If you want to incorporate Beethoven’s interesting rhythm, try adding it as a bass note pickup to the downbeat of the fourth line. In this case, Lovelace is probably right. Austin Lovelace, however, argues that “syncopation is a stumbling block to congregational singing and does nothing to make the hymn easier to sing or understand” ( Let the People Sing, 202). Paul Westermeyer argues that using this syncopated rhythm allows the congregation to sing music “in its integrity” ( Let the People Sing, 202).
In Beethoven’s symphony, there is a pick up note into the third line – many try to imitate this. The only point of contention about this tune revolves around one note. It almost begs to be sung in a fast, upbeat manner Jerry Jenkins writes, “the tune is so reminiscent of sprightly harpsichords that the words begin to bounce, and suddenly I’m singing it the way it was meant to be sung – at least in style” ( Hymns for Personal Devotions, 132). It is a tune of grandeur and, fittingly, joy. The tune has an 87.87.D meter, which Austin Lovelace describes as having the “ability to carry massive ideas in its fifteen syllables per double line” ( Anatomy of Hymnody, 74). Around 1908, Henry Jackson Van Dyke wrote his text to be “sung to the music of Beethoven’s ‘Hymn to Joy’” ( Hymnstudies, ). ODE TO JOY or HYMN TO JOY is the adaptation of Beethoven’s famous final movement in his Ninth Symphony into a melody fit for congregational singing. The third verse is especially poignant in that it directs our attention from creation to Christ, and reminds us that our joy means nothing if we do not live out of that joy in love of one another. The all-encompassing text is meant to show the interplay between the joy given to God by His creation, and the joy we receive through this creation. Some argue that the text is too universalist, but it is simply a beautiful hymn of praise from all of Creation. Albert Bailey describes it as an “intricate interweaving of fact and metaphor” ( The Gospel in Hymns, 554).
Van Dyke’s text is a multi-layered poem of praise. What can we raise to our Savior but this outburst of joy? And more so than anything, even when it seems to be crumbling around us, it’s a world redeemed by Christ. It’s a world where we have people to call, children to clothe, knowledge to express, and parties to host. We allow the phone calls we have to make, the laundry we need to fold, the paper we need to write, and the porch we need to fix get in the way of simply stopping, looking around, and being filled with joy and gratitude at the world God has given us. We have all heard this line over and over again, but it’s worth repeating: we rush through life too quickly to stop and be filled with joy. We experience joy on many levels: we witness the joy expressed by Creation, we bask in the joy of God as He delights in us, and we experience our own joy as we reflect on all God has done for us and through us.
As hymnologist Albert Bailey writes, within Van Dyke’s text, “creation itself cannot conceal its joy, and that joy is appreciated by God the center of it all likewise all nature fills us with joy, caused fundamentally by our recognition of God as the giver” ( The Gospel in Hymns, 554). Henry Van Dyke’s brilliant hymn of praise has many layers that add to the beauty of his text.
0 kommentar(er)
