My concluding thoughts on
Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns are as follows:
I agree with Gordon in that we should care about singing appropriate music to God on Sundays ( and every day ). And certainly we must encourage others to care about singing the good old hymns, but I think for those of us who have studied music, and have been convicted about singing theologically sound worship music ( the Trinity hymnal for example ), must be careful that we don't look down our noses in a very arrogant and prideful way because we think we're "more godly". We must remember that it's only by the grace of God that we know what we know, its nothing we've done or deserved.
When we share our thoughts and convictions on Hymnody, it should be out of true love for the brethren and fear of God. Soli Deo Gloria, this is what it's all about.
Gordon addresses the issue of worship music in a very gentle and sensitive way, and he is by no means condemning of others or haughty in his approach of the subject. May we all learn from his example.
-Hannah
Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns
Written by: T. David Gordon
Reviewed by: Hannah DeLadurantey
Gordon's purpose in writing this book:
Prove that
music in worship is significant, and that we should take more care
finding out more about it.
How to
evaluate worship music
Find out
why hymns are unpopular in our culture, and if it is a problem, how
to help cure it
Why Is Music Significant?
“ Music may be religious or profane,
sublime or mundane, pious or pernicious, but music is not
insignificant. It would not be a universal reality in all cultures if
it were insignificant.”
In the first chapter or so, Gordon
defends why God cares about worship music. As the reader, your taken
on a journey to the Old Testament, where Gordon gives scripture
references to allow you, the reader, perspective into how important God's
place of worship was (the Temple). Gordon goes on to explain that
if God took so much time and detail to explain how He wanted the
Temple to look, wouldn't He care very much on what type of music was
sung and played for the worship of Himself? Indeed He does care.
How does music affect us and do
we have to evaluate it?
“ Like
worship, music is a reality that involves us emotionally and
sometimes deeply, and therefore it is difficult for us to establish
the philosophical distance necessary to evaluate it on aesthetic or
musical grounds. Worship music, then, is almost hopelessly impossible
to discuss because it combines the passion we feel about worship with
the passion we feel about music, and the whole enterprise becomes so
fraught with emotion that philosophical distance is extremely
difficult for most to acquire. Nonetheless, it is our duty, once we
raise the subject, to do the best we can to evaluate it with all the
resources available to us. ”
How to Evaluate a Hymn/Worship
Music
Hymn Criteria
theologically
orthodox lyrics
theologically
significant lyrics
literary
apt and thoughtful lyrics
lyrics and
music appropriate to a meeting between God and his visible people
well-written
music with regard to melody, harmony, rhythm, and form.
musical
setting appropriate to the lyrical content
*Historical note: the
Trinity Hymnal mentions the goal of compiling a hymnal that has three
traits: “truly ecumenical...theocentric in orientation, biblical
content”
“ Study the psalms and ask
whether, on lyrical grounds, the various form of contemporary
worship music demonstrates anything like the theological or literary
integrity or profundity of the individual psalms.”
Gordon presses the point that all
things are lawful, but not all things are helpful (1 Corinthians
10:23 ). This he says; “is an important point to remember when
evaluating worship music.” Is it helpful, is it appropriate? Gordon
also points out that when making decisions on worship music, there
must be a reason and some type of rationale for determining, for
certain purposes, why one hymn/song is superior over another.
Gordon also lists 5 properties from
Aaron Copland's book on music. Gordon says that all composers of
music must make skillful choices with them: rhythm, melody, harmony,
timbre, and form.
Gordon poses this question to get us thinking ( in regards to
pop music in comparison to the psalms ): Do our popular tunes and
words have the same effect on us as the psalms of the Bible?
Aesthetics
“ God Himself is our aesthetic
standard, just as He is our ethical standard.......Human creativity
is a matter of imitating God the Creator; it may very well be the
most significant thing humans do, so it is not ' merely anything ',
and it is surely not 'merely a matter of taste.' ”
Meta
Messages/Form and Content
Gordon, in his chapter on Meta Messages, challenges us to
think about worship songs/popular hymns. Do the lyrics go with the
tunes? Gordon goes further on to exhort believers that Christianity
is a demanding religion, it is sacred, that is, not common. Our words
must match our actions just as the lyrics of our music must be paired
with fitting tunes.
“ ...if even the substantial minority
of the culture associates contemporary music with the trivial, the
inconsequential, or the ironic, why would the church wish to use a
form associated with the trivial or ironic, and employ it for
worship? Is the content of worship trivial or ironic? And if not,
then why attempt to put serious content into a non-serious form?
People may be amused by it, and some may tap their feet to it, but
would Jesus have addressed the rich young man in such a tone? ”
“ We might say, for instance, that we
take God and faith seriously, but do things that seem contrary to
that message......and if the culture observers are correct, the
meta-message that contemporary music sends it this: Nothing is
important everything is just amusing or entertaining. This is hardly
a Christian message.”
Music Genres
Gordon explained a few components of
music genres (their pros. and cons.). Gordon's leanings on worship music are more towards the folk genre, mostly because its music is more accessible to
people.
High/Classical: multigenerational,
timeless, speaks to significant matters, communal, restrained,
disciplined ( Matt. 7:14 )
Folk:transcendent,
multigenerational, significant, communal/ yet more accessible then
Classical.
Popular: immanent, banal,
individualistic, accessible, idiosyncratic.
Conclusion
In the end, Gordon concludes that a
change is needed in the church concerning its worship music, but that
it must be a slow change. People are set in their ways, and just have
not been taught what it good music. It must be a humble, slow
explanation and change that will bring our churches back around to
good biblical singing, not a thump on the head with the Trinity as
you quickly snatch away the slide projector.
“We've lost our
capacity for the sublime, and have acclimated ourselves to the
mundane even to the point that we are not troubled when worship
itself is mundane. We don't deny per se that worship has something to
do with the sacred; we've lost the category of
sacred itself.”
-T. David Gordon
