to have to himself some sweet descant of experience, he would not easily be made unhappy, nor would he wander far from the path of rectitude." Tunes of hymns are good only as they enable hymns to rise to a higher power and a fuller expression, and their possibility in the accomplishment of this depends often on the manner in which they are sung. With tunes as with hymns a leader has the chance to elevate the tone of practical usage and to shape its progress by intelligent and illuminating leadership. While fundamentally, congregational singing depends upon the attitude of mind in the people, it depends immediately an proximately upon the leadership pro- vided, and this subject must have serious consideration if music's mission in the Church in this direction is to be realized. It is impossible to lay down any set rules that will cover the interpretation of every hymn. If the tune is an ally of the poetry in the expression of the message of the hymn, then 388 IMPROVEMENT ERA every tune will be found to possess inherent and peculiar character which goes far beyond the mere mechanical construction of it as regards meter, rythm, dynamics, etc. Any one who has been really influenced by the singing of hymns knows that each one has a distinctive character that is peculiar to itself, no matter what time it may be written in, or what key, or other ordinary features of its mechanical putting down on paper. It is the leader's business to find that something which has made this song what it is. He should develop a "sense" for the character of every hymn which he leads, and this cannot be done on the spur of the moment. Hymnody is an art — a form of religious art, and beauty and truth are the soul of art, and truth should be the corner-stone of all art rendition. If the truth contained in the poem is discovered, and if the tune is worthy, the hymn will "sing itself." Counterfit coin, vacant lip-service in prayer, trash and doggerel in the hymnal, and prefunctory leadership in singing, are much alike as tributes of worship. It is our duty and privilege to honor God by bringing to him only what is best. One author asks leaders to read carefully the first chapter of Malachi for the key-note of the subject. Discussion What constitutes a good hymn? State three general purposes served by hymn-singing. In your experience and that of your friend have you found these contentions to be true? Wherein lies the permanent moral affect to the individual of hymns? Test by an examination of a number of hymns the statement made that each hymn has a character of its own. (To be continued) Important Ruling M. Men Contests At a recent meeting of the General Board Y. M. M. I. A., the Committee on Senior Work made the following recommendations which were adopted by the Board in relation to M Men atheltic contests. It is important that the officers and M Men shall note them so that there may be a uniformity in the work. 1. In athletic contests, letter men, that is, high school and college men, are barred from contests in regular M Men athletics. Letter men in this respect means letter men in the particular event for which the individual enters. These letter men may be used as coaches and officials, and where they are in sufficient numbers, they may be organized on a ward, a stake district, or a stake basis for contests. 2. Men now playing on high school or college teams are considered letter men, as they are expected to receive their letters at the conclusion of the season, and should be classed as letter men. 3. Professional men are barred from contests. 4. These rules are made Church-wide, and where stakes and districts have sufficient representation in any events, they are encouraged to contest Church-wide. 5. Where the number participating is sufficient to demand the atten- tion of the General Board, the Board will, in such event, put up a proper pennant as prize. 6. The age for non-letter men (regular M Men) in athletics as in literary and musical events, is 17-23, as interpreted in our Hand Book.