Music in Moravian Worship

Music is powerful. It taps into our deepest feelings, tells stories, conveys values, and triggers enjoyment or annoyance depending on the match between one’s favorite genre and the tune being played. No wonder discussions over the relative merits of artists, composers, and genres tend to be more emotional than rational.

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Count Zinzendorf

Count Zinzendorf, bishop and benefactor of the Moravian Church, realized music was far more effective than preaching for communicating the Gospel in a memorable way. Most of us have experienced an “earworm” – a catchy tune we can’t seem to get out of our heads. Moravians turned to music in an attempt to plant the teaching of Christ just as firmly in the minds and hearts of believers. In the 18th century, Moravian pastors, missionaries, and lay persons composed a flood of songs and new lyrics for existing melodies. Hymns such as “Jesus Still Lead  On”, “Christian Hearts in Love United”, and “The Moravian Birthday Hymn” (“With Your Presence, Lord”), date to this era.

Zinzendorf alone wrote around 200 hymns, two dozen of which appear in our current hymnal. Innovation in liturgy and an expanding music repertoire were mirrored by rapid growth as the Moravian Church focused on evangelism and charitable mission. Think of your favorite secular song. Why do you like it? Is it the tune, the fact you can relate to its lyrics, or that it reminds you of a special person or event? Music speaks most clearly for us when it resonates and harmonizes with our lives. What is true for secular music is also true for sacred music; praise songs, gospel tunes, and hymns can be a conversation between listener, composer, and God.

“The hymnal is a kind of response to the Bible,” wrote Zinzendorf, “an echo and extension thereof. In the Bible one perceives how the Lord communicates with people, and in the hymnal how people communicate with the Lord.”

In Jan Hus’ day facilitating this conversation with God meant lyrics composed and sung in Czech, the language of Hus’ parishioners. In Zinzendorf’s time it meant expressing the faith experience of living Moravians in the then contemporary 18th century musical style. Moravians wrote hymns for every conceivable occasion. Yet, even as they sang new songs with gusto they preserved their heritage and continued to sing hymns written in the time of John Hus two centuries earlier.

This blending of music from different centuries is still a good model to follow today. We don’t all listen to one genre of music – be it country music, hip hop, or classical music. Worshippers can and should learn to appreciate music which allows others authentic communication with God, but I believe we each need to hear and sing a bit of music in a style which gives voice to our own faith journey – whether that be Gospel, spirituals, traditional Moravian hymns, or contemporary praise music.

The “new” Moravian Hymnal was published nearly twenty years ago in 1995. Recently, the Interprovincial Board of Communications published Sing to the Lord a New Song: A New Moravian Songbook. This inexpensive spiral bound supplement to the hymnal contains new liturgies, hymns by 51 writers and composers, and over 80 completely new compositions. Maybe it’s time to consider expanding our repertoire to help everyone communicate with God.

Sunday, May 18th is Moravian Music Sunday.

– Pastor Derek French