An Experience with Hymns

 

 

AN   EXPERIENCE   WITH  

METER   HYMNS,   SPIRITUALS,

GOSPEL  AND  NOTE  SINGING

 

by

Vernon M. Herron

 

 

 

BASED ON MATERIALS FROM

The Baptist Standard Hymnal

Dr. James Abbington‘s lecture

 

 

 

The Black Church is an adaptive institution. It is not wholly African, Anglo nor Western. Im-pro-vi-sa-tion is required. It draws on the culture of each to form a vital expression of a meaningful faith. Im-pro-vi-sa-tion gives a greater meaning to hymns, spirituals, anthems, gospel music and note singing, in that, the words are arranged or rearranged to improve a dramatic experience. Thus in the Black Church, all kinds of religious music is sung, (meter hymns, gospel, spirituals, anthems, note singing) to give feeling, accent and consent to the longing of the soul and the aspiration of the mind.

 

From the Baptist Standard Hymnal, we learn that the term “meter” is a Greek word which belongs to poetry. Meter is the standard by which long and short syllables in a verse are arranged into groups of syllables called poetic “Feet.” Each “Foot,” having a distinctive name, is to poetry what a measure is to music. Thus, meter music is a verse form, as a measured verbal rhythm, arranged in a group of syllables forming a line of words, having a time unit and a regular beat, equal in time, length and pattern.

Blacks took Watts style music and put it into short meter, long meter and common meter. But they also took hymn tune songs and put them into meters augmented by their own ingenuity. Hand clapping, soprano and bass voice range provided the accompaniment, while  the patting of heel and toe, were time-keeping techniques. Meter hymn singing does not use instruments for accompaniment. This is pure singing.

(The rhythm –beat technique)

 Meter music was a phenomenon of the European community. It dates back as far as 1701. Because of it, Blacks of the enslaved community were exposed to it. When the advent of quatrain  music, (a unit or group of four lines of a verse) came to this country shortly after 1800’s, (with Watts and others), persons of enslavement would hear and learn two lines, then another two. They sang that meter in the black idiom, standing on the last standard. This is called “lining out” a hymn. Music may be Euro-American in its authorship but in its performance can have a definite imprint of the black religious experience. (Raising a hymn)

 

Meter hymn with no hymn tune, some time accompanied with moaning, was a common practice to the Black tradition. Yet, a hymn tune may be sung in meter style with a rhythm, a syncopation, or improvisation.

 

The most frequently used meters are:

COMMON METER

(C.M.)

8,6,8,6

Common meter is known by a stanza of four lines composed of one short unaccented syllable and one long syllable in each poetical foot. The syllables being in number and order are as follows: 8,6,8,6, that is:

• There are 8 syllables in the first line.
• There are 6 syllables in the second line.
• There are 8 syllables in the third line.
• There are 6 syllables in the fourth line.

Examples:

            Amazing Grace

            Father, I stretch my hands to Thee.

            *I heard the Voice of Jesus say    *(Selected illustrated hymn)

 

 

LONG METER

(L. M.)

8,8,8,8

Long meter consists of four lines, of each foot contains one short unaccented and one long accented syllable. Each line contains 8 syllables.

• There are 8 syllables in the first line.
• There are 8 syllables in the second line.
• There are 8 syllables in the third line.
• There are 8 syllables in the fourth line.

 

Example:

            *My Hope is Built on Nothing Less

            Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow

 

SHORT METER

(S. M)

6,6,8,6

Short meter consists of a stanza of four lines whose poetic foot is composed of two syllables- a short or unaccented syllable, followed by a long or accented syllable. The syllables being in number and order are as follows: 6,6,8,6, that is:

• There are 6 syllables in the first line.
• There are 6 syllables in the second line.
• There are 8 syllables in the third line.
• There are 6 syllables in the fourth line.

Example

            Come Ye That Love the Lord

            *A Charge to keep I Have

 

 

SPIRITUALS

 

A spiritual is a sacred folk song but not gospel. According to Miles Mark Fisher, a spiritual is a first-hand historical document of life in Africa and the Americas. It is biblically based and has been passed down by oral tradition.

                            *The Lord is My Light

                            Don’t Want to be Standing Outside

 

GOSPEL

John Work describes gospel music as the 21^st century spiritual.

 

 

NOTE SINGING

 

The history of musical notation with notes in different shapes goes back to the early 1700’s in New England. Various methods were used to teach small groups of people to sing. Different shapes of notes were used to teach the musically untrained how to read notes. Most people know at least 7 syllables for the musical scale: do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti. The entirety of shape-note is a thoroughly American heritage.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Abbington, James,  Let Mt. Zion Rejoice: Music In The African American Church.

                   Valley Forge: Judson Press, 2001

 

______________, Readings In African American Church Music and Worship. Valley

                    Forge: Judson Press, 2000

 

Baptist Standard Hymnal

 

Cobb, Jr., Dwell, A Sacred Harp- A Tradition and Its Meaning.

 

Reagon, Bernice Johnson, We’ll Understand It Better By and By.  Smithsonian

              Institution Press, 1992.