Worship Weblog
Monday, June 26, 2006
Teaching Hymnology 5
Bethany Meyer, assistant to Dr. Bert Polman, kept daily reports from Polman’s Teaching Hymnology seminar, hosted by Calvin Seminars in Christian Scholarship. Here is her concluding entry. Also see a list of related resources.
Our last devotions today were based on the final consummation, when Christ will return. We read Scripture from Isaiah 35 and I Corinthians 15, and we sang songs such as Soon and Very Soon and Jesus Shall Reign. This morning’s session began with some details for the participants, and then Dr. Polman led the discussion on hymns. As a side reflection on Isaiah, Dr. Polman commented that it would be wonderful if the Internet would be used as the highway for our God mentioned in Isaiah. It is a resource at the fingertips of people around the world – what if it was a biblical resource? These comments were provocative and insightful. Dr. Polman also commented this morning that 30 years ago, a teacher could assume that some hymns were universal or common to many denominations; this is not true today. There are very few hymns today that span the denominations. Another topic this morning was accompaniment, tempi, and how to choose them for hymns. Some of the factors provided by the participants were the size of the congregation, the acoustics of the church, the time of day, the tradition of the church, the liturgical season, and the purpose of the song. This was a helpful discussion on the use of hymns.
Events • Interdisciplinary Application • Liturgical Arts • Music • (0) Comments • Permalink