Re: [Worship] re: Re-Arranging Musical Liturature

["Melanie King" <melanie@planetkc.com>]

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 > Earl Wrote:
> >I received a well written, respectful letter by a classically trained
> pianist in our >congregation who informed me that our contemporizing hymns
was not
> proper, >as it was not appropriate to change music from that of the
composer's
> intent.

I find this viewpoint interesting.  I was taught in my classical training
kind of the opposite - that the composers expected their written music to be
merely a jumping off point.  It is the people in our day who have tried to
reproduce the music exactly as they believe the original artists would have
done it.  Most of that editing as far as dynamics, tempo, etc., is not
original!

Also, to say that a hymn needs to be maintained in its original form - just
exactly what is that?  I realize that when we contemporize a hymn we often
change the chords as well as the style, but there is no instrumental music
in a traditional hymnal - it is written in 4 part vocal harmony.  How do you
know what the composer intended the instruments to do?  Do we even know that
the harmonizations in the traditional hymnal were written by the composer of
the tune?

There was no such thing as copyright way back when.  It is my understanding
that it was common and even expected and encouraged that musicians would
borrow and expand on one another's material.  It was a compliment, not an
offense.  I believe that those creative souls should be flattered that their
music is being used hundreds of years after their death, no matter what
changes we make.  Do you thing that 100 years from now, the people on this
worship list will be talking about whether or not you mind if they change a
chord in a song you wrote?  Would you be turning over in your grave,
offended that they didn't like your chord, or would you be thrilled that
your God-given talents were bringing glory to Him long after your death?

Melanie