Hymnological Studies

by MATTHEW N. LUNDQUIST A.M., Mus. Doc.
WARTBURG PUBLISHING HOUSE Chicago
This humble little work is the outcome of personal interest and some lecture work in the field of Hymnology. I trust that this little volume will be of some value, especially to fellow Lutheran organists and choir directors. For further study the student is referred to John Julian’s great “Dictionary of Hymnology” and Benson’s “The English Hymn,” as well as works by Duffield, Breed, Ninde, and others. Every organist and choir director ought to read “The Hymn as Literature” by Jeremiah Bascom Reeves.
MATTHEW N. LUNDQUIST
January, 1926
Wartburg College
Clinton, Iowa
The hymnody of the Lutheran Church is the body of sacred songs sung by the Church. These songs may be studied in their twofold aspect; as to their religious and as to their poetical character; they are church hymns and also sacred poems .
(The Lutheran church hymns have been called psalms. According to old linguistic usage, psalm is the same thing as sacred or religious song, not song in general. In secular Greek the word psalm does not mean song, but it refers more particularly to the ability or technique in playing upon stringed instruments—the Greek word “psalmos” means to play a stringed instrument. By psalm we mean a sacred song or lyric, as of the Old Testament Book of Psalms; a hymn.)
With respect to the religious character of the Lutheran church hymns, it must be quite clear that if these hymns have grown up out of the soil of the Church, if they are expressions of the spirit of the Church, then they ought to reflect quite faithfully the nature and peculiarities of the Church. The Church, the Communion of Saints, where the Gospel is preached in its purity and where the Sacraments are administered according to the teachings of the Gospel, may be considered partly with regard to the unique religious life-content , which is communicated to the faithful through the Word and the Sacraments and which not only unites them to Christ, the Head of the Church, but also unites them with one another; partly with regard to her nature as a congregation , a communion or community in external form with characteristic expressions and order of life. The same twofold point of view arises in our study of the church hymns. The religious character of the church hymn may, therefore, be determined partly from the point of view of religious life, having its source and standard in Holy Writ, and partly from the point of view of the church communion or the congregation, of whose common life the church hymn is an expression and reflection, and whose common purpose it seeks to promote. The religious character of the church hymn thus centers in the fact that both as to content and form it must be Biblical and congregational.