Discovering the history of hymns..

This week in my History of Christianity class we had a visiting professor who is now retired but had been a musicologist. He gave a whole lecture on the history of hymns and their progression from 300 AD – 1500 AD. We sung a bunch together in class and it was so inspiring and beautiful.

It was a bit like an ‘aha’ moment for me – all of these songs that I know or sing in Church (particularly in the last few years in going to an Anglican Church) and discovering the history of them in the Church. For example, Ubi Caritas was actually composed and intended to be an interlude song, much like the interlude songs we find in Church today aimed at transitioning the congregation through the different elements of a service.

It wasn’t until Pope Gregory (often called the “Father of Christian worship”) in the 6th Century that music became more unified with a liturgical conformity through the development of the ‘Mass’ (the worship time when Eucharist is celebrated) and the divine offices (other worship time). It was also fascinating to realize the degree to which hymns were used in order to proclaim key doctrines of the Church like the Trinity, combating key challenges to the Church like Gnosticism and Marcionism.

I also heard about a group of former Regent students who have a love of old hymns and re-create them with a folk like style. Here is their website if you want to have a listen: http://music.ordinarytimemusic.com