Hymns of the Church (HOTC): An Introduction, and A Note About Sources

Our “Hymns of the Church” series (“HOTC” for short) will begin on our blog this Sunday, the First Sunday in Advent (the very first Sunday of the new church year) with a discussion, appropriately enough, of the very first hymn in Lutheran Service Book - “The Advent of Our King,” LSB #331. The goal is to get one hymn discussion posted here each Sunday, and also on the occasion of particular holy days when there is a hymn that is appropriate for the occasion. The proposed schedule is available under the Resources tab on this website, and will likely henceforth be referenced simply as “The List.” Eventually, if this sort of thing becomes popular and enough of you are interested, I am considering/open to the idea of selling sponsorships - essentially the ability to have one of your favorite hymns boosted up the list. I haven’t fully fleshed out how that would work yet, but it’s in the back of my mind. It is my hope that this might be a resource to those of you doing worship planning, or who like to pair sermons with hymn texts, by disseminating information about the great wealth of hymnody in our Lutheran tradition. Additionally, these discussions will be available for the curious layperson (or curious pastor, for that matter) who wants to learn more about something they may have sung recently at church, or one of their old favorites from the hymnal.

Now a bit about where all this information is coming from. Our trusty guide throughout will be Concordia Publishing House’s (hereafter referred to simply as “CPH”) monumental two-volume “Companion to the Hymns,” published in 2019 and edited by the eminent personages of Joseph Herl, Peter Reske, and Rev. Jon Vieker. Where possible and/or useful, their cited sources will also be plumbed for interesting tidbits. Assisting this source will be Calvin University’s Hymnary.org website, which is underwritten by, among others, The Hymn Society. Chorale translations will rely heavily on the spectacular resource that is the Bach Cantatas Website, as well as a book that will be familiar to many with a musical education, Frank Mainous and Robert Ottman’s edition of “The 371 Chorales of Johann Sebastian Bach.” Obviously, Lutheran Service Book itself is also a source for this work, and other sources will be cited from time to time where appropriate.

Some aspects of these analyses and discussions will, of course, be my own subjective conclusions. For these, I rely on my 20 years of experience as a church organist, and on my own musical education and experience. I have resisted the temptation to “rate” the hymns, so as to leave conclusions up to the reader, but when all is said and done this is *my* blog, so when I feel something needs to be said I intend to say it.

One further note: This blog (and this website generally) will adhere to the convention of referring to tune names in ALL CAPS. This is done largely to prevent confusion by making it clear that, for example, the tune LANCASHIRE (LSB #478) is being referred to, not the region of northwest England from which the tune draws its name.

So, we’ll see you back in this space on Sunday for our first installment. It is my hope that this may come as a blessing to you, your congregations, and to church musicians generally. It is hoped that there will eventually be YouTube videos to accompany each hymn (pun intended), but my YouTubing skills are going to have to get a lot better before we get that far. Thank you for being here, and may God bless.

Soli Deo gloria.