Congregational Singing

1893 ◽  
Vol 34 (605) ◽  
pp. 429
1923 ◽  
Vol 64 (968) ◽  
pp. 724
Author(s):  
Stanley Alcock

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-177
Author(s):  
Linda Hansen

Recognizing the broad potential of singing as a facilitator of moral instruction, academic learning, and societal participation, New Hampshire native Asa Fitz (1810–1878) was committed to advancing music and music education. A prolific publisher, editor, and author, he was involved in the production of dozens of works filled with songs and music, designed to further everything from reform movements to congregational singing, spiritualism to family life. As a singing master and music teacher, he instructed both children and other teachers, promoting his song books, his instructional techniques, his personal principles, and his overriding belief that everyone could, and should, learn to sing. Yet, for all that he was well known during his lifetime, little scholarly attention has been paid to the man, his philosophical underpinnings, or his disparate publications. This article focuses on the development of his “new system of figured music,” culminating with the publication of School Songs for the Million! in 1850. It briefly reviews the concept and expressions of alternate systems of musical notation in early to mid-nineteenth-century America and then places Fitz within that context, as he created, developed, and promoted his system to children and teachers. Though School Songs for the Million! was not as commercially successful as some of his other titles, it serves to demonstrate Fitz’s willingness to experiment with unconventional and controversial ideas in an effort to advance participation in music.


Popular Music ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 378-379
Author(s):  
David Horn

Eileen Southern, who died in Florida in October 2002, was widely recognised as a pre-eminent figure in the study of African-American music. Her seminal history, The Music of Black Americans, first published in New York in 1971, was the first academic study to give serious scholarly attention to the totality of African-American music – from the congregational singing of slaves to all-black Broadway musicals, from blues and jazz to experimental composers – and was hugely influential. Resolutely unpolemical and meticulously balanced, it did more to establish the validity of the subject in the academy than any other single book. It had its genesis in a course which Dr Southern (who had a Ph.D. in Renaissance music from Harvard) developed in the late 1960s at Brooklyn College. She herself later described how she was put under pressure to devise the course by a college administration somewhat desperate to find ways to meet the demands of black students for the inclusion of Black Studies in the curriculum. The idea met with disbelief among colleagues in the music department, and the particular scorn of an unnamed Englishman, holder of a Ph.D. in musicology from Oxford, who opined that a course in black music presented ‘nothing of substance to deal with’. Declaring ‘I'll show them’, a furious Eileen Southern was determined to design a course that demonstrated the range of black music. The result turned out to be so rich that a more sympathetic colleague suggested one day to Dr Southern that she turn the course into a book – and The Music of Black Americans was the result (Standifer, n.d.).


1999 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
H.A. Louw

The role of hymns in public worship and the influence it had on the Schism in 1859 in South Africa During the Middle Ages congregational singing was replaced by choir singing. Both Luther and Calvin agreed that the members of the congregation should actively participate in the worship service by means of song. Calvin limited congregational songs to the Psalms of the Old Testament. The church in Netherlands followed his example, but added some hymns, excluding the Apostles Creed, that comprises also lyrical parts from Scripture. In 1807 a hymn book was implemented and used in the Netherlands. This was one of the reasons for the Schism which took place in 1834. During 1814 the hymn book was implemented in the Cape resulting in discontent in the border districts. Some discontented people took part in the Great Trek. A congregation mainly consisting of these people was established in Rustenburg in 1859. In this congregation only Psalms were sung during services. Soon Reformed congregations having the same objections regarding hymns came into being in the Free State and the north-eastern Cape Province. For the founder of these congregations, Rev. D. Postma, the singing of free hymns was a mediance matter. For the “Doppers” as the conservative people were called, the singing of Psalms only was a serious matter of principle. Times have changed and the Reformed Churches in South Africa will have to reflect whether it is really a matter of principle to sing Old Testament Psalms only. The suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ should also be celebrated in song. The existing 48 scriptural lyrics do not satisfy these requirements. Free hymns of the other Afrikaans churches will definitely have to be taken into consideration.


Author(s):  
Jeffers Engelhardt

This chapter offers an ethnographic and historical analysis of the many church-musical overlaps and exchanges between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Estonians. It traces several tunes through a broad variety of Estonian denominational hymnals and post-Soviet performance settings, showing a substantial historical overlap that happens in Estonian church musical practice across Lutheran, Orthodox, and other Protestant groups. This overlap creates musical commonalites in practice, “ecumenicities,” that speak to the “secular” backdrop of Estonian Christianity. In this chapter, “secularity” suggests a public culture and model of citizenship long constituted with relation to multiple Christianities (or multiple religions). That modern secularity is also a backdrop for the ethnomusicological study of world Christianities, Orthodox and otherwise.


2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Coenie Calitz

Musiek en sang binne die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (NG Kerk) is in ’n proses van radikale verandering. Binne ’n ‘global village’ kan die ses strominge van kerkmusiek soos Paul Basden (2004) dit beskryf het, van groot waarde wees om die huidige prosesse in die NG Kerk te identifiseer en te beskryf. Hierdie prosesse word dikwels oorvereenvoudig deur die gebruik van die term ‘blended worship’. ’n Dieper kyk na die bedoeling en betekenis van die term ‘blended worship’ wys dat die term in baie gevalle nie vir die huidige situasie of prosesse in die NG Kerk geskik is nie. Die huidige situasie veronderstel nie net die gebruik van nuwe vorms van musiek naas die oue nie, maar in baie gemeentes impliseer dit ’n wegbeweeg van die oue na die nuwe. Die uitdaging bly steeds om binne hierdie situasie getrou aan die Woord van God te bly, maar ook om effektief na die behoefte van die mense van ons tyd te handel.Landscape of congregational singing in the Dutch Reformed Church at the beginning of the 21th century: Preliminary exploration. Music and singing in the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) is in a process of radical change. Within a global village, the six views of worship as identified by Paul Basden (2004) could be of great value in understanding die processes and streams within the music of the DRC. Variations and combinations of these views (streams) could be observed within the present-day liturgical singing within the DRC. This process is often oversimplified by using the term blended worship; a closer look at blended worship illustrates that the term blended worshipin its original intention does not fit the current situation or process. The current situation does not only imply new forms of music combined with the old forms, it often implies a move away from the old in the direction of the new. Within this process the challenge of the DRC will be to stay faithful to the Word of God as well as contemporary society.


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