Music workshop "re-imagines" Moravian hymns

The number of talented musicians within the student body seems to grow each year. Several student musicians found an expression for their gifts by organizing the January 24th “Harmonious to Dwell” workshop, which sought to celebrate and embrace Moravian music for non-traditional worship settings.

Created and planned by David Melby-Gibbons and students Matt Gillard, Nola Reed Knouse, Shanti Pradhan, and Christie Melby-Gibbons, the January workshop began with an “Exploratory Singstunde.” Traditional hymns were chosen and “re-imagined” for use in congregations. For example, the cherished Moravian hymn “Christian Hearts in Love United” was led by guitars with a reggae rhythm.

After worship, the 22 participants broke into small groups and considered how to make hymns more useable for worship settings where there is no organist available. Some groups re-wrote hymn melodies, while others changed the rhythm and/or text, or wrote some new alternative verses.

The hymn writing portion of the workshop was led by Nola Reed Knouse, director of the Moravian Music Foundation in Winston-Salem , NC . She discussed the various issues involved in altering an existing hymn (text issues and music issues) as well as some considerations for writing a hymn. Gwyn Michel, assistant director of the Moravian Music Foundation in Bethlehem , also informed the group of copyright issues.

The theme selected for the new hymn was “Faith, Love, and Hope.” Breaking into groups, each wrote a verse based on one of the three themes. The end result, after a few changes, was a new hymn based upon the last line of the final verse: “New Creation to Behold.” The hymn was sung at the Seminary’s Opening Worship of the Spring 2009 semester.

After such a positive outcome, the planners hope that congregations outside of the local area might hold similar workshops as they contemplate the significance of Moravian music in new worship settings.

— adapted from David Melby-Gibbons